ViaMichelin app - Free

The more I work with it, the better the ViaMichelin app becomes. Not only is it free but you get the added advantage of being able to zoom in and out of the excellent maps, for the whole of Europe and beyond.

Here as a sample is the suggested ‘motorcycle, discovery, avoiding motorways and toll roads’ route between Millau and Apt in Provence. The app throws up three choices, this is the second of the three, which takes you through the stunning scenery, gorges and cols of the somewhat wild Cevrnnes national park. I rode something pretty similar a week or so ago and can tell anyone who has not been to get down there. If you do go, fill your tank before you set off, would be my advice. There are petrol stations (people do live there and they do not all walk or ride a donkey) but filling stations - and indeed even houses - can be few and far between. Take a pack lunch and enjoy the world.



Being able to zoom in, shows what else is there, too:



These shots came of a large iPad Pro (great for the ‘big view’) but I know that it works well on any reasonably large screen smart phone. You just have to do a bit more dragging around and zooming in and out. On any decent small’ish laptop it would be good as well.

Want to alter the route? Easy. Either alter the algorithm settings or drop in an intermediate place or places. Play around, you can’t break it and it’s free. Use it alongside Kurviger, to see what that software throws up, too. Kurviger is good but, depending on the algorithm chosen, it can put in some silly detours, just to miss out a bit of straight road. Compare the two and see which you prefer.

Route suggestions with these apps are now really easy; you really do not need much else, beyond a bit of imagination..... but do take a map; it won’t fail you if the electricity goes out or your smart phone overheats in the sunshine.

ViaMichelin is my go to app for route planning even if it’s only to get a feel for how long it’ll take me to get somewhere when I’m dithering about whether I can make it in an afternoon when I’m having my lunchtime beer and croque

I’ve seen a friend using it on his phone this summer.

I installed it immediately. Michelin maps are still my favourites to use when planning road travel.

Take a bit of care if you set the default to exclude toll roads. It may well route you away and around any / all of the passes in say the Alps, where there is a toll to pay. This is not a fault with the app. It is simply doing what you told it to do.

Similarly, if (as is likely) you have set it to avoid motorways, this it will do dutifully. So take care. Why?

A. It’s easy to forget that is what you have set it to and you’ll get frustrated when you want to get to Calais in a hurry. See the frustrations in the GPS section, if you are in any doubt.

B. It is sometimes nice to take a bit of motorway at the start or end of a long day or just to ‘get somewhere’ or to miss going through some large town or city. I wanted to spend a full day around Verdun, leaving at 09:30 after a leisurely breakfast. 20 minutes A to B on a tolled motorway was much better value than an hour or more going cross country.

In short, it’s the old imagination thing again. Look at the map and work it out. Would you obstinately go through London or around it on the M25? Abroad is no different.

Thanks for the comments. Glad you like it.

Yup it’s very good . Planned my Vercors routes on it

Does it require any data? Or does it load the maps into the phone? I assume it works well on the bike?

I usually use Co pilot but always up for a change


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The maps cannot be downloaded for offline use. How much data does it use? I have no idea.

Depending on your data package and whether it is transferable abroad, maybe the app is best used for getting route suggestions and plotting routes, you then recreating them on a conventional map / route chart or creating them on a gps device, none of which is too difficult. That is how I use and, of course, just for its maps.

I don’t use my phone as a gps device on my motorcycle. Why? I like my Garmin devices, the way they ingrate well with the iWheel thing on my 1600 and their flexibility when it comes to creating bespoke routes. I have seen my phone overheat and shut down several times, when just in the top of my tank bag, rendering it useless until it cools down. If heaven forbid I suffer some calamity and my phone is broken, I have lost my navigational device AND my phone in one single event.

Doesn’t sound it is for me then, I’ve used my phone as my navigational device since I last junked Garmin back in 2008 and apart from occasional overheating, they have worked well.


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Im guessing they can be exported and imported into Basecamp relatively easily? I'd use it as a planning tool, but not navigation as I too like my Garmin. However if the routes can be saved ina profile of some sort, it would probably be easier to zoom in and out and cross reference short cuts etc than on a garmin when stopped for lunch. But if you plan well enough before hand it's all in hand , right...

I always buy the Michelin maps but didnt know about the app..... another top tip , thanks Richard

Thanks for the reminder, Wapping.

I have been using the app for some years, and in July used it when riding from the Dordogne up to Limoges. (iPhone on Quadlock, with the Nav V on the RT as backup).

The Discovery route was marvellous, and lead me down some exciting back roads...which became even more exciting on a newly gravelled small and windy road when I met an oncoming combine harvester on a blind bend

At a certain point I realised I needed to get a move on, so switched to the Garmin. But great also for planning the road less travelled.

As with Kurviger and most (if not all) app’s of this type, the prediction for time taken to ride a route that includes, say, very small cols, can be optimistic.

As far as I can make out, the app’s know that roads X, Y and Z are subject to the national limit. The app then assumes that the rider will ride at say 80% of the speed limit, making its total estimated journey time prediction based on that assumption. Of course the real speeds may well be half or less, which doubles the actual time taken.

Wapping said:

........................The app then assumes that the rider will ride at say 80% of the speed limit, making its total estimated journey time prediction based on that assumption. Of course the real speeds may well be half or less, which doubles the actual time taken.

