Planning a trip can be exciting and daunting at the same time.
On the one hand, the excitement of a new adventure gets our adrenaline flowing and makes us dream of new discoveries and memories.
On the other hand, travel itineraries come with a host of challenges: stops and places to stay that need to be planned, information and reservations to keep track of, and the fear of missing out on must-see places (FOMO).
If you've been planning your trip by frantically searching multiple sites, scouring emails for reservation information, creating spreadsheets, or other time-consuming planning strategies, there's a better way.
Travel planning apps take the guesswork and stress out of vacation planning by devising, organizing and guiding your travel itinerary — but not all travel planning apps are created equal.
In this article, we compare the features of existing tools to help you choose the best trip planning app for you.
How this list was created
We've been building trip planning apps since 2012. During that time, we've gotten to know our competitors really well, and we've also developed a deep understanding of what our fellow road trippers want and don't want in a trip planning app, so we can build a better app.
To create this list, we tested competing apps and thoroughly researched the features of other apps. Below is a detailed review of the features of other trip planning apps compared to Roadtrippers.
What to look for in a travel planning app
In this article, we'll go through a series of questions you should ask the app when searching for the right trip planner.
Since we are the ones looking for things ourselves this way, I thought it would be a good way to organize the information.
Do travel apps inspire you?
Most of our competitors only offer tools to help you choose and plan your trip, then it's up to you to find travel inspiration elsewhere.
That's why it's important to ask if your travel planning app can provide you with trip inspiration — if it doesn't, it might be time to look for another app.
From day one, Roadtrippers has been unique in this respect.
Our theme is “helping people discover interesting things along their journey and avoid fast food and big box store suggestions.”
Road Trippers
We were founded by travellers who enjoy the places and spaces they encounter on their travels.
These travellers' stories will be featured on our app, allowing us to harness the collective energy of the road traveller community.
Source: Anja via Unsplash
Take for example our “Extraordinary Places” series – in-depth content created by our community about off-the-beaten-path locations across each state. Our content is then brought into the Roadtrippers trip planning app, where you can get inspiration from these stories as you plan your trip.
And then there are travel guides, user-generated itineraries that include experiences and reviews from other travelers that you can use to customize your own trip.
Best of all, we combined all the data and stories from 38 million real trips taken on our platform to create Roadtrippers Autopilot™. Autopilot leverages the power of human travel and supercomputing skills to suggest an entire trip itinerary based on just a few questions. From there, you can customize your trip just the way you like.
Our handwritten content combined with the power of Autopilot™ makes this the best trip planning app for travel inspiration.
How do trip planning apps plan routes?
Only one of our competitors' apps asks if you're driving an RV or a car. This is an important question because an RVer's travel route can be very different from a car user's travel route.
For example, a trip along a scenic, remote road may be perfect for a convertible, but terrible in an RV because of low bridge heights, tiny gas stations, etc.
Additionally, it's important that the app communicates how one route will affect fuel economy for each vehicle type compared to another: Someone traveling in a large SUV may want a more direct, fuel-efficient route, while someone traveling in a smaller car may prefer a more scenic route.
So your trip planning app should ask you questions about the vehicle you'll be driving before it can start planning your route.
Roadtrippers is one of the few apps that does just that, and it even estimates fuel costs for your planned trip based on the type of car you have, so you can plan your route accordingly.
How long does it take to plan a trip?
The purpose of a trip planning app is to simplify the process of planning a trip. In this regard, not all apps are created equal. Some apps require the use of external tools to plan a complete trip. Most apps eat up a lot of time that could be spent dreaming about a vacation.
Roadtrippers Autopilot™ is the only trip planning tool that significantly speeds up the planning process by automatically generating trips that anyone can use as a baseline to easily add/remove locations.
Answer a few simple questions and let Autopilot™ do all the heavy lifting. We use data from over 38 million real trips to build the foundation of your itinerary. From there, you can fine-tune your vacation by adding stops, stays, and detours right in the app.
Related: What's the best AI trip planner?
Questions an RV route planning app should ask
RVers need a trip planning app that plots safe, streamlined routes, as many of our competitors offer one-size-fits-all trip plans that aren't tailored for RVers.
What RV users need are campgrounds, gas stations that can accommodate larger vehicles, and fun rest areas for campers along the way.
Therefore, the app you choose should ask you questions to create a route that is safe for your RV.
Here’s how the Roadtrippers app works for RV users:
An RV-safe route is planned for you based on your camper's dimensions. Campgrounds (and free overnight parking) are displayed along the route, and many spots are reservable within the app. Roadtrippers Magazine is packed with RV-focused travel inspiration content to help you find the perfect activities for your road trip.
