There’s never been a better time to enjoy the thrill of a road trip. Getting off the beaten track, feeling rejuvenated and at one with nature.
Mapping out a road trip and planning a travel route takes time and precision. Here are our Road Trip Planner Apps and tools, to help you focus on your journey and manage your road trip details from your phone.
Perhaps you want to plan a road trip with multiple stops. The good news is that using a number of road trip planning apps, will enable you to organise, plan and manage all details of your trip.
Here are some of the best road trip planner apps to download and help you plan your amazing adventure.
ABSURDLY USEFUL ROAD TRIP PLANNER APPS
Road Trip Planning Apps help you manage your trip, so the focus is firmly on your travel experience. From deciding on a destination, booking a flight, and surviving the airport, to packing and booking accommodation. From finding stops and attractions along the route, to eating and entertainment.
Road trip planning apps will help you save money and become a trusted companion. We have done all the research, and these are our favourite road trip planner tools and apps, to use when planning a trip.
BEST ROAD TRIP PLANNER APPS FOR FINDING FLIGHTS
1 | SKYSCANNER
Finding great flight deals is difficult with constantly fluctuating prices.
With the Skyscanner flight comparison app, all the hard work is done for you. Literally search hundreds of flights and airlines to find the best value deal. Some of the key features include:
- No booking fees
- Recent browser search when you next open the app
- A Saved Flight setting which shows up on your home screen, so you can continue where you left off
- Filter facility to search by airline, flight duration, number of stops and departure/arrival times
- A colour-coded calendar showing the cheapest dates and months to fly
- Price alert to notify you when prices drop
- Uncluttered interface which is easy to use
Download on: AppStore | Google Play
Price: Free
2 | SEATGURU
If you have ever wondered where is the best and indeed, worst places to be seated on a plane, SeatGuru will show you all this information plus more. Some of the app’s best features are:
- A powerful flight search engine with popular airlines
- Real-time flight status alerts
- Over 800 colour-coded airplane seat maps
- Which seats to avoid and why
- Reviews from over 45,000 passengers
Download on: AppStore | Google Play
Price: Free
BEST ROAD TRIP PLANNER APPS FOR FINDING ACCOMMODATION
3 | BOOKING.COM
Booking.com is the search engine we use the most, for all our hotel and self-catering stays, when travelling as a couple. The app has so many great features, but some of the best are:
- Extremely easy to navigate, use and make hotel bookings
- Free cancellation on nearly all rooms
- Unbiased review system per listing
- Price match guarantee
- Efficient and quick customer support
- App-exclusive deals for users
Download on: AppStore | Google Play
Price: Free
4 | HOTELTONIGHT
This easy to use app has 24/7 customer support, and offers incredible last-minute hotel deals on empty rooms. To find the best rate, search the map or city location, and reserve a room. You can also check reviews and traveller photos.
Download on: AppStore | Google Play
Price: Free
5| AIRBnB
Airbnb offer an opportunity to stay in a real home instead of a hotel. It offers a great choice if travelling with family as you can all share the cost, making good savings. Some great features include:
- A diverse array of different accommodation, including treehouses, villas, flats, apartments, cottages and cabins
- Useful search filters such as property type, facilities, price, location and amenities for a more personal feel
- Colourful photographs and guest reviews to check details
- You deal direct with the host
Download on: AppStore | Google Play
Price: Free
6 | HOMEAWAY
Another great accommodation rental agency that we have used and had a positive experience from, is HomeAway. Similar to Airbnb, this site has an abundant choice of accommodations to choose from. Features include:
- Choose from over two million unique listings
- An easy and simple booking process
- Accommodation in 190 countries
- Numerous search filters to match your personal preferences
- Availability calendar, reviews and colour photographs of properties
- Great choices such as cabins, barns, villas, farmhouses and castles
Download on: AppStore | Google Play
Price: Free
7 | RANKERS CAMPING NZ
If you are planning on taking a road trip around stunning New Zealand in a car or campervan, this app is your new best friend. Some of its amazing features include:
- Over 2,000 locations of every legal camping site, together with details and rules applicable
- Shows freedom camping sites, holiday parks, free and paid sites
- Includes all i-sites & DOC visitor centres
- The location of public dump stations
- Over 60,000 independent reviews to read
- Offline capability for viewing maps
- You can save your favourites PLUS, top ranking activities, supermarkets, points of interest etc are included.
- NOTE: For offline maps, use a WiFi connection and be patient, as they are detailed files which take time to download
Download on: AppStore or iPad
Price: Free
BEST ROAD TRIP PLANNER APPS FOR TRIP ORGANISATION
8 | GOOGLEMAPS
Probably the BEST road trip planning app to use for navigation, is trusted Google Maps. Incredibly adaptable, you can plot your journey, pinpoint attractions along the route, and download your map to use offline.
Some of its great features include:
- Accurate navigation with how long the trip takes and the mileage/kms
- Can plot out routes by bike, car or walking
- Download offline maps ahead of trip
- Search for attractions, restaurants & points of interest etc
- A Save Feature to mark favourite places, must-see sights etc
- Works worldwide and easy to use
For road trips, this app is invaluable, even when you have no phone service. A few extra tips are:
- Keeping the app open, will ensure the GPS tracker continues running, even when you are stopped or you lose service.
- The Offline Map icon (cloud with a line through) is easy to use. Just customise your map by zooming in and out. Then press download and you have your custom offline map.
- When planning your road trip, a great tool to use is the “Your Places” tab. From www.google.com/maps/, click “Navigation” on the top left, and a drop down menu appears. Click “Your Places”, create a map, and you can use different coloured pins to mark different categories. This way, all your favourites are in one place.
