13 BEST Apps to Plan Road Trips in the USA

Introduction

Technology has fundamentally transformed how we travel and if you need the inside scoop on the best apps to plan road trips, you’ve come to the right place!

Gone are the days of paper maps (remember those?) and expensive GPS devices; today, apps like Google Maps and Apple Maps provide real-time navigation. Music streaming services have replaced old-school CDs, and guidebooks have given way to apps that alert road-trippers to nearby attractions in an instant.

Tech has undoubtedly made road trips more convenient, affordable, and enjoyable. However, not everyone experiences the utility of these benefits the same way.

All too often, Black travelers find themselves relying on each other to assess the safety and hospitality of a destination, especially within the United States. As the pioneering and premier Black travel review platform, Green Book Global is committed to creating inclusive travel experiences tailored for the Black community.

This summer, we’re thrilled to introduce our innovative Road Trip Planner, a groundbreaking fusion of technology and invaluable community insights designed to empower Black travelers with safer road trip routes across the USA.

The First 4 Best Apps to Plan Road Trips

But without further ado, here are 4 of the best apps to plan road trips for your next adventure (plus 9 other essential apps).

• Best For Black Travelers: Green Book Global Road Trip Planner
• Best For AI Trip Planning: Roadtrippers
• Best For Navigating: Google Maps
• Best For Sharing Your Itinerary: Wanderlog

Green Book Global Road Trip Planner

Inspired by the 1936 Negro Motorist Green Book, Green Book Global’s Road Trip Planner is a unique travel app focused on helping Black travelers explore the world confidently and safely.This web app enables Black travelers to chart their trips with confidence, using the collective wisdom and ratings of thousands of fellow Black travelers. The app’s first release even allows users to steer clear of legacy sundown towns and unsafe locations identified by the community

Key Features of Green Book Global Road Trip Planner

• Traveling While Black Scores: Green Book Global provides recommendations and reviews from Black travelers, including a Traveling While Black score for each city: Red – Needs Improvement; Yellow – Average; Green – Excellent. The ultimate goal is ensure Black Travelers feel welcome and catered to at their destinations.
• Extensive Coverage: The app covers a wide range of destinations across the United Sates, Canada, and Mexico.
• Integration with Google Maps: Any routes created using Green Book Global can be opened in Google Maps.
• Avoid Unwelcoming Cities: Routes that take you through cities with low Traveling While Black scores can be avoided. The app can create a new route with highter rated cities based on reviews of Black Travelers.
• User-Friendly: Green Book Global features an intuitive interface that makes planning and customizing road trips easy and enjoyable.
• Community Focus: Green Book Global emphasizes building a supportive community, encouraging Black travelers to share their experiences and insights with each other.
• Trip Planning (coming soon): The app offers a road trip planner that helps users build their itineraries, providing optimal routes, recommended stops, and local attractions based on user feedback and suggestions​.
• Black-owned restaurants and accommodations (coming soon): The app highlights Black-friendly cities where you can view reviews that talk about accommodation and dining options. A dedicated accommodation and dining feature will be coming soon!

Green Book Global Memberships

Want to explore the world with confidence? The exclusive benefits through Green Book Global’s membership tiers are designed to enhance your travel experience. We offer three different membership tiers for all kinds of travelers, so that you can select the one that best suits your needs.

Free Membership: Dip your toes and explore routes and travel tips for a limted time. You’ll see immediately why our road trip planner is so popular!

Free Trial Gold Membership ($9.99/year): Unlimited route planning and access to travel tips worldwide. This tier offers a $15 travel credit, up to 2.5% cash back on bookings on hotels, car rentls etc. There is also an e opportunity to earn cah by sharing travel tips, and you have increased chance (3x) chance of winning some of Green Book Global’s annual giveaways up to $2000.

Free Trial Platinum Membership ($29.99/year): This premium option provides all the benefits of the Gold Membership, with enhanced perks like a $30 travel credit (pays for itself!), up to 4.5% cash back on bookings, bonuses for leaving reviews up to $10, and an even greater likelihood (5x) of winning lucrative giveaways.

