We downloaded the ViaMichelin route planning app to our iPad this trip and it is one of the best and most useful apps we have downloaded in a very long time. These are the reasons why:-
- It’s free
- The driving directions are clear and really easy to follow.
- Good for finding distances between places
- Very detailed
- Route calculation for car, motorcycle, bicycle or pedestrian
- Displays your route in map or roadmap mode.
- You can plan your route to favour motorways, to avoid tolls or vignettes.
- You can input your car type, fuel type and cost per litre and the app works the cost out for the journey.
- Works out your distance and travel time.
- You can find petrol stations, hotels, tourist attractions, roadworks, car parks and traffic along your route.
- You get multiple route options
- The detailed maps are more like looking at a road atlas.
We used it to plan our journey home from Spain and to work out how much more it would cost us if we caught the ferry from Santander or from Calais) obviously we also had to google the ferry costs but we could work out how much petrol, tolls, mileage and travel time it would take.
We would willingly pay a lot for this app. You can also sign up to Michelin to be able to retain your planned routes in memory which is great if like us you travel a lot.
The only downside is that it will only work when you are connected to the internet but as long as you plan the trip while you are on the internet you can cut and paste the details onto a word document which is what we did so that we could compare our journey with and without tolls.
You can download the iPad app here ViaMichelin – Route planner and maps – ViaMichelin
or the iPhone app here ViaMichelin – Route planner and maps – ViaMichelin