jefnvk

In preparing for my first weeklong trip, I've come across a conundrum on my part: how completely do I plan out the route? While I don't expect there to be a right answer, I'm curious as to what process work for others in determining their route. Do you plan the trip down to the last turn and stick it into a GPS, know a rough idea of where you want to stay each night but wait until the day of to figure out your exact roads, don't do any advance planning other than knowing a timeframe and a destination, or something in-between or completely different?

bikenh

I don't carry a GPS with me so I do everything by writing it down. I use to plan in advance but my plans always went haywire long before leaving so I have stopped planning altogether until I'm on the road. It ain't worth wasting my time trying to plan a trip and just have my plans go busto thanks to not being able to leave on time so my plans have to change so I can make the destination by the time I want to be there. I just carry a laptop with me and plan from one day to the next. That's the easiest way of avoiding obstacles that you might not be able to see ahead of time. I just have a general idea of where I'm trying to get there and knowing how long I have to get there and then plan a route accordingly from one evening to the next.

The best laid plans of mice and men...

MixedRider

It depends on the complexity of the trip. The planned milestones with back-up locations for weather/mechanical/medical reasons are reviewed the day before on a paper map.

I do use my iphone for times when I may have missed a turn or just need the re-assurance of knowing I am going the right direction. It mostly comes in handy during transiting urban environments (cities) when staying off of major arterials is a good thing but the roads seem to wind through the city.

Rob_E

I'm going for a trip in late May, early June. I've had every night's stop planned out since last year.

Although part of that may be because I thought I was going to do this trip last year. But a bigger part is having more time to plan than time to ride.

The other part is having a limit on my vacation time. If I want to do the trip I have planned, I have to average between 60 and 80 miles per day and keep to the route. So every day I figured out a place to stay that was a little more than 60 miles away from the previous place. I'm also going to keep handy alternate stopping places in case I'm feeling very tired or very energetic one day. If I had the time for a longer trip, I like to think I'd play it a little looser, but I tend to schedule shorter trips with a planned end date and location.

I keep routes on m phone, but I don't use the phone to navigate if possible. If my route is pretty firm, and includes lots of turns, I may try to print out cue sheets. Otherwise I just refer to the phone when I need to refresh my memory on the route or confirm a turn.

alan s 

Part of the fun of a trip is the planning. Already planning for a trip in July. I try to keep things flexible if there are options, but like to have a fairly good idea where I'm headed and how long it will take to get there. If I had plenty of time and only a final destination, planning would be done more on the fly, to account for weather and unforeseen circumstances.

indyfabz

Yep. I have close to two weeks at most or less for each trip. It's my vacation so I don't want to run into SNAFUs, especially if I have a flight home to catch. I will b heading to MT in June for about 11 days. I have daily plans with options in case things go south. And I don't use GPS. To the extent I need directions I make paper cue sheets.

Machka 

We book our flights and/or train and usually our first night's accommodation ... and that's about the extent of the planning. The rest we work out when we get there.

350htrr

I have been on a few trips over 10 days, 800KMs and every one was a win, except when I agreed to meet someone somewhere at a certain time... The hills were bigger... the headwinds were stronger... the time figured for the trip was too short... ... It takes what it takes...

Doug64

I'll give you an example of our planning process, albeit, at the extreme end of the spectrum.

A few years ago we wanted to do a circumnavigation of Lake Erie, in conjunction with a visit with my family in Michigan. We'd roughly looked at the logistics like bridge crossings and some of the sights we wanted to see along the way. We planned on a month in mid-fall to catch the color changes in the hardwood forests.

When we got to Michigan, I heard that a friend's wife was recovering from breast cancer, and decided to ride up to north-central Michigan to visit them. On the way there we decided to scrap the Lake Erie ride, and instead do a circumnavigation of Lake Huron instead.

After leaving my friend's place we headed for the Upper Peninsula near the western shore of Lake Huron. We started hitting freezing temperatures, and there were reports of snow flurries in Canada. When we got to Mackinaw City, our decision point, we decided to head west along Lake Michigan instead of heading easterly toward Canada.

Bottom line is that we did a partial circumnavigation of Michigan's Lower Peninsula

The shorter the tour the more planning we do. For tours of 1-3 months we generally rough out the cities and points of interest. We figure an average of 50 miles a day for planning purposes. We get a rough estimate of the distance and see if it is possible to get to our return destination in the time available. On a 3-month European tour we changed our first day's plans when we were trying to get out of Lisbon, Portugal. We talked to the ticket agent at the ferry terminal, and he showed us a better route than the one we planned.

On long tours reevaluation of time and distance remaining often require route changes. We usually plan 1-2 days ahead so we don't get ourselves into situations where food and services are not available; or "you can't get there from here" situations.