Best Apps for Plan Road Trips: Green Book Global’s Benefits and Drawbacks

Benefits

• Inclusive Recommendations: The app offers tailored recommendations for Black travelers, ensuring they feel welcome and safe at various destinations.
• Comprehensive Planning: The road trip planner is ideal for organizing trips, including detailed itineraries, recommended stops, and optimal routes​.
• User-Friendly Interface: The app’s intuitive design makes it easy to use and navigate, even for novice travelers​.
• Works with Google Maps: Effortlessly launch your routes in Google Maps for top-notch navigation experiences.

Drawbacks

• A Space For Allies: Green Book Global unaplogetically caters to Black Travelers so on the surface you could feel that there is not a space for allies. However, that could not be further from the truth! We need allies to help our efforts with inclsuivity. Becoming a Gold/Platinum member is one of the easiest ways to support us and our scores can help you plan your road trips as well
• Upcoming Features: One of the best use cases for the Green Book Global’s Road Trip Planner is to help Black travelers feel safer when traveling within the USA. However, when the app has Black-owned bussiness, historic sites, Black-friendly camp sites etc, it will bring the app to a brand new level! So right now there is a lot of unfulfilled potential!

Final Thoughts

Green Book Global’s Road Trip Planner is really one best apps to that can help you plan roadt trips, paricluarly in the USA. It sets itself apart by having a particular niche for Black travelers.

Additionally, future releases will enhance the experience further, incorporating Black-owned businesses, attractions, and activities into planned routes.

Reminiscent of the original Negro Motorist Green Book from the 1930s, which guided Black travelers during the Jim Crow and Segregation eras, our Road Trip Planner empowers modern Black travelers to explore the country with greater confidence and reduced anxiety.

Roadtrippers

Roadtrippers is a popular travel app designed for road trip enthusiasts. It’s packed with features that help travelers plan, navigate, and enjoy their trips.

Key Features of Roadtrippers

• Trip Planning: Roadtrippers allows you to plan road trips with up to 150 stops, which is amazing for long and complex journeys​.
• Navigation: The app provides turn-by-turn navigation, with special features for RVs, including custom routing based on vehicle size and propane status​.
• Collaboration: Roadtrippers allows multiple users to collaborate on trip planning, making it easy for groups to build and edit a single itinerary​.
• Offline Maps: Users can download offline maps for areas they plan to visit, which is helpful for remote locations without reliable connectivity​​.
• Special Features: The app includes unique overlays like cellular coverage, public land maps, smoke maps, and live traffic​. RV-specific features such as RV-friendly parking, hookups, and campgrounds enhance the experience for RV travelers.
• Deals and Discounts: Roadtrippers offers special discounts from its travel partners, which can include savings on hotels, dining, and other travel-related expenses​​.
• User-Friendly Interface: The app has a simple and intuitive interface, making it easy to add stops, plan routes, and explore suggested attractions​.
• Ai Trip Advisor: The app also includes an ai powered “Autopilot” to help you plan your trip with ease. Available with Premium.

Roadtrippers Memberships

While it would be amazing if all these features were free, it makes sense that Roadtrippers offers four types of memberships: Free, Basic, Pro, and Premium, each with increasing features and benefits.

• Free Membership: Allows for 1 saved trip with up to 3 stops.
• Basic Membership ($35.99/year): Allows for up to 3 trips at a time, each with up to 20 stops.
• Pro Membership ($49.99/year): Allows for up to 5 trips at a time, each with up to 50 stops​ ad-free.
• Premium Membership ($59.99/year): Allows for unlimited trips and up to 150 stops each, along with added RV-friendly features​. Unlocks Autopilot.

Best Apps to Plan Road Trips: Roadtripper’s Benefits and Drawbacks

Benefits

• In-Depth Information: This road trip planner provides detailed information on destinations, including attractions, accommodations, and fuel costs​​.
• Collaboration: Great for group travel planning​.
• Customization: Customizable routes based on vehicle type and preferences​.
• Autopilot: Lets AI do the planning for you.

