# Road trip planner with multiple stops: get the best order

Last updated: 2026-08-12

The list is the easy part of a road trip: the diner someone swears by, two national parks, a detour for the world's largest ball of twine. The hard part is the order. Drive a good list in a bad sequence and you'll spend whole afternoons re-crossing the same stretch of highway.

## Why stop order makes or breaks a road trip

Every stop you add multiplies the ways to arrange the trip, and almost all of them are bad. Planning by vibes — “this one looks close” — routinely adds hours of driving on a multi-stop trip, because a stop that looks nearby on the map can sit on the wrong side of a mountain range, a river crossing, or a slow two-lane road. Real driving times, not straight lines on a map, decide the best order.

## Plan the route in three steps

SortStops is a free road trip planner for multiple stops — it sorts your list into the fastest driving order and hands the result to Google Maps:

1. Paste your list. Up to 25 places, one per line, straight from your notes app — or type them and let suggestions fill in the rest.
2. Pick round trip or one-way. Your first stop stays the starting point; a round trip loops back to it, a one-way trip ends at your last stop.
3. Sort, then open in Google Maps. The order is optimized with real driving times from Google's routing engine, and Google Maps takes over turn-by-turn navigation.

No account, nothing to install. [Try the free route planner](https://sortstops.app/) — it takes about a minute to sort a full trip list.

## Multi-day trips: sort each day, not the whole vacation

For a long trip with overnight stays, the trick is to plan one route per driving day, with each day's hotel as the first stop of the next day. Day-sized routes keep every list well under the 25-stop limit, and hotels usually aren't up for debate anyway — it's the sightseeing stops in between that need sorting.

## What about more than 10 stops in Google Maps?

If you've tried building a big trip directly in Google Maps, you've met its two limits: 10 stops per route, in exactly the order you typed them. Sorting first gets around both — see [how to add more than 10 stops to Google Maps](https://sortstops.app/guides/google-maps-more-than-10-stops) for the details.

## What this planner deliberately doesn't do

SortStops sorts driving order — it doesn't book hotels, plan activities, or manage a day-by-day itinerary. Keep your trip notes wherever you like keeping them; when the list of places is ready, paste it in, get the best order to visit them, and go.

## Frequently asked questions

**What is the best free road trip planner with multiple stops?**

For sorting stops into the fastest driving order, SortStops is free with no account: paste up to 25 places, pick round trip or one-way, sort, and open the route in Google Maps. It plans the order, not hotels or activities.

**Can Google Maps plan a road trip with multiple stops?**

Up to 10 stops, in the order you type them. It will not reorder stops into the fastest route. Sorting the list first, then opening it in Google Maps, gets around both limits.

**How do I plan a multi-day road trip with lots of stops?**

Plan one route per driving day, with each night's hotel as the first stop of the next day. Day-sized lists stay well under the 25-stop limit and the hotel is usually fixed anyway; it is the sightseeing stops in between that need sorting.

Source: https://sortstops.app/guides/road-trip-planner-multiple-stops