Best Apps For Planning Road Trips

Technology has transformed the way that we travel in countless ways. Paper maps and GPS navigation systems have been replaced by our iPhones and Androids, making road trip-planning apps easier.

Travel apps help users research destinations, find good routes and accommodation deals, and book services. Some apps will even offer travel guides and allow users to check reviews and ratings from travelers.

Check out these handy road trip planners to make your next trip much easier and more enjoyable.

15 Best Apps For Planning a Road Trip

Here are the best road trip apps you can download to give you peace of mind and spend more time enjoying your trip.

Waze (Google Play Store | Apple App Store)

If you wish to navigate new cities like a local, then Waze is the app for you as it is a community-driven travel app that will allow you the shortest route to your destination. Waze is one of the best apps because it has real-time updates. The real-time updates will help you avoid traffic jams, construction, and any other updates on road conditions.

The Waze app encourages passengers to post any eventualities on the road and lets you know when there are speed traps. This app also syncs with your google calendar and can tell you when the right time is for you to leave for appointments based on traffic.

Waze also has hands-free navigation with voice commands.

Cost: Free

Google Maps (Google Play Store | Apple App Store)

Every road tripper, including you, need a trusty navigational mobile app, and you can count on google to make your trip planning a breeze. Google Maps apps allow you to plot out directions to your destination and determine how long it will take with real-time updates and traffic conditions.

With pre-constructed day plans that you can customize to your liking it makes, it is one of the most versatile travel planners. This app lets you see your rental car, hotel, and restaurant bookings. In a nutshell, it helps you to build a tentative itinerary.

Cost: Free

The Dyrt (The Dyrt | Google Play Store | Apple App Store)

Does your family love spending some quality time in the woods or out stargazing and enjoying all that nature has to offer? Then you will want to download this free app, the Dyrt. With this app, you can comfortably find RV, tent, and cabin sites in the United States.

And before you entirely decide on the cabin site you have chosen, it will help you get to read the site’s review, which is fantastic. With the reviews and photos of the site, you will be able to make the best choice for a place to stay.

Cost: Free [upgrade for Pro features]

All Trail (All Trails | Google Play Store | Apple App Store)

The all trails app is best for planning and hiking. It is a fitness and travels mobile app that you can use for reactional activities. You can easily find and save hikes all over the United States through the all trails app.

The all-trail app will also allow you to access a database of trail maps, trail guides, trail reviews, and trail photos. This makes the all trails app a great companion, especially if your road trip involves hiking.

Cost: Free [upgrade for Pro features]

Gasbuddy (Google Play Store | Apple App Store)

When road-tripping, the last thing you want is for gas to eat up much of your road-trip budget, right? You do not need to worry about your planned budget, as Gasbuddy is an app specifically designed to find gas stations near you and save money on gas.

But how does it help in saving you a few bucks? This app enables you to find the cheapest gas station in your area, ensuring that you do not pay more than you have to when filling up your tank. It also helps you to filter gas stations by amenities like restaurants, bathrooms, and car washes.

The information on the app comes from other motorists like you ( as you can enter the gas prices as you travel). This ensures you always have the most up-to-date gas prices and nearby parking, guaranteeing the perfect road trip.

Cost: Free

Roadtrippers (Google Play Store | Apple App Store)

Are you looking for a road trip planner that will help you create your route and allow you to discover great places as you plan it out? Then the Roadtrippers app is one of the best and most popular apps that will do just that.

The Roadtrippers app is built for travelers, as you can plan your journey in collaboration with your friends and families, and features an easy-to-use interface. With the Roadtrippers app, you will discover great places you can stop along your route.

The best part of the Roadtrippers app is that it covers not only the US but also Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. While the app is free for you to maximize it ( all the good stuff) entirely, you will need to upgrade to Roadtrippers Plus, which charges $29.99 annually.

Cost: Free [Upgrade to Plus] You can get $5 off using our code BTR5QTP here.

Hotel Tonight (Google Play Store | Apple App Store)

Hotel Tonight is an excellent app for scoring good hotel deals for a spur-of-the-moment trip. It is a perfect road trip planning tool for those nights you feel you need to crash and relax.

Hotel Tonight will help you to find a good deal on nearby hotels and motels and give you directions straight there whether you did not make plans or your overnight plans did not fall through.

It is a user-friendly interface app that allows you to book a discounted room in minutes comfortably. No more paying double for a hotel room at the last minute!

Cost: Free

iExit Interstate Exit Guide (Google Play Store | Apple App Store)

Making pit stops for gas, lodging, food, or bathroom breaks can be tricky, but with the iExit app, you eliminate the guesswork as it helps you find exactly where to stop. This app uses GPS to offer helpful suggestions for when and where you can stop based on your location along the highway.

