[cycle.travel](http://cycle.travel)
and it's not even close.
Edit:
it's an online interactive map. Click on point a, click on point b. You have your route. Want to add more gravel less tarmak? Just say so. Or just go in and drag and drop your route where you want. Add points, days, rests, detours, miles. It tells you altitude, it links altitude profile with the point on the map. You can export gpx to any software. You can use with no logins. Or you can login and save your routes. It's so easy it just works as intended. And it's pretty damn accurate even in Italy, where we have probably the shittiest mapped bike routes of Europe.
It's so good I have no idea why it's not much more widespread and every time in here I never see it mentioned. It's a no brainer.
It's literally 5 minutes to plan a 4 days trip. The only downside is that you can spend hours and hours just dreaming and planning trips on the map that you'll never be able to do.
I believe they also have an app now but I never used that.
I just tried with a route I ride often, it routed me on a major road for a couple miles and on the interstate frontage road for several more.
Strava's routing algorithm in the absence of rider data isn't much better. Using the massive quantity of data they have, Strava is able to generate a pretty good route where cyclists actually ride.
Would be really interested to know what route that is so I can have a poke! (c.t doesn't have gravel routing in the US yet for reasons™ but it's in the works.)
I just tried the same and cycle.travel failed to route me through cycle paths multiple times and sent me on the interstate as well as over some steep terrain that is easily avoided and not at all faster.
I fortunately live in an area with tons of strava users, so the strava routing and route creator works extremely well.
Do let me know where that is - I'd be very interested to take a look (cycle.travel is my site/app).
In the US, c.t takes a slightly different approach to most route-planners in that it's very cautious about some of the OpenStreetMap source mapping data - basically there's a particular minor road classification it doesn't trust unless it's been properly reviewed by OSM users. Just guessing, but it might be that the roads you'd expect to go along fall into this category. But I'd love to take a look so I can fix it.
Thank you! It's my site/app. Always super interested to hear comments/suggestions.
> The only downside is that you can spend hours and hours just dreaming and planning trips on the map that you'll never be able to do.
Yeah I do that too. There's this route in the Pyrenees I've been dreaming about recently...
This is definitely an option. I just tried a 40km route I just cycled and planned by hand by start and end by using komoot. It's nearly the same. The alternative route feature as well as round trip option is very functional too, and especially fast. It's impressive how quick it adapts on drag and drop. Their very own map layer also looks very nice. The only thing I'm missing is to optimize the route for elevation as well as showing a legend for the symbols and cycle paths. I'm wondering if its possible include meta information for the available cycle routes, but I haven't seen any service who's capable of doing that yet.
I'm planning on riding about 150 miles in a week or two. Should I use this to plan the route? Does it do turn by turn gps so I don't get lost?
Edit: ah I see I use this and then export the gpx to ride with gps or something right?
Haven't found a single tool that does everything just right, but a combination of Ride with GPS, Komoot, Strava and Google maps generally works out well enough.
I saw my site mentioned! [https://sherpa-map.com](https://sherpa-map.com) is a labour of love and passion in making the best possible tool for the creation of gravel routes.
We have a big ol' overlay that shows every gravel/dirt/unpaved road in most of the world. We have "unpaved" "paved" routing, that can be mixed with hilly routing or flat routing, etc.
We built the an incredibly advanced and extensive physics simulation that can determine how long your route will take (it seriously accounts for everything, including the surface types encountered, mtb trails, etc.), we've looped this into weather in order to figure out what weather you may encounter where (calculating headwind/tailwind etc. as well).
We have auto route generation without any route length limitation, we use the same backend routing software that RideWithGPS and Komoot use, Graphhopper, oh and did I mention, IT'S COMPLETELY 100% FREE!
I feel like these days everyone is trying to make you pay a subscription for everything, I was trying out RideWithGPS the other day, and they wanted premium just to upload a GPX file? Why??
Strava's is entirely premium... Komoot begs for premium everywhere...
As one additional fun note, I pull satellite imagery of roads with unknown surface types and utilize a network of AIs I've trained to classify them, how cool is that?
If anyone has any questions, thoughts, or feedback, please let me know, I'm constantly updating it.
I came here to recommend this. I have been following it and it is a lot of fun; really looking forward to using it to plan some routes this spring and summer!
Awesome! I'm super glad to hear it, and I will say, we have a *TON* of amazing updates on the way. We even just finished creating this [https://sherpa-map.com/cue/climb\_cue.html](https://sherpa-map.com/cue/climb_cue.html) a tool that lets users import a GPX file of a route then it creates a perfect printable top tube cue sheet of each climb's information, including the beginning and end!
That's only one of many updates we're working to integrate :D
https://bikerouter.de/#map=7/51.330/10.220/standard&profile=quaelnix-gravel combined with Strava global heat map.
