GPX Route Planner with Topographic Maps

Plan hiking, cycling, and outdoor routes on detailed topographic maps and export them as GPX files

GPX Route Planner with Topographic Maps lets you create your own GPX routes directly on an interactive map. Simply click on the map to add waypoints, let the route follow available paths and roads, and see distance and elevation statistics update as you build your route.

Use detailed topographic maps to plan hiking, trail running, cycling, backpacking, and other outdoor routes. You can search for places, inspect the elevation profile, review climbs and descents kilometer by kilometer, and download the finished route as a GPX file for use on your phone, GPS device, sports watch, or favorite outdoor app.

How it works?

1. Search for a location or navigate to the area where you want to plan your route.
2. Click on the map to add your first waypoint.
3. Continue clicking to extend your route.
4. Enable Follow paths & roads when you want the route to follow available trails, paths, and roads automatically.
5. Check the distance, elevation profile, ascent, descent, and other route statistics as you plan.
6. When your route is ready, click Download GPX to save it as a GPX file.

Plan GPX Routes Directly on the Map

GPX Route Planner makes it easy to create a route from scratch without installing dedicated mapping software. Click anywhere on the map to add waypoints and gradually build the route you want to follow.

You can use it for short local walks, running routes, cycling trips, mountain hikes, backpacking routes, or longer outdoor adventures.

As you add points, your route appears directly on the map and the distance and elevation information updates automatically.

GPX Route Planner Features

• Create routes by clicking directly on the map
• Automatically follow available paths and roads
• Switch to direct route segments when needed
• Search for towns, villages, mountains, trails, landmarks, and other places
• Choose between multiple map styles
• Detailed topographic maps for outdoor route planning
• See total route distance while planning
• See total ascent and descent
• See minimum and maximum elevation
• Interactive elevation profile
• Kilometer-by-kilometer ascent and descent breakdown
• Export your finished route as a GPX file
• No account required
• Free to use

Follow Paths and Roads Automatically

Enable Follow paths & roads when you want the planner to create a route along existing trails, paths, streets, and roads between the points you select.

Instead of drawing a straight line from one waypoint to another, the route follows the available route network, making it much easier to plan realistic hiking, running, and cycling routes.

This is particularly useful when planning:

• Hiking routes along marked and unmarked trails
• Trail running routes
• Road and gravel cycling routes
• Walking routes through towns and cities
• Longer routes combining roads, tracks, and trails

You can also disable path-following whenever you want to create a direct segment between two points. This can be useful in areas where no mapped trail exists or when planning routes across open terrain.

Plan Routes on Topographic Maps

A good topographic map can make a major difference when planning an outdoor route. Instead of seeing only roads and place names, you can better understand trails, terrain, forests, mountains, and other geographic features around your planned route.

GPX Route Planner provides multiple map layers so you can choose the map that works best for the type of route you are creating.

Topographic maps are especially useful for:

• Hiking
• Backpacking
• Trail running
• Mountain biking
• Gravel cycling
• Exploring unfamiliar outdoor areas

You can switch between available map styles using the map selector in the corner of the map.

Search for Places and Start Planning Faster

You do not need to manually navigate around the map to find your starting point. Use the built-in search to look for a town, village, mountain, park, landmark, or other location.

Once you find the area you are interested in, you can immediately start adding waypoints and building your route.

This is particularly convenient when planning routes somewhere you have never visited before.

Interactive Elevation Profile

As you create your route, GPX Route Planner generates an elevation profile showing how the terrain changes along the way.

The chart makes it easy to identify:

• Major climbs
• Long descents
• Flat sections
• High and low points
• How elevation changes throughout the route

Kilometer markers along the profile make it easier to understand where climbs and descents occur in relation to the total route distance.

This can be especially helpful when comparing possible hiking or cycling routes where distance alone does not tell you how difficult the route will be.

Distance and Elevation Statistics

GPX Route Planner continuously analyzes your planned route and shows useful statistics including:

• Total distance
• Total ascent
• Total descent
• Minimum elevation
• Maximum elevation

These statistics update as you modify and extend your route, helping you evaluate its difficulty before you head outdoors.

For example, two hiking routes may both be 10 kilometers long, but a route with 800 meters of ascent can be considerably more demanding than one with only 200 meters.

Kilometer-by-Kilometer Elevation Breakdown

For a more detailed look at your planned route, the tool also divides it into individual kilometers and shows the elevation gain and loss for each section.

You can see:

• Ascent per kilometer
• Descent per kilometer

This makes it easier to identify the hardest sections of a route and understand whether the climbing is spread evenly throughout the trip or concentrated in one or two steep sections.

It can be useful when planning hiking stages, trail runs, cycling routes, and other activities where elevation has a significant impact on difficulty.

Export Your Route as a GPX File

Once you are happy with your route, simply download it as a GPX file.

GPX is one of the most widely supported formats for outdoor navigation and can be used with many GPS devices, sports watches, navigation apps, and route-planning services.

You can transfer your planned route to compatible devices and apps from brands and services such as Garmin, Suunto, Komoot, Gaia GPS, and many others.

This lets you plan the route on a larger screen and then take it with you when you head outdoors.

Useful for Hiking, Cycling, Running and More

GPX Route Planner can be used for many different outdoor activities.

• Hiking – Plan routes along trails and check how much climbing is involved.
• Backpacking – Create longer routes and evaluate distance and elevation before your trip.
• Trail running – Plan loops and check where the major climbs and descents occur.
• Cycling – Build road, gravel, or mixed-surface routes and export them to a GPS device.
• Walking – Quickly create walking routes through towns, parks, and countryside.
• Outdoor trip planning – Explore possible routes before visiting an unfamiliar area.

Plan Before You Head Outdoors

Route planning is about more than finding the shortest way from one point to another. Distance, terrain, elevation, available trails, and surrounding geography can all affect how difficult or practical a route will be.

GPX Route Planner gives you a visual overview of these factors while you create your route.

You can experiment with different options, move through the map, compare possible directions, check the elevation profile, and adjust your route before exporting the final GPX file.

Our Other GPX Tools

• GPX Viewer lets you explore GPX routes on topographic, standard, and satellite maps together with speed, elevation, and route statistics.
• GPX to Printable Map lets you turn a GPX track into a high-quality map that you can download and print for offline navigation.
• GPX to Elevation Chart lets you create a detailed elevation profile with total ascent and descent, distance, minimum and maximum altitude, and kilometer-by-kilometer elevation statistics.
• GPX to Speed Profile lets you analyze your speed along a GPX track using an interactive color-coded map with distance, moving time, average speed, and kilometer-by-kilometer statistics.
• GPX to Google Maps lets you upload a GPX file and view the route on Google Maps, with speed, elevation, route statistics, and kilometer-by-kilometer analysis.
• GPX Split Tool lets you divide one GPX track into multiple equal-distance GPX files and download all sections together as a ZIP.
• GPX Merge Tool lets you combine multiple GPX tracks into one GPX file while preserving separate track segments.
• GPX to KML Converter lets you convert a GPX track into a KML file while preserving elevation data and separate track segments where available.

Support

If you have questions, run into problems while planning a route, or want to suggest an improvement, you can get in touch through the Contact page.

We continuously improve GPX Route Planner based on feedback and aim to make creating and exporting outdoor GPX routes as simple as possible.