Footpath Route Planner 4+

The definitive route planner

I have been using Footpath for a while now, and quickly upgraded to the Elite version to take advantage of the better mapping and other features that this offers. I have not come across anything nearly as good as Footpath for route planning - the ease of plotting a route is incredible and the developers seem to have squeezed in so many features in a deceptively minimalist interface. For many months now Footpath has stood me in good stead on numerous UK walks.

One of my few criticisms was that the mapping options on offer, whilst very clear, lacked some of the detail that Ordnance Survey maps have. The latest update, however, has added full OS mapping, which for me makes this the perfect walking app. The inclusion of the OS mapping, at a lower price than that charged by Ordnance Survey makes the Elite subscription an essential purchase.

I have tried and deleted a few other app before discovering Footpath. I kept just one of them because I wanted OS map features. Now that Footpath has this covered I will be cancelling my subscription to the other app. Thanks to the developers for continuing to improve and enhance Footpath

Huge thanks to the devs for iPhone X support

This app is massively under rated. It is monumentally useful for anyone who wants to plan a route and then be able to export as gpx. It skips the bells and whistles but what it does, it absolutely nails. I myself am an avid hiker and i cant express just how good it is being able to sketch out a route with my finger and have it snap not just to roads, but footpaths etc.

I thought the devs might have stopped developing the app but im so happy to see its now been updated for iPhone X and the “Query limit” bug has been fixed for the ascent/descent graph.

A couple of features id love to see added are:

- ability to scan an imported gpx and automatically have it snap the route to the nearest footpaths/roads. I ask for this because i download a huge number of gpx files where the route is a little rough due to lack of waypoints. This can result in distance/altitude accuracy problems (as well as making navigation difficult occasionally). It would be wonderful if the app could sort of autocorrect this by making a best effort to snap an imported gpx to proper paths.

- better gpx editing features. For example, it would be great if you could select two waypoints, and then draw in a new section of route between them. At the moment you can only edit so far as removing the last waypoint that was added; so it would be great to have extra features in this regard.

Developer Response ,

Thanks for the review! We're really happy to hear that Footpath has been helpful to you for hiking.

To your other points: Footpath 3 made it much easier to edit your routes or imported GPX files—we added an eraser tool and the ability to trace over the existing route to snap to different paths.

We're still playing around with a feature that lets you snap an imported GPX file to roads, so stay tuned :).

It’s ok, it paid version was disappointing

The free version is definitely worth installing and using for runs/hikes.

Pros:
1. I LOVE the drawing feature. Being able to draw a route is really clever and I use that all the time. The annoying part is that footpaths only remain visible at a close zoom (see con below), so it can be quite tedious drawing long routes

2. Distance markers along the route are really useful

3. Really like being able to store and recall routes

Cons:
1. Too many features are “elite” version only, in my opinion

2. I’m in the uk and it’s missing quite a few public footpaths in my area, so I tend to have to cross reference against another app.

3. Zooming out is annoying as the footpaths disappear, whereas other apps I use keep the footpaths on at all zoom levels.

4. I tried the elite version to try out route prompting from my iWatch. Maybe it’s because my watch is old (series 3), but the execution was flawed. Voice guidance was buggy. More often than not the guidance would be clipped such that I only heard either the beginning or the end. Ie instead of hearing “take the next left”, I would either hear “take the” or “left”. Other times it would just fail to say anything at all.

5. Sometimes the guidance was confusing. I mean, what does “continue right on straight ahead” mean?!

In the end I cancelled my trial. I’ll stick to the free version and check my phone if I think I need directions!

Developer Response ,

Thanks for leaving a review. The confusing voice guidance sounds like an issue that we haven't seen before, could you please email us at support@footpathapp.com with the route you mapped out? We'll be able to debug the navigation guidance.

As for the public footpaths, if you tap the map settings in the lower right > "Add an overlay...", there's a UK rights of way overlay that you can enable that will show public footpaths and bridleways, even when you zoom out. Hopefully that will help so you don't have to switch between apps. You can continue to use the cancelled trial for the full 7 days, so hopefully you'll have a chance to try this out.