If you're planning a trip using our mobile app on iOS or Android, this article will help you get started! If you're planning a trip on our desktop site, check out this article instead.
- Starting a New Trip
- Trip Management
- Adding Waypoints to Your Trip
- Editing Your Waypoints
- Adding Dates to Your Trip
- Viewing Trip Stats
- Adjusting the Route Shade
- Customizing Trip Settings
Starting a New Trip
Ready to plan your epic road trip? The Roadtrippers app has a few simple options to create a trip from wherever you are in the app. Expand the sections below to learn more.
The Nearby section is the first thing you see after launching the app.
- Tap the New Trip button.
- On the new trip form, enter a starting place or start from your current location (default option) and enter a destination in the To or "Where are you going?" field. You can search for an address, city, or place (ex. Zion National Park). Matching options that we have on our map will come up in a list as you're typing.
- Then tap the Start Trip button.
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You'll be presented with 2 planning options when you make a new trip:
- 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 while exploring categories on the map, select I want to plan it myself instead.
If you're browsing the Map section in the app and see a place you'd like to start a trip to, tap the green car icon shown on the place card as outlined in the screenshot below. This will take you to the new trip form with that place automatically set as the destination.
Just like when creating a trip from the Nearby tab, confirm your starting point and tap the Start Trip button. You'll have the option to have us plan the trip for you, or plan it yourself depending,on your membership level. Your trip will be created and loaded on the map.
Trips can be created from search results, too.
- Go to the nearby or Map section in the app.
- Tap the Search & Explore bar at the top and search for a city, address, or place of interest.
- Matching options that we have on our map will come up in a list as you're typing.
- Once you see a match for what you're looking for, tap the green car icon to the right of the place.
- The create new trip form will open, make changes to the starting point if necessary and tap the Start Trip button. You'll have the option to have us plan the trip for you, or plan it yourself depending on your membership level. Your trip will be created and loaded on the map.
Trips can be created from the categories list view while exploring places on the map.
After selecting categories on the map, open the list view by tapping the 3 dots with lines icon in the upper left. Once you have the list view open, tap the green car icon to start a new trip with that place as the destination.
Lastly, new trips can also be started from a place page. When there isn't a trip active on the map, tap the Start Trip button on a place page to create a trip with it (note that if you already have a trip active on the map, you'll see an Add to Trip button instead).
The create new trip form will open with the place as the destination. Make changes to the starting point if necessary and tap the Start Trip button. You'll have the option to have us plan the trip for you, or plan it yourself depending on your membership level. Your trip will be created and loaded on the map.
Trip Management
While planning a trip in the app, you can switch back and forth between the map view and the trip planner view.
- If you're on the map, tap the green bar with the trip name at the bottom of the map to switch to the planner.
- If you're on the trip planner, tap the back arrow ( < ) at the top left of the screen.
When you're on the trip planner view, you'll notice a few tabs. Expand the sections below to learn more about what you can do in each tab.
This is where you'll see all the stops added to your trip. You can add, edit, rearrange, or remove waypoints here.
This is also where you can add or edit dates and view daily totals for estimated driving distance and time.
If you swipe right/left through the buttons at the top of the itinerary, you'll see more planning options such as applying routing options, duplicating the trip, making a round trip, and more.
This is where you'll find your trip stats.
This tab shows the total number of waypoints, total estimated driving time, total estimated distance, and estimated cost of gas + budgets added to your waypoints.
You can also invite collaborators and add or edit your vehicle here.
This is where you can view a simple list of all the stops in your trip without the other details like distance between each or daily totals. It's good for seeing all your waypoints at quick glance.
Adding Waypoints to Your Trip
After you've added your starting point and destination, now it's time for the fun part - finding and adding stops along the way!
- In the trip planner, click the blue "Add a waypoint" button at the bottom of your itinerary or the blue Add (+) button next to dates (if you have dates on your trip). After clicking either Add button, you can search for and add places to your trip. You can search for cities, addresses, and points of interest here.
