Great Drives

Great Drives is a collection of Chicago area driving routes for club members to enjoy. They may be scenic, interesting, sporty or just provide a reason to get out and drive.

As our collection evolves, expect to find routes in the city and surrounding suburban areas. Drives may take an hour or so, some may take most of a day, and others may take you to surrounding states and require an overnight stay.

Individual routes are available in a variety of formats for you to select from. When possible, we will include a link to Google maps, written instructions in PDF format, and downloadable files in some of the more common formats that work with mapping applications and/or hardware that you may already have.

You may, of course, find some limitations with these various forms of routing. For example, while most of us are familiar with Google Maps, it is designed to find a route from point A to point B, and does not excel at plotting less efficient, but perhaps more interesting routes. Some of this can be overcome by adding additional destinations (way points) along the way, and most of our Google Maps routes reflect that. Currently, Google Maps limits the number of destinations along a route to just nine following the starting point, and this sometimes makes it difficult to lay out the most interesting route. For best results, set Google Maps to avoid highways.

Another mapping application we use is the much lesser known Google My Maps (notice the name difference). You must sign into your Google account to use it, but it provides great routing tools and will generate printable turn by turn instructions. Unfortunately, Google My Maps does not provide turn-by-turn directions.

There are many other routing applications and hardware devices available in the marketplace that allow users to import routes using one of the industry-standard (GPX and KMZ) formats we provide. These applications and devices often provide the spoken turn by turn directions most of us have become accustomed to.

Regardless of the format you choose to use, remember that these routes were effective at the point in time specified and you should review them for accuracy and, if necessary, make changes as required.

Do you have a Great Drive you would like to share, or have a routing application, or hardware that you think does a good job? If so, then please send that information along to greatdrives@pca-chicago.org.

The route information is effective the date on the route description and may be outdated. You should review the route for accuracy before taking the drive. These routes are for the private purposes of the reader and driving a route does not make it a PCA sanctioned event and PCA insurance is not in effect during your drive.