Planning a route

Last verified October 25, 2026

You can plan a route in Bikepackia in two ways. Click your start, end and any points in between on the map in the web planner, or describe the trip in plain language to Mec, the AI route partner. Either way, a routing engine computes the path over OpenStreetMap data, and you can then split it into days, add stops and export it.

By hand on the map (web)

1. Open the planner at bikepackia.com/planner. No account is needed.
2. Set a start and an end, and add points in between to shape the route. For a loop, put the end back at the start and add at least one point away from it, so there's a route to ride.
3. Choose your bike setup. The route and its distance, climbing and elevation profile update as you edit.
4. Split it into day stages, add stops, and export GPX.

With Mec

Describe the trip ("4 days from Lyon to Geneva, around 70 km a day") and Mec sets the start, end and stops, asks about anything unclear, and builds the route with you. Mec needs a free account and runs on credits. In the mobile app, planning is done with Mec.

Bike setup

• Bike types: Traditional, Road, Gravel and MTB (mountain bike), plus an e-bike switch.
• Hybrid was folded into Gravel and Shared into Traditional, and routes saved with either now open with the new type.
• Each bike type is routed with its own profile. Gravel and MTB run on Bikepackia's own routing server with dedicated gravel and mountain-bike profiles that lean towards tracks and unpaved roads; very long routes, or one that server can't finish in time, use a general mountain-bike cycling profile instead. Road favours sealed roads.
• A Gravel or MTB route is not guaranteed to be mostly unpaved. Its surface is shown as paved, unpaved and unknown, where unknown is the share with no surface recorded in the map data and is never counted as off-road.
• The e-bike switch changes the daily range when the trip is split into days, and the line itself on Traditional and Road. Gravel and MTB keep their gravel or mountain-bike line with it on.
• The bike type you pick is saved with the route and travels with it when you share it. Mec only switches a route to MTB when you ask for as much off-road riding as possible.

Map layers and places

The web planner can show water points, food, groceries, places to stay, bike repair, bike rental, toilets, fuel stations, charging points and sights on the map. Place data comes from OpenStreetMap. In France, Belgium (except Brussels), the Republic of Ireland, Portugal and South Tyrol in Italy it also includes official tourism listings, which are marked as verified.

Importing a GPX (web)

You can load an existing GPX track into the web planner. The track is used exactly as recorded, with the file's own elevation. It isn't re-routed or snapped to the road network, and imported tracks carry no turn instructions or surface data.

Not supported yet

• Avoiding busy roads based on traffic data.
• Ride heatmaps.
• Enforcing a maximum gradient or a surface mix. Mec takes these preferences into account when it suggests options, but the routing engine doesn't enforce them.