We made a last minute decision to take a two week road trip from New England to the Carolinas. My job was to plot a route and get directions. After spending way too much time with online map and trip planning programs, I found that MapQuest was the best! The only other online application that came close was the members-only AAA TripTik. Let me explain why.

We wanted to try our luck at NC gem mines, Harrah’s Cherokee casino, and visit a couple of friends in SC. We wanted to avoid NYC and DC by taking I-81 south. That gave us a trip with at least 4 stops, and a route preference.

Only MapQuest and AAA offered trip planning with directions for multi-stop itineraries. Mapquest limits trips to 10 destinations; AAA has a limit of 8.

Both let me delete, add and reorder destinations. Both let me specify routing preferences. With MapQuest, I could “Avoid” a turn-by-turn instruction, then remap the route. With AAA, I could click on a preferred road, then remap the route.

Neither let me Edit a destination; so, when I finally got a friend’s exact street address, I had to delete then re-add that destination.

Both estimate trip time and mileage, but only MapQuest gave time and mileage for each leg of the trip as well as the overall trip.

Both offered some suggestions for restaurants, hotels, etc., for each destination.

As we mentioned our trip to friends, they offered must-see and must-visit suggestions. One friend warned us to avoid the Asheville area during Clemson University home football games--and there was one scheduled at the time we originally planned to be in that area. With input from friends trickling in, I did a lot of experimenting to find a route that accommodated the stops we wanted to make in the order we wanted (or needed) to make them. AAA let me Save my trip so I could easily recall it and make modifications; MapQuest didn’t let me save my trip, but did "remember"  recently used  locations.

I can’t say I was thrilled with either overview map. Neither let me clearly see both my destinations and route when printed.  That may have been due to  limitations of scale,  given the distance we we'd be driving. Both let me print detailed maps for each leg of our trip.

Though I preferred working with MapQuest, I printed both trip maps and driving instructions. And, I’ll have my trusty laptop with me, so we can further revise our route as we travel.

I'm sure online road trip planners will improve as time goes on; but, even with their limitations, the MapQuest and AAA trip planners are a whole lot easier to work with than a folded paper road map.