Road Tripping? Here’s How To Learn What’s To See Along The Way

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A while back, I wrote about all the ways you could find out what’s at the next exit when you’re doing a road trip – rest stops, bathrooms, hotels, campgrounds, restaurants, etc. And ALL of those things are important to know ahead of time. But another nice thing to know is what’s on all those miles between Point A and Point B. Maybe you want a place to spend a couple of hours to break your driving day up. Maybe you’re into cheesy, kitschy tourist stops like I am and want to know what you’ll pass on the way. I’m sure it’s no surprise to anyone that there is such a website, and there’s an app for that, too…

Roadtrippers.com is the nation’s fastest-growing web and mobile travel planning platform, with over 25 million trips booked to-date.

From their website: “Our unique content covers the wonderful “off the beaten path” places to visit and our unique database contains millions of the world’s most interesting locations. Roadtrippers helps people discover the world around them in an entirely new way by streamlining discovery, planning, booking and navigation into an engaging and intuitive process. The web and mobile applications are free to use.”

Essentially, you start a road trip by telling Roadtrippers.com where you want to go (not so amazingly in this day and age, it already knows where you are LOLOL. But you can change that, too, if you’re starting somewhere else) and exploring from and adding places to your online map. You have the option to edit your trip’s route, and if you’re traveling with friends and/or family, you even have the ability to invite them so you can all edit the trip whenever you want.

Here’s an example:

Say I’m in Orlando (which I am) and I want to drive to Seattle, WA. Roadtrippers automatically tells me how many miles the road trip will be (3,139), how long it will take to drive (44 hours, 5 minutes) and how much I should expect to pay in gasoline ($334). I also can see hotels, attractions & culture, food & drink, outdoors & recreation, points of interest, vacation rentals and camping & RV opportunities along the route. Each one of those is broken down into subcategories (for example, under hotels, I can look at B&Bs, boutique hotels, hostels, hotels, motels and unique stays, or ALL of them, if I want), which can be broken down even further based on, for the example of hotels, price, pet friendliness, how far it is from my route, etc.

Just for fun, I zoomed in on my map and clicked on a “Point of Interest” – Ruby Falls, in Chattanooga, TN. This is what Roadtrippers gave me:

So pretty much everything I would need to know about Ruby Falls, including its address, hours, general info and relatively up-to-date reviews. I was given the option to add it to my trip, and then look for more stuff.

Of course, not everything is listed so perfectly; a site that’s made to spew information is only as good as the information it’s given. Such was the case with the Drug Store Museum, in Forest City, MO (population 250, BTW). This is what I got when I chose that as a site I might want to see:

Whoopsie!

Overall, Roadtrippers.com looks like a very helpful website. It has other functions that I didn’t explore as thoroughly, such as hooking you up with commercial websites such as Hotels.com and Expedia to help you book hotels on your way (no thanks, I’m good…I’m married to Mr. Points & Miles), interesting information about places you might want to consider visiting (like where the Amish and Mennonites go for vacation [Pinecraft, FL], and the town that’s home to an entire village of fairy tale cottages [Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA], and even pre-made trips if you want someone else to do all the dirty work.

So the next time you want to get from here to there and want to know what you can see between them, check out Roadtrippers.com. Let us know what you think!

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary