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The Best Road Trip Apps That Help You Find Cheap Gas, Avoid Traffic, and More

Download these before you hit the highway.

Elizabeth Rhodes is a special projects editor at Travel + Leisure , covering everything from luxury hotels to theme parks to must-pack travel products. Originally from South Carolina, Elizabeth moved to New York City from London, where she started her career as a travel blogger and writer.

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Technology has revolutionized the way we travel in countless ways. Paper maps and GPS navigation systems have been replaced by Google and Apple Maps, old-school CDs by music streaming services, and guidebooks by apps that can notify road-trippers of roadside attractions in real time. One thing is certain: the smartphone has made road trips infinitely easier and, arguably, cheaper.

Whether you need a digital road trip planner to map out your next journey or something to help you avoid traffic jams, here are 11 of the best road trip apps to download ahead of your next adventure.

Roadtrippers

Roadtrippers is one of the most practical and popular road trip planning apps out there. Maybe you want to see national parks or the quirkiest roadside attractions. Perhaps you want to stop for the night at an iconic or underrated hotel. You can plan your stops right in the app, adding up to three waypoints for free or 150 with a Roadtrippers Premium account. There are also Basic and Pro memberships that allot you 20 and 50 waypoints per trip, respectively. The higher-tier memberships allow you to collaborate with friends and family and use navigation. The app features lodging, sights, outdoorsy destinations, restaurants, activities, shopping, fuel, and more all around the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

The app is free, but you have to upgrade to a membership plan to enjoy all the bells and whistles. The Basic plan costs $40 a year, the Pro plan $50 a year, and the Premium $60 a year. It's available on iOS and Android .

Google Maps

Every road-tripper needs a trusty navigation app in their arsenal, and Google Maps is consistently one of the most — if not the most — downloaded in the U.S. every year. Its dominance can be attributed to how comprehensive its data is, which allows it to generate the very best directions based on distance, road conditions, and traffic patterns.

Google Maps gives you route options and provides accurate estimates of how long it takes to get from A to B. Plus, you can plot several waypoints along your route — be it a mid-morning coffee stop or a hotel for overnighting (you can see reviews right in the app).

Google Maps is free and available on iOS and Android .

Waze is another one of the top navigation apps. With real-time updates that help you avoid traffic jams, construction, and more, it will have you navigating new cities and unfamiliar streets like a seasoned local. It's perhaps a little more proactive than Google Maps in changing up a route when problems arise, and that means Waze users should prepare for their drive to be a little unpredictable.

No one wants to spend hours sitting in traffic instead of exploring, so the fact that Waze collects data from other drivers to streamline the driving experience is a huge help. The app is free and available on iOS and Android .

Paying for fuel can eat up a good chunk of your road trip budget, but GasBuddy can save you a few bucks. The app crowdsources up-to-date fuel prices for more than 150,000 gas stations around the U.S. and Canada. The app also tells you how recent the submission is so you know whether it's outdated.

GasBuddy is not just helpful for finding cheap gas but also for finding gas stations in general (and parking), which can be difficult in foreign territory. The app is free and can be downloaded on iOS and Android . While using it, be a good road-tripper and submit gas prices you see as you travel.

Roadside America

Barry Winiker/Getty Images

The offbeat and kitschy roadside attractions you can find throughout the U.S. are often some of the most delightful parts of a road trip. The Roadside America app helps you find the most unique attractions worth stopping for, like the large sculpture of a cartoon mouse holding a cheese platter in Plain, Wisconsin — where else? — or the decidedly odd larger-than-life-sized three-way electrical plug that rests on a lawn in Philadelphia. The app features museums, murals, tours, quirky restaurants, and photo ops.

Roadside America costs $3 to download, which gets you access to one region in the app. You can purchase more regions for $2 or get access to all of the U.S. and Canada for an extra $7. The app is available only on iOS .

iExit Interstate Exit Guide

Knowing where to stop for road trip snacks, a drive-through latte, or a public restroom can be challenging with all the exit signs whizzing by at 70 mph, but iExit Interstate Exit Guide takes the guesswork out of it. The app will list which exits are coming up on your route, what's there, and what they offer — including food, lodging, fuel, and even hospitals. It pulls fuel prices from OPIS (the Oil Price Information Service) and displays Yelp reviews for businesses.

The app is free to download. Find it on both iOS and Android .

HotelTonight

Even if you've planned out all your stops ahead of time, you might find that you need to pull over for a night unexpectedly. Driving is tiring, and unplanned naps can be life-saving. HotelTonight can help you find accommodations in a pinch. The app offers day-of deals on unsold rooms, and the user-friendly interface means you can book a discounted room in minutes. There are well over 1,000 properties to choose from in cities all over the world, from Mexico City to Jakarta (in case you happen to take your road-tripping global).

It's free to download and available on iOS and Android .

If staying in a tucked-away A-frame cabin, a yurt, or a private guest house in someone's garden is more your travel style than bouncing between hotels, then Airbnb is the ticket. On the Airbnb app, you can search properties (millions in the U.S. alone) on a map and read reviews before you book, which you can do in advance or at the last minute.

The app features not just vacation homes but also activities, so if you're keen to experience a city like a local you can do so via a pottery class or a guided walking tour, for example.

The Airbnb app is free. You can download it on iOS or Android .

Patchareeporn Sakoolchai/Getty Images

Travelers who dream of camping out under the stars should download The Dyrt , a free app that helps you find tent, RV, and cabin sites across the U.S. One of the top camping apps on iOS and Android , it has more than a million registered users who submit reviews, pictures, and tips. On The Dyrt, you get real intel on campsites and a built-in community that makes camping on a road trip especially fun and safe. You can even book some of the campsites right on app.

