Was going to write a post about furkot, but seeing there is already a thread started, I'll write it here.
This site is amazingly helpful and comprehensive.
I've been planning a trip around Italy (19 days, mostly on black top but 500km of offroad tracks here and there are planned) and without this tool it would have taken me weeks instead of a couple of evenings.
I've tried Google Maps, Google Earth, Via Michelin, and other less known , but I still had to then split the maps manually for different days, keep track on a spreedsheet of stuff, and when I made a change on the second day... change all the following days.
This software (because the WEB UI can be "installed" on mobile devices like a normal app and works offline for free for the most parts), does that for us and have a ton of options, here are a few I think are really suited for overlanding (DISCLAMER: I'm NOT associated with the site, just really excited to have finally found one that does 95% of what I need for Trip planning):
- No limit on the number of stops, each stop can be set to a different length (ex. a panoramic place, set to 15 mins, an archeologica site to 2hrs) with the ability to set a "base" time so that you don't have to manually add the time each time a new stop is added, and you can do a second pass to change them individually
- Calculated Night Stops, you can specify the daily start time and end time, or the maximum number of hours driving for day and the software will let you know where you should stop; you can then adjust the night camp on the map with a wiggle room of 1hr (ex. I set the end time to 18 but some campgrounds where 47 mins away and I move the stop there; in one case it was 1 and a half hour away and It let me, but than calculated another stop... playing a bit with it I've found out the limit of 1 hr)
- Calculated refuels stops, got a 800km range max? just set the value and a refuel stop will be added to the track
- You can set the max speed, I personally prefer to go 90km/h when loaded while the speed limit might be 130, so I set it as the maximum speed and on the roads where the limit is above 90, the time spent on that bit of the trip is adjusted for my speed
- you can change the speed for each segment, if you it a gravel road or a track, the app might say that the speed is 3km/h ... because in a car or by foot that is the speed you can keep on that road, but our rigs can do at least 15km/h and here we can change it to reflect more closely the time we'll spend driving
- A lot of POIs from different sites, including campsites, apartments, hotels, archeological sites, lookouts, panoramas, etc...
- Have a GPX or KML track? You can import it and it will be integrated in the trip, if it's a recorded track, the time in your plan will be exactly as recorded.
My2Cents
