The reason I ask is that I'm planning my first bike tour for this summer. I'm not going too far from home, just from Madison to LaCrosse, down the great river road and then back. I can take a more scenic hillier route on the way back or a more well traveled flatter route. I like cruising the itsy bitsy backroads when I'm out riding, but west of town we have a lot of hills where they have several century rides with a lot of climbing that bring in a lot of riders from out of state. If I take the backroads I hit some fairly steep climbs.
I just started riding a bike last summer and am not a very good climber yet but I've made a lot of progress, continue to loose weight at a slow and steady pace and am pushing myself to keep getting better every month.
I don't have a problem with keeping the planning rather loose and going with the flow. Since the primary divergence will come at the end of the tour, I can just see how it goes at the beginning and then if I feel I can handle twice as much climbing, and if so then go for the scenic route.