How reliable are online route planners

Do you want to travel by car and need a suitable route? Read this article to find out if it makes sense to use online route planners and what you should consider when calculating your route.

A trip needs to be well planned.

A trip by car does not only require good logistics planning. You should also inform yourself in advance about the route to the hotel, camping site or the route by motorhome. There are many different tour planners on the Internet, some of which are free of charge and some of which are liable to pay a fee. Since there are sometimes hidden cost traps, one should limit oneself to the most common planners or read very carefully, especially the small print. Here, route subscriptions are often hidden, which can quickly lead to high costs. The most frequently used planners include www.google.de/maps and www.falk.de. A route planner can also be found on the Yellow Pages websites. For your trip you can enter stopovers (e. g. for breaks or visits with relatives), avoid toll roads, motorways or country roads or choose the shortest, fastest or most economical route. Depending on whether you want to reach your destination quickly or save fuel costs. To print the route, you need a printer. If possible, your passenger should give instructions so that you can concentrate on the road.

Curiosities in route planning

Route planners are sometimes a little overwhelmed. For example, if you entered a route from Erlangen to New York in the Google Maps route planner, point 32 read:"Swim through the Atlantic". At a distance of 5,572 kilometres this instruction could be a bit difficult (Google has deleted the route in the meantime). The route from China to Japan allows at least 780 kilometres by jet ski. There are no swimming connections from Sydney to Tokyo, probably there are no swimming-improper currents. Conclusion: Before starting a journey by car, read the suggested route carefully and check illogical points with a map (car map, atlas). This way you arrive safely at your destination. If you frequently drive longer distances by car, you should consider purchasing a navigation device. Solid devices are available from around 60 euros. Certainly some of the routes could already be overhauled by alterations etc. and roads could still be closed by building sites, but the navigation system can calculate a detour and guide you directly.