Download on: AppStore | GooglePlay
Price: Free
9 | GASBUDDY
Fuel constitutes a large expense on a road trip. Prices fluctuate and are inconsistent, so budgeting for fuel can be difficult. This is where GasBuddy comes in extremely handy. Although only covering the USA, it is invaluable on any trip.
Basically, the desktop/mobile app helps you find the cheapest gas prices on any route. Just type in your starting point and final destination. Gas Buddy calculates the fastest route, showing the cheapest gas stops along the way.
- Gives you 27 ways to save money on gas at the 150,000 gas stations throughout North America.
- Trip cost calculator provides you with a trip plan costing
- Locate the cheapest gas stations along your route to save money
- Local gas prices directory
- Filters including vehicle make, model & year for estimate accuracy
Download on: AppStore | Google Play
Price: Free
10 |TRIPIT
Organisation is key for any road trip, and Tripit helps you manage your entire itinerary, whether you have data connection or not. You can store all your bookings in one place, saving you time and hassle.
TripIt has lots of features to help you stay organized and find your way around on your next road trip:
- When you book a flight, hotel, car or other reservation, simply forward it to plans@tripit.com and it will be instantly added it to your master itinerary.
- Easily sync travel plans to your calendar or share them with family & friends.
- See safety scores for neighbourhoods worldwide, rated from low to high risk.
- Map View plots out your entire trip on a map.
- Navigator pulls up driving directionsbetween two points.
- Nearby Places locates the closest parking, ATMs, cafes & restaurants.
- Pinpoint flight information and other important details instantly, even when you are offline.
Download on: AppStore | Google Play
Price: Free
11 | TRIPADVISOR
The TripAdvisor app is free, easy to use, and the perfect travel planner when organising a trip. Several features include:
- Access to over 830 million reviews/recommendations from travellers, on accommodation, things to do, must-do experiences and places to eat.
- Save and organise ideas, in the “Trips” planning tool and view them on a map
- Ask and get answers to specific questions, in the local forums, from fellow travellers and locality experts
- Worldwide search for any destination
- Compare hotel prices from over 200 booking sites worldwide
- Free city guides to download
Download on: AppStore | Google Play
Price: Free
12 | TRIPOSO
This travel guide app works offline and helps you find things to do across 50,000 destinations and 3 million points of interest. Some great features include:
- Works offline so you can avoid roaming charges. Get access to offline maps, routing & city walks
- Can view and download full or mini guides to major cities and countries
- Covers categories such as Food, Nightlife, Sights, Attractions, Hotels, Transport & more
- You can set up the app for your home currency and use the currency converter.
- Download your guides before you leave the country
- Book your hotel, tours, activities and transportation in the app
Download on: AppStore | Google Play
Price: Free
13 | XE CURRENCY
For currency conversion at your fingertips, this is a very useful tool to have installed. It has many uses, such as monitoring live global markets and accessing live money transfer rates.
However, we use it purely to convert foreign currency prices, so we can keep a check of our budget.
Download on: AppStore | Google Play
Price: Free
BEST ROAD TRIP PLANNER APPS FOR NAVIGATING & GETTING AROUND
14 | CITYMAPPER
It can be daunting trying to navigate your way around a large city for the first time. Citymapper compares all travel options, in real time, across all transport and transit modes.
- Use the “Go” assistant to navigate you on all public transportation, cycling and walking routes and choose between 3 different map views
- Plan your trip using the best route, combining several modes of transport
- Train & bus tracker on a real-time map, with estimated time of arrival/live waiting times
- Get alerted when it’s time to get off the train or bus. Have daily updates including delays, alternative routes and schedule changes.
Download on: AppStore | Google Play
Price: Free
15 | PARKOPEDIA
Driving around looking for parking is both stressful and a time waster.
Parkopedia allows you to find the closest parking to your destination. The app also advises how much it will cost and whether the space is available. Some other useful features include:
- Detailed information on over 70 million parking spaces in 89 countries.
- Search for type of parking required, via filters
- Photos of the car park entrance
- Real-time parking availability
- The ability to pay for parking online, through a mobile app and in-car
Download on: AppStore | Google Play
Price: Free
BEST ROAD TRIP PLANNER APPS FOR ENTERTAINMENT
16 | POCKET
Its useful when you are on the road, to have a selection of reading material at hand. With Pocket, you can save interesting articles, videos and more from the internet for later enjoyment.
Content is listed once saved, and you can view your saved literature anywhere, even offline. It is a great way to save articles in one place, and read them at your own pace.
Download on: AppStore | Google Play
Price: Free
BEST ROAD TRIP PLANNER APPS FOR PHOTOGRAPHY
17 | SNAPSEED
On any road trip, you will undoubtedly be taking lots of photos. Snapseed offers you the most powerful potential for a free mobile photo-editing app. Whether you want instant results for social media posts, or to take your time with your editing, this app offers fantastic results.
Some particular features include:
- User level is for beginner, intermediate & expert
- In app tutorials to help you start with the basics of using Snapseed’s tools.
- The user interface is simple and user-friendly
- 29 in-depth tools and filters to choose from
- Filters can be combined
- All styles are tweakable
- Text can be added to photos
Download on: AppStore or GooglePlay
Price: Free
Give some or all of these planner apps a try when you are planning your next road trip. These resources will help you plan your trip, prevent you getting bogged down with endless paperwork, so you can simply enjoy the ride.
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WHERE TO GO FROM HERE
We love a great road trip, and find it’s our favourite way to explore. If you found this guide useful, why not head over to our Road Trips Page, and discover some of our trips to date.