Are you looking for new tech to keep you organized and exploring? Everything seems to have an app these days--and managing your travel is no exception. The Roadtrippers app is a novel piece of travel companion tech that can make it a whole lot easier to discover new places, plan trips, and stay on course along the way.
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From national parks to kitschy photo ops off the beaten path, the Roadtripper app provides it all. I love that the app creators are committed to providing an 'always free' option for the app. But I love the added value and the great annual price of Roadtrippers PRO even more.
Roadtrippers is an app built by the same company that has delivered Campendium and ToGo RV, both designed to help wanderlust RVers and campers discover campgrounds, destinations, and communities.
What the Roadtrippers App Has to Offer
First, let's take a quick look at the features. When you download the app (available for both Android and iOS), what are you really getting? Is it more than what you can already do with the likes of Waze, Google Maps, or Tripadvisor?
Roadtrippers can be accessed on any computer via the web or through a mobile app to keep you connected wherever you are. The main purpose is to provide a trip planner. Using an interactive map you can enter a starting point and an ending point and Roadtrippers will provide you with a route where you can see pin drops of suggestions based on popular categories:
Hotels & Unique Stays
Sights & Attractions
The Great Outdoors
Bars & Restaurants
Places to Camp
Activities & Experiences
Fuel & Rest Stops
Shopping
Sports & Wellness
Transportation
Give Roadtrippers PRO a try. Sign up here and save $5 on your annual subscription.
One thing that I really get frustrated about is keeping food cold while on the road. It doesn't matter whether we're taking a week to see the sights and drive out to the coast or putting up a tent to spend a few nights, I DISLIKE trying to keep my food dry while it's floating in half-melted ice. 😡
The Good & The Bad: Roadtrippers App Review
The Roadtrippers app is overall a great, user-friendly planning tool. It offers both a free version and a paid version with the main differences being the complexity of trip details and ad-supported content.
As you might expect, the PRO version comes ad-free while the free version will display a few ads. PRO users can also add up to 150 stops to a single trip while free users are limited to 5 waypoints.
What We Like About the Roadtrippers App
First, we'll talk about all of the stuff I love about using the Roadtrippers app.
User-Friendly, Engaging Design: The quality and style of the graphics as well as the availability of information an ease of navigation (e.g. intuitive design) are all on point.
Flexibility: When planning, you can add or remove stops with one click. And as you are making decisions, you can keep the waypoints you are interested in on your list but not necessarily on your route. If you decide to change routes and add them, it's just a quick toggle on or off.
Discovery Content: There is a large library of resources beyond the map, including dozens of articles and predesigned itineraries to help users discover new trips and stops.
Collaboration: You can share your routes in progress with other users which works well if you are planning a family road trip with multiple adults.
Estimate Gas Prices Based on Routes: This is a great tool. When you cross state lines, sometimes gas prices can be a bit of sticker shock. It's also a little tricky to accurately estimate road trip fuel costs so this feature has been really helpful and so far pretty spot on.
Favorites & Saved Places: If we are traveling in an unfamiliar area, finding and choosing places to eat is the worst. That's why I really like that this app includes restaurants and bars and a favorites feature to 'soft-save' them for your trip.
Reviews & Photos: The best apps work both ways. Roadtrippers provides ideas and planning tools to get you on the road and then allows you to share photos and reviews of your trips that give something back and help other roadtrippers share your experience.
In App Navigation: This one is an essential feature. I need to be able to use navigation from the same app where I planned the trip. Before Roadtrippers, I almost exclusively used Waze. The navigation features work well and incorporate my plans, favorites, and gas estimates--so for trips, I have made the switch.
What We Hope to See Added to the App in the Future
The great thing about technology is that it continues to evolve as needs change. Right now, I definitely prefer to do my planning on the desktop/web version. The app is useful for navigating in the car, but it's a little more difficult to use for the planning.
It's probably not a design flaw, but more of a challenge in seeing a large map with lots of pin drops on a small screen.
Give Roadtrippers PRO a try. Sign up here and save $5 on your annual subscription.
Roadtrips present a few (not insurmountable) challenges. One of the biggest priorities for my family is a way to make sure that we have power wherever we go. I initially bought the Jackery powerstation for camping but quickly found many more uses for it!