darktardis

I was wandering if anyone has a app or something to plan a route. I just came across something called plotaroute.com but not sure if it is any good or not. Looking for something so I can plan out specific distance rides in my area.

shelbyfv

Ride with GPS https://ridewithgps.com/

njkayaker

There are quite a few web based route planners. Ridewithgps.com is one of the older ones. It's also very good.

Plotaroute is fairly new. I haven't used it but it's probably fine.

fsdogwood

Strava has the route planner function, just used it yesterday, for me, useful if you already know the area and want to mark out the route, can "cancel" a step or 2 if you don't like

noglider 

I generally use google maps.

wipekitty

I'm a Ride With GPS fan.

The route planning is good, though in my area (western Wisconsin, southeast Minnesota) it can sometimes underestimate elevation gain a tad bit. There is premium subscription available that allows you to download routes and will give you turn-by-turn directions while riding (helpful if riding in an unfamiliar area).

Map My Ride is older but still effective. Some folks (locally) have now gone to Strava, but I think this is motivated by wanting to know where the Strava segments are.

Hasselhof

I use a free account at plotaroute.com

It's pretty good. Sometimes the routing does some odd things, it uses info from openstreetmap which often isn't always perfect. Openstreetmap is easy enough to fix though, which will then update to allow better routing in the future.

Montag311

Mapometer is web-based and pretty easy to use. I don't think you can export to navigation devices like you can with Strava and MapMyRide and I'm not even sure if you can print your route but for basic route-making, it's ok.

tntyz

Garmin Connect uses heatmaps to help plan routes. I thought it was cool that so many of my planned routes were apparently heavily traveled by fellow cyclist, then realized my frequent rides might be skewing the map.

CliffordK

RideWithGPS charges for the route features, at least when uploading to your phone.

It is free with Strava. It is a little funky to deal with, but the Strava function works well, as long as you don't hit the wrong button on a phone that isn't connected to the web.

On Strava, there are options to prioritize either elevation or popularity.

Be careful though, I have periodically found it choosing routes that wouldn't be my first choice. On the other hand, it may find something that you didn't think about.

CliffordK

Oh, Google Maps will also do route planning, and you can choose "bicycle" as the transportation mode. It can sometimes be good for a quick and dirty route planning.

noglider 

Quick and dirty? I find it to be excellent, but that may be because there is more information in my corner of the world than in some others. It is a multi-step process to convert a google maps bike route to ridewithgps, and one side effect is that the turn by turn directions don't have street names. Those are the two downsides which I tolerate because I don't need to do this very often.

TimothyH

Ride with GPS

Save routes to a file and then import into the app of your choice - Polar, Garmin, Wahoo and so forth.


-Tim-

HobbesOnTour

There is also this one: https://cycle.travel/

Uses OpenStreetMaps and favours quieter roads. Has the option to include or exclude paved routes.
Easy export of files for use in any app.
Where available it has a direct link to Google Streetview and also shows accommodation options per route or per area.

I'm a tourer and have used this all over Europe, so obviously it comes with the usual proviso of not trusting any online planner 100%.
In comparison to the likes of Komoot or RWGPS it produces quieter routes. It may not be for everyone.

jfan

I use Ride with GPS and have the premium subscription. It is a cinch to plot or edit a route and it puts the map and turn by turn directions onto my Garmin 520.

Tourist in MSN

I just finished a five week bike tour. At times I used the routing my GPS (Garmin 64, Cycle Tour option, minimize ascent option) provided, but for planning I also used the Android App Komoot.

The Komoot app (I used free version) could give me elevation plots, etc. That came in handy in my route planning as I could assess not just distance, but also elevation, where the big hills were, etc. This app for planning had to be on-line.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...droid&hl=en_US

But almost every day, I deviated from a recommended route when the GPS or Komoot wanted to take my on some weird loop to avoid what turned out to be a perfectly good road.

Having the Maps.Me app on your Android phone with the maps loaded for the area can also come in handy, that you can use off-line. I do not find their bike routing to be very good, but when my GPS or Komoot were having difficulty finding what looked like a good route, I often checked Maps.Me (free version) as another option.

I have also used the web version of Komoot on my computer with large screen at home, that helped me fine tune routing, etc.
https://www.komoot.com/plan

I am a little perturbed with the Maps.Me app. Several years ago I paid for lifetime ad-fee usage, but they changed their policy to subscription, and they no longer provide me with the lifetime of ad-free usage that I paid for. But that is off topic.

Bottom line, I find that there is no perfect routing method. Sometimes having a paper map in hand can be a good aid.