MapQuest Search 101
MapQuest makes it easy for you to find businesses or places, and then map or get directions to them.
You can put practically anything into the "Place name" or "Find a Business" box. A business name (e.g. Hilton),
a category (e.g. Dry Cleaners) or a combination of them (e.g. IKEA Furniture Stores.)
To get started try out these simple searches:
Want to look for a particular business category, use the handy pull down menus in the main MapQuest Pages to see convenient categories such as Coffee Shops, Tourist Information and more. We also make it easy to find local airports and what the Airport codes are.
By the way... MapQuest Search is not just for beginners. If you've been surfing the internet for a while and like to be specific in your search queries, we're ready to take your quest on! Here are a few things you can do to really drill down in your searches:
State Searches
Let's say you're looking for a national park in Oregon, but you don't know what city to search near. Don't worry, MapQuest can help. We'll search the entire state to find the park and return the best matches to you. Click here to try it out:
National Parks in OR
National Searches
What if you're not exactly sure you know the city or state? For example: Mount Saint Helens. What if you are looking for the summit? What town is it in? Is it in Washington or Oregon? Don't worry, just type in
Mount Saint Helens Summit and leave the "Address" fields blank.
Refinable Searches
If you don't get perfect results back on the first try, you can refine your search. Just click the "Refine Search"
link at the top of the results (hint - right above the tabs) and a couple drop downs will appear with choices.
For example, say you searched for
Hotels in New York, NY, but you were looking for a particular hotel - say a Hilton. Click on the Hotel example and check out the "Refine Search" feature. Be sure to select "Hilton" from the category drop down. Take note that you can also pick a city or change the search radius from 5 to 50 miles!
Phrase Search
MapQuest automatically does an AND search to help you retrieve as many results as possible. However maybe you don't want that. Lets say you are looking for a repair shop and you know it is called "Something Car Repair" but are not sure of the full name. You can put the term "Car Repair" in quotes and MapQuest will find that exact phrase in the search. Try this out...
Results for "Car Repair" in Los Angeles, CA
One Box Search
What if you want to just type everything into the place name box and make us figure it out. OK! Try this... we'll take the earlier example for Mount Rushmore, except we'll make it even harder by taking out the city.
Results for Mount Rushmore National Park SD
One Box Search (airport codes!)
Try just typing in your favorite airport code (e.g. LAX, IAD, JFK, ORD, etc.).
Results for JFK
Advanced Business Searches
Find a Business by Phone Number
Have you ever wanted to just enter in a business phone number and get a map or directions on MapQuest? Just enter in the phone number of the business you want to find and click Search. MapQuest will find it for you, no location required. Try Searching for my favorite pizza place...
703-263-2060
Searching by Airport Code
If you know the airport code for an airport you can type it in the Place Name box and click Search. You don?t even have to worry about knowing the address, city or state. (e.g. LAX, LGA, JFK, DEN)
Category Searches by State
Want to find all the Campgrounds in Florida? Just type in Campgrounds in the Place Name box and FL in the state box and MapQuest will start finding them for you... No city required.
