How do you plan your long routes, as individual days or one long route?

[mr_magicfingers]

Was pondering this, as I've not done a long tour with gps but plan to next year.

If planning a day at a time it means you can have destinations set more easily but if you change your plans during the trip you would probably have to replan each day thereafter.

Wondered what those of you who've done this a lot tend to do and how you deal with the inevitable changes that come about on a trip, or do you tend to stick rigidly to your plans?

Thanks.

 

[Earache]

I do both - depends on who is riding with me.

When on solo trips, I plan nothing and just get rooms as I can and just follow a loose itinerary that I have in the back of my mind. Sometimes I make a hotel reservation each night for the following night's stay.

When riding with 2-3 others, we usually have some agreed upon stops that someone in the group wants to make. Plus, it's usually harder to find 2-3 rooms in the same hotel in the same town here in the US. Especially in the better riding areas of the country (usually west) where the next town might be 100+ miles away.

Not much of a camper, but that would make things much easier. The only real reason I plan portions of the trip is centered around where we'll be staying each night.

 

[Mr K]

Individual days: If you deviate there's no hardship in stopping to access the next route.

Set your sat-nag not to recalculate and you can resume your planned route when and if you want to.

 

[(RIP) petcul]

Depends on the research I've done and what I want to see. I start with an outline plan in my mind but I'm happy to deviate or indeed abandon it depending on what new things emerge as I travel. With visas I make sure there is sufficient overlap to allow me flexibility. You never know what might happen - breakdown, a must see site etc.

I never book accommodation in advance. For me a schedule restricts me too much and I can't take advantage of the unexpected.

Even riding with others, for me flexibility is key and built in breaks from each other essential to my (and their) sanity.

 

[mrsroynie]

I'm not sure how well GPS routes can ever work on a long trip. Roynie plotted our entire Moscow (Scotland) to Moscow (Russia) route on GPS before we left, but more for planning purposes than with the intention of sticking rigidly to it. Unfortunately, the guy we were with (on a very slow 350cc bike) programmed his GPS daily for most the direct route from A to B, avoiding motorways ... which resulted in many extremely frustrating hours, zig-zagging through farmyards and windfarms between main roads. Not recommended.

I reckon if you're travelling for pleasure, GPS is a great tool for finding your lodging at the end of the day, but signposts and other landmarks allow for a more "heads up" tour.

 

[John Armstrong]

If I wanted to do orienteering I wouldn't put bike kit on

Days routes = chance to see what time the GPS thinks you'll get somewhere.

 

[CJM180]

I have done 3 trips around Europe. The first time I tried to route with getting to certain places per day. Then when on that trip, you tend to destination fixate. Meaning you end up 'racing' to the next place. And getting upset if you don't make it as it can ruin your itinery if you have things booked.

The second trip we did a similar route but backwards. We did not plan anything. Just turned up. If we made it somewhere one day we did and if we didn't so what. We knew roughly where to go for accomadation.

The third trip was our honey moon and we went a little further and a little longer. We got as far as Budapest and the trip was 3 weeks. We booked nothing and went to places we didn't know anything about. Sometimes finding somewhere to stay late in the day if tough. And if it's hot or raining it gets harder. Out of 21 days we struggled ( but found somewhere ) on 4 or 5 occasions.

On all the trips though we planned one day on the bike one day off. I travelled two up and it seemed to suit us. On the occasional instance we wanted to visit somewhere we had enough flex in the itinery to cut some corners and get there as in the 21 day trip we had 10 days of no riding. So if we wanted to get somewhere we simply used the odd rest day.

I would advice plenty of rest days or flex in your programme. That way you have time to change things without spending day in day out riding. Don't fixate on destinations, but have a rough plan. And find some hotels before you set off just incase. Also find out where the tourist informations are and there opening times, put them in your sat nav.

Kr
Craig

 

[Fanum]

Depends on the research I've done and what I want to see. I start with an outline plan in my mind but I'm happy to deviate or indeed abandon it depending on what new things emerge as I travel. With visas I make sure there is sufficient overlap to allow me flexibility. You never know what might happen - breakdown, a must see site etc.

I never book accommodation in advance. For me a schedule restricts me too much and I can't take advantage of the unexpected.

Even riding with others, for me flexibility is key and built in breaks from each other essential to my (and their) sanity.

Spot on

Sometimes, the best trips are the ones with no plans, just a general aim and maybe a theme or something in mind.


No Plan Survives The First Contact Intact.

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder.


Don't get stressed about plans

 

[robroy]

I agree with the "Don't book anything in advance" in general, but I think that's because I have a half-dozen successful trips under my belt. My first big trip I planned and booked a lot more than I do now, and I think that was a valuable part of building confidence.

It can be very daunting to be in a lot of new countries with no common language and not even know what a B&B is called in that country so not know what signs to look for. Having a hotel prebooked with the location dialed in to your GPS is one less thing to worry about.

