GMT - Generic Mapping Tools is an open source program that can be used for generating simple (and more complex) maps and also includes/provides links to databases for various kinds of geographic objects (rivers, boundaries, lakes, roads, cities, relief etc.).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_Mapping_Tools

http://gmt.soest.hawaii.edu/

Has often been used in Wikipedia and for some languages there is a special GMT map-making tutorial, see e.g. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Kartenwerkstatt/Hilfe/GMT. Or see here for the original tutorial: http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/gmt/gmt/pdf/GMT_Tutorial.pdf .

Michael, thanks very much for this. Really helpful

P

Yes I think Generic mapping tool is best for that !

GeoMapApp is a free open-source earth science visualization tool that runs on any OS (Mac, PC, Linux). It consists of a simple map interface where you can quickly visualize and download data from a wide variety of web-linked databases for free, including topography (GMRT, ASTER, NED), bathymetry, imagery, geologic maps, global geophysics, and many other geospatial datasets. You can export in a variety of file formats including JPEG, but also GIS-ready formats like Geotiff (.tif) and shapefile (.shp). It's a very powerful tool, especially considering how little space the program takes up on your CPU. You can read this and more at the website:

http://www.geomapapp.org/

"GeoMapApp is an earth science exploration and visualization application that is continually being expanded as part of the Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS) at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. The application provides direct access to the Global Multi-Resolution Topography (GMRT) compilation that hosts high resolution (~100 m node spacing) bathymetry from multibeam data for ocean areas and ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) and NED (National Elevation Dataset) topography datasets for the global land masses."

I'm unfamiliar with any such resource but may be there is some value in the use of the this resource http://www.mapsofwar.com 

Thank you both! I'd rather avoid GIS-type apps where possible and am preferably looking for something as simplistic as possible