Digital tour planning works - with a little practice - very quickly and immediately reveals the expected kilometres and metres in altitude. Portals, blogs and apps already provide ready-made routes, but you should always check these again before starting your tour. Private sources in particular can hide unpleasant surprises. Digital maps are no more accurate than topographic paper mapsbut cheaper, because you often get much greater coverage. The advantage of digital planning for an MTB tour or Transalp: you have created a reliable GPS track. Another plus: to save weight, you only print out the map sheets along the route.
GARMIN
Although the market leader in outdoor GPS devices charges a relatively high price for its vector maps, tour planning with the free Basecamp software now works very well. The Transalp maps also contain ready-made routes that can be modified. Open Maps can also be installed in Basecamp, which is available free of charge or at a favourable shareware cost. This enables worldwide tour planning. www.garmin.com
PLUS Software Basecamp for free. Worldwide planning possible at low cost / free of charge with Open Maps
MINUS Original vector maps are relatively expensive; route characteristics not recognisable in the original map
COMPASS
The raster maps look like the paper maps you are used to, and they often have hiking trail markings. The printouts of the maps are therefore helpful on site. The 3D visualisation is visually helpful. New: Map sections can be transferred to Garmin devices. Bad: Routes are tedious to "paint" click by click. Unfortunately, the "Across the Alps" map has been discontinued; currently there are Germany, Austria and Switzerland, which can also be used in the mobile phone app. www.kompass-software.at
PLUS Software is free of charge. Display on screen as on paper, high zoom factor
MINUS No fast routing, as raster map; no more cross-border maps
MAGIC MAPS
The German maps are based on those of the state surveying offices - so the data is very accurate. Cycle paths and cycle tours are already included. The software is relatively quick to use and allows route planning. However, you are dependent on the (pre-programmed) tours for routing, otherwise it's back to drawing with the mouse. The compass-based map of the Eastern Alps is a real bargain at 20 euros. Prices vary from region to region, www.magicmaps.de
PLUS Accurate, reliable map data for Germany; individual federal states available for purchase
MINUS Routing limited to pre-programmed tours; few non-German maps
BIKE GPS
The extensive tour portal with 27,268 kilometres of tours (!) recorded by Transalp pope Uli Stanciu shows its full potential online. In addition to the aerial photos, maps from Kompass and 4Land (Lake Garda) can now be stored. Once you have familiarised yourself with the online system, you can click together top tours for little money, just like Lego. The offline software is free in the simple version, the Pro version for ambitious MTB planners costs.
40 euros, www.bike-gps.com
PLUS Huge range of tours, especially in the Alps; absolutely reliable routes
MINUS Routing only on the specified routes, mainly southern Germany and the Alpine region
You can read this article or the entire issue of BIKE 6/2018 in the BIKE app (iTunes and Google Play) or the issue in the DK shop reorder:
