Road Trip Tips - Planning Apps

We are planing to drive across the country to see my mom and help her move back with us later this year. The last time we went was last fall. We will be driving from Texas to North Carolina and back again. On the way there we will be driving for two days and sleeping at a hotel for one night. On the way back, we could potentially be driving for up to 4 days and spend up to 3 nights in a hotel. Did I mention we will also be driving our minivan back to Texas as well as a Uhaul truck pulling a car behind it. So we will be relying heavily on anything that makes this trip easier. Here are some of the apps (and a website) we have used to plan our trips across the country. 

First things first, fuel is a big one. It will be expensive no matter what, but one thing that helps us a lot is AAA gas cost calculator. We will use that to help us set aside enough money to afford gas, although unfortunately we know prices will go up before our trip. It's definitely more helpful closer to your trip. We do our best to stop at Sam's clubs along our route to cut gas costs where we can. When we can't, we try to stop at a Pilot or other large truck stop as gas is usually a little cheaper there. Gas Buddy is also useful if you need to get gas somewhere other than the big stations. It will help you find the cheaper option in whatever area you are in. I just found out that they have a gas trip calculator too so check that out. We've never used it but I'm sure it's very helpful as well.

To plan our route, we use Roadie Trip Planner. This app was a game changer for us. In previous years, I would use a big rand mcnally book style map to mark stops we liked and wanted to revisit. As well as look ahead and try to plan stops. You can scan ahead in your map app, but it wasn't easy to search a lot of things ahead of time and save them for the future. That was really only useful when we were actually driving down the road. What Roady Trip Planner allowed me to do was plan out our halfway point and book a hotel ahead of time. Then I marked that as one of our stops and the end of day one. I could search all the Sam's Club gas stations on our route and plan those as stops. When there was one too far away from the other stops, I would search up a Pilot or other truck stop and add that to our route. I planned a Sam's or truck stop gas fill every 2 hours. In between those hours, I would plan a rest area or a truck stop for a bathroom break. If we got to a stop and didn't need gas or a bathroom break, we would skip it and keep going. I also marked all the rest areas along our route so we could let everyone go to the bathroom and stretch their legs without loosing much time. We also stopped at them for lunch we packed in the car. The goal was to not ever have emergency bathroom or gas stops needed. It worked out perfectly!

We have used Hotels.com app to book a hotel ahead of time at our halfway point. Unfortunately, that will not be super helpful on the way back this time since we will really have to see where we're at when it gets dark. But I have used it on several trips before and still recommend it.

We have also used the Instacart app to order groceries ahead of time from Aldi and have them delivered to my mom's house. We usually stay with her when we visit and that way she doesn't have to try to figure out what the 6 of us might eat for 2 weeks. That also keeps us from having to run to a grocery store when we're super tired from driving for two days. I like that I can have them delivered while we're driving so everything is fresh when we get there, but I can answer questions if they are out of something while I am just sitting in the minivan passing the time.

We have made quite a few of these trips over the years so I will write more later about other tips that have helped us. This is specifically the apps we have used to make our trip easier and cheaper.