Hey everybody, i've been looking for an app that I can use to plot my route beforehand, and then have it give me navigation while driving said route.
I'm looking to create and save somewhat complex custom routes that are on the roads most fun to drive. usually ends up being pretty roundabout and definitely not point a to point b.
I've found a few different apps that i can use to plot my route, www.plotaroute.com has a pretty nice interface and the ability to save and share routes, but it doesn't have a live navigation option. you can watch your progress with a gps dot on the map, but when you're driving unfamiliar roads it's nice to just drive and hear directions.

Google maps doesn't really let you export a custom plotted route from the desktop app to a device, it just changes it to a more basic and direct route once it transfers to the phone.
Inroute app seems really clunky and doesn't have the option of building the route from a desktop.

idk, maybe i'm asking too much, but it seems like this would be a pretty standard feature, am i just totally missing a feature somewhere?

 

Scenic for iPhone is a great turn by turn navigation app. Originally for motorcycle. We use it for our drives in the Oregon Region PCA.

 

Check out Map My Ride a bike route site.

 

Google's "My Maps", which is different from "Maps", allows complex route planning. You can then export the route for use with your regular Google Maps app. Took me a while to figure it out by my last route had almost 30 waypoints.

 

I used Google's "My Maps" recently to plan a big drive but did not like it. The problem is it takes you exactly to the waypoint you have selected and then you have to manually select the next waypoint you want to go to on your route. This is fine when you are actually stopping at the waypoints and have time to select the next one but it is a pain in the butt when you are driving and the waypoints are just random spots on a road you want to pass thru. "My Maps" would be much more useful if once it detected that you were within a certain closeness to your selected waypoint (maybe 100 feet) the app automatically selected and started routing you to the next waypoint without you manually having to do it. Just my opinion.

 

interesting, thanks for the replies everybody. I too just found "google my Maps" over the weekend, and started to play around with it but haven't used it or any of the other suggestions on a trip yet.

I find it so strange that plotting a custom route isn't a more straightforward and common feature on the majority of these map apps.

Scenic looks like a good option, I'll try it out soon and report back.

 

I plotted a 12 day 12,000 km drive across the country and back, all on back roads using google maps. The easiest way (for me) was to create the map on your laptop (or wherever) by picking the beginning and end destination and then you pick your individual destinations between this point. I think the max is 15 or something better I never maxed out

Then send the map to your phone, open it on your phone then save the map as an icon on one of your homepages (ie day 1, day 2 etc). Therefore i just got up each day and hit the Day 5 icon (or whatever day i was on) and it pulls up the map for the day with all your pre-plotted destinations. As long as you pull it up somewhere that has wifi then you can use it all day, just dont shut it down (if you do you just have to reload with wifi or data.)

And mine did not ask you to select the next destination after you reached the 1st. It would just beep and say you have reached a destination and it would ask if you wanted to continue. Just hit the continue prompt and the continued route guidance was still there. Its all voice commands as well. Very easy

Anyways worked pretty flawless for me and I had looked at a few options