The app is free, but there's a premium version for $36 a year that allows you to plan trips and search campsites while offline — convenient for remote regions.

What is a road trip without a perfect playlist? Whether you're keen to create a soundtrack of nostalgic singalongs, modern pop songs, or music inspired by your destination, you'll find even the most obscure tunes on Spotify , a catalog of more than 100 million tracks. When you tire of Taylor Swift, you can turn to podcasts or an audiobook to keep you company. Road trips are a great opportunity to delve into a docuseries like "Serial," an all-time favorite.

Spotify is free to download and listen to, but the ad breaks are annoying and streaming can chew through your phone data. A better option is to purchase a premium membership for $11 a month. It's ad-free and you can download music to listen to offline. The Spotify app is available on iOS and Android .

Electric vehicles are increasingly commonplace and great for more environmentally friendly road-tripping. The problem is often finding charging stations, as most EVs can go 100 to 300 miles before they need to be plugged in. PlugShare lists 700,000 charging stations across North America, Europe, and beyond. Users share their reviews of the stations, helping to guide EV drivers to the best, fastest, and most reliable charging spots.

PlugShare is free and available to download on iOS and Android .

Let us plan your trip for you

Roadtrippers Autopilot™ creates your itinerary based on what we’ve learned from over 38 million trips. You’re never more than a few clicks away from your next great adventure.

Auto Travel

Let Autopilot take the wheel planning your next road trip, scenic drive, RV journey and everything in between. Then enjoy the ride while uncovering hidden gems along the way.

Get real-time traffic updates and access to wildfire smoke maps to stay informed and connected throughout your journey.

Collaborate

Share your itinerary with your copilots so they can help with the finishing touches.

Let Roadtrippers be your guide, navigating the twists and turns as you roam the open roads with confidence and ease.

Exclusive Access To Autopilot

Let us do the planning for you! Enter in a few key details and we’ll craft a custom tailored trip just for you.

Choose the right plan for you—and try it free for 7 days

Premium planning.

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Then $35.99 (that's only $2.99/month), then $49.99 (that's only $4.17/month), then $59.99 (that's only $4.99/month).

† RV-Friendly routing features (including routing warnings for vehicle hazards and propane restrictions) are available in the U.S. only.

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Best road trip planner apps: 5 apps to map out your adventure

How to plan your roadtrip with apps in the driver's seat

Regardless of your destination, planning your trip is an integral part of the adventure. Otherwise, you’ll spend way more than you need to and, chances are, you won’t get to see everything on your wishlist.

We live in a golden age of technology that we often take for granted. But, in all the time we spend playing our ‘Spin Addicts’ and our ‘Cat Quests’, very rarely do we think about the utility that our smart devices can provide on the open road.

As such, we’ve gone out of our way to do the thinking for you.

That’s right, to help you out with your next big outing we’ve assimilated five of the best road trip planner apps for your lengthy expedition below. Above all else, we imagine you’ll be enticed by the fact that they’re all free to download, even if you may or may not be tempted later on to shell out some cash for a monthly subscription fee. (You’ll know what we mean when you see it.)

1. Roadtrippers

As its name and slogan suggests, this is the only map built for travelers. Okay, maybe that’s a bit of hyperbole, but this app will help you find virtually everything you could ever need along the way.

Open Roadtrippers and you’ll find millions of locations, including local diners and roadside attractions that, admittedly, Google Maps is prone to miss. Then, once you’ve outlined your road trip plan, you can share it with your travel buddies so that they can make suggestions.

Download it now on iOS | Download it now on Android

2. Waze

Like Roadtrippers, Waze hones in on social interaction, but it does so by letting the community decide which routes are the best to take. Users can report nearby collisions, police radar and traffic jams so that you can safely avoid those routes in favor of arriving on time. What’s more, you’ll find the cheapest gas prices around, as gathered by the community. Regardless of whether you set out to save time or money, Waze is the best way to do both.

3. GasBuddy

Unlike our previous mentions which can potentially save time or money, GasBuddy promises a specific amount of money you’ll save by using it.

Similar to Waze, GasBuddy is a community-driven platform that helps you locate the most affordable gas prices around so that you never have to pay full price for fossil fuels again. The difference is that, with this app, you can subscribe to GasBuddy Pay for additional savings of 15 cents per gallon on your first fill-up and 5 cents per gallon on every fill-up after that.

Download it now on iOS | Download it now on Android

4. Hotel Tonight

We’ve all been in that position. The one where we get too tired to continue driving and we need to find a hotel quickly and cheaply, else suffer the wrath of sleepy driving with the windows rolled down and the music turned all the way up. (Pro tip: don't do that, ever. It's super dangerous.)

But if that sounds like a horror story that you’ve experienced before, Hotel Tonight is the app for you. Specializing in last-minute hotel deals, Hotel Tonight makes it possible to book a room in three easy taps and one seamless swipe.

5. Spotify

Close your eyes. Now imagine you can listen to any song you want, including but not limited to “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” by The Proclaimers. Now open them.

Though it seems jokingly obvious now, Spotify would have been a dream come true in the days when top 40 radio hits triumphed over all else. Finally, you don’t have to listen to the same handful of songs on repeat.

Instead, you can hand-pick your own playlists, choosing between over 30 million songs in the Spotify catalog. Of course, if Spotify isn't your music scene, both Apple Music and Google's own Play Music streaming service are also good travel companions.

TechRadar’s The Road to the Show 2018 sees our intrepid writers braving a cross-country trip across the US, using the best gadgets to bring you their daily travel blog and offering the best tips for a tech-based roadtrip. The journey is brought to you in association with ZTE and the ZTE Axon M, with car transportation provided by Genesis.