If you're planning a trip using the web app on our desktop site, this article will help you get started! If you're planning a trip in our mobile app on iOS or Android, check out this article instead.
You can also watch this video to learn how to start planning a trip on our website:
Some Roadtrippers features are available only to Roadtrippers members. Roadtrippers offers 3 types of membership and you can choose your plan based on your specific trip planning needs. If you are trying to use a specific feature mentioned below and that feature requires a membership, we'll let you know which membership you'll need!
- Getting Started
- Starting a New Trip
- Changing Your Starting Point
- Adding Waypoints to Your Trip
- Editing Your Waypoints
- Using Via Waypoints
- Adding Dates to Your Trip
- Viewing Trip Stats
- Using the Distance Slider
- Adjusting Trip Settings
Getting Started
The Roadtrippers.com homepage is the perfect place to start planning a trip or to just start exploring some places on our map!
With the "Create a Route" tab selected, use the fields that are front and center to enter your starting point and destination to start planning a new trip, or switch to the "Explore Destinations" tab to just browse an area on the map.
If you enter your start and end points to start a trip you'll be presented with 2 planning options:
- Select Plan it for me if you want to use our AI-powered trip planning tool, Roadtrippers Autopilot™. This feature is only available to Premium members, and you can start a free trial if you want to give it a try. Learn more about Autopilot here.
- If you aren't interested in a Premium membership or if you'd prefer to plan the trip yourself with suggestions from the map, select I want to plan it myself instead.
Starting a New Trip
Ready to plan your epic road trip? If you used those fields on the homepage to start a trip or browse the map, then you're already on your way! Whether you use Autopilot or the Plan it myself option, you should see a trip on the map with the start and destination places you entered on the homepage.
If you already started a trip but don't have it up on the map anymore, go to your profile page by clicking your profile icon in the top right. Any trips you've worked on while signed into your account will be saved here.
Changing Your Starting Point
If you didn't manually enter a starting point while starting a trip on the homepage, then your trip will be created with your current location (as best as we could detect) as the starting point. You can easily correct the starting location by following the steps below:
- Click the "+ Add Waypoint" button and search for your actual starting location.
- Select your starting location from the list to add it to your trip.
- Click the original starting location in your trip, click the "Remove Waypoint" link and confirm the removal.
- If your new, correct starting point didn't automatically get added to the first position in your trip then you can select and drag/drop it to the first position.
Adding Waypoints to Your Trip
Whether you use Autopilot or the Plan it myself option, now it's time for the fun part - perfecting your trip by finding and adding stops along the way! If you used Autopilot you can remove any stops you don't think fit your trip too!
- Click the + button at the top of your itinerary to search for and add places to your trip. You can search for cities, addresses, and points of interest here.
- Turn on categories to explore and discover all sorts of places you might want to add to your trip.
- Click on a waypoint to open the details page where you can delete that waypoint.
Learn more!
Learn more about how to add places to your trip and explore our categories in the articles below:
Editing Your Waypoints
- Remove a waypoint by quick clicking the waypoint then clicking Remove Waypoint.
- Rearrange waypoints by long clicking then dragging and dropping it in the list of waypoints.
- Add details to waypoints like notes, budget, and reservation numbers by clicking a waypoint to see all the options you can use.
Using Via Waypoints
Via waypoints are pins that are dropped after dragging a route. They are typically used to slightly modify a route between stops or to add a general area to a trip (such as a metropolitan area or region) without entering an address.
To drag a route and drop a via waypoint, start by hovering your mouse over the route until a dot appears along the line. Click and hold the dot, and begin moving it across the map. Notice that as you move it, the route automatically updates to show you where the trip will be going. This is handy if you are trying to avoid a specific road and vice versa.
Via waypoints will appear in the Trip Planner with the via symbol: 
. They can be removed and rearranged just like regular waypoints. Learn more about customizing your route here!
Adding Dates to Your Trip
If you didn't use Autopilot and haven't added dates to any of your waypoints yet, then you'll see an Add Dates button at the top of the trip planner. (If you see Clear Dates, then you already have dates on your trip!) Click that button to provide start and end dates for your trip, then we'll automatically assign dates to the waypoints in your trip. Learn more about using dates here.
Don't worry - you can easily move waypoints to a different date if you don't like where we put them! To move a waypoint to a different date, you can drag and drop the waypoint within the itinerary or click the waypoint to view the waypoint details and change the date there.
We don't currently have a feature to edit the date range for the entire trip, so the best way to extend the trip after already applying dates is to edit the date on your final waypoint by clicking the waypoint within your trip and selecting a new date there. That will push the date on your final waypoint out to the new end date and it will add new empty date ranges between the last date with a waypoint and your new end date.
Viewing Trip Stats
Once your trip is routed on the map, your Trip Stats will appear at the top of the trip planner. This includes the number of waypoints, the total estimated driving time for the trip, total estimated mileage, and estimated cost of gas.
Trip stats update automatically as changes are made to your trip and also appear in your Trip Guide.
If dates are applied to your trip, you'll also see daily total trip stats below each date.
Using the Distance Slider
The route shade is an area around your trip that can be expanded or contracted with the distance slider at the bottom left of the Trip Planner. The distance slider indicates how far off your route you are willing to go to visit places and limits what places load while exploring our categories.
The size of the shade will adjust as you move the distance slider. For example, if the distance slider is set to 30, all places within the shade are 30 miles from your route or less. Move the distance slider by clicking and dragging the marker.
Customizing Trip Settings
You can open the Trip Settings for your trip in a couple of ways:
- With your trip loaded on the map, click through the buttons at the top of your trip until you see Trip Settings and click that button.
The settings you can adjust in Trip Settings are:
- Basics: Edit your trip's name, privacy setting, description, and banner photo.
- Vehicle & Fuel: Specify the type of vehicle you're driving and adjust fuel settings.
- Collaborators: Invite friends to collaborate on your trip (only available for Roadtrippers Premium members).