- On the map, tap the Search & Explore bar to apply categories to the map and discover all sorts of places you might want to add to your trip.
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 tapping the waypoint card and selecting Remove Waypoint From Trip.
- Rearrange waypoints by doing a long tap on the waypoint card to grab it, then drag and drop it in the list of waypoints.
- Add details to waypoints like notes, budget, and reservation numbers by tapping a waypoint card to see all the options you can use.
Adding Dates to Your Trip
If you didn't use Autopilot and haven't added dates to your trip yet, then you'll see an Add Dates button at the top of the trip itinerary. (If you see Clear Dates, then you already have dates on your trip!)
Tap 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 tap the waypoint card to view the waypoint details and change the date there.
Viewing Trip Stats
Once your trip is routed on the map, your trip stats will appear in the Details tab of the trip planner.
This is where you'll find the total number of waypoints, total estimated driving time, total estimated distance, and estimated cost of gas + any budgets added to your waypoints.
You can also invite collaborators and add or edit your vehicle here.
Adjusting the Route Shade
The route shade is an area around your trip that can be expanded or contracted with the distance setting. The distance setting indicates how far off your route you are willing to go to visit places and this limits where places load when exploring our categories while planning a trip.
The size of the shade will adjust as you update the distance setting. For example, if the distance slider is set to 5, all places within the shade are 5 miles from your route or less.
With a trip opened on the map and a category applied, tap the map layers icon at the upper right of the screen to launch the map options, tap Distance from Route, and scroll through to select a new radius setting.
Customizing Trip Settings
Trip Settings is where you can edit your trip's name, description, fuel type and economy, and privacy setting.
Go to your trip itinerary, swipe through the options at the top of the itinerary until you reach Trip Settings, and tap that button.
Web App Features
Note that not all trip-planning features from the web app are available in the mobile app, including the option to customize your route by dragging the trip.
For more advanced editing, we recommend creating a trip on the app, then logging onto the desktop site at Roadtrippers.com and further editing the trip there. Changes made to the trip on the web app will automatically sync to the trip in the mobile app.
- Starting a New Trip
- Trip Management
- Adding Waypoints to Your Trip
- Editing Your Waypoints
- Adding Dates to Your Trip
- Viewing Trip Stats
- Adjusting the Route Shade
- Customizing Trip Settings
Starting a New Trip
Ready to plan your epic road trip? The Roadtrippers app has a few simple options to create a trip from wherever you are in the app. Expand the sections below to learn more.
The Nearby section is the first thing you see after launching the app.
- Tap the New Trip button.
- On the new trip form, enter a starting place or start from your current location (default option) and enter a destination in the To or "Where are you going?" field. You can search for an address, city, or place (ex. Zion National Park). Matching options that we have on our map will come up in a list as you're typing.
- Then tap the Start Trip button.
-
You'll be presented with 2 planning options when you make a new trip:
- 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 while exploring categories on the map, select I want to plan it myself instead.
If you're browsing the Map section in the app and see a place you'd like to start a trip to, tap the green car icon shown on the place card as outlined in the screenshot below. This will take you to the new trip form with that place automatically set as the destination.
Just like when creating a trip from the Nearby tab, confirm your starting point and tap the Start Trip button. You'll have the option to have us plan the trip for you, or plan it yourself depending on your membership level. Your trip will be created and loaded on the map.
Trips can be created from search results, too.
- Go to the nearby or Map section in the app.
- Tap the Search & Explore bar at the top and search for a city, address, or place of interest.
- Matching options that we have on our map will come up in a list as you're typing.
- Once you see a match for what you're looking for, tap the green car icon to the right of the place.
- The create new trip form will open, make changes to the starting point if necessary and tap the Start Trip button. You'll have the option to have us plan the trip for you, or plan it yourself depending on your membership level. Your trip will be created and loaded on the map.
Trips can be created from the categories list view while exploring places on the map.
After selecting categories on the map, open the list view by tapping the 3 dots with lines icon in the upper left. Once you have the list view open, tap the green car icon to start a new trip with that place as the destination.
