I use my Android phone for navigation. “Ok Google, take me to (wherever)”
However, there is a particular place I go to several times a year where the Google Maps directions would have me drive through places I would rather avoid.
So I’ve mapped out an alternate route and I was hoping there would be a way that I could save that, so when I say, “OK Google, take me to Hassle Castle” and it would use MY safe route to that place instead of their scary route.
Any suggestions?
You can add stops to your trip, but I’m not finding any way to save the route. Years back on the PC with MapQuest you could do these things.
You might try “OK Google, take me to Hassle Castle via Dragon Flagon”.
If you access Google Maps in a desktop browser, you can drag the route around to route it as you see fit. There is then a “Send directions to your phone” link in the sidebar (below the route options) that allows you to send a link to those directions to your phone via e-mail or text. (If you don’t have that option, you may need to set up the desired phone as a “recovery phone” in your Google account.)
This should hopefully give you the re-routed directions in your phone. I say “hopefully” because I didn’t get it to work successfully myself; but I’m using a doddering old iPhone 4 and I don’t have the latest version of the app, so I suspect that’s why it didn’t work for me. I would suspect that a newer phone would be able to do this.
It’s an interesting question, because I had a suspicion that if you followed a slightly different route than what Google Maps gave you, it would remember that as the correct route. But maybe it doesn’t.
(Last fall when my wife and I were on vacation in Hawaii, I was using Google Maps to get us from the airport to our hotel. After getting off the interstate it had me driving through a residential neighborhood, and I missed a turn at one point because the street signs were hard to read. Plus, every street name looks something like “Kanuahuapula St” – it’s hard to read the subtle variations when you are driving down the street at 30 mph. Anyway, I wound up having to loop around, backtrack, and finally got back on the route. The thing is, a couple days later taking the same exit off the interstate, I swear that the second time it took me on the route that I mistakenly took the first time, rather than the “correct” route. But considering that I was driving around in a completely unfamiliar place, it’s hard to know for sure.)
I just tried that. I established a route on the PC, then added a diversion from the most logical path along the interstate highway. The PC showed the diversion.
I sent it to my phone Galaxy S7 and it appears in my app. But the diversion did not appear. The route just followed the interstate highway.
Improvements need to be made.
This will basically work. I can tell it to take me to Dragon Flagon and once I am there, I can tell it to take me to Hassle Castle because once I’m at DF, the logical route will be the one I want.
Sadly, I have no suggestion to help the OP. But since it looks like he’s been given a decent work-around, I do have a follow-up question if I may …
I’m confused by the idea of “Google, help me navigate to a place I’ve be been before several times and where I’ve studied the maps enough to manually develop my own route to there.”
I admit to being naturally better at nav than many people apparently are. And I do use google maps regularly in unfamiliar surroundings. Including places nearby where I already know the broad strokes of the main streets, but not the detailed side streets.
But I really struggle with the concept of someone knowing the route well enough to have developed an opinion on the best way to do it, and yet not knowing it well enough such that they actively want that stupid thing blathering at them while they drive.
Would the OP or anyone care to enlighten me on this apparent disconnect?
Here’s a better question: Can someone place specific “custom” directions to a place, such that everyone else who asks for directions to the place will see the custom directions?
I’ve seen several occasions where some web site will have directions to their place, including a comment to the effect that on-line apps may give different directions but don’t follow those! Example:
So the question is: Can they cause on-line directions apps to give the directions that they want them to give?
I’ve noticed this too. I rode along once, as we trailered one of our gliders from its home base to a repair shop several counties away. Clearly the driver, one of our regular instructors, knew the way thoroughly (as did I). Yes he insisted on having Siri tell him the way, turn by turn. To be sure, there had been a lot of rain lately and Siri seemed to know of road closures on the preferred route, and gave an alternate route (also well known). Well, on the way back we decided to try the preferred route anyway, and found it to be perfectly clear and open. Now who knows best?
I have a terrible time navigating, just terrible. I could go some place 10 times over the course of a couple of months and still need navigation on. So, that’s the case for me. For someone on the normal spectrum of navigation, it’s also nice to have an app like Waze on if you think there might be traffic, because it will try and get you around it (plus warn you of any cops). But, for me, it’s because I don’t know how to go, while many regular people would have no problem.
