Multi-Modal Directions Across Great Britain — Car, Bike, Foot and Public Transport

Directions are one of the most requested features in location-aware apps. Delivery trackers, travel planners, property portals, fleet dashboards — they all need routes drawn on a map with clear, step-by-step instructions. Goggle Places' Directions API covers all of Great Britain with car, bike, foot, and public transport routing behind a single endpoint, so you can build a complete navigation experience without stitching together multiple providers.

Four modes, one API call

POST /directions accepts an origin, a destination, optional waypoints, and a mode — auto, bicycle, pedestrian, or transit. The response shape is normalised across all modes, so your frontend code doesn't need to handle different response formats. Car routes account for GB road rules and speed limits. Cycling routes favour quieter roads and cycle paths. Walking routes include footpaths and cut-throughs that cars can't use. And transit routes combine GB National Rail, London Underground, DLR, buses, and ferries into a single journey plan.

Public transport with live GB rail and London transit

Transit routing is notoriously complex — timetables, transfers, walking legs between stops — and most mapping APIs either don't offer it or charge a premium. Goggle Places includes GB National Rail and London transit (Tube, DLR, bus, ferry) in the same Directions endpoint, at the same per-request rate. The response includes departure times, transfer instructions, walking segments, and total journey duration. For travel apps, commuter tools, and tourism platforms, this is the feature that turns a map into a journey planner.

Drawing routes on the map

The Directions API returns a polyline — an encoded series of coordinates that traces the route along roads, paths, or rail lines. Decode it into a GeoJSON LineString and add it as a layer to your Goggle Places vector map. Style it with a bold line, drop markers at the origin, destination, and each waypoint, and you have a visual route that users can follow at a glance. The drop-in widget handles all of this automatically — search for a destination, pick a mode, and the route appears on the map with manoeuvre instructions alongside.

Matrices and isochrones for advanced use cases

Sometimes you need more than a single A-to-B route. The Matrix API (POST /matrix) returns travel time and distance between every combination of sources and targets — essential for fleet dispatch, delivery optimisation, and 'which branch is closest?' features. Isochrones answer a different question: 'How far can I get from this point in 15 minutes?' — and return a polygon you can draw on the map. Both use the same mode options as Directions and are billed by elements (sources × targets for matrices, per request for isochrones).

Combining search, maps, and directions

The real power of Goggle Places is that search, maps, and directions all work together behind one API key. A user types a destination into predictive search, selects a result, sees it on the vector map, and taps 'Get directions'. The route appears instantly — by car, bike, foot, or train — with turn-by-turn instructions. No additional providers, no credential juggling, no mismatched data. The drop-in widget delivers this entire flow out of the box, or you can build it piece by piece with the HTTP APIs.

Real-world use cases

Delivery apps use Directions for driver ETAs and Matrix for dispatching the nearest courier. Property portals show commute times by car and train to help buyers compare locations. Tourism sites plan multi-stop itineraries with waypoints. Fleet managers use isochrones to define service areas. EV apps combine Nearby (to find charge points) with Directions (to route there) in a single user flow. Every one of these can be built with Goggle Places' GB-wide coverage, transparent pricing, and a free tier to prototype on.

Get started today

Create an organisation in the Goggle Places dashboard, mint an API key scoped to 'directions', and make your first POST /directions call — no credit card required until you exceed the free monthly allowance. Full GB road and rail coverage, four travel modes, matrices, isochrones, and a normalised response format that keeps your code clean. It's everything you need to add directions to your product, without the complexity or cost of piecing it together yourself.