As a solo female traveling cross country to every state this year with my dog, I have relied religiously on a few apps that I highly recommend for your next road trip whether it be a small 50 mile road trip or a longer 10,000+ mile road trip. I’m including quick demos for each so that you can determine which apps you would actually want to download.
Weather On The Way Provides precise detailed weather forecasts for your route based on the dates and time you’re traveling. You could even add stops along your route for longer trips. This will help you determine if an alternative route would be best. This app helps you know weather conditions such as:
🔹 Temperature
🔹 Conditions
🔹 Visibility
🔹 Precipitation
🔹 Wind speed
🔹 UV Index
For this example, let’s start from Charlotte, NC and choose Lexington, KY as the final destination. You can see it will be a 6 hour drive or approximately 398 miles. I am able to see the overall weather along the way and apparently there is a weather alert. When I click the alert, it shows me a Flood Watch warning a few hundred miles prior to my final destination. I can click “show timeline” to view the approximate time the severe weather will occur. If you believe it is too risky of a drive, you can adjust your departure time until the alert is gone to ensure you are not stuck in horrible weather conditions.
The first 5 trips are free so if you’re just going on one quick road trip, you’re in luck! You don’t need to pay for it. However, if you’re like me traveling cross country to all states then you do need to pay $2.99 a month or $17 a year. For me, it has been 100% worth every penny! It is not on Android as of September 2022 but hopefully it will eventually become available. If you have an Android and use something similar please let me know so I can share the knowledge with others.
If you want to check out recommended stops along your route such as attractions, restaurants, parks, etc. this is the perfect app to plan your itinerary. You can either pick a city and see the recommendations or you can choose your route and get the recommendations along that route.
Let’s say for example you’re traveling from Des Moines, IA to Nashville, TN, I simply enter the route on the app and it will give you a variety of stops along the way. You can filter it out by a variety of options but in this demo I chose attractions & experiences, then it gives a list of recommendations along the way. Once you find a few good places you want to visit you can save them all to your trip itinerary. You can later navigate to your profile under the places tab and check out all the spots you saved!
This app is very similar to the one I mentioned previously but the app looks very old school in terms of UI. However, don’t let that drive you away! It is very useful and certainly one of my favorites. You can choose a city or enter your route and you'll instantly see what's nearby such as monuments, museums, or other tourist attractions.
For example, let’s say you are going from Des Moines, IA to St. Louis, MO you can choose the distance you are willing to detour for a good stop along my route (i.e. 15 miles). You can filter by a variety of options to make sure it is worth a detour. This tool gives you directions, shares photos, provides descriptions, and even gives you tips. You can also save the places you want to visit for easy access at a later time.
Each stop contains a 1-5 rating of how worth the stop it really is:
1 = mildly interesting
2 = worth a stop
3 = worth a detour
4 = major fun
5 = the best
You can also browse attractions by categories such as "Atomic," "Music," "Tech," and 70 more Themes. The cost for using this app is $2.99 if you only want to unlock one region or you are also able to unlock all regions for $6.99 and that’s it! Just a one time cost.
Ok, we all know gas prices are crazy right now and saving every penny is a must. GasBuddy helps you find the cheapest gas based on distance or both price and distance. It is real-time information at over 150,000 gas stations. They also offer cash back rewards for even more savings. I am personally not part of the cash back rewards program but it is an option that is probably worth looking into. If you have a long trip planned, use the trip planner feature so you can plan your stops and use the GasBuddy gas calculator. This app can help estimate your total trip cost, gas mileage, gallons used, and the overall savings. Don’t worry about the crazy gas prices during your road trip anymore because you will now be able to calculate the gas cost for your trip accurately!
Choose “find gas” and enter your desired location (i.e. current location) then choose the filer options that work best, if you want the cheapest and nearest gas station choose “price & distance”. Click on the gas station that interests you and you can even check the station ratings.
ParkMe has real-time parking information, which is especially helpful for big cities where parking is a nightmare. You are able to check daily and monthly rates for parking including garages, lots, or street parking. Get a guaranteed parking spot in advance by paying for it or simply just view where the best parking spot is close to your destination. You can also set the timer so that you don’t have to overpay for parking ever again.
Open the app and search for your desired location, for instance let’s find parking near the National Mall in Washington DC. Choose a parking that best suits your price and distance needs and you are able the description, photos, directions and the space availability of the lot. Copy the directions into your favorite navigation app and you are ready to go!