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That's certainly my understanding of how they work which is why I'm always amazed at something like Waze which seems capable of predicting arrival time with unnerving accuracy.

Anyway, back to the OP, as somebody that has grown up with Michelin maps I can only concur re the app, I've been using it in conjunction with their maps for a while now for route planning (rather than as a GPS) and just find it does what it says on the tin and most importantly simply & intuitively (which is important for me.......).

Andres

Outtomunch said:

That's certainly my understanding of how they work which is why I'm always amazed at something like Waze which seems capable of predicting arrival time with unnerving accuracy.

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I think Waze drags in additional data from other users on the same road(s). If they are moving at say, 30 mph on a 60 mph road, it adjusts on the basis that you too will travel at 30 mph, not 60.

Have used Via Michelin since before Satnav was in common use. On the website you'd just put in a destination and it would throw up accommodation options from B&B to Campsite or Budget hotel to Five star and then print your routes. Still using it on phone and tablet with the app.
But much prefer Phone as Satnav along with Waze and Here.

Wapping must have been listening to his big extended family and mates about Waze

Waze is owned by Google and uses Google mapping that utilises phone network data from phones on the move so it picks up slow moving or stopped traffic. Waze community users also feed info such as potholes or stopped vehicles to Waze. Your ETA is basically based on the speed you travel at and what the apps algorithm calculates from that and along with traffic flow data ahead from the Google mapping system. Waze uses very little data, if you set your route before you set off whilst connected to wifi it's even less!

I've never had a phone overheat either. HERE app for off line navigation is my other choice.
Phone and Waze also work far better with Android Auto rather than cars satnav.

I think you accidentally or deliberately misunderstand the inventive / imaginative use of ViaMichelin over the instant ‘Take me from A to B efficiently’ route creation tools, such as Waze. Waze, if you are a taxi driver or Vauxhall driving rep, ViaMichelin (perhaps) if you are not.

As to whether anyone uses their phone instead of a bespoke gps device is up to them. Certainly, if I was using Waze or similar just to take me from A to B, with no - or little - more input than that, I’d use my phone. But, I prefer my Garmins (and bespoke route creation) right back to the early Quests and before them the Palm Pilot, or whatever it was, all of which comfortably pre-date ViaMichelin, which is not itself something new in my life.

adventuredon said:

Im guessing they can be exported and imported into Basecamp relatively easily? I'd use it as a planning tool, but not navigation as I too like my Garmin. However if the routes can be saved ina profile of some sort, it would probably be easier to zoom in and out and cross reference short cuts etc than on a garmin when stopped for lunch. But if you plan well enough before hand it's all in hand , right...

Click to expand...

A long time ago, ViaMichelin had an option to export routes in a gpx format, I did a thread on it years ago. The problem was that, at least into MapSource at the time, it only exported the start and finish points, nothing else. This option was then quietly dropped. I have never seen a work around that allows the successful exporting and subsequent input of ViaMichelin routes into a gps device or into another medium. No, you are stuck with using your phone, or creating the suggested routes into your Garmin device manually. That is not so very hard to do, I guess. My method would vary between whether I had ViaMichelin and BaseCamp running on a PC or whether I wanted to create the route directly onto my Garmin device.

1. If I had both ViaMichelin and BaseCamp running, I would open each in a separate window (or have ViaMichein running on say my iPad) and create the route in BaseCamp, copying it by eye.

2. If I wanted to create it on just, say my Nav VI, I would fire up ViaMichelin on my iPad or iPhone and zoom in, so I could identify individual towns and villages. I would then create the route by finding each town on my gps device in sequence, in the usual way. The roads taken between A to B to C to D would be chosen by the device in accordance with the personal preference settings on my Garmin device. This would not be a problem as often there is only one road from A to B or E to F. Then would come the key bit. By default, the device will pinpoint the centre of the village or town, which might not suit you. Create the points as skippable viapoints, so if you fancy not detouring into the centre of the town, you can skip it easily. However, as to when you make the skip is sometimes important, too. By and large it will work well. Being able to zoom in and out on the move easily is useful, too.

I experimented using method two on a two hundred plus mile journey along very small French D roads. Creating the route in my hotel room was relatively easy, as was its subsequent successful use, too.

PS You can also display routes in MyMap against the background of a Michelin map. Some bods - I am not one of them - like MyMap for their route creation. This might work for you, perhaps? Routes are exportable from MyMap, though it is not always a straightforward process without a PC to hand. There is a thread in the gps section on how to tranfer MyRoute routes into the latest XT device via Bluetooth. There are other more convoluted methods, for use with older devices, too.

All sounds a bit complicated to me......so I’m going from Colombres to Cangas del Narcea, I take a look at a Michelin map to find a likely interesting route, open up Copilot and put in the start and finish points, then drop a couple of waypoints so the route goes to the south of the mountains rather than the north and away we go.....

I used to use Garmins back in the days of Streetpilot 111, but the idea of spending hours relearning how to use the clunky software and planning trips in advance doesn’t work for me.

Maps ME is pretty good, picked up various Pistes in Morocco, which were difficult to see on the ground, but for me copilot works well on tarmac.


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