Lastly, new trips can also be started from a place page. When there isn't a trip active on the map, tap the Start Trip button on a place page to create a trip with it (note that if you already have a trip active on the map, you'll see an Add to Trip button instead).
The create new trip form will open with the place as the destination. Make changes to the starting point if necessary and tap the Start Trip button. You'll have the option to have us plan the trip for you, or plan it yourself depending on your membership level. Your trip will be created and loaded on the map.
Trip Management
While planning a trip in the app, you can switch back and forth between the map view and the trip planner view.
- If you're on the map, tap the green bar with the trip name at the bottom of the map to switch to the planner.
- If you're on the trip planner, tap the back arrow ( < ) at the top left of the screen.
When you're on the trip planner view, you'll notice a few tabs. Expand the sections below to learn more about what you can do in each tab.
This is where you'll see all the stops added to your trip. You can add, edit, rearrange, or remove waypoints here.
This is also where you can add or edit dates and view daily totals for estimated driving distance and time.
If you swipe right/left through the buttons at the top of the itinerary, you'll see more planning options such as applying routing options, duplicating the trip, making a round trip, and more.
This is where you'll find your trip stats.
This tab shows the total number of waypoints, total estimated driving time, total estimated distance, and estimated cost of gas + budgets added to your waypoints.
You can also invite collaborators and add or edit your vehicle here.
This is where you can view a simple list of all the stops in your trip without the other details like distance between each or daily totals. It's good for seeing all your waypoints at quick glance.
Adding Waypoints to Your Trip
After you've added your starting point and destination, now it's time for the fun part - finding and adding stops along the way!
- In the trip planner, click the blue "Add a waypoint" button at the bottom of your itinerary or the blue Add (+) button next to dates (if you have dates on your trip). After clicking either Add button, you can search for and add places to your trip. You can search for cities, addresses, and points of interest here.
- On the map, tap the Search & Explore bar to apply categories to the map and discover all sorts of places you might want to add to your trip.
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 tapping the waypoint card and selecting Remove Waypoint From Trip.
- Rearrange waypoints by doing a long tap on the waypoint card to grab it, then drag and drop it in the list of waypoints.
- Add details to waypoints like notes, budget, and reservation numbers by tapping a waypoint card to see all the options you can use.
Adding Dates to Your Trip
If you didn't use Autopilot and haven't added dates to your trip yet, then you'll see an Add Dates button at the top of the trip itinerary. (If you see Clear Dates, then you already have dates on your trip!)
Tap 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 tap the waypoint card to view the waypoint details and change the date there.
Viewing Trip Stats
Once your trip is routed on the map, your trip stats will appear in the Details tab of the trip planner.
This is where you'll find the total number of waypoints, total estimated driving time, total estimated distance, and estimated cost of gas + any budgets added to your waypoints.
You can also invite collaborators and add or edit your vehicle here.
Adjusting the Route Shade
The route shade is an area around your trip that can be expanded or contracted with the distance setting. The distance setting indicates how far off your route you are willing to go to visit places and this limits where places load when exploring our categories while planning a trip.
The size of the shade will adjust as you update the distance setting. For example, if the distance slider is set to 5, all places within the shade are 5 miles from your route or less.
With a trip opened on the map and a category applied, tap the map layers icon at the upper right of the screen to launch the map options, and use the Distance From Route slider to select a new radius setting.
Customizing Trip Settings
Trip Settings is where you can edit your trip's name, description, fuel type and economy, and privacy setting.
Go to your trip itinerary, swipe through the options at the top of the itinerary until you reach Trip Settings, and tap that button.
Website Planning Features
Note that not all trip-planning features from the Roadtrippers website are available in the mobile app, including the option to customize your route by dragging the trip.
For more advanced editing, we recommend opening the desktop site at Roadtrippers.com and editing a trip you created on the app there. Changes made to the trip on the website will automatically sync to the trip in the mobile app.