Website for route planning

[ohyes]

that allows for particular highways, etc?

We are traveling to ME/MA next week and want to head over to Route 1, then head north. We bought a road atlas and i found Route 17 that also looks like it might be fun for a few hours.

For years, we used a road atlas, then started using mapquest, etc.

, and then on to using a GPS. Now that we have more time, we want to plan for more sightseeing, not the shortest route.

We can rely on the atlas and a highlighter and arrive at our destination eventually. Lazy me wonders if there is a trip planning website where you can put in specific highways, towns, etc. and come up with a generated "best" route, incorporating those inputs?

Say, we wanted to head from Little Rock, AR to Portland, ME, incorporating Route 17 and Route 1. Hoping this makes sense.
Thanks.

[ERD50]

Plain old google maps will do that ( maps.google.com ).

Just enter your start and destination, then you can drag a point to any side-step you want, and it will replan based on that. So add a point where you want to get on Route 17, and another where you want to get off. You might need to add a few points along the way if it tries to get back to other routes.

Most GPS will allow you to avoid certain roads, that might work to keep the GPS on the path you chose.


-ERD50

[noelm]

Do you have an Android phone? or if you have a GPS which one?

Google maps will do everything that you want. On the top of that, very recently Google published offline maps so that you can download maps offline and map your route yourself. You can add via points. I just downloaded NY map yesterday but did not get chance to play around.

Otherwise you could plan your route on your PC using google maps and note most important routing points. You can use these routing points on your GPS on-the-go. In my observation (never used road atlas), Google maps ALWAYS gave us the best route but our Garmin GPS is stupid. It sends us on highways for small stretches like a mile or so to save time !!!

[xyz]

Google Maps works very well be sure to use the features which allow you to change the route to the roads / towns you want to go to.. You can drag the route (the blue line it draws between destinations) to the road you want to go on and it recalculates the route. If you are new to maping software also notice you can zoom in with the plus and minus signs. I use it for planning my RV trips.

[ohyes]

Thanks so much!

It happens that i do have an Android with Google Maps. Have started playing with it...still haven't figured out how to drag that blue line over to Route 1 and 17, but have confidence that i will.

Very much appreciate the help.

We are purchasing a new GPS before this trip. We have an older model, which still serves us well most of the time. Because of so much construction in Boston area, we got a newer model last year. Somehow, in the glove compartment, the screen got smashed into smithereens. Ouch. The new, new one will receive better treatment.

[Nodak]

Its been some time since I have used it but Microsoft's Streets and Trips software might be what you're looking for.

[Ronstar]

We went from Chicago to Phoenix in March - just used google maps on a 3g iPad. worked great.

[NW-Bound]

When planning my RV treks, I use both maps.google.com and Microsoft's Streets and Trips (a program running on a PC or laptop).

The former has the satellite views and street views for me to have an idea of the areas I will camp out in, and to visit. But once I hit the road, MS SS is all I have for tracking where I am, as I am quite frequently without an Internet connection. In addition, I find that I need to replan the route quite often with MS SS in the middle of the trek, as I rarely stick to my initial itinerary for many reasons.

En route, MS SS running on a laptop or netbook with a GPS dongle gives me a big map on screen. Of course the MH has a big dash that the laptop can get lost on top. This set up would not work in a car.