In 2020 we took a 5 month long road trip to visit national parks and historical locations across the lower 48 states! We learned so much about how to navigate sleeping locations and how to save money while traveling.
These are the 6 apps that saved us money, helped us plan, and made our road trip possible!
Gas Buddy
Okay, you should probably be using Gas Buddy in your day to day life but especially on road trips. If you don’t know about Gas Buddy it is an app that pulls current gas prices at gas stations. This means that you know where the cheapest gas is in the city and where the next/closest gas station is to you on the road!
All gas station rewards apps
This technically isn’t one app, I know that. But in order to save money and earn rewards you need to sign up for every gas station program and download all apps for gas stations you will visit on your road trip! We downloaded probably 6 or 7 gas station apps but it ended up saving us so much money. We would get a percentage off our gas or free drinks/snacks.
Campendium
We have used Campendium before to find camp sites near National Parks. But I had no idea how much this app would help on a road trip! We found amazing boon docking sites and also parking lots to sleep in!
When you are sleeping in your car, you need to know which businesses will allow you to sleep there. We mostly stayed at Cracker Barrel, Walmart, Bass Pro Shop, and Cabella’s!
Road Trippers
You know how you hear about people visiting things like the largest ball of yarn or the tallest pair of boots on road trips?! They probably used Road Trippers! You can put in your destination and it will pull up all the road side attractions near your route!
We were able to find super awesome things like Car Henge and the largest pair of legs by using Road Trippers!
Recreation.gov
If you plan on going to any national parks you need to download this app and purchase the America The Beautiful pass! You will need the Recreation.gov app to book shuttle times at some parks and show times at others! It is super useful and will make your trip much more enjoyable.
AllTrails
I hope anyone who hikes at all is already using All Trails! But if you aren’t make sure to download it before going on a road trip! We were able to find the most beautiful and amazing hiking paths that we never would have known about if it weren’t for this app. It also helps to know how difficult a trail is and how long it will take!
I am definitely going to have to download the gas app! It’d definitely be beneficial for when I’m on the road and need to find the nearest gas station. Thanks for this!
The Road Trippers app would have been perfect for our recent roadtrip from Texas to Michigan and back. I’ll have to use it next time!
Yes for sure! We always check our routes on it now and have even found some awesome things local to us!
I did not know about the trails hike but about to put it on my phone cause we do love hiking!
Glad to know about these apps, I’ll check if I can use it in my area.
Yes for sure! Most of these work anywhere in the US & Canada! And some of them work other places as well.
Awesome, I will check out these apps for sure. They sound like they would come in handy.