Stupid question – route planning for car journeys ?

So, I want to plan my own route, for driving, using something like Google Maps, Waze etc. Like I would be able to do using Strava, Komoot etc when riding.

Is there anything that allows me to do this (preferably for free), choosing and mapping my own route in advance, not allowing the software to choose the ‘best’ route for me. I want to select quiet country roads, not motorways or busy dual carriageways.

I want to be able to plan the route in advance, save it, and then use that route at a later date using an app on my phone to guide me along my saved route.

I know Waze can’t do this, and Google Maps seems very clunky and awkward.

Suggestions very welcome!

Thanks in advance

Google maps with lots of waypoints?

Tried that, seems really painful and not possible to plan in advance, save and use later (perhaps ?)

i used OSM for off road motorcycle rides

Road atlas and a ‘navigator’ in the passenger seat? Was thinking about that the other day – how Mrs Fazzini and I used to plan journeys. I reckon we’ve made more navigation errors on routes using sat nav than we ever used to using an atlas, and AA route planner 😂

Heh. We built just such a thing for motorcycle route planning about 10 years ago (called MotoGoLoco) and it was superb. Had everything you’re asking for plus loads of clever tricks like dropping pins in and then ‘rubber banding’ the route around them.

Unfortunately, Google changed their pricing model a few years back which meant every call to their API (in our case, every 10 yards on a given route plan) was chargeable and it forced it closed.

A pen and some paper and write roads/directions on it. You know, like wot we did before gps/Google.

It made me think of Calimoto, which is possibly part of what you want.

It’s for motorcycles but you can program a route that maximises more interesting (twisty) roads. In other words, it won’t take you down motorways etc.

Possibly a bit long-winded when all you want to do is add waypoints, but I’ve planned quite a few motorcycle journeys on OS maps.
The snap feature can help but will of course tend to snap to rights of way when you might just want small roads.

Once you get the hang of it you can generate routes pretty quickly on road, but it’s maybe not ideal.

You can eliminate motorways on Google maps, but there ought to be an option to eliminate A-roads.

There’s TomTom and HereWeGo who do an app, and I think (don’t quote me) you can preference A roads – or at least you can tell them to avoid M-ways

Plan your route on goggle maps or paper maps, noting the key towns and then enter your final destination on your satnav as the destination and then add the other places on the route as interim destinations (in the right order)

If it’s a short route just follow your nose

Use Komoot and select Road Cycling?

Use Komoot and select Road Cycling?

As far as I know, Komoot won’t allow you to map on motorways.

Harry Metcalfe / Harrys Garage had such an app / website recently on one of his vids (he transported 3 cars to France Spain and did one of the small islands via ferry but I can’t remember much more than that!)

A pen and some paper and write roads/directions on it. You know, like wot we did before gps/Google.

and stick behind the sun visor, just popping it down to check as you drive along.

The most comprehensive one I know of with the most options is viamichelin.com

As far as I know, Komoot won’t allow you to map on motorways.

The OP said he wants to avoid Motorways.

Tried that, seems really painful and not possible to plan in advance, save and use later (perhaps ?)

Google Maps: Plan the route: share the link or send to your phone.

It remembers your preferred choice of route,

Cycle Travel is another option – allows you to download gpx files etc

https://cycle.travel/

viamichelin, just tick the no péage option if you use it in France.

Google maps will take you to the nearest expensive autoroute whatever you programme even if it’s more time and kms. It will change your route with no warning or choice as you are driving along. Infuriating.

Ride With GPS, but I subscribe. Not sure how much you can do on free app.

Via Michelin will also calculate your Péage tolls if you want. Also allows you to select that you are towing a caravan.

not possible to plan in advance

Why not plan the route segment then share the link with yourself on WhatsApp? When you want to use that segment go to WA and click on the link.

For the quiet route options you can set “avoid motorways” or even set it to use a bicycle, but check afterwards it is not using a cycle only route.

I’m not sure why you would want to do that but your best bet is probably to set Google maps to avoid motorways then add a few waypoints along the way until you have more or less the route you want.

Harry Metcalfe / Harrys Garage had such an app / website recently on one of his vids

It was a motorcycle trip planner called Calimoto. But it’s not free.

A pen and some paper and write roads/directions on it. You know, like wot we did before gps/Google.

Yeah, I used to do that, using a printed off map plus a list of roads and junctions, but when you’re on your own, it’s a sodding nightmare trying to glance at the route, junctions and look where you’re going and watching the traffic.
These days I use TomTom on my phone, which I subscribe to, and make changes to the settings if I don’t want motorways, and check the route to see if there’s a better alternative. I’m not sure about setting waypoints to take a specific route, tbh, it’s not something I’ve ever needed.

AA routeplanner?

You can plan an exact route on the TomTom website and save it to your account for use on TomTom phone app (or TomTom hardware if you want to go big time old school). Not free but something like £20 a year for dramatically better routing and traffic avoidance than any other mapping app/service.

Google Maps: Plan the route: share the link or send to your phone.

