(May 4, 2011) SKOKIE, Ill. (PRNewswire) — With summer travel season approaching, Rand McNally today launched the latest edition of its iconic Road Atlas, which includes new smartphone tags with mobile web links that provide users with enhanced road trip content.

"Americans rely on the Road Atlas each year to help them plan their travels and to keep as a just-in-case back up in their car," said Dave Muscatel, CEO of Rand McNally. "The new 2012 Road Atlas has some extras that travelers will find even more useful."

In addition to hundreds of map updates, the new Road Atlas features smartphone tags (also called QR codes). When scanned, the tags link to rich destination content. In addition to images and text, some tags point to videos featuring attractions and activities.  Travelers who don't have the tag scanner on their smartphone can get information and access to the free app at www.RandMcNally.com/QR.

"With the new smartphone tags in the 2012 atlas, travelers will be able to get relevant destination content that will help them plan for interesting stops while on the road," explained Muscatel.

The first Road Atlas was published in 1924 with annual editions rolling ever since.

Among this year's updates to the Road Atlas is a return to some favorite road trips – a program that kicked off the Best of the Road brand a decade ago.  The new edition of the atlas contains overviews highlighting Rand McNally editors' favorite Best of the Road® trips from the last ten years.

This year's trips are:

    A Shore Thing: Michigan's Lake Michigan shore
    From Pacific to Palms:  A slice of Southern California
    Head for Hill Country:  The lush Hill Country of Texas
    Cultivating New York:   Canandaigua to Cooperstown, New York
    Simply Sonoma:  The backroads of Sonoma County, California
    Seaside to Summit:  Manchester to Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
    Southern Charm:  Rock Hill to Greenwood, South Carolina
    Snow on the Eastern Shore:  Ocean City to Baltimore, Maryland
    A Pacific Northwest Passage:  Portland and down the coast of Oregon