Drawbacks

• Navigation Issues: The app’s navigation feature can be buggy and crash occasionally​​.
• Limited Coverage: It’s most useful in the USA, with limited information for other countries​.
• Limited Free Features: The free version lacks many of the premium features available in the Pro version​ that really make the app stand out.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Roadtrippers is highly recommended for road trip enthusiasts, particularly in the United States. Its extensive features make it a powerful tool for which is why we ranked it as one of the best apps to plan road trips.

Google Maps

Google Maps is one of the most widely used travel, commute, and navigation apps globally, known for its comprehensive features and user-friendly interface (and it’s also a great road trip planner). Note, thae Green Book Global’s Road Trip Planner also leverages Google Maps, so you get the best of both worlds with that app!

• Navigation – Google Maps provides real-time GPS navigation, traffic, and transit information for over 220 countries and territories. It offers turn-by-turn directions for driving, walking, cycling, and public transport, with enhanced lane details and realistic building representations to help with more complex maneuvers​. It also supports High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane information and AI-powered speed limit alerts in several countries.
• Immersive View – The Immersive View feature uses AI to provide multidimensional previews of routes and locations, allowing users to explore and plan their journey with detailed visual turn-by-turn directions. This feature is especially useful for planning trips based on simulated traffic and weather conditions​.
• EV-Friendly: Google Maps offers features tailored for electric vehicle drivers, including finding the exact location of EV charging stations, planning EV road trips with optimized charging stops, and viewing real-time port availability and charging speeds​.
• Live View and Lens: The app’s Live View and Lens features use AI and augmented reality to help users navigate unfamiliar surroundings, such as when exiting a subway station or exploring a new neighborhood. By simply lifting their phone, users can see information about nearby amenities, making orientation much easier​.
• Offline Maps: Google Maps allows users to download maps for offline use, making it convenient for exploring areas without reliable internet connectivity.
• Enhanced Exploration: The app offers features like exploring local businesses, landmarks, and restaurants, with user-generated reviews and ratings to help travelers decide where they want to go to next.

Best Apps to Plan Road Trips: Google Map’s Benefits and Drawbacks

Benefits

• FREE: It’s FREE!
• Comprehensive Navigation: Google Maps offers detailed and accurate navigation for various modes of transportation, including EVs​.
• Immersive Experience: The immersive view provides detailed previews and information for locations and routes​.
• User-Friendly Interface: The app is easy to use, with helpful features for both short commutes and long journeys.
• Integration with Green Book Global: Love the route planner from Green Book Global? Well, you’re in luck! GBG allows you to open your routes in Google Maps. Now you can have the best of both worlds: insanely easy navigation with Google Maps + high quality routes from Green Book Global’s road trip planner.

Drawbacks

• Navigation Issues: Occasionally, users experience glitches or crashes, particularly when using the immersive view or navigating complex routes​​.
• Not Intended to be a Road Trip Planner Tool – While Google Maps can be used to help plan road trips its primary purpose is to help you navigate and provide turn-by-turn navigation. So that being the case it not the most ideal for truly planning road trips as stand alone app.

Final Thoughts

Google Maps can be an great road trip planner for travelers but its best use case is likley with daily commuters. However, it does give you plenty of features for navigation, exploration, and planning.

Wanderlog

Wanderlog is a travel planning app designed for travelers who want to create detailed itineraries, organize their trips, and collaborate with fellow travelers.

Key Features of Wanderlog

• Trip Planning – Wanderlog allows users to create detailed itineraries for their trips, including accommodations, activities, and points of interest​. The app provides in-app suggestions for popular attractions, eateries, and activities based on the destination and user preferences​.
• Offline Access: With Wanderlog’s offline mode, users can download their entire itinerary, including maps, for offline use, which is helpful when traveling in areas with spotty internet coverage​.
• Collaboration: The app allows users to collaborate with friends or family members on trip planning, making it easy for group travelers to create and edit itineraries together.
• Expense Tracking: Wanderlog provides tools for tracking travel expenses and splitting costs between tripmates (which can really help you stay within your budget)​.
• Route Optimization: This road trip planner can optimize routes for road trips, saving time and gas by auto-rearranging stops for the most efficient path​.
• Customizable Itineraries: Users can customize their itineraries with notes, reminders, photos, and links, providing flexibility and organization​.
• Integration – Wanderlog integrates with Google Calendar and other apps, where users can sync their travel plans with their regular schedule​.
• Users can also export their itinerary in various formats, such as PDF or a webpage​.
• Free and Pro Versions: The basic version of Wanderlog is free, allowing users to plan unlimited trips and collaborate with others​. The Pro version offers additional features like offline access, and route optimization for an annual subscription fee​.