It remembers your preferred choice of route,

it wont.  ive done that a few times.  saved the link to email, opened the link in email which takes you to google maps, and then it just totally ignores the route you planned and defaults to what it thinks is best.

A pen and some paper and write roads/directions on it. You know, like wot we did before gps/Google

Thanks, but this is the 21st Century, I want to be enjoying the driving experience and not faffing about with bits of paper  🙂

it wont. ive done that a few times. saved the link to email, opened the link in email which takes you to google maps, and then it just totally ignores the route you planned and defaults to what it thinks is best.

That’s exactly what it does, utterly infuriating !

You can plan an exact route on the TomTom website and save it to your account for use on TomTom phone app (or TomTom hardware if you want to go big time old school). Not free but something like £20 a year for dramatically better routing and traffic avoidance than any other mapping app/service.

Top tip ! Thanks, will check it out

I’m not sure why you would want to do that but your best bet is probably to set Google maps to avoid motorways then add a few waypoints along the way until you have more or less the route you want.

In certain circumstances, I want to drive a route I choose, not what Google decides is best. There is a limit to the number of waypoints you can use and it constanttly ignores them, changing the route as it sees fit. Grrrrrr

Why not use strava? I discovered by accident today that if you create a route and download it you can share it to Google Maps.

Google Maps: Plan the route: share the link or send to your phone.

It remembers your preferred choice of route,

it wont. ive done that a few times. saved the link to email, opened the link in email which takes you to google maps, and then it just totally ignores the route you planned and defaults to what it thinks is best

Frustrating but Google maps bases routes on what is best at the time you are driving taking into account current traffic conditions, roadworks etc.

If you’d picked a route last week, opened it this week and in the mean time there’d been an alien invasion, causing extensive delays to part of that route, MOST people would want to know that.
That’s why it does that.

Most people want current info because most people just want to get there quickest. When you don’t it can be frustrating but you can’t really blame the software for doing what its designed to do.

I’m surprised that they haven’t gone further with having options for ‘leisure driving’ but currently you can exclude motorways and tolls and that’s about it.

It’s fantastic for what it is, and free.
What the OP wants needs something else.

If you set Google maps fuel type to EV and prefer fuel efficient routes it will suggest slower but shorter roads i.e a 30/40mph coastal road rather than heading inland to an A road or dual carriageway.  Although only where it won’t significantly increase journey time.

(It will also do it for diesel/petrol but EV seems to have the biggest impact, presumably as an EV is particularly efficient at lower speeds.)

A pen and some paper and write roads/directions on it.

Then turn paper over and trace over for reversed text and place on dashboard for your very own heads up display

It was my old boss at the MOD told me that and I used it when I had to drive a van full of kit to central London on my own before sat nav was a thing

Try http://www.bikehike.co.uk

Put the start in, then the end – go into ‘drag edit mode’ to shift any of the route.

Or the old fashioned method, buy an atlas, work out the route you fancy and follow it – use to work fine for me (before SatNav I was doing in excess of 40k pa with work).

Another approach is to just drive in the general direction, going down roads that look ‘interesting’ – obviously helps if you’ve a sense of direction 🙂

I build both driving and motorcycling routes for myself and a group of friends to use on holidays. Usually we cover about 2500 miles over ten days, almost exclusively on wiggly roads with little to no traffic.

I use MyRouteApp and occasionally TomTom MyDrive.  MyRouteApp allows me to use multiple map overlays while simultaneously choosing a different route generation engine (Garmin, TomTom, OSM). This is great as some maps are fantastic for highlighting road type enabling me to find small interesting, well maintained roads which share classifications with  others that are effectively surfaced farm tracks (Michelin is excellent for this).

It has full Google integration so I can street view the entire route and check routing options where necessary.

By switching route engines I can check that when the route is uploaded to my mate’s devices the route is not updated erroneously. Garmin motorcycle sat navs are particularly crap for this.

i can output the route in multiple file formats, or directly send it to my TomTom MyDrive account as either POI or an exact GPX.

It has its own navigation app, but I love the way TomTom works so generally just send the prepared route to MyDrive. I can split, merge and compare multiple routes in realtime.

over the years ive tried a lot of software to do this (MapPoint, Basecamp, TomTom MyDrive, ITN Converter, Google Maps to name but a few) and I keep coming back to MRA for its versatility, ease of use, great integration and excellent waypoint handling.

Or the old fashioned method, buy an atlas, work out the route you fancy and follow it – use to work fine for me

It was shit. You had to look at driving directions whilst driving.  Bad idea.

Another option I use is to compare the recommended route to the one I want and remember the points where I want to diverge.  If I take the road I want at that point, the satnav usually accepts this in a few miles and changes my route.

It was shit. You had to look at driving directions whilst driving.  Bad idea.

40k pa and never an accident says otherwise – and what other choice did we have?

Also sits in memory too, so in the summer it enabled me to come off at the right junction on the Périphérique to get to our hotel – +20 years after I’d last been there 🙂

I never had an accident doing it either; but it was shit.  I was there, I did it, and I remember thinking at the time ‘if only there were a device that could tell me where to turn, or at least show me a scrolling map on a screen or something’.