A route determining method, apparatus, and a network device are disclosed. The method includes a first forwarding node receives routing information from a second forwarding node, and then sends a packet to a destination node based on the routing information. The routing information includes a node identifier of the destination node and at least one piece of indication information that is in a one-to-one correspondence with at least one third forwarding node, and the second forwarding node belongs to the at least one third forwarding node. The packet includes the at least one piece of indication information, and the at least one piece of indication information indicates to forward the packet along the at least one third forwarding node.