GPX Generator

The GPX Generator with a route planned over the Black Mountain in the Brecon Beacons

Try it out at gpx.cgtk.co.uk

What it's for

Most route planners, and almost every sat nav, are built to answer one question: what's the quickest (or shortest) way to get from here to there? That's exactly what you want when you're late for a meeting, and exactly what you don't want when you're out for the ride.

The GPX Generator is for planning routes where the journey matters more than the destination. You pick a start and an end, it finds a sensible route between them, and then you drag that route around the map, onto the mountain passes, the twisty B-roads and the lanes along the valley floor, until it goes exactly the way you want to go. When you're happy, you download it as a GPX file and load it onto your sat nav or phone, which then follows your route rather than its own idea of a good one.

I'm a keen motorcyclist, and I made it so that I could plan rides on interesting roads. I love poring over maps to find the best roads, but the tools that come with sat navs (my Garmin Zumos included) make planning your own route slow and fiddly, and most phone apps aren't much better. Online maps, on the other hand, have always been good at letting you grab a route and drag it where you want it. This site joins the two together: plan with a map in your web browser, then take the route with you.

It works just as well for cars, cycling and walking (see the travel mode in your preferences), but it was made with motorbikes in mind.

The site is free (and always will be). It costs me money to run, so if you find it useful, please consider supporting it (Help > Support this site) or sending me a message to let me know what you liked.

What it isn't for

This site just helps you plan your route. It isn't something you'll use live while you're riding/driving. Use the site to create a GPX file and then load it onto your sat nav (I use a Garmin Zumo) and set it up to follow the ride you've planned.

The guide

  1. Getting started: signing in, and finding your way around the screen (on a computer and on a phone).
  2. Making a route: choosing where you start and finish, by searching for a place or by right-clicking (or long-pressing) on the map.
  3. Tweaking the route: dragging the route onto the roads you want, control points and stops, off-road legs, and undoing mistakes.
  4. Saving, sharing and downloading: saving routes, Route Info, the download formats and which to choose for your sat nav, and opening GPX files.
  5. Maps and settings: map styles, offline map files and your preferences.
  6. The Mapbox router: the alternative to Google Maps.
  7. Questions and answers: sat navs, recalculation, phones and other questions.

What's new

Recent changes to the site:

  • Now works on phones. Long-pressing on the map, the route, a marker or a control point opens its menu (on the Google map too), menus fit on small screens, tapping the map closes them, and there's a full-screen button.
  • Undo. Dragged the route by accident while moving the map? The Undo Undo button that appears above the zoom buttons puts it back, as does Edit Route > Undo (or Ctrl+Z). See Undoing mistakes.
  • Route Info window. Route Info Route Info now opens a window with the distance and time of each leg, where you can also rename the points, and download it all as a spreadsheet. See Route Info.
  • 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse support. Pan and zoom the map with a SpaceMouse. See User Preferences.
  • More route editing from the menus. Right-click (or long-press) on the route to add a stop or a control point exactly there, and turn a stop into a control point (or the other way round) from its menu. See Tweaking the route.
  • Off-road legs, for the parts of a ride that no router knows about. See Off-road legs.
  • More download formats: Locus Track and Pitstopper Track (tracks with turn-by-turn instructions), "One Route Per Leg" versions, and the turn-by-turn directions as a spreadsheet. See Which format should I choose?
  • Open GPX files from your computer or phone: routes to edit, and tracks to show on the map. See Opening a GPX file.
  • Offline map files (GEMF) can be opened on a computer. See GEMF map files.

This website is free and ad-free, but costs me money to run. If you'd like to support this site, please consider making a small donation or sending me a message to let me know what you liked or found useful.