Routing/maping software

I now really like RVTripWizard.com. It is subscription based around $30. For planning a trip with multiple stops it is especially amazing in that it brings up CG's, fuel, driving time etc. You can put in how long you want to drive (eg 4 hours) and you get a ring and CG's within that limit. You can download to a GPS,

I tried it in Jan and hated it. Tried again in May and they must have done something because it is very user friendly now.

There's another way to approach this if you have an idea of what kinds of attractions you'd like to find. Delorme maps all work well with POI (point of interest) files from POIfactory.com. There are POI files for museums, amusments parks, etc, which you can load in an get an idea of what's available in your general area, and thereby fine-tune your routing.

So for me, I load in a POI layer for ski areas, along with another layer for micro breweries, followed by nearby pizza joints and of course nearby bank ATMs. And while attending the brewery I can load in a POI layer for state parks and hopefully find one within walking distance.

Gene&Ginny wrote:

jcpainter wrote:
Anyone know of a program that you enter your starting point and ending point of a trip and it identifies things to do and/or see along or near the route?

Street Atlas has that feature.

Correction: Street Atlas sort of does. If you ask it for "Museums" it will tell you about every art gallery and hobby collection that is close (within a few miles) of your planed route.

I am looking for something that, for an example, if you are crossing Michigan from Detroit to Chicago tells you about the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village (5 miles off track) and a little later on might mention the Yankee Air Museum (3 miles) and the Gilmore (16 miles and should not be missed). It only works underway with the GPS going and even then it is problematic at best.

What I do is load the route as planned into the AAA trip planner that now uses Google and then step along the route at the lowest magnification and look for what it flags. This still misses a lot because there are many things in this country at that are easily worth a 100 mile detour.

Matt

jcpainter wrote:
Anyone know of a program that you enter your starting point and ending point of a trip and it identifies things to do and/or see along or near the route?

Street Atlas has that feature.

fj12ryder wrote:
I use Delorme Street Atlas, and have for over a decade. ...

Same here. For a few dollars more Street Atlas has the GPS receiver you plug into the USB port on the laptop to track your position.

Anyone know of a program that you enter your starting point and ending point of a trip and it identifies things to do and/or see along or near the route?

Delorme Topo and Delorme Xmap here. Both contain everything from street atlas. Topo adds in very useful elevation info (not just for hiking, but for pulling a heavy rig up steep hills), while Xmap has Topo info and also adds in the ability to add your own layers and edit the maps.

Any Delorme product is going to have a mangled UI, there's just no getting around that. 12 clicks to do a simple thing and hot keys for things you'll never use.

I use Delorme Topo North America, very similar to Street Atlas USA but with relief maps.

I use Delorme Street Atlas, and have for over a decade. It works for me. But I also use Garmin BaseCamp to transfer routes to my Garmin GPS's. I don't use BaseCamp to plan a trip, just to user unfriendly.