Paper maps are ideal for the bigger overview, I do use them whilst planning and take them on tour too. However, I find that employing ITN Converter using a combination of Michelin mapping, with it's useful green edged scenic routes (coincidentally almost always a great biking road) and dropping into Google Street View every now and then to check road condition, location of hotels etc. is a great way to plan cross country routes in unfamiliar territory. I don't do this for every journey I make but for planning a continental tour over the winter months I find it hard to beat. I tend to finally finesse the route in Basecamp before exporting as a GPX file to my Garmin. I accept that it's a case of horses for courses and not everyone wants to plan to the level I tend to. What I try to avoid at all costs, for the parts that I'm travelling all that way to visit, is just accepting the route that that algorithm that Basecamp, the GPS or Google dictate between two given points. That's what the elastic band tool and shaping nodes are there for. Conversely a trip to Coventry on the bike tomorrow will just be a case of adding the destination and riding there. The 1260 Multistrada that I'm test riding will be pointed into the countryside and I'll then be following my nose
