Feature Request: Multi-Day Tour Planning Engine with Time, Rest & Routing Constraints

[Michele Skipper]

Hi MRA Team,

As an active beta tester and long-distance route planner, I want to submit a detailed feature proposal for the future evolution of the MRA Routeplanner web interface: an intelligent, integrated Multi-Day Trip Planning Engine.

The Current Problem & Workflow Inefficiency
Currently, planning a multi-day journey (e.g., a 7-to-10-day tour across multiple regions or mountain passes) requires an extensive, iterative manual workflow:

Plotting the overall macro-route from origin to final destination.

Manually calculating cumulative driving times and distances.

Guessing where the group or rider will realistically land by late afternoon.

Splitting the main route into individual daily sub-routes (Day 1, Day 2, etc.).

Re-adjusting each day retroactively once planned rest stops, meal breaks, scenic detours, and road types are factored in.

This trial-and-error process leads to significant friction, unnecessary manual file management, and multiple recalculation cycles whenever a single variable (like an extended lunch stop or a slower mountain pass) changes.

The Vision: Dynamic Multi-Day Scheduling Engine
Instead of building individual daily routes from scratch, MRA could introduce a dedicated Multi-Day Planning Mode where the user defines macro-parameters, and the engine automatically proposes optimized daily overnight stages and structured timelines.

1. Daily Driving Limits & Time Windows
   Daily Riding Target: Maximum daily saddle time (e.g., 5 to 6 hours pure riding) or target daily distance (e.g., 350–450 km).

Daily Timeframe: Set fixed departure times (e.g., 08:30 AM) and desired arrival cut-offs at hotels/overnight destinations (e.g., 05:30 PM).

2. Cadenced Stops & Rest Logic
   Preset Rest Stops: Configurable intervals for quick technical/fuel/coffee breaks (e.g., 20 minutes every 90–120 minutes of riding).

Major Waypoint Holds: Specific durations allocated for lunch breaks (e.g., 60–90 minutes) or sightseeing waypoints.

Realistic Group Dynamics: Calculation buffers that account for actual rolling pace versus raw GPS highway estimates.

3. Granular Road Type Profiles per Stage or Section
   Flexibility to apply different routing rules along the itinerary: e.g., highway transit for Day 1 morning, transitioning automatically into "Curvy/Extra Curvy" or scenic secondary roads for regional mountain legs.

4. Automated Stage Splitting & Export
   The system dynamically generates suggested overnight stop zones (with nearby POI/hotel recommendations).

One-click generation of sequential, linked daily routes within an MRA Folder or Tour Package, maintaining full shaping point integrity and proper waypoint ordering.

Industry Context & Benchmark Reference
Several dedicated tour-planning tools have implemented parts of this logic over the years:

Furkot: Remains the gold standard for road-trip scheduling logic, strictly calculating travel time against "day start/end" hours, sleep stops, and timed activity pauses.

Kurviger (Tourer / Cloud features): Offers automated round-trip and multi-stage generation based on curvature preferences, total travel duration, and direction.

Garmin BaseCamp (Trip Planner Module): Allowed users to define daily start/departure hours and layovers to calculate realistic overnight milestones along a unified track.

Tyre to Travel / TomTom MyDrive: Provided early foundations for splitting long itineraries into bite-sized riding legs based on driving duration thresholds.

Integrating an automated, parameter-driven scheduling engine directly into MRA's multi-map environment (Here, TomTom, OpenStreetMap) would set a new industry benchmark for tour operators, club road captains, and solo touring riders alike.

I would love to hear thoughts from the development team on the feasibility of integrating these scheduling constraints into the next major planner overhaul.

[Corjan Meijerink]

This is definitely something we'd like to implement!
Thanks for sharing your vision.

[Michele Skipper]

Hi team,
That is fantastic news! I firmly believe implementing this engine will make MRA the undisputed leader in tour planning.
When development begins, please count me in if you need an active tester for the early alpha or beta builds. I regularly organize multi-day group tours for our BMW Motorrad club, which means dealing with the real-world dynamics of heavy touring bikes: cadenced technical stops, strict daily timelines, and the need for absolute precision with snap-to-road shaping points.
I would gladly stress-test the new routing logic against these practical constraints to help refine the engine.
Excited to see this take shape!

[Guzzist]

...for me, would be good enough, if the selectable values for a break at route point would be extended from 10:00 up to 12:00 or 24:00 hours...

