My husband and I are opposite, he uses landmarks and I go by N,S,E and W.I do have trouble with left and right. If I tell another woman that a location is N,S E or W of whatever she looks at me like I have two heads. My dad also taught me to read a map.
The same with my husband and me. I wonder if it is because of where we grew up? I was raised in Detroit which basically has a grid of NSEW roads superimposed on spokes of a partial wheel. He was raised in a small city along the Mississippi River where many of the roads are not straight. They probably follow old indian trails and/or their shape is dictated by the topography.