Introducing Trail Router

Published 2020-01-27

New to an area and unsure of where's nice to run? Or maybe you're just bored of your regular running routes? Trail Router is here to help.

Trail Router creates running routes for you. Not just any old routes either; our routing algorithm suggests routes that go through parks, forests or by water, and avoids busy roads wherever possible.

Features

Here's a few things you can do with Trail Router:

  • With one click, create round-trip routes of a desired distance (e.g. 5 km or 3 miles), taking in as much nature as possible.
  • Manually create your own point-to-point route, again prefering nature and avoiding busy roads.
  • Create routes that avoid repetition (out-and-backs), hills or unlit streets.
  • See the Strava Heatmap and major hiking trails in your area.
  • Export your route as a GPX or KML file.

Oh, and it's completely free to use and not littered with ads.

Examples

Here's some examples of scenic routes that were suggested by Trail Router.

10km round-trip route from Greenwich, London, UK. View route

Route

20km round-trip route (with elevation profile shown) from Melbourne, Australia. View route

Route

Point-to-point route in San Francisco, US. Not the most direct, but nice and scenic. View route

Route

What's next

Trail Router was built to solve a problem: the lack of a decent route builder for runners that preferred nature over polluted roads. The bulk of this issue is now solved, but there's still plenty of possible developments on the to-do list. These include:

  • Specifying custom distances
  • Saving routes
  • Maybe an Android and iOS app
  • Ability to tweak the routing preferences (e.g. "Give me loads of hills!")

Of course, if you have ideas for things you'd like to see in Trail Router, please don't hesitate to get in touch.