How it really works in R ggplot2 http://eriqande.github.io/rep-res-web/lectures/making-maps-with-R.html You need to create data in following format: long lat group order region subregion #> 1 -101.4078 29.74224 1 1 main #> 2 -101.3906 29.74224 1 2 main #> 3 -101.3620 29.65056 1 3 main #> 4 -101.3505 29.63911 1 4 main #> 5 -101.3219 29.63338 1 5 main #> 6 -101.3047 29.64484 1 6 main Some useful packages ggmap googleVis