Wise route selection is my most important factor in my touring happiness. In order to pick good routes, I get the best maps I can find and a good guidebook for the region or country, plus research online. There are a variety of factors I look for in a good route. I try to devise a route with the best combination of minimal traffic, nice scenery, interesting sites along the way, reasonable gradients, and minimal up-and-down. I'm not afraid of hills and sometimes I seek out mountain passes both for the scenery and challenge. However repeated up and down is far more exhausting than steady climbs. When I first began touring, I didn't pay enough attention to picking good routes, and was too concerned with covering distance and getting from point A to point B. This would sometimes lead to me riding on roads which had too much traffic.