Wanderlog Memberships

While you can get away with using Wanderlog for free, if you want a better user experience, they offer a pro membership with more advanced features.

• Free Membership: Unlimited places, live collab with friends, import flights/hotels/cars, smart recommendations, itinerary and map in 1 view.
• Pro Membership ($39.99/year): Allows for everything in free, plus: offline access, deals, unlimited attachments, export to Google Maps, optimized route, AI assistance, and much more.

Best Apps to Plan Road Trips: Wanderlog’s Benefits and Drawbacks

Benefits

• Comprehensive Planning: This road trip planner provides a complete travel planning solution, from accommodations to activities​.
• Collaboration: Ideal for group travelers since the app’s collaboration feature simplifies planning with friends or family​.
• User-Friendly Interface: Wanderlog is praised for its intuitive and easy-to-use interface​.

Drawbacks

• Feature Overload: Some users might find the app overwhelming due to its extensive features​.

Final Thoughts

Wanderlog is a powerful travel planning app, particularly useful for road trips and group travel. It offers a ton of useful features, making one of the best apps for travelers looking to stay organized and plan road trips effectively

9 Additional Apps To Make Your Road Trip Even Better

We did a comprehensive breakdown of the 4 best apps out there that we think are great in helping to plan road trips, however, we still have 9 more to consider! See below

• Waze: Waze is another navigation app similar to Google Maps (and it makes sense since it’s owned by Google). What makes it different from Google Maps is that it is powered by crowdsourced data, providing real-time driving information, including conditions, hazards, and speed, for an up-to-the-second travel experience.
• Roadside America: This iOS exclusive app showcases quirky and offbeat roadside attractions across the U.S., like giant sculptures, unique restaurants, and unusual museums, making road trips more delightful.
• iExit Interstate Exit Guide: iExit lists upcoming highway exits and what’s available at each one, including food, lodging, gas, and amenities, making it easy to plan convenient stops on the road.
• GasBuddy: GasBuddy helps drivers find cheap gas and parking, utilizing crowdsourced data to provide up-to-date fuel prices and locations for over 150,000 stations across North America.
• PlugShare: PlugShare is essential for electric vehicle road trips, listing over 700,000 charging stations worldwide, complete with user reviews to guide drivers to the best options.
• HotelTonight: HotelTonight offers day-of deals on unsold hotel rooms, allowing travelers to find and book accommodations quickly, even at the last minute.
• Airbnb: Airbnb lets travelers book unique stays like cabins, yurts, guest houses, and even Shrek’s Swamp, with millions of properties available and additional options for local activities and experiences.
• BringFido: BringFido helps pet owners find over 500,000 pet-friendly places to stay, play, and eat, ensuring a smooth travel experience with their furry companions.
• Spotify: Spotify offers a massive catalog of over 100 million tracks! So while it’s less of a road trip planner, it’s still perfect for creating road trip soundtracks with nostalgic singalongs, pop hits, or destination-inspired music.

Conclusion: Best Apps to Plan Road Trips in the USA

For safe and inclusive travel planning, especially for Black travelers, Green Book Global’s Road Trip Planner is a must-have. It offers tailored recommendations and insights for safer journeys and it is ranked highest for one of the best apps out there to help plan road trips.

Meanwhile, Waze and Google excels in providing real-time driving updates, Roadside America highlights quirky attractions, and iExit helps you find convenient stops. PlugShare caters to electric vehicle drivers, while Spotify offers endless music choices for the road.

No matter your travel style or needs, these apps are essential companions for your next road trip adventure!