I'm a fan of subtle tags that stay in the background unless you want to read them, but that's very much a me opinion. In the specific contxt of this map, if the focus is meant to be on the locations themselves, and the background is just to look pretty, then it works pretty well. No question as to what is where at this point

Incidentally, i forgot to mention - two things I really love about this map - the water (very very nice) and the roads - I love the cart track effect.