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 using the web app on our desktop site, check out this article instead.
- Starting a New Trip
- 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.
From the Nearby Section
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 with suggestions from the map, select I want to plan it myself instead.
From the Map Section
If you're browsing around 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 new the new trip form with that place automatically set as the destination.
Just like when creating a trip from the Nearby tab, enter your destination on the new trip form 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.
From Search & Explore
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.
From Categories List
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.
From Place Pages
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.
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!
- Click the + button at the bottom right 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.
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 on the waypoint you want to be deleted and selecting the Remove option.
- Rearrange waypoints by doing a long tap on the waypoint to grab it, then dragging and dropping it in the list of waypoints.
- Add details to waypoints like notes, budget, and reservation numbers by tapping a waypoint to see all the options you can use.
Adding Dates to Your Trip
If you 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. 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.
Viewing Trip Stats
Once your trip is routed, your Trip Stats will appear at the top of the Itinerary in 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.
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, tap the 3 vertical dots in the upper right to launch the map settings, tap Adjust Distance from Route, and scroll through the list select a new radius option.
Customizing Trip Settings
Trip Settings is where you can edit your trip's name, description, fuel type and economy, and privacy setting. Follow the steps below to open the Trip Settings:
- Go to the Profile section in the app.
- Tap to select the trip you're working on.
- Tap the 3 vertical dots in the upper right.
- Select the Trip Settings option from the list.
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
- 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.
From the Nearby Section
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 with suggestions from the map, select I want to plan it myself instead.
From the Map Section
If you're browsing around 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 new the new trip form with that place automatically set as the destination.
Just like when creating a trip from the Nearby tab, enter your destination on the new trip form 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.
From Search & Explore
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.
From Categories List
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.
From Place Pages
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.
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!
- Click the + button at the bottom right 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.
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 on the waypoint you want to be deleted and selecting the Remove option.
- Rearrange waypoints by doing a long tap on the waypoint to grab it, then dragging and dropping it in the list of waypoints.
- Assign a date to a place by tapping on the waypoint and selecting the Set Date option.
- Add a note to a place by tapping on the waypoint and selecting the Notes option.
Adding Dates to Your Trip
If you 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. Click that button to provide start and end dates for your trip, then we'll automatically assign dates to the waypoints in your trip.
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.
Viewing Trip Stats
Once your trip is routed, your Trip Stats will appear at the top of the Itinerary in 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.
Adjusting the Route Shade
The route shade is an area around your trip that can be expanded or contracted with the search radius 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, tap the 3 vertical dots in the upper right to launch the map settings, tap Adjust Search Radius, and drag the slider to select a new radius option.
Customizing Trip Settings
Trip Settings is where you can edit your trip's name, description, fuel type and economy, and privacy setting. Follow the steps below to open the Trip Settings:
- Go to the Profile section in the app.
- Tap to select the trip you're working on.
- Tap the 3 vertical dots in the upper right.
- Select the Trip Settings option from the list.
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.