This app empowers people to get everywhere, easier! This is similar to the previous app but the difference is that you can easily book your spot through the app based on your chosen date and time. This will save you lots of frustration when dealing with parking, especially in bigger cities. With this app you can reserve and pay for parking in advance so that you won't have to be driving in circles waiting for someone to pull out. You can also easily extend the time or simply cancel if you weren't able to make it. It’s that easy park and go.
Use this app for your road trip to find the nearest and cheapest gas stations, the nearest restaurants, the nearest accommodations and much more along the Interstate. It compares prices to find the best deals in your area. You can also search by category (like hotels or restaurants) as well as view reviews from other users to determine if it’s worth a stop because I know I wouldn't want to be stuck at a gas station with horrible restrooms. It also lets you know updated fuel prices across the country so that you can determine which exit you should take for the best gas especially in this economy!
This app provides helpful tools and a community for campers, all for free! This is especially useful for people living in their vehicles. It will find you the best campsites to stay at. You have the option to filter by cell signal, safety, isolation, etc. You will be able to find nearby fresh water, groceries, propane, dump sites, and anything else you may find useful while on the road. Not only that but you can get to know other campers through chat groups and even meetups. This is the perfect opportunity to meet new people on the road.
This app is very similar to Weather OnTheWay (App 1) but the difference is that this is also a navigation app. InRoute will help you plan your route based on information like weather, elevation, curviness and more with interactive charts! It comes in handy because it will automatically check your route for severe weather. The app provides the ability to set departure and layover times for more accurate forecasting. You have the ability to save your favorite routes and share with your loved ones. You can also export to whichever navigation app you prefer. The cost is $4.99/mo or $39.99/year with a 1 week free trial option.
Some of us love to travel with our dog on the road. The BringFido app is not only free but amazing for letting you know about dog-friendly restaurants, accommodations, activities, services, and events nearby. BringFido is the world's leading pet travel site and lifestyle brand. The disadvantages that I have come across with this app is that some places are not updated and are permanently closed. Therefore, it would be nice if they added an option to mark a place as “not dog friendly” or “permanently closed”.
If you’re looking for a dog-friendly activity, open the app and select the drop down menu and choose “activities” along with your destination. Select your desired activity and you are able to view photos, a description, and reviews. Select the address and open it in your favorite navigation app. Hope you have some great times with your favorite furry family member using this app.
This app helps you find and connect to free wifi networks. This is perfect for those of us that are working on the road and need internet connectivity! One of the cons I have found is that it sometimes leads you to outdated places, for example, I had a meeting and saw that there was a Burger King with wifi a few miles away and as I pulled up the place looked like it had closed down a few months ago. I’m not sure if there is an option to flag the place as non-existent. WiFi Map offers a subscription plan that gives you more functionality including downloadable offline regions, fast and secure VPN, and completely disabled ads. The app also has an eSIM option if you want to buy data when there is no Wi-Fi nearby. Their packages range from 1GB to 10GB.
Choose your destination and click on the WiFi Map to find a list of places nearby. Once you find a place, click on the “How to connect” button and follow the prompts. It is that easy!
Of course you must have accommodation apps on your road trip especially if you’re not staying in your car. However, this app is way more than just a place to book your stay. Airbnb is my favorite vacation rental app because you can filter by very many unique stays but you don’t have to use it just to book a stay, you can also use it for experiences. Choose from a variety of tourism activities per city and filter by activity type such as site seeing, entertainment, sports, wellness, and so much more. I would have never found out about walking a mile with llamas in Virginia had it not been for this app!
When you go to the app choose “experiences” and enter your destination, dates, and number of guests. You are also able to filter by activity type such as “sightseeing” and when you select an experience you can also view the reviews. As a solo traveler, I needed a photographer for my trip to Hawaii and I found an awesome person to not only take my pictures but show me around the top places!
Marriott is a world-wide hotel chain and this app helps you book hotels and resorts. What I like most about it is that you can search for stays along your route in case you need to take a few breaks during your road trip. If you are traveling with your dog you can filter it by pet friendly so that you won’t waste your time with hotels that don’t allow dogs. Being a member allows you to rack up enough points to eventually stay in other hotels for free! However, similar to Airbnb, it also lets you know about experiences in the area. If you’re looking for things to do, I highly recommend trying out this app for booking your next experience.
Once you have booked your stay, choose your hotel from the “trips” option in the menu. Scroll down to view the “Things to Try Nearby” section and select one that sounds interesting to you. You can easily book your activity as well!
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That's all 13 of them! I hope these apps will help you make your next road trip a success. I'll keep updating this blog as I find new useful apps so let me know if you recommend any other apps and I would be more than happy to review them.