Our last tour this summer, 2-months in Europe, our initial route looked like this: Copenhagen, Berlin, Warsaw, Krakow, Prague, Frankfurt, Cologne, Bruges, and finally Amsterdam. Do you think it actually worked out that way? No, it didn't; we hit all the countries, but skipped some of the cities because of choice or lack of time.

On the other end of the spectrum my wife, our 2 daughters, and I, do our 1-2 week annual "Girls Tour". For these rides we do some pretty detailed planning. We want them to enjoy the ride so we have each day's destination figured out , along with sleeping accommodations. However, even these routes have been modified when the situation warrants

I guess the bottom line of all this BS is: it just depends, and do the amount of planning you are comfortable with.

P.S. I grew up in Downriver Detroit. You have a great state to ride in!

Bicycle365

Leading 1-2 week long group trips I do the full route, planning the whole thing out including overnights. THEN I shift the schedule 1/2 a day/distance and do a plan B. Excluding start and finish nights that gives me 12 options to pick from on a 7 day.

DropBarFan

That seems sensible; planning route carefully helps give some familiarity with the roads so if a detour is needed one at least has better knowledge of the area.

Carbonfiberboy 

I do the full route on RWGPS. I bring along both TCX files for my Garmin and paper cue sheets as a backup. Rather than use RWGPS cue sheets, I download the CSV file, load it into a spreadsheet and then word processor and massage it into a 1/4 page booklet form that's convenient to use with a Bar Map cue sheet carrier. Because I plan all the group rides I lead in this manner, many hundreds of them by now, I've figured out how to do it pretty well. It's well worth experimenting on your local rides with whatever technique you want to use.

I did this for our Czech tour, over 400 miles and 600 turns. Worked perfectly. I made use of Google Earth and Street View to preview the tricky spots. Found campsites, restaurants, hotels and hostels, cafes, bike shops, etc. I find plenty of adventure in touring a planned route without the extra adventure of not knowing where I'm going to get food or sleep that day.

BlarneyHammer

I like having a plan and a route, knowing where I'm going. One less thing to worry about during the tour. But keep the plan flexible. You never know what adventures you can get into!

jefnvk

Glad to hear all the input! My normal (non-biking) trip planning of flying in with a rough guide and winging it on a day to day basis seems to have a few adherents here, so at least I am not being talked into trying something new!

The trip itself is not too complicated: 35-50 miles a day from Brussels up to Amsterdam, meandering through the countryside to build some distance and hit attractions we both want to see. It is fairly easy, but it is a first long tour and the tourist part is as important to us as the biking, we'd hate to be too focused on daily mileage that we missed out on the country. I've got a giant map on my wall with post-its near attractions and general sleeping areas, the only problem is that I printed too nice of a map (and the Dutch built too comprehensive of a cycle network) and there are about a dozen reasonable routes between sticky note! I think I'm done racking my brain on it for now, I'll print out a nice atlas, and deal with each day the night beforehand

jefnvk

This, times about a thousand! I generally figure by the time any of my trips are over, I spent more time planning them than taking them (and did almost none of what I planned), and had a blast on both parts!

I agree! I'm excited to actually start to get out more! Sad that I have to fly across the pond to hopefully get the girlfriend a bit more comfortable with the long riding (she absolutely still hates roads, which limits us here), but hopefully mixing in some roads there with the paths will get her more comfortable!

The sum of those three things sounds like my normal adventures, so I'll keep up whats comfortable!

gauvins

Interesting question, philosophically and pragmatically.

Although we've travelled extensively, this summer will be our first experience on bikes. My wife and I will ride a two-week shakedown trip before heading across Europe with our daughters.

For both trips, we have gpx tracks, complete with post-processing that computes the expected travel time (i.e. accounting for the course profile), which may sound as total overkill yet has been a determining factor in pushing us towards EV6 (mostly flat) instead of the PCT (several "significant" climbs). Advanced planning is also essential if you want to secure hard-to-get reservations. (One campground close to San Francisco is booked solid 2 minutes after being made available online; one restaurant we'd like to go to, in Burgundy, is similarly booked months in advance).

Had we been "winging it", we wouldn't have known and therefore not experienced regret. I would think that from time to time "wingers" become aware of the limitations of unplanned travel, but there are other rewards that feel like providential encounters, so it isn't black and white.

Now, a bicycle tour, or any other trip, would become a chore if it were a course set in stone to the next stage. So our plans aren't rigid. (1) We have several "zero days" on hand (at least once a week) that allow us to extend our stay if a place is worth it. (2) We have a "no camping in a severe downpour" policy, so we hunt for conventional accommodations on (very) wet days (and there was this one time where we slept in a cabin because the mosquitos might have sucked all of our blood; and this other time when it was very late and we came across an incredible B&B; etc.). (3) We've been known to play the "random turns" touring, where you flip a coin at each intersection and let serendipity dictate what will happen.

