The route planning method for agricultural work vehicles having a definite working width for generation of at least one work path or track over a field includes inputting at least one field-specific datum and at least one work vehicle-specific datum into an electronic data processing unit; providing a computational algorithm in the electronic data processing unit for generation of the at least one work path or track, which includes at least one optimization criterion for the at least one work path or track and generating the at least one work path or track by executing the computational algorithm to obtain the at least one work path or track in the form of at least one digitized work route for one or more work vehicles using the at least one field-specific datum and/or the at least one work vehicle-specific datum. A guidance apparatus for performing the method is also described.