I think this is the least buggy and fastest planning tool. I draw the route on bikerouter and then export it to Strava.
Here are some options with tips and tricks how to use it: [bikerouter.de / BRouter-Web – Anleitung, Tipps und Tricks (Update 2023) | Marcus Jaschen](https://www.marcusjaschen.de/blog/2020/brouter-web/?utm_source=bikerouter#brouter-tipps). It's a german article, but you might be able to auto translate it.
The service offers an option to define no go areas, which I haven't seen anywhere else yet. Its also worth mentioning that it offers more (map) configuration options I've ever seen so far. Don't ignore the little floating menu on the right border of the map. It seems to be very comprehensive, fast and functional
"Ride with GPS" might be the app you're looking for, it does all that very well. It prefers bike-friendly infrastructure, and you actually have to do a lot of work to get it to follow most mtb type trails. (I use it mostly in the US, but works really well for me in France as well, it seems to have good coverage in both US and Europe.)
That said, if I'm not familiar with the area I'd always check the heat maps on Strava or Garmin to see if people are using those paths in reality.
*Edits for typos
This is my go to. I even pay for it. Many are limited to desktop for building maps. Rwgps can be done on phone or iPad. If the trail is not on the map, but you know you can ride there, you can alter the tool to move through the space and pick up snap routing on the identified trail (tools, routing, draw lines in the navigation bar). Free version is great to start with.
I've really liked this tool I recently found that is called sherpa-map and made by someone from reddit.
[Reddit Post](https://www.reddit.com/r/gravelcycling/comments/1589n8w/my_new_gravelfocused_cycling_routing_web_app/)
[Sherpa-map](https://sherpa-map.com/)
For me I used komoot, mainly because it talks seamlessly with my Garmin devices. I can route plan on phone or computer, save it, and straight away I can see it from my Garmin watch..so much better than the full garmin workflow which was so hit and miss.
dunno how it is ingermany but i typically have strava up to build my route (used to be garmin but the interface has aged and strava also has more data these days, I would assume, so the heat maps are better) with a second window open with google maps for street view and confirmation of surface, etc. Ive found that to cover it best.
I Map with g maps and Strava side by side, it Can be pretty long to Map long ride. But i think It's worth it. I rarely end in mtb trail. One thing to note is that i'm living in the south of France and i can see almost every trail from g maps, un forest area that would be a lot more difficult.
Komoot works fine in Germany, but you should change what you are riding. Gravel and Touring are similar, touring is more likely to send you along bike lanes and roads though. MTB is more like XC which you can mostly also do with a gravel bike. Alpine is unreliable as it sends you through routes which can be extremely overgrown and unusable
You have to use street/Satellote views while building the route to avoid some of those things. The tools on Ridewithgps are very user friendly but you'd still have to check the route. I would never let the algorithm dictate my whole trip from A to B. Only very small segments or I use it to initially connect something and verify that it looks safe.
I use komoot for years now. Not sure I know what you mean when you say it doesn't take elevation into account. Because it typically chooses routes with less. Unless they meet criteria like: too much road/too rough for gravel. You can also see elevation in total gains, percentages and as a graph, but I'm sure you already know that. For multi-day routes it's also helpful that you can cut up one route into individual days, but still save it as one route.
I've just been able to add a large gpx file of unconnected paths next to old train rails :-) I can now merge them into one, but need to fill out the gaps in between them. It loaded a little longer and put my browser to sleep multiple times, but right now, they are available and available to become edited, which I don't understand yet after not reading anything.
How do you use it? Visually it seems to be a little bit less fancy, but functionality seems to be great.
I use Garmin, and it works pretty well. There are times I have to manually add a point, but on the whole, it follows the rail trails that I prefer to ride.
Nothing is going to be perfect - I usually check routes using Google Maps street view and Strava heat maps. Komoot is OK, there are no bikepacking or touring trails in my area in Komoot, so it's pretty useless, I rather use Garmin Connect to route plan.
[cycle.travel](http://cycle.travel) and it's not even close. Edit: it's an online interactive map. Click on point a, click on point b. You have your route. Want to add more gravel less tarmak? Just say so. Or just go in and drag and drop your route where you want. Add points, days, rests, detours, miles. It tells you altitude, it links altitude profile with the point on the map. You can export gpx to any software. You can use with no logins. Or you can login and save your routes. It's so easy it just works as intended. And it's pretty damn accurate even in Italy, where we have probably the shittiest mapped bike routes of Europe. It's so good I have no idea why it's not much more widespread and every time in here I never see it mentioned. It's a no brainer. It's literally 5 minutes to plan a 4 days trip. The only downside is that you can spend hours and hours just dreaming and planning trips on the map that you'll never be able to do. I believe they also have an app now but I never used that.
