Via Michelin Journey Planner

At the outset we were disappointed with the level of flexibility with the Via Michelin Route Planner. However, tucked at the bottom of the form is a link that allows you to customise your route.

You can set the calibration into miles or kilometers. As well as assign a currency, your type of car, if you've got a caravan, how much your petrol costs, if you want to cross international borders, if you want to favour motorways, avoid tolls and taxes and avoid ferries and trains.

The journey it finds for you is excellent - clear and concise. They try and recreate the motorway signs to help you head in the right direction.

There's an interesting difference between the route that they specify as the quickest (2h 45m) and their "Recommended by Michelin" route which is four minutes slower. Just from my local knowledge and my own driving style, the "quickest" route is the best. But its great having an alternative and the ability to compare.

Furthermore, you can add individual junction maps within your itinerary. This is a useful bonus that most other route planners don't offer you.

Another feature we like is the ability to show Ibis hotels, car parks, and tourist attractions on the route.

There is one element that we don't like - the pop-ups. These are annoying, just make sure you've got a pop-up blocker set up.

Route planners Rating: 9.0 - We would like to give it 9.5 but the pop-up are annoying. And despite ViaMichelin offering in-line maps and the RAC not, there is just too much advertising on the ViaMichelin route planner.

Mapquest Route Planner

Mapquest is one of the simplest route planners on the internet. But it's good that way. If you don't want to mess around with "via's" finding hotels on the way, etc etc, then it's useful enough.

The itinerary is simple too. But if you think about it, when you're driving, you need something that has the most pertinent information stand out. Mapquest doesn't do this. It would be almost fine if you've got someone else in the car that could help.

But there are some simple problems. At one stage it says "Enter next roundabout and take second exit ... [then] stay STRAIGHT to go onto M6." This could be more clear as it doesn't say "towards Birmingham" or "head South".

Then later on it says "M6 becomes M1". This is too simplistic, only if you've got the maps open and printed will you know that it bends round to the right and have to continue. Some may feel that you've got a junction, as is the case joining the M6 there.

These points may be picky, but the directions need to be clear and unambiguous.

Route Planners Rating: 6/10.

Mappy European Route Planner

We've been playing with Mappy Route Planner for a while now and we just love it.

One of the main criterias we set for a good route planner is the ability to set "Vias", Mappy lets you set more than one. Also the interface is simple to use and looks great.

The bit that we like is the ability to set a fuel reimbursement allowance rate and a cost per mile. This is perfect for company car users. You can see how much the journey will cost you and how much you'll get back.

Also you can set what size car you have to help it determine fuel efficiency. You can select: Compact Car, Mid-size car, Sedan Car, Luxury Car; as well as various types of minibus or lorries. You can even specify if you're towing a caravan or not.

Furthermore you can also set if what currency you want the information to be in.

There are also options to avoid tolls and mountain passes.

We also like the intinery display as it's not over-complicated. The directions themselves are very clear and have the added benefit of showing you the motorway signs so you don't end up going in the wrong direction.



There is just one element we don't like - they haven't fully converted the translation into English. We can only see this on the "send by e-mail" page. But this doesn't distract from the first useful "send to a friend" we've seen on a route planner. Most simply allow you to send a link to the homepage. Mappy allows you to send the complete route with options.

We would also like them to include features such as hotels, petrol stations etc, just as they have with the service stations.

Route Planners Rating: 8.5

Public Transport Journey Planners

We've found a pretty decent public transport journey planner. Planajourney allws you to schedule journeys on trains, planes, coaches, buses, the underground and ferries. Now that we like! Hopefully you will too.

London Journey Planners
There's simply no better public transport planner for London that the Transport for London site.

Bus Journey Planners
Stoke on Trent
Derbyshire
Lincolnshire
Nottinghamshire
Travel West Midlands

Train Journey Planners
Traveline

Local Journey Guides
Get There on the Web - Helping you get to Colchester General Hospital.

Multimap Route Planner

The Multimap Route Planner is perhaps the least inspiring of them all. At the outset the only good point is that you can choose a number of countries to build a route for - Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Another nice feature is the ability to set the "Start Time". But anyone that travels as a family knows that you never actually leave at the "we'll be out the door time".

One major downside is the inability to set a "via". In our comparison route we are using in our reviews is Warrington to Milton Keynes via Daventry. This can't be done with Multimap.

The actual map and route looks very complicated for this journey unless you click on the "print" button at the top, then you get I usefully simple version.

The only thing is that you'll probably have to go over the print out with a pen so you can eaily see where you're going.

Another minor thing that's quite good is the reminder to take a break every two hours or so. I'm one of the worst for not taking breaks.

On the non print-out version we like the ability to click on a junction number and get a close up look. This is pretty useful when working out which lane to be in at a busy intersection.

Another down-side is the amount of advertising present. Its like staning in Piccadilly Circus.

Overall, it looks to simple and useless to start. But if you're doing simple routes then its fairly good.

Route Planner Rating: 6/10