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Route Planners for RV Travel
Finding campgrounds en route to your next destination shouldn’t be too lengthy or frustrating of a task. It does require some planning, however. Unless you like a good challenge, and want to find places to stay at the last minute – which can be fun as well! Or it can be a disaster… So to help RV travelers find places, there are quite a few tools available, some free and some paid. I have not used all of those listed here, but included those that had high ratings from other users, and some I used in demo mode just to see what I thought before listing them.
Free RV Trip Planners
A simple, map based search engine, with the option to save routes. Free or cheap camping options are shown on your route, and include camper reviews, GPS coordinates, website and pricing information. There are also some free overnight parking options listed such as truck stops or Walmarts, but not too many as that is not their primary focus. Just a note, this is easier to use on a computer than on a phone. We use this one quite extensively.
FREEROAM.APP
This campground finder also has an option to create and save trips. The filters are the most extensive that I’ve seen – filter by weather, elevation, crowdedness, and more. I had a bit of trouble figuring it out at first, but they do have a video on how to create and add points to your trip here. Their app includes Walmarts, Cracker Barrels and rest areas as well! This is free to use, but please make a donation, a ton of work has gone into this app.
RECREATION.GOV
Find campgrounds, attractions, tickets and tours, obtain permits, and use the free trip planner. Campsites available through the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and U.S. Forest Service are all listed here.
ROADTRIPPERS
For desktop or mobile, free to use for a limited time and then $29/year thereafter. Allows you to plan and save trips, and calculates the mileage and fuel costs for you. Along with finding camping along your route, you can also search for rest areas, attractions by type, restaurants, shopping, sports and more! They have unique attractions so this app is fun for those who like to do something different, like see the world’s largest buffalo statue or the Jolly Green Giant statue.
Triptik is an easy to use map and you don’t have to have a AAA membership in order to use it. Map includes campgrounds, national parks, gas stations, restaurants, events, points of interest and AAA offices along the way. Only AAA approved campgrounds are listed, so these are paid sites.
This is a basic, easy to use free trip planner. Just enter a starting point and an end point, and the map will display all of the campgrounds along the way, and you can book your reservation from there. Of course, only KOA campgrounds are listed. For use on a smartphone, tablet or computer.
RECREATION.GOV
Find campgrounds at National Forests, National Parks, Bureau of Land Management sites, National Fish and Wildlife sites, and U.S. Army Corp of Engineers sites. This great free tool allows you to find and book campsites, as well as find nearby attractions and book tickets or obtain permits. Save items to your itinerary, and name your trip so you can come back to it later.
This is not so much a route planner, just more of a way to find attractions near your destination. These are not your every day, run-of-the-mill attractions; find things like the world’s largest ball of twine, or a tiny hobbit house. I really love checking out these things while on a road trip! The website is free to use; these is also an app for a small fee ($2.99) for iphone or ipad only.
Paid RV Trip Planners
A Good Sam membership is required in order to use the trip planner. It is easy to use, and campgrounds can be added to your route and saved. Their search also includes points of interest. Only paid campgrounds are listed and you can filter to list Good Sam approved only or all paid campgrounds.
Harvest Hosts is a network of wineries, breweries, distilleries, golf courses and other businesses that allow RV campers to stay overnight for free. A membership to Harvest Hosts is required before you can use the trip planner. Only Harvest Host locations are listed on their planner. Filter for different amenities, number of miles from your route, and type of business you’d like to stay at. Trips can be saved and printed out and include information about hosts that you saved to your trip.
This app is $39/year (at the time this article was written). I tried the free demo of this and thought it was easy to use and included quite a few options, though I had some trouble with the map behavior on my phone. Calculate all your costs including fuel, fees, food and attractions. This app boasts over 20,000 campground listings and over 57,000 attractions, and you can even customize it for your specific RV. A feature that I like is that you can set your driving times and distances, so you know what is available in an area after you drive for, say, 5 hours. Works on all devices.