For my first big trip I pre-booked the first 4 or 5 nights, then winged it from there. It helped me a lot to ease in to the fun of touring. Your milage may vary.

 

[Giles]

Yes, I do days, but they're very rough. I don't plan hotels or overnight towns, i just have a rough route that I segment into what I think I'll do in a day. If it all changes it's easy enough to tweak .....

 

[wessie]

Day routes. Usually routes between places where I settle for a couple of days or to deliberately avoid the most direct route through an urban area. However, I often ignore it and take a detour based on a sign or sight that piques my interest.

Once in a region that I plan to explore then I prefer to use a 1:200,000 map to select roads and then use the satnav to find landmarks, especially in towns or to give an idea of how far it is back to a base hotel or a mate's place.

 

[NLC]

Definitely break it up into small chunks especially if you are using a Zumo. I did one big route for a trip this year and there was a bug in it somewhere and the thing kept crashing. The bug turns out was in one of Garmin's maps and it was really annoying. If you break it into chunks the unit runs faster and you can find the error easier. Also make sure you back up the routes onto your SD card or laptop.

 

[STUBBS]

i start with a very ruff plan that has normaly gone out of the window by day 2 just set targets youd like get to

 

[Bumpkin]

I tend to plan in quite fine detail and use the likes of, where available, Google Streetview (checking what the roads are really like where there's any doubt), Michelin paper maps (that also go in the pannier) etc. in the process. Split this into days, or sometimes half days for loading onto the sat nav.

When on tour I carry a netbook for work purposes. This can also be used to re-plot routes if required. We've done this a couple of times when the opportunity has arisen for adding in an extension or we hear of something that we'd like too see off the planned route. On other occasions where we've stopped for the night earlier, or later, than planned we just ride to the end of the route for the previous day and then load the new route.

This works for me, happy to accept that others do it differently though, whatever works for you.

 

[mr_magicfingers]

Thanks for all the very helpful responses. I see that most people tend to plan the way I do, just doing days. My thoughts were how to handle planned days on gps, as I have a few individual day outs I plan to map ahead of time.

Interesting how many people don't plan accomodation ahead of time and just look for things on the day, I'd have thought in the height of summer there might be less availability. Nice to know it's not the case.

 

[Steptoe]

No Plan Survives The First Contact Intact.

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder.

Don't Make Plans And You Can't Go Wrong
Steptoe - old scrote.

If the weather is shite stop at a time rather than a destination and you'll be stress free. Or ride longer if it's nice, your choice.



Never made plans and never booked hotels ahead on any routes in 31 years of riding abroad, and never been caught out. Even during busy easter times. Especially in europe with a hotel on every corner. Go with the flow.

 

[spm0912]

Whilst I agree that having a rough plan and following your nose can turn up some blinding adventures, I do like the fact that with a decent Michelin map and basecamp you can plan relatively complicated routes which enable you to flow through a ride without having to stop for frequent map checks. I've often found that leaving the planning of routes to a day by day thing results in ending up on major (read busier) roads for ease of navigation.

On my last trip I compromised and planned a number of rides in areas I wanted to visit but linked them up by routes that took my fancy on the day.

So WHILST NO PLAN SURVIVES THE FIRST ROUND IN A CONTACT

TO FAIL TO PLAN, IS TO PLAN TO FAIL!!!!!!

 

[Bury_Dave]

If you're taking your laptop with you then you have the flexibility to re-write your routes as you go along I suppose. Although you can create new routes on the screen at any time if you feel the need.

I'm in the make-no-plans-and-let-it-all-happen camp myself.

What I do do though is have waypoints of places i might like to visit (which i have found through the winter dreaming phase) loaded into the map. That way, no matter where i find myself, I can see what might be nearby and get a decent route to it if i'm vaguely in the area. Also useful for accommodation but to be honest, you'll find hotels and campgrounds everywhere so only perhaps as a late in the evening last resort to save time.

I also didn't have routes planned on it in the Alps but used it to help me see how tight the next bend or three were going to be. Very useful for that.

It would be easy to let the GPS pace your trip and 'force' you along.

 

[Rasher]

I always have a plan to deviate from.

I do routes for each day, if going between locations I sometimes have a scenic route and a more direct route (in case of poor weather)

For days where I use same base I sometimes have a choice of routes ranging from a few hours, up to an entire day and then can choose the route based on weather / how I feel etc.

If need be I can do basic editing on the unit to "tweak" a route a little half way through the day, or just bash the Hotel in if I decide I just want to head back ASAP.

 

[chipsonfriday]

Not done this but reading through your responses it occurred to me that the following might be one way to use the satnav.

1. Plan your destination for the day - just the town or if you really want to, the hotel/B&B/camp site.

2. Ignore the satnav and just ride - in the general direction (clearly needs some small idea of which way you should be going).

3. When its getting late or you are getting desperate - that panicky moment we sometimes get - don't we? Turn on the satnav to get a bearing (and even use it to navigate the rest of the way).

Benefit of both worlds. Free riding and technology when needed.