Route planning internet tools

Whilst I still think an Ordnance Survey map or A-Z is the best tool a running explorer can have, there are times when you don't have access to a map (or don't want to invest in a map because you will only be in the area a short while), and want to plan a route. I occassionally used to use Sanoodi after reading about them in Runner's World, and found this was particulary good for stealing ideas from other peoples routes they had saved on the site. This week however, I have found that Sanoodi has changed and I can't seem to create new routes anymore. I can create a series of dots, but they don't link up and thus it doesn't tell me the distance. The site also seems really slow now and won't allow you to view other people's routes near you at the same time as creating your own. This has annoyed me greatly. Grrr!

I am a lazy and impatient computer user and am likely to give up if a website is too tricky to use or starts behaving in an irritating manner. So I might well hear from someone smarter than me that the revamped look is actually much easier, fancier, blah blah blah and I'm being a doofus, but that is not really the point. They have turned me off now by confusing me and I just don't think there is any excuse these days for a poorly designed website, since there is such an abundance of free and easy-to-use sites. Especially when the original site, although admittedly a little austere looking, seemed to possess all the right functions before the change. Double Grrr!

So I have decided to test out alternative route planning sites, a different one each week, and rate them according to how useful they are for running explorers. First up: Fetch Everyone (FE).