[Michele Skipper]

While extending the waypoint stop duration to 12 or 24 hours can work as a quick workaround for simple itineraries, it does not fully solve the challenges of complex, multi-day touring:
GPS File Limits & Performance: Keeping a 7–10 day trip (often 2,500+ km with hundreds of shaping points) in a single route file quickly leads to performance lags or crashes on dedicated motorcycle GPS units and onboard TFT navigation systems.
Lack of Dynamic Daily Splitting: A long stop duration does not automatically calculate realistic daily riding hours, arrival cut-offs, or cadenced technical breaks along each individual leg.
Stage-by-Stage Management: Breaking the macro-route into separate, linked daily files (⁠Day 1⁠, ⁠Day 2⁠, etc.) remains essential for real-world navigation, hotel arrival tracking, and sharing individual daily tracks with a touring group.
Having dedicated, automated multi-day route generation would give the best of both worlds: high-level macro planning with clean, modular daily files.

[Hubert Thoring]

I'm just saying, daily routes derived from a stage from destination to destination over the days works very well. Every route is from day to day for a destination good so that it finds the hotel to the shot ..!

The planning and the MyRouteApp can do that very well today, please don't make it too complicated for all users here

[Guzzist]

...the Idea of @michele-skipper is nice - but very hard to develop. See per example Calimoto; it's ugly.

If I need such a support in travel planning, I use ChatGPT by several iterations. At least I let it create a gpx file, which I then upload into MRA-Routeplanner to polish it.

[Michele Skipper]

Hi! I completely understand your concern, and I agree with you: the current day-to-day, destination-to-destination planning works beautifully for standard trips. Simplicity is one of MRA's biggest strengths, and nobody wants to clutter the interface or overcomplicate things for everyday riders.
The vision here isn't to replace or change the current routing system, but rather to introduce an optional advanced tool—like a "Multi-Day Wizard" running in the background.
When organizing 10 or 12-stage international journeys for a group of heavy touring motorcycles, the logistics become incredibly rigid. Coordinating cadenced fuel stops, strict hotel check-ins, and managing group pacing over thousands of kilometers currently requires a massive amount of manual calculation. If one variable changes (like an extended lunch stop or a slower mountain pass), manually recalculating and splitting the routes across multiple days takes a lot of time and energy.
An automated macro-planner would strictly be an extra option for those who need it. Standard users would keep the exact same easy A-to-B interface they love today, while tour organizers get a powerful engine to do the heavy lifting. A win-win for everyone! ️

[[[global:former-user]]]

@Michele-Skipper said:
The vision here isn't to replace or change the current routing system, but rather to introduce an optional advanced tool—like a "Multi-Day Wizard" running in the background.

This would be gold! A wizard that will at least get you close. "Trip number of days, Kms/time in saddle, break times" Go!

[Michele Skipper]

Exactly! You nailed it. That is precisely the goal.
Having a wizard that builds that initial "close enough" draft based on real saddle time and breaks would save us hours of manual calculation. Once the engine slices the macro-route into daily stages, we can just step in to fine-tune the scenic detours and lock in the specific hotels.
It takes the mathematical headache out of multi-day planning and leaves us with the fun part: shaping the ride. Glad we are on the same page! ️

[[[global:former-user]]]

On that page alright! If it's too complex to develop I would love that in the Waypoint list there was a daily Km total , maybe in brackets , along with the total accumulated Distance total. This would help a lot as a guide to adding in lunch and fuel stops etc...

[Michele Skipper]

To add some historical context to this feature request, the exact multi-day scheduling logic we are talking about was actually an industry standard over a decade ago in Microsoft AutoRoute (known as Microsoft Streets & Trips in North America).
For those who remember using it, that software had a dedicated planning module that executed this flawlessly. You could set rigid travel parameters:
Start/End of Day: Defining that you start riding at 08:30 and must stop by 17:30.
Daily Driving Limits: Setting a maximum cap of saddle hours or kilometers per day.
Cadenced Breaks: Instructing the engine to automatically insert a 15-minute rest stop every 2 hours of driving.
Once you set these rules, the software would automatically slice a massive macro-route into manageable daily stages, placing overnight stop markers exactly where your time or distance limits were reached.
Modern cloud planners have evolved immensely in terms of maps, UI, and GPX track accuracy, but this specific logistical engine was somehow left behind. Reintroducing a modern version of that old Microsoft routing logic into MRA's multi-map environment would instantly make it the ultimate, unrivaled tool for anyone planning extensive tours. ️