Best websites for planning routes?

Hindmost

Hi,

Firstly, my apologies if this topic has already been discussed but I couldn't find anything...

I want to know the best websites for planning routes without having to manually set road by road instructions.

I have a Garmin 800 and I want to try some new routes over Christmas, however, when I've planned routes with Garmin Connect, in some cases, it has given me impossible routes ie. trying to send me the wrong way up one way streets or trying to send me through buildings.

Will I find the same problems on other websites, such as mapmyride.com or are other websites better at calculating realistic routes without me having to manually enter road by road info?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

bobmcstuff

Strava's route planner is pretty good for avoiding that sort of thing - if you leave the "use most popular route" function on then it won't send you up one ways because nobody else rides that way.

However nothing's absolutely foolproof and if you're not sure a quick look on Streetview should sort you out.

Hindmost

Thanks for the info - I'll have a go with Strava. I never actually thought to try Strava's route planner.

I would check with Streetview but I'm planning 3 rides in the next week between 170-200 km and that's a lot of roads to check.

southdownswolf

Ride with GPS is my favourite, I've used it for several years with a minimal of fuss.
I've not tried the Strava planner, so could well be a good option.
I didn't like the way Mapmyride worked, it didn't seem as easy as Ride with GPS, however other people really like it.

Which ever you use, it is always worth checking on streetview every few miles, just to check that you are happy with the road size/conditions etc.

Hindmost

southdownswolf wrote:

Ride with GPS is my favourite, I've used it for several years with a minimal of fuss.
I've not tried the Strava planner, so could well be a good option.
I didn't like the way Mapmyride worked, it didn't seem as easy as Ride with GPS, however other people really like it.

Which ever you use, it is always worth checking on streetview every few miles, just to check that you are happy with the road size/conditions etc.

Thanks for this. I'll have a look at Ride With GPS although Strava's 'Use popularity' function, that bobmcstuff drew my attention to, might be the answer to my problems.
I'm not so fussed about road conditions, so long as I'm not being told to go the wrong way up a one way street, as Garmin Connect has often done.

jimmythecuckoo

www.bikely.com

its part of this site...

Hindmost

jimmythecuckoo wrote:

http://www.bikely.com

its part of this site...

Thanks - will have a look.

bobmcstuff

Hindmost wrote:

I would check with Streetview but I'm planning 3 rides in the next week between 170-200 km and that's a lot of roads to check.

Is someone doing the Festive 500?

Hindmost

bobmcstuff wrote:

Is someone doing the Festive 500?

Yes indeed.

deadhead1971

RideWithGPS is a favourite of mine.
If you're using an Edge 800, you'll probably find my tutorial very useful:

http://www.scarletfire.co.uk/foolproof-course-navigation-on-the-garmin-edge-800/

JackPozzi

Someone on here pointed me to plotaroute.com recently and it seems very good. Wins over other sites as it's possible to to set a start and finish point and specify a distance you want and it will work out a selection of appropriate routes. Some of the route choices are a bit odd but all in all it works very well.

bboti

I found a comparison page on wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compariso ... g_websites
Though, my personal favorite for its simplicity is https://bikeroll.net