How to find the best route for a road trip

The fastest route is the one a maps app shows first. The best route is the one you are happiest to drive once you know what the weather is doing along it. They are often the same road, and sometimes they are not.

Compare the options side by side

For a given trip there are usually a few main alternative routes, each a different path between the same two points. Each has its own travel time, its own distance and its own forecast. Put them next to each other and look at the weather at every forecast point, not just at the total time.

Look at what your vehicle cares about

The right comparison depends on what you drive. On two otherwise equal routes:

• A tall vehicle should look at the wind and gusts, and at how exposed each road is. See why a tall vehicle feels more.
• A motorcycle or a bike should look at rain, wind direction and temperature.
• Anyone starting at dawn should look at visibility.

Setting your transport type lets the route adapt to the way that mode should be driven.

Do not only look at the shorter one

For weather, the useful comparison is not always the shorter route. The sheltered road is often also the scenic one, and sometimes it is the faster one too. A longer route that stays out of the storm can beat a shorter one that drives through it, and you only find that out by reading the forecast on both.

Pair the route with the departure time

Route and timing are two ways of avoiding the same weather. If an alternative road does not help, move the departure and recheck. If moving the departure does not help, switch road. Planning a road trip around the weather uses both, in that order.

Check the night before

A route that looks clean five days out can change. Look again the evening before you leave, because the closer you get, the more the forecast is a precise hour rather than a general expectation.

What route comparison does not do

It compares forecasts; it does not give turn-by-turn directions or road closures. Keep your maps app for navigation, and follow official weather warnings and road closures.