One of our favorite parts of a road trip is discovering new places along the way, and we hope you'll find some new places to check out by using our categories to browse for places on the map! Whether you want to look for offbeat attractions, need to find a campground to stop at, or a place to grab a drink - you can use categories on the desktop site to do some planning in advance or in the mobile app to find spots while on the road.
Scroll through this article to learn more about using categories and filters to discover places, or click a title in the list below to jump to a section:
Place Categories
Places on Roadtrippers are assigned categories, making it easy to discover and find new places. With categories covering a broad range of places, you can find everything from diners to abandoned attractions, and famous college football arenas in between. Virtually any interest can be explored within our categories.
They are organized as primary categories > secondary categories. For example, if you want to find a bed and breakfast along your route, open the Hotels & Unique Stays category (look for the bed icon). Then, you can filter the results to the type of place you want to stay at, such as Bed & Breakfasts. Pins will appear on the map representing places that have been categorized as a bed & breakfast.
Note: The Overnight RV Parking filter is only available to Roadtrippers Premium members. You can learn more about our membership tiers by clicking here.
Places on the Map
After selecting a category, places appear on the map in the form of pins or small circles.
- The places shown are determined by the part of the map you're viewing and the place's rating.
- There is a limit to how many places will appear on the map at once - so the more you zoom in, the more places you will see in a given area.
Zoomed out it appears we only have a small number of tourist attractions across the United States. After zooming in closer to an area by using the + button on the right side of the map, more places appear. The larger, illustrated icons on the map are Extraordinary Places - these are hand-picked by the Roadtrippers team of experts, we promise each one is worth the detour.
Auto Places
Note that on the desktop site, you can disable most of the automatic places displayed (except for the ones shown with an illustration, these are part of the map and can not be turned off). Just click the globe icon on the right side of the map and de-select the checkbox next to Auto Places. This may help make city names more visible on the map. This feature is not available in the mobile app.
Selecting Categories
See the instructions below to learn how to select categories to find places to stop on your trip!
- Hover your mouse over the category icons in the upper left of the map to find what you're interested in.
- Click on one of these primary categories to load them on the map, then you'll be able to use filters to select secondary categories and more.
- For example, if you select The Great Outdoors category, then you can click the Filters button at the top of the list of results and select from the secondary categories like beaches, state parks, and trails.
- You'll see places appear as pins on the map and can zoom in or move the map around to look at specific areas. You can also look at them in the list of places the left.
- If your trip is loaded on the map along with a category selection, you'll see 2 bars listed in the top left - 1 for your trip's itinerary and 1 for the category results. You can click from one to the other to expand your trip or the category results.
- If you're done looking at that category and want to remove it from the map or select a new one, click the X on the right of the category bar. Then the discovery bar with all of our category icons will be visible again and you can select a different category to browse.
- Tap the Search & Explore bar at the top of the map.
- Select the category you're interested in to load places on the map, then you'll be able to use filters to select secondary categories and more.
- For example, if you select The Great Outdoors category, then you can tap the Filters button at the top of the map and select from the secondary categories like beaches, state parks, and trails.
- You'll see the places appear as pins on the map and can zoom in or move the map around to look at specific areas. You can swipe through the places at the bottom of the map or tap the 3 dots with lines icon in the upper left to see them in a list view.
- If you're done looking at that category and want to remove it from the map or select a new one, tap the X on the right of the category bar. Then you can select a different category to browse or just search for a place by name if there's a specific place you want to add to your trip.
- Tap the Search & Explore bar at the top of the map.
- Select the category you're interested in to load places on the map, then you'll be able to use filters to select secondary categories and more.
- For example, if you select the Sights & Attractions category, then you can tap the Filters button at the top of the map and select from the secondary categories like museums or roadside attractions.
- You'll see the places appear as pins on the map and can zoom in or move the map around to look at specific areas. You can swipe through the places at the bottom of the map or tap the 3 dots with lines icon in the upper left to see them in a list view.
- If you're done looking at that category and want to remove it from the map or select a new one, tap the X on the right of the category bar. Then you can select a different category to browse or just search for a place by name if there's a specific place you want to add to your trip.
Selecting Filters
See the instructions below to learn how to select filters to get more specific results for the types of places you're interested in!
- After selecting a category from the discovery bar described above, you'll see a list of results for that primary category and options to filter the results at the top of the list (just below the category name).
- There are some quick filter buttons to choose from or you can click the "Filters" button at the front of the list to see all the filter options.
- To look at the secondary categories and all of the available filters, click the Filters button to see all of the options to narrow down the results.
- After clicking the "Filters" button, you can scroll through to browse and select any filters you want to apply. The secondary categories will be listed at the top and all other filters are below that. You can select as many filters as you'd like, but keep in mind that if you apply too many, we may not be able to find any results.
- After selecting filters, click the blue View Places button at the bottom right to apply them and see your new set of results. If you want to clear your selections, click the Reset Filters link in the bottom left to de-select all the filters you previously applied. If you just want to close out of the filters window and go back to the map, click the X in the top right.
- After selecting a category from the Search & Explore bar described above, you'll see a list of results for that primary category and options to filter the results at the top of the map (just below the category name).
- There are some quick filter buttons to choose from or you can tap the "Filters" button at the front of the list to see all the filter options.
- To look at the secondary categories and all of the available filters, tap the "Filters" button to see all of the options to narrow down the results.
- After selecting "Filters", you can scroll through to browse and select any filters you want to apply. The secondary categories will be listed at the top and all other filters are below that. You can select as many filters as you'd like, but keep in mind that if you apply too many, we may not be able to find any results.
- After selecting filters, tap the blue View Places button at the bottom right to apply them and see your new set of results. If you want to clear your selections, tap the Reset Filters link in the bottom left to de-select all the filters you previously applied. If you just want to close out of the filters window and go back to the map, tap the X in the top right.
- After selecting a category from the Search & Explore bar described above, you'll see a list of results for that primary category and options to filter the results at the top of the map (just below the category name).
- There are some quick filter buttons to choose from or you can tap the "Filters" button at the front of the list to see all the filter options.
- To look at the secondary categories and all of the available filters, tap the "Filters" button to see all of the options to narrow down the results.
- After selecting "Filters", you can scroll through to browse and select any filters you want to apply. The secondary categories will be listed at the top and all other filters are below that. You can select as many filters as you'd like, but keep in mind that if you apply too many, we may not be able to find any results.
- After selecting filters, tap the blue View Places button at the bottom right to apply them and see your new set of results. If you want to clear your selections, tap the Reset link in the bottom left to de-select all the filters you previously applied. If you just want to close out of the filters window and go back to the map, tap the back arrow in the top left.