A method and apparatus for use with a navigation system to search specified type of information along a calculated route to a destination by incorporating search criteria based on city or other regional zones. The method includes the steps of building one or more zones to be traversed in travelling on the calculated route to the destination based on map data, displaying a list of zones on the calculated route to prompt a user to select a zone, displaying a list of types of information to prompt the user to select a type of information to be searched, searching information along the calculated route within the selected zone within a predetermined search range of the calculated route, and displaying the information of the selected type within the selected zone resulted from the search.