What about waypoints?
Waypoints are planned stops along a trip. Hotels, campgrounds, restaurants, and tourist attractions are types of waypoints.
Here are some questions to ask your travel planning app:
Can I edit, reorder or delete waypoints? Planning your trip is something you have to do yourself. Roadtrippers lets you customize your waypoints to your heart's content. Many of our competitors don't allow this. Can I add custom notes to each stop? It's handy to have reservations and other information stored in the most appropriate place. A trip planning app like Roadtrippers lets you place custom notes at every stop, so this information is stored in the right place. Many of our competitors don't offer this feature, so you might find your reservation information isn't where you need it and you're frantically searching through emails or spreadsheets. Can I change my route? Believe it or not, some trip planning apps make it hard to change your route after you've initially planned it. The Roadtrippers app has a drag-and-drop feature that lets you move, change or add your route on an interactive map. Are there any recommended stops? Sometimes you just want to let a trip planning app provide your travel inspiration. Autopilot™ is our tool that plans your entire trip based on your answers to a few questions. No competitor offers trip planning like this.
A secluded spot or a remote one?
The app should allow you to customize your route, whether it's on major roads or not.
Some of our competitors support this, but none have a content library like ours, including travel guides and blog content. This content is instantly available in our trip planning app, so you can stay inspired while you travel.
Insider info
The best trip planning apps feature local knowledge about your destination, and Roadtrippers combines rich content with real reviews to help you live like a local while traveling.
Do trip planning apps help you plan your trip affordably?
What good is a travel planning app that plans trips way beyond your budget?
The Roadtrippers app will show you the approximate fuel cost for a trip in a particular vehicle, and locations within the app also feature pricing information and reviews so you know what to expect.
Autopilot™ plans your entire trip based on a budget range you select, a feature not offered by other trip planning apps.
Who will navigate?
Believe it or not, many of the trip planning apps out there don't have built-in navigation features.
Even if you create an entire trip using a competitor's app, you may still need to manually recreate that trip in another navigation app, such as Google Maps.
Roadtrippers is one of the few trip planning apps with built-in navigation, meaning you can plan and navigate your trip from the same app. And our navigation is RV-friendly, so you can hit the road with peace of mind.
Does it work well with Apple CarPlay?
Like you, we want your trips to be easily accessible, which is why we developed the Roadtrippers app to sync with Apple CarPlay – making our app one of the few trip planning apps that lives right on your car's dashboard screen.
What do you think of the reviews?
Check if your trip planning app shows peer reviews of the places you want to stop.
This is where Roadtrippers shines: at almost every waypoint we set, you can read real people's experiences.
There are competitors that do similar things, but they focus more on displaying reviews, and then it's up to you to find a different system for adding stops and creating your itinerary.
With Roadtrippers trip planning app, you can do all this in one place.
Offline maps?
RVers especially tend to travel to areas with poor cell service, which is where a travel app that lets you download maps for offline use becomes important.
Roadtrippers Premium offers this feature to help you navigate wireless free zones, but many of our competitors do not offer this feature.
Source: Denys Nevozhai via Unsplash
Travel info or travel inspiration?
Many competing travel planning apps function primarily as storage tools for collecting and organizing travel information.
That's great, but we believe a trip planning app should inspire and guide you, while giving you great tools to plan, navigate, and enjoy your ideal trip.
That's why we developed Roadtrippers, an app that captures the essence of travel while giving you all the practical tools you need for your trip.
Can I plan a trip with friends?
Trip planning is a better team effort, and Roadtrippers allows you to add collaborators to your trip so you can plan trips with friends and family.
Who is the Roadtrippers app aimed at?
Roadtrippers is for RVers looking for a one-stop destination for campgrounds, RV parks, overnight parking, RV-safe routes, gas stations and more.
Roadtrippers is a site for people who travel by road, helping them find the best hotels, restaurants, attractions and unusual stops along the way.
Roadtrippers is for groups of friends or family planning a trip together.
The Roadtrippers app brings you travel inspiration, trip planning and navigation all in one place.
Who is the Roadtrippers app not suitable for?
If you plan on flying a lot during your trip or travelling internationally a lot, we recommend complementing it with other apps as Roadtrippers can’t cover everything.
When comparing the pros and cons of trip planning apps, it's important to find a tool that has all the features you need so you're not bouncing back and forth from the app to email, a spreadsheet, or an external navigation app.
While many travel apps deliver on some of these elements, Roadtrippers is the only app that brings it all together to make your trip the right one, whether you're traveling by car, RV, or anything in between.