This app got you covered whether you are looking for well-known franchises like Walmart and Starbucks, convenient amenities like truck or trailer packing, or even free Wi-Fi.

Cost: Free

Spotify (Google Play Store | Apple App Store)

No road trip is complete without the best travel playlist, making Spotify one of the best apps to plan a road trip. With the Spotify app, you can tune into your favorite music, queue app-curated playlists, and listen to podcasts as you cruise. And with an auxiliary cord, you can hook up your tunes to the stereo and jam out.

But you seriously need to get Spotify Premium for $9.99 a month so that you can listen to music without ads and also download playlists that you can listen to offline. It’s so worth it.

Cost: Free {Upgrade to Premium]

Maps.Me (Google Play Store | Apple App Store)

If you are heading to a spotty internet place, you might consider getting the Maps. Me app. The Map. Me app will offer you quick, in-depth, and entirely offline maps with turn-by-turn navigation.

The Map. Me is famous worldwide and will help you with your precious time with exceptional navigation. What’s more, is that with the Map. Me app you can make your travel more enjoyable by utilizing the app’s fantastic ready-made travel guides.

The ready-made travel guides have been curated with some assistance from some of the best travel content creators in the world—the Map. Me app is also great as it includes GPS navigation, offline search, and optimized maps that effectively save memory space on your phone.

Cost: Free

Packpoint (Google Play Store | Apple App Store)

Packing right is, more often than not, a requisite for a relaxed road trip. With Packpoint, one of the best free route planning apps, you will be sure to have all that you need based on where you are going and what you are doing.

It is a free travel packing organizer and packing planner designed to help you travel smart. This app will help you organize what you need to pack based on the length of your travel, typical weather at the destination, and activities that you wish to plan for the trip.

After you build your packing list, you can share it with your friends and families to help them pack better. For the best results while using this app, you will need to input details such as:

Departure date
Number of nights that you plan to stay
Destination city

The best part of this app has to be that it turns a mundane chore into something quite fun.

Cost: Free

ParkMe Parking (Google Play Store | Apple App Store)

ParkMe is an award-winning app that claims to be the world’s largest and most accurate database. The parkMe app allows you to get the cheapest and closest parking around. Using the ParkMe app will help you save money and time and, at the same time, guarantee you a parking spot.

This app also has a feature that helps you estimate the parking cost you will have to pay before parking in a particular spot. It will also allow you to compare prices across parking providers, helping you save a buck.

In most cities, ParkMe also displays real-time parking availability and allows you to reserve parking at certain lots and garages.

Using the ParkMe app will help you avoid spending hours searching for the right parking spot making your road trip experience even more pleasant.

Cost: Free

Yelp (Google Play Store | Apple App Store)

Whether you are looking for a coffee shop near you or a barber that is open now, Yelp is your local travel app and will help you find the best place to eat, shop, drink, and all the in-betweens.

With the Yelp app that features over 100 million reviews on businesses worldwide, you can search for the closest and best-rated restaurants, services, and shops. The best part is that you can refine your search by filtering the results by price, ratings, neighborhood, distance, and what’s open now.

With millions of reviews written by local experts, you will surely get the best recommendations for your needs. And more importantly, you will be able to avoid restaurants that flirt too closely with the health code.

Cost: Free

TripIt Travel Planner (Google Play Store | Apple App Store)

TripIt is a trip planner that will enable you to craft a master travel itinerary and provide you with online and mobile access. When planning a trip, you mostly have a lot of confirmation emails for hotels, restaurants, appointments, and attractions. The TripIt app syncs all this info with your inbox and uses that information to compile an itinerary, ensuring that you do not have to scramble for it.

TripIt will also allow you to sync travel plans to your calendar or share them with anyone you choose using this app. The app also lets you stay aware of evolving travel landscape with guidelines, restrictions, and requirements that can easily be viewed using the trip itinerary screen in the app.

TripIt has a free version that is fine for road trips, but if you are flying, the premium version allows you the option to upgrade seats and track reward miles.

Cost: Free [upgrade to Pro]

Airbnb (Google Play Store | Apple Store)

The Airbnb app allows you to book vocational homes and experiences across the globe. And while it is perhaps a prominent road trip app, it is worthwhile for many reasons besides the obvious.

In addition to booking a place to stay while on your road trip, the Airbnb app now also offers city guides written by savvy locals, workshops, host meet-ups with fellow travelers, and even get some audio walking guides.

Airbnb will help you get a taste of wherever you are traveling to, irrespective of how long you are staying there. So, whether you are booking rental home weeks in advance or looking for a last-minute place to sleep, the Airbnb app will help you through.

Cost: Free

We hope you’ve discovered a useful travel app for your next road trip on this list. Don’t forget before your next journey to check out our complete guide to road trip essentials – it includes a downloadable family travel checklist to help getting your car and your family ready for your next big adventure on the road.