I am also partial to this advice: You should study tourist guides carefully and make a note of all the places that are recommended, so that you can avoid them.

Tourist in MSN

I pretty much have every turn in my GPS, but make sure I have a paper map for when there is a detour or road closed.

I usually plan where I stay no more than two days in advance, as that way I can assess weather (both rain and windage) and how it may impact the riding that day.

When I did the Pacific Coast I put the hiker biker sites (CA and OR state parks with hiker biker campsites) into a mapping app on my tablet. That way I could look at the map of the route ahead and try to estimate how many miles it was between those campsites. Since I rarely had wifi and did not have a data plan, having that stuff on my tablet ahead of time helped a lot. That tablet helped a lot for my daily planning.

A bit of disclosure here, I am retired, so I can do trips like that open ended. Some of my trips I did not get my return ticket on Amtrak until about 4 or 5 days before coming home, that flexibility was great. Amtrak is not like airlines, usually you can get a ticket on short notice on Amtrak without having to pay an arm and a leg like you would have to with airlines.

Leebo

I'm a paper map kind of guy. My tours have been local and usually 3-5 days, always starting from my driveway. I usually plan the first night of camping someplace with a reservation and wing it after that. Options area good thing, can't do 80 miles that day? Look at where to stay at mile 60. And never pass up good lunch, ever. Talk to the locals. Best beaches, camping and places to eat. Directions/ road questions? Firemen and postal workers are good bets there. As well as the UPS drivers.

jefnvk

Tis why I didn't specify specifics initially, I was hoping to keep it a generic conversation. I tried digging around the forums, and I couldn't find where this has been discussed before. Lots on specifics, route planning resources, how far/fast/long/hard can you reasonably do, etc., but nothing specific to the thought process that goes into it.

indyfabz

The philosophy has been discussed before, but anyone would be hard pressed to find the thread, so it's good that you started a new thread on the subject.

I had any interesting little issue pop up when I was planning a tour for this June. After I decided my best-case scenario itinerary, but before I booked my flights, I realized that my plan would have me camping in Philipsburg, MT on the same day Adventure Cycling's Cycle Montana tour would be in town. There is only one campground in the immediate area so I contacted ACA to see if they would be staying there or possibly at a school or other location. Sure enough, they are staying at the campground. Having stayed at the campground in question twice before I am familiar with its size and layout. Based on the maximum number of participants allowed on the tour, it seems highly likely that there will be enough space for me to pitch my little tent and cook. If that turns out not to be the case, I have a Plan B. It requires an additional 19 miles of riding to an isolated U.S.F.S. campground that is on my next day's route anyway. There will be plenty of light, and only the first 7.5 miles require any real effort. The remaining 11.5 miles are either down hill or essentially flat. I will have dinner out in P'Burg, pick up supplies for the following day, when I will be camping in Lolo National Forest without access to services other than water, and be on my way.

I like to have this level of detail worked out. As I wrote before, I have a limited amount of time and this is my vacation. I don't want to have to expend energy solving problems on the fly if I don't have to, especially when I have had all winter to come up with options.

Doug64

Everyone plans and travels differently; and some folks switch their personal travel mode to match the situation. For some tours different planning strategies may be used at varying times throughout the tour. I agree with you that there is no "black and white"; but in my experience the most memorable experiences on tours have happened through serendipity.

fietsbob

Me? No, I land at the airport, and cope from there.. Typically I looked for a Book seller in the next town An Bought a Map there ..

these are Trips that last Months .. and take in several countries ..

You are only talking a week, and Now everyone has to have a Mobile Phone.

If you want to stay in a Motel or B&B you can search that on your phone and even make a reservation ..

Ty0604

Same here. I'm leaving May 1 for a 5,500 mile cross country trip and have had my route planned since last summer. I use paper maps that I printed offline and stick them in a map case that goes on the handlebars. They're on my phone too worst case scenario but don't plan on using them. I carry about a weeks worth of maps with me at a time and toss them at the end of the day. The rest of the maps have been mailed to friends and host along the way. I always have my intended destination set but then towns marked along the way that I know I can camp out in if something happens and I can't make my destination. I spent hours and hours staring at Google Maps planning the route. It's changed a dozen times probably but as @alan s stated, it's part of the fun.

gauvins

Nice picture.

I've tried to find in which Hungarian festival men wear top hats adorned with hedge clippings, but wasn't successful.... (I assume that you took the picture and that we see your partner in the background; or maybe you stand in the foreground, in which case you certainly are a well dressed bicycle tourer )

---

On a semi-more serious note, yes, serendipity is best, but as is the case with most good things in life, it doesn't happen fortuitously -- one has to make luck happen. Or something of that nature. Otherwise, what's the point? Or something of this nature...

Ty0604

Probably because that's not the Hungarian flag, it's the flag of Lithuania Minor. The Hungarian flag is reversed; red/white/green.