Before every Off-Road Adventure, the same big challenge awaits: Planning and Navigation! The perfect app for planning and navigating off-road adventures just doesn’t exist! Although there are plenty of usable apps, the learning curve is often only worth it for commercial tour operators.
As a traveler and overlanding enthusiast, I’d rather spend my rare free time (especially as a new dad!) outdoors or behind the wheel instead of spending late nights diving into route planning or learning complex navigation apps.
Of course, we could just opt for pre-made roadbooks from MDMOT, 4x4Roadbooks, or Pistenkuh, or book a guided off-road tour, such as one of the sociable events offered by Five-Mountains.
Since we prefer solitude and remote nature, though, pre-planned tours or group trips aren’t ideal for us. They tend to lack that touch of adventure—like the uncertainty of whether our vehicle can handle the route—and shared spots can sometimes mean crowds, noise, or litter.
So, if you’re like us—limited on time but looking for an off-road adventure and scenic trails without too much planning—here’s how we organized our 16-day Trans-Pyrenees Tour in 2024. I’ll cover the apps we used for navigation, how we gathered and reviewed tracks, and how we planned our off-road experience.
After about four hours of gathering, reviewing, and preparing the tracks, here’s the step-by-step process I used to get ready:
1) Collecting GPX Tracks:
On Wikiloc, I downloaded all available off-road routes in the region we wanted to explore. I paid attention to select routes from users with similar vehicles and travel styles (based on their photos, descriptions, and comments). I also asked friends, searched forums, and checked social media for relevant tracks whenever I came across a great travel report. This led to a solid collection of GPX files.
2) Selecting GPX Tracks:
Next, I deleted all tracks older than three years to avoid constantly running into new barriers, road closures, or impassable sections. Pre-made roadbooks often face this same issue of outdated information, so selective curation is essential.
3) Reviewing and Cleaning GPX Routes:
For this, I used Google My Maps to review each track in detail at maximum zoom level. My goal was to avoid paved sections and remove poorly recorded tracks. I started with the most recent tracks from like-minded users and marked them in distinct colors. Other tracks were kept in the default blue color, so I could see all the commonly used routes from recent years, with routes driven by similar vehicles standing out in color.
4) Importing Tracks into Navigation Apps:
The exported KML or KMZ files can be imported into the preferred off-road navigation app, and the color-coded highlights make it easy to select the preferred route during the trip.
5) Offline Navigation with Satellite and Terrain Maps:
Downloading roughly 8 GB of maps (satellite and terrain) took a few nights (screen lock off!). In the screenshot, you can see the detail level and the region coverage I chose.
Note: Once the maps are downloaded, don’t update the navigation app on your tablet or smartphone! Otherwise, you’ll need to restart the entire download process.
6) Off-Road Navigation or Just Orientation?
This is where we reach pro tour operator territory. If we were just following a single track, Wikiloc’s app could lead us. GaiaGPS also offers navigation with route guidance, but again, you’d need to follow one specific track.
We had multiple tracks and were visiting the area for the first time, wanting to follow the most scenic or challenging path. We used the tracks as a reference and navigated freely. Sometimes we were on a highlighted track, other times on a blue one—and often we’d explore segments without any track at all.
It’s exactly these in-between sections between known tracks that bring some of the most thrilling, heart-pounding moments—whether for finding a wild camping spot or just exploring a day’s passage.
You’re welcome to call out my reluctance for deeper planning, but this was our approach this year. Comments with suggestions for a better approach, optimizations, or anything that might make travel and navigation easier would be greatly appreciated—not just by me but by other readers, too. And I’d love to hear about your experiences with purchased roadbooks!
Our full travel report on the Pyrenees trip isn’t finished yet, but you can read some of our early experiences and see photos in the article Off-Road Travel with Baby.
This article is too available in german language
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