8 Ways Your Smartphone Can Enhance Your Road Trip

People have been taking road trips for nearly one hundred years. Yet, while the underlying spirit of adventure remains a constant among road trips of all eras, the details and practicalities vary widely. While there must have been something charming about crisscrossing the USA in an automobile back in the 1940s, it was probably less reliable, comfortable, and plain old fun than the road trips of today.

It’s not just the improvements to vehicles themselves that have made today’s road trips more enjoyable. Other inventions, such as the smartphone, also play a big role. In this post, we’ll run through some handy ways your smartphone can be used to take your next road trip to the next level. 

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Find Local Attractions 

Part of the fun of going on a road trip is accidentally stumbling upon an awesome attraction. But equally, there’s nothing more annoying than getting home and realizing that you had been within touching distance of an attraction that you would have loved, and you never saw it! 

Your smartphone ensures that you can easily find nearby attractions, no matter how hidden and out of the way they may be. Simply open up Google Maps, click the attractions tab, and you’ll be shown a list of the incredible (and not so incredible!) attractions of wherever you happen to be passing through.

We’d recommend periodically opening up the app to randomly check what’s nearby, just for fun. The town you’re driving through may appear boring, but who knows what secrets it might hold!

Find the Cheapest Gas

The road trips of today are better, by and large, than the ones in the past. But there’s one area in which the days gone by definitely have the upper hand: gas prices. In the olden days, you could go from one side of the country to another without worrying about the cost, all because the price of gas was $0.05 per gallon. OK, we’re exaggerating with that price a little, but the point stands: it was much cheaper back then.

With that said, your smartphone does, at least, allow you to find the cheapest gas nearby, which can be extremely helpful information when you’re on a road trip. GasBuddy is the leading app for finding cheap gas, simply open it up, and you’ll see the prices of all the nearby gas stations. It’s an easy, effective way to save some money at the pump.

Interesting Accommodation

Looking to stay in accommodation that offers a little more than the standard roadside motel? Your smartphone makes it easy to not only find interesting places to stay, but to also get the best deal. We’d recommended installing both Booking.com and Airbnb onto your phone before setting off on your road trip. When you choose which town you’ll spend the night in, open the apps and see what accommodation options are available. There are some truly charming Airbnb stays to be found in the USA, and while the most enjoyable aspect of being on a road trip is the adventuring, staying in unique accommodations can really make the trip extra memorable. 

Fun Games

Overall, a road trip is full of adventure and good times, but that doesn’t mean that every aspect of a road trip is fun. There can be boring moments, too, especially when you’re driving in an uninteresting part of the country or you’re simply tired after a long day. At those moments, you can use your smartphone to play a game and keep boredom at bay. Single-player games, such as spider solitaire or mahjong, are good options if there are only two of you on the road trip. They ensure you can stay entertained while your traveling companion focuses on driving. If it’s a family road trip, then look at downloading Road Trip Travel Games from the app store; it offers a modern twist on all those road trip games.

Driving Entertainment 

You’ll do a whole lotta talking on your road trip — but at some point, you’ll want to take a break. With your smartphone, you can let someone else do the talking for a while by listening to a podcast. If you haven’t listened to podcasts before, then start with this list, which runs through some of the greatest podcast episodes of all time. You can also listen to podcasts related to the area in which you’re exploring, which will help to give you an even deeper understanding of the places you visit.  

Capturing the Moments

You’re going to see and do a lot of incredible things on your road trip. While it’s long been possible to take photographs and videos on the road, it’s never been so easy to take professional-quality photographs and videos as it is today. If you have one of the latest smartphones, then you’ll have an exceptional, reliable camera in your pocket — and that’s a lot better than those old film roll cameras, which often only deliver burned-out photographs. 

Record Your Journey

Your road trip will produce lifelong memories, but that doesn’t mean that you’ll remember every single detail. In fact, in all likelihood, you’ll find that, as time goes on, you remember less and less about the precise route you took. Happily, with your smartphone by your side, you don’t need to remember where you’ve been, because your phone will remember for you. Apps such as Roadtrippers and Polarsteps can track your journey, ensuring that you have a detailed record of where you’ve been and when. 

Track Your Expenses

We tend to think of road trips as being budget-friendly, but the costs can quickly add up. From gas to attractions and daily eating, a road trip can quickly amount to a small fortune if you’re not careful. Downloading a travel-focused budgeting app before you depart is a good way to stay on top of your expenses. Trust us — it’s much better to have a clear overview of how much your trip is costing you while you’re doing it, rather than waiting until you get home to tally up the costs and realize that you’ve gone significantly over budget.