AA Route Planner

The AA is the largest motoring organization in the United Kingdom that provides services such as breakdown assistance and motorist insurance. For a number of years, only AA members could take advantage of the company’s route planning services by picking up paper maps and routes from the organization’s local office. The AA now provides free online route planning for consumers on their website’s AA route planner. The online service allows drivers to plan multi-leg trips across the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Europe, and has a number of features that can be included in the route planned.

AA Route Planner Features

The AA route planner does not only map a route between a starting and an ending point. The web portal actually lets the user choose zero or many “via” points between the route’s originating and final destination. Options for route modification include motorway, toll, and congestion avoidance, and displaying traffic backups on the route. The web portal also allows the user to create a map for his/her route that displays traffic cameras as well as chooses between measuring distances in miles or kilometers.

How to Plan a Route on the AA Route Planner

Step 1 – Open the web browser and navigate to the classic AA Route Planner website.

Step 2 – Enter the departure location (“From”) and destination (“To”) in the text fields on the AA Route Planner main page. These points can be a full address, state, town, or postcode. If a town is entered, the route planner will calculate the trip to the town’s city center.

Step 3 – Enter zero or more “via” points if there are any pre-planned stops along the route.

Step 4 – Click the applicable check box to “avoid tolls and congestion charging” or to “avoid motorways,” then click  “Get Route.”

Step 5 – Click the check box next to “Would you like a map of your route?” to automatically generate a map depicting the created route.

Step 6 – De-select the “Show Speed Cameras” or the “Show traffic backstops” check boxes if  these features should not be displayed on the final route.

Step 7 – Select “Get Route.”

Step 8 – View the route displayed on the subsequent screen. There are menu options to display the route in kilometers, show the summary route, reverse the route, or plan a new route on this screen.

Step 9 – Select the current AA route planning website to plan a route to an EU destination. This option allows users to plan basic routes across European Union countries, but does not offer as many options for the features that can be included in the planned route.