With some work and research, you really can travel like a pro early on in your RV adventure. These apps really make a difference and are our most used RV Travel Apps.
*RV Life app– Provides GPS, RV Park search, and nearby activities and sights. Our favorite feature is the GPS. It is Rig Specific, enter the Make/Model/Year of your motor home, and the app stores the information. It considers your RV dimensions, so you don’t take a route with bridges and tunnels with weight/height limits less than your RV. Trust us, you need this!
The RV Life app also allows you to download maps which can be very helpful when driving through areas where there’s no cell signal.
Waze – This app will help you monitor any hazards or traffic delays along your route. It is especially helpful when traveling through cities. We use this in addition to RV Life.
Road Atlas – If you’re going to travel like a pro, you better have backup ready for when technology fails you. We use the Deluxe Motor Carrier’s Road Atlas because the pages are laminated, provides information on restricted routes, low clearance, state mileage charts, and over 40,000 city to city mileages. It includes the US, Canada, and Mexico.
iExit – Need to make a pit stop along the way to your destination? This app provides you with information about fuel & fuel prices, food, lodging, medical facilities, and other services you might need to access. You can filter for RV friendly facilities, rest areas, RV repair, and all kinds of shopping.
Campendium – Great app for checking out RV parks in an area or boondocking locations. It also provides input from RVers about cell service. We use this often to find out what other RVers are saying about RV Parks, boondocking, BLM (Bureau of Land Management), U.S. Corp of Engineers, local parks, etc. Users of this app are great about posting road conditions and camp site sizes for RVs. Here are some additional resources for free or low cost camping.
https://corpslakes.erdc.dren.mil/visitors/visitors.cfm
HipCamp – Looking for a space on private property? Property owners use this app to list their properties and manage reservations. It’s an alternative to a RV park and you can get into some cool places.
Allstays – Displays certain laws for each state: DUI, hands free, texting, speed limit, etc. Also lists Walmarts, Cracker Barrels, RV Parks, Propone resources along the way. This app will provide you with information regarding overnight parking. Over the past couple of years, Walmart and Cabela’s have started restricting RV parking at some of their locations. We always call and ask prior to parking overnight. Advanced filters allow you to filter by different types of services/info: Army Corp, KOA, Overnight Parking, Low Clearance, Road Grade, Truck Stops, etc.
Good Sam Club – Offers 10% discount at many RV parks. The discount doesn’t apply when you’re staying for a month or longer. However, many parks offer their own discounted rate for 30 days or longer. Good Sam requires you pay a membership fee and they have over 2400 RV parks in their network and is one of the most widely accepted discount memberships.
Gas Buddy – Up to $.25 savings per gallon if you are using a fueling station in their network. They also offer special deals on gas/diesel. Indicate that you want the deal, fuel up, and then scan your receipt in the app. It applies the discount to your account. The pro is that you can filter stations by gas or diesel and see the ones closest to you. This app doesn’t indicate if they are RV friendly. If you a driving a motorhome or pulling a large 5th wheel, you must check google satellite to make sure they have the space to accommodate you.
*Open Roads – Diesel savings programs. You can apply for an account that allows you to use an EFS (Electronic Funds Source) card for savings on diesel. Money is deducted from your checking account and an email is distributed with your savings. The map of network fuel stations provides you with the discounted price at each station. If you are Diesel, this is how to travel like a pro. It will save you the BIG MONEY over time, our favorite!
*MyRadar – We can’t stress this enough, watch the weather and radar every day! You need to be prepared for any significant weather and plan accordingly. Encountering inclement weather in an RV is very different from being in a sticks and bricks home. Make sure you know what actions need to be taken in cases of high wind, tornadoes, flooding, and extreme temperatures. Weather changes quickly and you need to adapt just as quickly for your own safety.
Weather – Any weather app will do, but we recommend having one in addition to MyRadar. It’s much easier for checking the weather in your local area, air quality, pollen count, humidity, and weather alerts.
DriveWeather – We love this app because we can enter a route and see if there is any inclement weather, high winds, and monitor temperatures and radar along the route.
*NPS.gov – If you’re visiting a national park we recommend the National Park website and app. It will not only highlight some of the things to see and do, but also provides vital information related to road and trail closings, entrance fees, police reports, animal activity, and special ranger events and guided tours. Due to an increase in visitors, many parks have restrictions regarding the # of people allowed to enter during a specific day. This information can be found on the website or app. Tickets must be purchased through recreation.gov. Recreation.gov is also used for booking state parks and some private RV parks. Get your National Park Pass, it makes your visit easier and will probably save you money in the long run.
AllTrails –The app allows you to download maps so you can use them offline. You can filter for hiking, mountain biking, trail running, road biking, backpacking, walking, off-road driving, scenic driving, bike touring, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, skiing, paddle sports, camping, fishing, bird watching, horseback riding, rock climbing, via ferrata. Users often report on their personal experience, recommendations, photos, animal sightings and other interesting info.
RVDumpStations – Shows 7000+ locations throughout the US and Canada. Includes Rest Areas, Truck Stops, KOA’s, Campgrounds and more even if you are offline! You’re probably going to need it someday, good to know this app exists!
Now, please share this with your friends and let’s get out there and have some fun! R&M
*Indicates in our opinion, you can’t travel like a pro without it!
(Note: we have iphones and have not checked these apps to determine if they are available on android.)
