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route planning

2019-03-11 08:09:23

We are plannign our second tandem touring holiday (tent and trailer set up) and finding the route planners online that we have so far tried are rather awkward.

Can anyone recommend a website that is user friendly? Ideally it would be good to tell it to use NCN routes as first choice. 

We tend to stick to numbered NCN routes as these are usually planned carefully to avoid unnecessary hills and therefore more forgiving for a heavily laden tandem. 

I am a paper map person and we book our camping along the route so I am happy with printing the relevant pages from OS Maps. It's when we want to know accurately how long the cycle really is that we get into difficulty. Last year sometimes the cycle routes wiggled so much that we would be 5-7 miles out from what we expected. (It was never shorter!)

2019-03-11 08:21:40

Have you tried cyclestreets - one I've just come across while researching the exact same topic?   It seems to have the NCN routes in.  Google maps does too, but I've found it to be of variable quality.   We tour on a fully laden tandem too, with a tent and a strong preference for the quieter NCN routes, mostly to escape the traffic rather than the hills.   

Alex Kalogroulis2019-03-11 09:38:56

I have used Komoot for a while, planning routes on the desktop and then transferring to my phone. The software allows you to choose between different map layers, one of which is 'OpenCycle' and shows local cycle routes.

2019-03-12 07:52:27

Yes. we've tried cycle streets which definitely seems to be the best so far. Definitely agree about traffic being better on NCN which makes it easier to find somewhere to stop for a break too. We did Hadrian's cycleway last year and this year we are doing a mix of routes which will take us sort of around the perimeter of North Yorkshire. 

2019-03-12 08:36:59

I think I'll be using cycle streets in the future too.   I like that the NCN routes are clearly marked on there.   We did Hadrians Cycleway last year too, and enjoyed it enormously.   The year before it was the C2C route (much more climbing on this one) and this year we are trying The Way of the Roses.

Colin Dugdale2019-03-12 12:15:11

Hi I use ride with gps and save it on my garmin.  Really easy to create your own routes avoiding major roads. Used it in Poland, France and Germany with no problems.