Trip planning software

Hi WvdM.

There is a lot to choose from ranging from useless to exceptional. Having been involved in the geospatial industry for many years I seen and evaluated a lot of software. However your final choice will come down to what you want to achieve, simplicity of use, and the investment (cash and your time) that you wish to make.

Hopefully you will get quite a few responses to your query. For what it's worth, we use

Memory Map
ExploreOz 200k digital maps
Wikicamps
MS Excel
Google Earth
Apple and Google Maps

All running on an ipad.

In addition this is supplemented by a large collection of hard copy map sheets, map books and travel books.

For me the best route planning tools are road atlas's and map sheets. Can usually see the big picture a little better. Plus being old school I like to lay out a map on the car bonnet, have a beer, and contemplate the detail of the landscape for the next day's adventures.

Good luck with you planning. It's a lot of fun and gets the imagination going on what you will see. Really motivating looking forward to the next trip.

John

This will be interesting, as Im unaware of any.

Hi WvdM
I just use Oziexplorer; plot waypoints at home using multiple maps etc - You can put your dates in the description.
Out on the road you can navigate to your waypoint.
Works for me!

Cheers
Alan

Dont know about Aus but for overseas we use Tripit

An HB pencil, a sheet of foolscap paper and optic nerve hard wired to Hema maps on the iPad.

Bob

A good topic and of great interest as I think every trip especially a few months long needs some planning and schedule to go by.
I use a bit of combo as things to change and as mentioned you do need to look out ahead as the best plans often go to poo quickly given a weather, accidents and changes.
My combo is:
GPS OZTopo & Base Camp for waypoints to the Garmin GPS;
Big maps of states & Australia for planning and writing over;
Hema Atlas Easy read;
Camps 8 & boiling billy camps;
Wiki Camps on Samsung android -dump points, camps and info.
Flexiblity!!
Good luck.

I just have a large map book. We put pencil circles around places we really want to see, then head in the general direction to join as many of the dots as time allows. There are also smaller circles "we'd like to see if we are in the area" places to include if near. I research the area we are travelling through and near to as we go, using finer detailed maps, internet research and tourist brochures. We don't have any stresses of deadlines, except the date to get back home.

I use Oziexplorer too.

I always start with Google Maps to get the big picture, This gives me both distance and driving times between locations.

For example if I am heading to Cape York from Canberra, I will try different locations for both overnight stops and sightseeing.

When it gets down to the detail, on the Old Telegraph Track I will use OziExplorer with the detailed HEMA maps.

I've got a big map of australia on the wall .
look at the blanks and decide on where to go
. then i look at the roads that havent been highlighted and find a way to and from destination using as many new roads as possible with least amount of backtracking
normally have 2 dates in mind
planned departure nearly always adhered too
planned return almost always changes.
works for me
cheers
howard

I've been watching this thread as the topic interests me.

My conceptual planning takes place in my head, where I store a fairly comprehensive map of Australia.

To put it on paper I keep what I call a perpetual planner, which is an Excel spreadsheet with dates in column A that start at January 2009 and go into the future as far as needed. Information for planning and information about what actually happens is entered in columns that give me a budget, allow me to manage costs to the budget and it acts as a record of past travels.

Input comes from Google Maps, the Internet, ExplorOz Places, Hema Desert Tracks which I have on my computer, Hema Explorer on my Nexus pad, Wikicamps from the same source and any other relevant source of travel information. We use brochures from information centres to fine tune as we go.

We almost always deviate from the initial plan, but the spreadsheet system allows us to measure the deviation in route and cost so that the situation is always managed.

Hope that helps,

Kevin

I have just installed an android app called "your travel diary" had a bit of a play, seems you have to get the pay version to get all the features.