Why the fastest route is not the goal
Other navigation apps are built to get you there quickly. With a sleeping baby in the back, fewer stops matter more than an earlier arrival. LullaRoute counts the stop lights, stop signs and left turns across traffic on each route it finds and shows you the numbers before you choose one. It can also make the drive last as long as the nap needs, instead of ending it early.
Arriving eight minutes earlier does not help if the baby is awake when you carry them inside. The quickest route often takes the main road, for example through nine red lights and a four-way stop.
LullaRoute reads the same roads, counts the stop lights, stop signs and turns across traffic, and looks for a calm route instead. Before you choose it, you can see how many minutes it adds. When the drive needs to last as long as the rest of the nap, LullaRoute deliberately plans a longer route.
LullaRoute is free to download, and there is no account to create. LullaRoute+ is optional.
Driving to a destination
Enter a destination, set what you want to avoid, and choose from the routes LullaRoute finds. The screen recording shows the whole process.
Choose what to avoid
Three sliders let you ask for fewer stop lights, fewer stop signs or more highway. On some drives the problem is a neighbourhood with a stop sign on every block; on others it is a series of lights on the main road. Left turns across traffic are avoided either way, without a separate setting.
If the drive to a destination also needs to last a certain length, LullaRoute+ sets that. The trip length slider starts at the fastest time in which the trip can realistically be driven, and you add time from there.
Check the counts before you go
Every route option lists its stop lights, stop signs and hard turns, with the fastest route’s lights and left turns printed underneath, so you can see what the calmer one costs you in minutes and decide whether it’s worth it.
With LullaRoute+ you can add up to three stops on the way, such as a coffee shop or a pharmacy, and the route is planned around them.
No voice guidance
A large turn banner is shown at the top of the screen. Before each turn the phone vibrates twice: once early enough to change lanes, and again as the turn comes up. There is no voice at any point. The screen stays on, and the arrival time is shown at the bottom. The vibrations can be turned off in Settings.
If the baby wakes early, tap Home to skip the rest of the loop and go straight home. If the baby is still asleep as you near the end, +15 extends the drive by 15 minutes from where you are.
Driving with no destination
When the baby will not settle and the car is the only thing that works, there is often nowhere in particular to go. Tap Just drive, choose a length from ten to ninety minutes, and LullaRoute plans a calm loop that leaves from where you are and brings you back. Just drive is free.
Places and events nearby
Discover lists calm places a short drive away and events for small children in the next two weeks. It is free.
Calm places nearby
Parks, playgrounds, lakes and greenways up to about 20 miles away are listed with their drive times. Choose 20, 30, 45 or 60 minutes and tap a place. LullaRoute plans a calm route there, and with LullaRoute+ the drive is planned to last that long.
Events nearby
Library storytimes, museum and zoo mornings and family shows are listed with their times, the drive there and, where the venue provides it, the age range. Listings come from the venues’ own calendars in a growing list of cities, and from Ticketmaster’s family shows across the US and Canada.
Saving, reminders and sharing
Save keeps an event for later, and Remind sends a notification between an hour and a day before it starts. Share sends a link that opens in any browser, and Navigate there starts a calm drive to the venue.
Features for your regular drives
Save a drive that worked
When a loop settles the baby, save it. Next time, one tap replays exactly that loop straight away, with no planning and no signal needed.
Avoid a specific turn
If there is a junction near you where you would rather not turn, mark it on the map and choose the turns to skip. Routes planned after that avoid those turns where possible. If a route still uses one, the route preview says so.
An automatic nap log
Every drive of five minutes or more is recorded in the nap log, with how long it took and how many lights and stop signs were on the way.
Read it in your language
Choose English, French or Spanish inside the app, on the first screen after you install it or at any time in Settings. Turn instructions are given in the same language, whatever language the phone is set to.
Start a loop without typing
A home-screen widget starts a calm loop straight away, and so does asking Siri.
CarPlay and Android Auto
The car screen will show the next turn, the calm route you chose and the same +15 button for when the nap needs longer, all usable one-handed at a glance. Android Auto comes with the Android app, and CarPlay with the iPhone app’s next update.
Routing is free
LullaRoute
No account or email needed
- Routing across the US and Canada
- Just drive: a loop from your door, ten to ninety minutes
- All three sliders, with left turns avoided by default
- Stop and light counts on every option
- Discover, saved drives, turns to avoid and the nap log
- Silent guidance with two vibrations before each turn
LullaRoute+
or $24.99$49.99 once for lifetime access
Founding-member price through November 30. After that, lifetime access is $49.99.
- Trips to a destination, timed to the nap: a drive to daycare planned to last 40 minutes
- Up to three stops on the way
- What’s on my way: coffee, gas, pharmacies
- Family Sharing, so both parents have it
The yearly subscription renews until you cancel it; the one-time purchase does not renew. Prices are in US dollars. The App Store and Google Play charge the equivalent in your own currency.
For local businesses
Put your logo on LullaRoute's map, labelled “Ad”, near your café, shop or drive-thru.