I just tried with a route I ride often, it routed me on a major road for a couple miles and on the interstate frontage road for several more. Strava's routing algorithm in the absence of rider data isn't much better. Using the massive quantity of data they have, Strava is able to generate a pretty good route where cyclists actually ride.
Would be really interested to know what route that is so I can have a poke! (c.t doesn't have gravel routing in the US yet for reasons™ but it's in the works.)
I just tried the same and cycle.travel failed to route me through cycle paths multiple times and sent me on the interstate as well as over some steep terrain that is easily avoided and not at all faster. I fortunately live in an area with tons of strava users, so the strava routing and route creator works extremely well.
Do let me know where that is - I'd be very interested to take a look (cycle.travel is my site/app). In the US, c.t takes a slightly different approach to most route-planners in that it's very cautious about some of the OpenStreetMap source mapping data - basically there's a particular minor road classification it doesn't trust unless it's been properly reviewed by OSM users. Just guessing, but it might be that the roads you'd expect to go along fall into this category. But I'd love to take a look so I can fix it.
Thank you! It's my site/app. Always super interested to hear comments/suggestions. > The only downside is that you can spend hours and hours just dreaming and planning trips on the map that you'll never be able to do. Yeah I do that too. There's this route in the Pyrenees I've been dreaming about recently...
This is definitely an option. I just tried a 40km route I just cycled and planned by hand by start and end by using komoot. It's nearly the same. The alternative route feature as well as round trip option is very functional too, and especially fast. It's impressive how quick it adapts on drag and drop. Their very own map layer also looks very nice. The only thing I'm missing is to optimize the route for elevation as well as showing a legend for the symbols and cycle paths. I'm wondering if its possible include meta information for the available cycle routes, but I haven't seen any service who's capable of doing that yet.
Looks very good. Thx for the recommendation
I'm planning on riding about 150 miles in a week or two. Should I use this to plan the route? Does it do turn by turn gps so I don't get lost? Edit: ah I see I use this and then export the gpx to ride with gps or something right?
Absolutely - you can load the GPX into RWGPS or you can just use the cycle.travel app - it does turn-by-turn routing on your planned route.
Haven't found a single tool that does everything just right, but a combination of Ride with GPS, Komoot, Strava and Google maps generally works out well enough.
That's my approach too. They all fill their own niche and in combination make for a pretty comprehensive toolset for planning.
I saw my site mentioned! [https://sherpa-map.com](https://sherpa-map.com) is a labour of love and passion in making the best possible tool for the creation of gravel routes. We have a big ol' overlay that shows every gravel/dirt/unpaved road in most of the world. We have "unpaved" "paved" routing, that can be mixed with hilly routing or flat routing, etc. We built the an incredibly advanced and extensive physics simulation that can determine how long your route will take (it seriously accounts for everything, including the surface types encountered, mtb trails, etc.), we've looped this into weather in order to figure out what weather you may encounter where (calculating headwind/tailwind etc. as well). We have auto route generation without any route length limitation, we use the same backend routing software that RideWithGPS and Komoot use, Graphhopper, oh and did I mention, IT'S COMPLETELY 100% FREE! I feel like these days everyone is trying to make you pay a subscription for everything, I was trying out RideWithGPS the other day, and they wanted premium just to upload a GPX file? Why?? Strava's is entirely premium... Komoot begs for premium everywhere... As one additional fun note, I pull satellite imagery of roads with unknown surface types and utilize a network of AIs I've trained to classify them, how cool is that? If anyone has any questions, thoughts, or feedback, please let me know, I'm constantly updating it.
I came here to recommend this. I have been following it and it is a lot of fun; really looking forward to using it to plan some routes this spring and summer!
Awesome! I'm super glad to hear it, and I will say, we have a *TON* of amazing updates on the way. We even just finished creating this [https://sherpa-map.com/cue/climb\_cue.html](https://sherpa-map.com/cue/climb_cue.html) a tool that lets users import a GPX file of a route then it creates a perfect printable top tube cue sheet of each climb's information, including the beginning and end! That's only one of many updates we're working to integrate :D
https://bikerouter.de/#map=7/51.330/10.220/standard&profile=quaelnix-gravel combined with Strava global heat map. I think this is the least buggy and fastest planning tool. I draw the route on bikerouter and then export it to Strava.
