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A map of my travels from January to July of 2010. Open full screen to view more.
Free Online Road Trip Planning ProgramsWho doesn't love the idea of self-serve, automated roadtrip planning tools? For more than a decade, we have tested many of the dozens of web-based trip planning programs. Some work really well, and others remind you why a good, old-fashioned paper map is still a road tripper's best friend.In 2010, RoadTrip America launched the Map Wizard and Advanced Maps programs. The interactive RTA Map Wizard lets you make instant road trip maps. Simply enter your beginning and ending points, then click to find RoadTrip Attractions along your route.
A mobile version (not an app) of RTA's Map Wizard designed to work on smart phones and tablets was launched in May, 2015. No registration is required to use the Map Wizard.
Free registration is required if you want to save, print, and/or share maps. It's likely that no single mapping application will ever work exactly the way you want it to, because each takes a different approach. Most of the trip planners listed below were originally developed for desktop viewing. Many are now adding apps for mobile devices. If the RTA map programs are not exactly what you're looking for, check out these programs for different approaches and features:Our colleagues at Roadside America have, over the last 20+ years, created the most complete (and entertaining!) database of odd and unique road trip attractions. The site offers two primary mapping tools. “My Sights” works best on desktops, and the resulting trip plans can be saved & transferred to a number of GPS devices.
The Roadside America App, an excellent mobile application for iPhones (not free, but cheap), allows users to find and map attractions easily when they are on the road.In 2007, the proprietary TripTik program, previously only available to Automobile Association of America club members, was made available to the public free of charge. When you click on the link above, it will take you to your current club if you are a member. If you are not a member, you will be given the opportunity to choose a home location.Yahoo's original trip planner has morphed into a much larger site for planning trips around the globe.
There's a very nice section about road trips, mostly consisting of articles about trips taken by Yahoo members. The site can help you plan a road trip, but it is not map-based.This is a good, user-friendly route planner that lets you choose various types of sites and points of interest to add to your itinerary.Launched in 2013, this is one of the newer free applications out there. Its database of hotels, restaurants, and points of interest is large and growing. Its desktop site has good mapping tools, but we've had difficulty using the Roadtrippers free mobile app on Android phones. Your mileage may vary, and the developers are constantly rolling out improvements.This mapping application is probably the least intuitive program that we’ve looked at over the years. It does have a major advantage of displaying he locations of national motel chains along a given route.TripIt is not limited to road trips. You can plan and save info about all aspects of a trip – hotel, map, route, flight schedule, car rental info, etc.
The basic version is free - an upgrade to 'TripIt Pro' provides more features.
By plugging travel locations into Google My Maps you can get a good sense of how your itinerary should flow, along with being able to:. Determine your trip mileage and driving times. Save your map and edit it in the future. Load your map on a smartphone for turn-by-turn navigationBefore we start making a custom map, take some time to decide what destinations you will want to be visiting. For some help and suggestions check out the previous article in this series, Or check out my brand new - a curated list of the best spots along the coast from San Diego, CA to Vancouver, B.C.We are going to create an itinerary based on these locations:.
My homebase - Burbank, CA. Zion National Park. Kodachrome Basin State Park. Arches National Park. Death Valley National Park. Great Sand Dunes National ParkOne quick note- This article has been updated from the origional where we used GoogleMaps Classic and also a previous update using Google Maps Engine. Both of these options have now been depreciated by Google and replaced with the Google My Maps option.
The new Google My Maps offers some improvement, and other shortcomings, but it is now the standard and still very useful for trip planning. Let's get started. Log in to Google DriveOne improvement that comes along with My Maps is how Google compiles everything under their cloud-based storage platform - Drive. It's now very easy to keep various maps and documents all organized under one trip folder. Visit to get started.
You will be prompted to sign into your Google account. Click the Go to Drive button to get started. If you don't have a Google account, you'll need to make one to create and save maps.Once signed in you'll see a big red New button on the upper left. To create a new map click this button, select More, and finally Google My Maps. If you get a yellow popup saying 'Couldn't Find a Route' then you will have to adjust the position of your marker.
This happens because Google often drops the pins where there are no roads. To adjust, find the pin and click and hold. Then you can drag it to a more accessible spot.You should now see a route between your starting location and the first destination.Now it's time to add in the remainer of your destinations and return location. Make sure the Directions Layer is selected (I renamed it) by clicking on the title. You will know it's active when you see the thin blue bar just to the left. Then click Add Destination. Make Route AdjustmentsYou now have a basic itinerary, including driving directions, destinations, mileage, driving times, and an overall map.If you are happy with the route you can Share it by clicking the grey button in the control panel.
Within the Share Dialog Box you can invite people via email, copy the map link, share on social media, and customize access (edit versus view).You can adjust the route between two destinations by clicking the blue route line to select it, then click, hold, and drag to add a new point. Undo this action by clicking on the white dot that appears along the route.In my itinerary I noticed that Great Sand Dunes National Park adds a lot of driving, so I'm going to remove that destination and save it for a later trip. Instead I will stop at Grand Canyon National Park which is more on the way home.Go ahead and make any edits or addition necessary by reordering the driving direction pins and adding/deleting locations. For extra details such as mileage between destinations and drive times, click on the 3 vertical dots next to the layer title and select Step-by-Step Directions. Additional DetailsGoogle My Maps allows you to have 10 layers total (an improvement on Maps Engine), currently I'm using one for driving directions and one for location markers. Additional layers can be used for more driving directions and amenities.For instance, I definitely want to get gas before driving into Death Valley so I'll look up a gas station just before and add it to my map in this new layer. You can also adjust the color and icon style for better readability.
Click on an icon and select the Style icon to do this.