Travelblogs, Gallery and Google Maps – is WordPress for me??

It’s time for a massive overhaul of my website – it’s a mix of ssi, flat html, a bit of php, and nothing dynamic, built higgledy piggledy over the last 6 years.

I’ve got a lot of travel writing and photos in there, and I notice with the new gallery 2, you can tie in the awsomely good Google Maps. So ideally, I’d like to tie Gallery, WordPress AND Google Maps together. In other words, is WordPress the best thing for what is mainly travel writing?

I’m in no rush, and Gallery 2 needs a month or two more to “mature”, so is there any benefit in waiting for WordPress 2 to come out? One of the main reasons for installing my own blog software would be so I could backdate the travel diary entries, so that stuff from ’97 would be dated ’97. This is possible too, right? All comments and flames appreciated! Thanks