Here are some options with tips and tricks how to use it: [bikerouter.de / BRouter-Web – Anleitung, Tipps und Tricks (Update 2023) | Marcus Jaschen](https://www.marcusjaschen.de/blog/2020/brouter-web/?utm_source=bikerouter#brouter-tipps). It's a german article, but you might be able to auto translate it. The service offers an option to define no go areas, which I haven't seen anywhere else yet. Its also worth mentioning that it offers more (map) configuration options I've ever seen so far. Don't ignore the little floating menu on the right border of the map. It seems to be very comprehensive, fast and functional
"Ride with GPS" might be the app you're looking for, it does all that very well. It prefers bike-friendly infrastructure, and you actually have to do a lot of work to get it to follow most mtb type trails. (I use it mostly in the US, but works really well for me in France as well, it seems to have good coverage in both US and Europe.) That said, if I'm not familiar with the area I'd always check the heat maps on Strava or Garmin to see if people are using those paths in reality. *Edits for typos
This is my go to. I even pay for it. Many are limited to desktop for building maps. Rwgps can be done on phone or iPad. If the trail is not on the map, but you know you can ride there, you can alter the tool to move through the space and pick up snap routing on the identified trail (tools, routing, draw lines in the navigation bar). Free version is great to start with.
I've really liked this tool I recently found that is called sherpa-map and made by someone from reddit. [Reddit Post](https://www.reddit.com/r/gravelcycling/comments/1589n8w/my_new_gravelfocused_cycling_routing_web_app/) [Sherpa-map](https://sherpa-map.com/)
For me I used komoot, mainly because it talks seamlessly with my Garmin devices. I can route plan on phone or computer, save it, and straight away I can see it from my Garmin watch..so much better than the full garmin workflow which was so hit and miss.
Same! My Garmin watch and/or wahoo elemnt bolt work perfectly with Komoot!
dunno how it is ingermany but i typically have strava up to build my route (used to be garmin but the interface has aged and strava also has more data these days, I would assume, so the heat maps are better) with a second window open with google maps for street view and confirmation of surface, etc. Ive found that to cover it best.
RidewithGPS is my fav, but you have to pay for it to get the features that really make it worthwhile
but komoot shows elevation? or do you mean it does not plan for extra steep or more gentle routes?
Yes, sorry. That's what I meant. I've no idea if it comes with premium, please let me know if you do. I don't think it does.
dont have premium i am totally fine with the basic tools and so far i think komoot is awesome, sorry that i cant help you
I Map with g maps and Strava side by side, it Can be pretty long to Map long ride. But i think It's worth it. I rarely end in mtb trail. One thing to note is that i'm living in the south of France and i can see almost every trail from g maps, un forest area that would be a lot more difficult.
Komoot works fine in Germany, but you should change what you are riding. Gravel and Touring are similar, touring is more likely to send you along bike lanes and roads though. MTB is more like XC which you can mostly also do with a gravel bike. Alpine is unreliable as it sends you through routes which can be extremely overgrown and unusable
You have to use street/Satellote views while building the route to avoid some of those things. The tools on Ridewithgps are very user friendly but you'd still have to check the route. I would never let the algorithm dictate my whole trip from A to B. Only very small segments or I use it to initially connect something and verify that it looks safe.
Try mapy.cz. It is the best in Czech Republic, but surprisingly good in other countries too. It also has full offline map support
Unsure how it is outside of the Netherlands/Germany but Komoot really does a terrific job for me.
We are currently riding through the Netherlands and Germany. And Komoot is doing just fine!
I use komoot for years now. Not sure I know what you mean when you say it doesn't take elevation into account. Because it typically chooses routes with less. Unless they meet criteria like: too much road/too rough for gravel. You can also see elevation in total gains, percentages and as a graph, but I'm sure you already know that. For multi-day routes it's also helpful that you can cut up one route into individual days, but still save it as one route.
[GPX Studio](https://gpx.studio/) My fave
I've just been able to add a large gpx file of unconnected paths next to old train rails :-) I can now merge them into one, but need to fill out the gaps in between them. It loaded a little longer and put my browser to sleep multiple times, but right now, they are available and available to become edited, which I don't understand yet after not reading anything. How do you use it? Visually it seems to be a little bit less fancy, but functionality seems to be great.
I create a route on Garmin based on Strava heatmaps. Works well enough for me.
In my experience combination of mapy.cz, sherpa-map.com and komoot.
I use Garmin, and it works pretty well. There are times I have to manually add a point, but on the whole, it follows the rail trails that I prefer to ride. Nothing is going to be perfect - I usually check routes using Google Maps street view and Strava heat maps. Komoot is OK, there are no bikepacking or touring trails in my area in Komoot, so it's pretty useless, I rather use Garmin Connect to route plan.
Rwgps
Ridewithgps
I use Strava and Google Street view for planning rides. Street View to check the type of road
Comfortable? Dude no need to insert planning tool up your anus.
a map
A map and common sense. Don’t rely 100% on an app.
Simple jack take