Skydemon is by far IMO the best planning software, they are all much the same when using them to navigate with. I have SD on the iPhone but tend to use an Aware if I'm going to use a GPS as it has half mil maps on it rather than the vector mapping on SD. I have loads of pre prepared routes, places I've been before, places I know I'm going to be going at some time. I just port them across to all of the GPS solutions I have.
You'll find that there are some places that you like to go to maybe two or three times a year. They might have a nice caff or a nice pub nearby. Eventually you won't even have to get a map out never mind a GPS. It may not seem like that now but you will soon get very familiar with the local area say up to a hundred mile radius.