Open a GPX file

About Touring HQ

Free touring routes you can download and ride, and the tools to plan the trip around them.

A rider on an adventure motorcycle on a tree-lined road

What we are building

Touring HQ is a free planning resource for UK riders, whether you are heading to the Highlands for a long weekend or crossing the Channel for two weeks in the Alps. It brings together the things you check before you set off: where to ride, how far your bike can go between fuel stops, what you need at each border and how to get there.

So far there are 97 touring routes with free GPX files, a fuel range calculator, a packing list, the ferry and tunnel crossings from the UK, a guide to using GPX files and a list of the official pages to check before riding in Europe.

How the routes are made

Where a road has an official tourist route, such as the North Coast 500 or the Transfăgărășan, we use the official line as mapped by OpenStreetMap contributors. The rest we plot ourselves on OpenStreetMap roads with a routing engine, and where an official line exists we measure how much of ours runs along it. We do not copy other sites' GPX files or route descriptions. We have not ridden every route yet, and each route page says where its line comes from. When we ride one, we will update its notes and change the label.

Places to see along each route come from Wikidata. Their photos come from Wikimedia Commons under open licences, credited on each card to the person who took them.

How we work

  • Accuracy first. Every rule we show will link to the official source it came from, with the date we last checked it. If we are not sure, we say so and point you to the source.
  • Free to use. The tools work in your browser without an account.
  • Honest about what is an estimate. A fuel range or a road rating is a guide, not a promise. We say how each one is worked out.
  • Made for UK riders. Distances in miles, economy in UK mpg, and the questions UK riders ask when they ride abroad.

How we make money

Touring HQ is free, with no display adverts. Some of our links to ferries, places to stay and cover may be affiliate links: if you book through one, the company pays us a small commission, and you pay the same price. Every affiliate link is marked "Affiliate link" next to it. A link without the label earns us nothing.

Commission never decides which routes we publish, what we say about a crossing or a policy, or what we tell you to check. Where we link to cover, we say what to look for in any policy, not just the ones we link to.

Get in touch

Spotted a mistake, or want a tool we have not built yet? Contact us. Corrections are always welcome.