If you ever want to know the exactdistance you would cover during a hike, bicycle tour or during a running practice and are looking for a solution where you need not actually buy the tickets and make the calculation complicated, here is a tip especially for you. Use Google Maps: it provides the maps and satellite images you need. You can also measure the airline distances here. ‘Gmaps Pedometer’ would be the best online tool since you want to add up various segments for the respective route.

Go to www.gmap-pedometer.com.First bring the map view to the target area. You need to enter the name of the neighbouring city for this. Click on ‘Go’ and then set the zoom level you want. Keep the left mouse key pressed and move the map section that is visible. Click on ‘Hybrid’ in the map if necessary so that the information is presented together with the satellite picture. Select ‘metric’ in the left part of the dialog so that the distances are displayed in kilometers and not miles. Now determine the distance in the map.For this you need to first click on the left on ‘Start recording’ and then doubleclick on the starting point. Now define each point on the distance with a doubleclick. The more points you define, the more accurate is the calculated distance. Remember to mark each point and also to link curved stretches better.

The tool calculates the stretches between two points in air-line distances and adds these. You can delete the points which have been set incorrectly with ‘Undo last point’. Click on ‘Save’ after you have determined the exact route. Note down the link displayed for this route or move it to the desktop. Using this method, you can recall this saved linked at any time, or even send it to other users.