Guest Post: Rachael Everly

Road Trip Travel Apps

Planning for a road trip is entirely different from preparing for other kinds of travel. Let’s face it, it is not as easy as comparing airline fares online and booking tickets from home. When it comes to road trips, a lot has to be taken into consideration; prepping your vehicle, managing hotel bookings, deciding on roadside stops and refreshments, navigation, essentials, total expenditure, etc. Also, it is crucial that you prepare yourself for facing some unexpected situations such as severe weather or roadblocks that might force you to change your route.

Unlike other types of vacations, a road trip requires you to come well prepared as there would be no one serving you. If you’re planning to go on a road trip with your family or friends in your sleek SUV or sedan, do yourself a favor by not wasting your money on travel agents. Why? Because it is 2017 and everything you will possibly need is on your phone. From organizers to reminders to navigation to last minute hotel bookings, there are mobile applications that help you plan and execute your road trip both conveniently and wisely. If you plan to hit the roads for a fun-packed and hassle-free journey, here are seven travel applications that you must download on your iOS or Android-powered smartphone or tablet.

Waze

Taking the wrong exit or route is the last thing you would want on your road trip. Seriously! To make sure you stay on the right track the whole time, download Waze.

What makes this application the best in navigation is constant updates – yes, you get real-time feedback from millions of users regarding traffic, roadwork, and accidents. Use Waze and find the shortest and most pleasant route to your destination.

Hotel Tonight

Available on iOS, Android, and Windows, Hotel Tonight is one of the best free applications when it comes to hotel booking. Getting a good night’s sleep after a driving a long patch is wonderful. In fact, it is necessary if you want to remain ‘sane’ for the remainder of your road trip.

While I’m not much of a hotel person, I still had to find one after not only riding shotgun but also driving for more than eight hours. This was when Hotel Tonight came in incredibly handy. This application comes with features that help you find just the type of hotel you are looking for. It does not matter which city or country you are traveling to as it covers nearly all hotels.

XE Currency

In case your road trip includes crossing a border, this application would come in extremely handy. With more than 20 million downloads, XE Currency has become quite a successful application not only in the business sector but also when it comes to traveling.

Regardless of which country you drive into, XE Currency will make budgeting comfortable for you as its currency conversion feature can convert all currencies. Moreover, it saves the last updated info allowing you to check the conversion rates even when there is weak or no internet connection at all.

Live Trekker

Want to make a digital travel journal of your road trip? Well if that is the case, Live Trekker is just the application you should go for. This app tracks you as you drive and highlights the exact route you take by a red line.

What makes it even more interesting is the number of multimedia features it offers; allowing you to create an attractive and memorable travel diary that includes not only pictures but also videos. Moreover, this application also tracks your speed as well as altitude.

Automatic

It is essential to keep a check on your car’s engine during a road trip. You do not want to keep driving while there is no or very less cooling fluid in the radiator or when the check engine light is on. Doing so can turn your well-planned vacation into a horrible nightmare. However, with Automatic, there shall not be such issues. Plug a compatible dongle into your dash to connect your car’s computer with the application and let the app monitor the engine performance for you. Moreover, Automatic can also track your gas usage and alert you whenever there is a potential problem.

Road Ninja

You cannot just drive for hours without taking short breaks and stopping for gas. It is critical that you make a quick stop after every 100 miles, at least. However, when you are driving to places where you have never been to before, it becomes a bit confusing and hard to know where exactly you might find a gas station or a service station. Not anymore!

Designed to help you find out various services on your way, Road Ninja has become a must-have application, especially for travels junkies. To make this app just perfect for your journey, you can customize it according to your requirements.

TuneIn

Apart from food and caffeine, you need some entertainment to stay up and focused. Relying on your car’s radio is not very wise as you will be passing through areas where the radio would become extremely irritating due to weak signals. TuneIn, however, brings you more than 100,000 radio stations from all over the world. So, don’t wait any longer. Download the application and enjoy epic soundtracks all along the way.

Author Bio for Rachael Everly

Rachael Everly is an undergraduate student who loves to write on the topics related to business leadership, finance, technology and education. Her passion and flare for writing got her to write for topics that interest her such as recent technological trends and how it shapes the business world. Her thought-provoking and well-researched writing style has made her work to be recognized on well-known websites. She has been featured on some of the top blogs such as Inman, Forbes, Escape Artist and many others currently associated with Equip Sells It, a heavy machinery and equipment dealer in Sanford, Florida for their blogging operations.

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