Roadtrippers

Summer is here, and that's mean it is time for road trips!!!  As I have to move out from Michigan to California for work, I end up chose to travel with my car.  Even though I owned my car for 6 years, it only has about 30,000 miles on it because I drove like a senior driver back in Michigan hahah.

Well anyway, the purpose of this post is not to tell my fabulous pre-honeymoon with my boyfriend, but to share about this new traveling app called "RoadTrippers" that I found just when we plan out our trip.

You can access RoadTrippers via web or mobile app.  You just need to set up an account, then download the FREE app through whatever App store is in your phone.  I know for sure that RoadTrippers is available on itunes and Go Store.  If your phone have a different app store, let me know if you can find RoadTrippers~~

Web

I personally thought that the navigation through the web is easier than the mobile view. Once you made up your account, you'll be able to directly typed in your starting point and end point.

So for example, if I'm planning a trip from Seattle to Houston, I could just type in the given box and click Go.  Then it would automatically gives you the fastest route, complete with the estimated miles, hours, and cost for gasoline.

But if you want to take an alternative route, you can always adjust your itinerary.  For example, if I want to pass through Wyoming so I can visit the Yellowstone National Park, I could insert the information on the "Add waypoint" box.

It will give you different option to choose from, and once you click the location that you want, RoadTrippers would recalculate the estimated distance, time, and cost.

I especially like the fact that RoadTrippers also offers two different view: "Plan Trip" and "Find Places". No matter which view you use, RoadTrippers would automatically pin point the places that you chose on the map and number them.

You could then click on these numbers to see more information such as the exact address of the place or just a little review from other RoadTrippers users.

On top of that, it would gives you the address for the particular place that you selected.  If you chose a restaurant or a hotel, it would even show you the rating!  Unfortunately, Roadtrippers is not as popular as yelp just yet, so their database is probably not as complete and there is not as much customer's review.

 

Nevertheless, since most of the time, people would first research before they plan out a Road trip, I would first talk about one of the two awesome views that RoadTrippers offer: "Find Places".

Find Places View

"Find Places" is a useful tool that basically listed all the different point of interests that within your path.  The information is neatly classified into different categories such as attractions, accommodation, entertainment, all the way to nature!

Plan Trip View

To access this view, just click "Plan Trip" on the top left hand side.  Then you will see that the location that you have just added has been included as a list in this view as well.

RoadTrippers offers a user friendly feature for changing the order of places on this "Plan Trip" view.  You can just click the number and drag them to where ever you want it on the list.

Additionally, next to every location, there's an "ADD DATE" feature that allows you to plan in more detail.  The only problem that I found on this is that you cannot put two dates for the same location.  So if you are staying in the same hotel for two days, you can't even put the two dates in your itinerary.

Mobile App

On my smart phone, here are the different apps that I currently have under travel.  I would always suggest to check the weather for the next couple days or 10 days if possible, so you know what kind of clothing you would need and whether it is safe to travel during the time that you planned out.

I also use TripAdvisor and Yelp interchangeably, since they serve for the same purpose most of the time.  I also have the build in map here just in case I need them.  So RoadTrippers is a new addition to my collection hahaha.

The same way with the web view, you can also insert your starting point and end point once you click "Trip", "New Trip".  You can also find places in between by clicking "Places".

But the coolest thing about RoadTrippers is that once you set up your itinerary on the web and save it, your itinerary would be accessible even from the app.  It also goes the other way around.

RoadTrippers would also save all other trips that you have previously planned out, and you can share it with other users.

I named my last trip to San Francisco, SF.  Man, I thought I was so creative.  So for example, if a friend asked for recommendation, I would be able to look back at the places that I have visited.

There are also two views available on the mobile app: map view and list view.  You can switch back and forth between the views by clicking the earth icon vs the list icon on the bottom.

On the map view, the different places are numbered according to the order that you set up on the list view.  Unfortunately, unlike the actual web, the mobile app does not allows you to see the planned dates.

On the list view, You can see the name of places that you plan to visit and  you can also click it to get more detailed information.  You can even see the number of miles from your current location.

WARNING!! The distances that the app calculate are off most of the time.  It would be off by an hour or so in comparison to my GPS.  Even if I use the build in google map on my phone, in the end the total hours and distance listed on my GPS would be the one that is most correct.

Another drawback from RoadTrippers is that it depends on the connection. I wish RoadTrippers would make an update where we can use our itinerary offline. Because sometimes I would not be able to find the address of my next destination because I lost my signal in the mountain, and it was kinda frustating.

Nevertheless, in general RoadTrippers has helped me to spent less time researching and more time planning. Me and my boyfriend had an awesome and less stressful nature themed road trip thanks to RoadTrippers.

Hope the tips provide some good help for my fellow traveler ^^

Until the next adventure you all, Vagabond girl is out~