I do this all the time.
First off, I always keep the sound off, so the blathering isn’t an issue.
The main practical use is so to keep up with potential traffic issues, or help me with an alternate route if/when I run into them without prior warning. Besides helping with Interstate highway reroutes (in many, but not all, areas in my neck of the woods, the interstate parallels an older US highway that you can hop over to to get around a jam), it is also helpful in a sudden local jam, when I remember that if i turn right up ahead on Road ‘A’, it will run into Road ‘B’, which in some way will get me to road ‘C’ and to my destination, but it has been 5 years since I have done it that way and, in the stress of the moment, I don’t recall exactly how it all works. With the GPS running, I just assume I’ll be able to sort it out one way or another, and make the turn.
The scary and secondary practical use is that I am of an age where, every once in a while, I will “space out” whilst driving and suddenly look around and have no idea at all where I am, what city I am in, or where I am going. Everything looks familiar, but also strange, and I can’t immediately put all the pieces together. A glance at the GPS settles me down, informs me where I am and where I am heading, and everything sorts itself out in my head in a minute or so.
On long drives, I also tend to use it as sort of “in-flight entertainment” and check it like my regular dash gauges to see how far I have come, how far there is to go, and if there is anything mildly interesting to look at coming up (or a nice straight stretch to pass a car on a 2-lane road).
As with most things that are driving-related, your mileage may vary 8-).
What LSLGuy said/asked.
In partial answer, it seems that when a person who is a , pilot, sailor, backwoods hiker, etc. will be used to the idea that they are responsible for getting to the destination & also somehow instinctively/learned to think in North, South, East West as directions as more useful than right/left.
From trying to teach pilots, sailors how to navigate, I have come to believe that what it is , is a gift and is one of the reasons those types gravitate to jobs where it is useful/necessary and also do well with being the place/person where the ‘buck’ ( $ ) stops. Pilots, solo sailors, soccer referees, etc… Right or wrong but right now. No going home and thinking about it.
Being able to do or not do this is more like being an artist verse a drawer of stick figures. I don’t think with 25 years of effort I could ever do a portrait of a person as well as a natural artist. I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler but I can fly, sail, hike one.
Plus, it is becoming more rare all the time that folks who have lost all modern help tech have had to get it done or die. I suppose this is a good thing overall but in some things, if you can’t remember what/where/ how you did it before, you and people with you die.
I think being able to create tracks for others in a quick easy way is a good tech and very useful.
But
I don’t want them to be my taxi or buss driver.
Also: When you only have old broken vehicles and choppers, hand held GPS devices make great speedometers. I save a lot on speeding tickets with them as I used to have a heavy foot/hand with throttles.
I have had to slow down as I age because ‘reaction time/response.’
Getting old is where we need some new tech. IMO 
Traffic, or other alerts, and updated ETA as I drive
Exactly. I go to work at the same place everyday through 20 miles of city traffic and always use google because the difference in drive time can be as much as half an hour or more if I blindly take the shortest route and find out there is an accident causing a 5 mile backup. It’s not a strange, quirky or stupid thing to do. I take about 4 different routes home each week, the drive to work is fairly consistent.
Now if you live in big country Montana using a navigation system everyday may be overkill. Perhaps then you do do it because you are lonely. 
Sure… the main thing is I’ve never actually taken any route except the bad one and the last time I did it, I swore “never again.” It involves lots of roads under construction, some neighborhoods would would not want to be stuck in at 4:00 in the morning, and one bridge in particular that is very high, very arched, and scares the hell out of me. And I’ve only ever driven it in the dark. On a one to ten scale for fear of heights, I’m in the 7 to 8 range.
So now it’s time to go back and I’m sticking with “never again” for that f’n bridge. In order to avoid that bridge, I have to go inland a bit, cross a very low and non-scary bridge and then take a freeway down to the spot. It’s a route I’ve “mapped out” but never actually taken and since my sense of direction sucks and I get turned around and lost fairly easy, I need help. Once I’m close to the spot, I know where to go, but getting in proximity is the issue and it will be dark, so I’ll take Google’s help and be glad of it. And I turn off the audio - I don’t like it nattering away either.