Getting Started with RoadTrippin

What is RoadTrippin?

RoadTrippin is a free app that turns any road trip into an adventure. It combines driving route planning with points of interest — parks, museums, historic sites, viewpoints, trailheads, and geocaches — and lets you plan together with friends in Groups. Everything runs on free, open-source map data, and you don't need to create an account: open the app and you're planning within seconds.

RoadTrippin is available on the App Store, on Google Play, and as a web app that runs right in your browser.

The four planning sections

The app is organized into four sections, chosen from the tabs at the top of the panel (a dropdown on smaller screens). The map always fills the top half of the screen and updates live as you plan; tap Full Map any time to see it full screen.

• Route — enter a start and a destination, add stops, and get a full driving route with distance, drive time, and directions. Read the Route guide.
• Plan me a Trip — no fixed destination? Pick an area and RoadTrippin finds parks, museums, historic sites, viewpoints, trailheads, and geocaches nearby, then builds one route through the ones you choose. Read the Plan me a Trip guide.
• Geocaches — search for geocaches near a town and log your own finds to the community map. Read the Geocache guide.
• Log — your record of every visit and geocache find, alongside what the rest of the community has logged. Read the Log guide.

Your first route in three steps

1. Open the Route tab and type your starting point — a city, state, or full address all work (for example, Chicago, IL).
2. Type your destination (for example, Nashville, TN). Add stops along the way with Add a Stop Along the Way if you like.
3. Tap Plan My Route. The map opens with your route drawn in blue, along with the total distance, estimated drive time, and buttons for directions, a GPX file, Google Maps, and Apple Maps.

From there you can add points of interest along the drive, save the trip, or send it to your favorite navigation app.

Why logging matters

Every point of interest on the map comes from OpenStreetMap — real-world data that isn't always complete or up to date. The only confirmed visit data in RoadTrippin comes from travelers actually going to those places and logging a visit or a geocache find. Each log records the place, location, date, and time, and becomes part of a live community map every other user can see.

That makes every log useful: even one accurate log from a real location is more valuable than a hundred unvisited predictions. Log every visit, even brief ones, and only log at the spot where you actually arrived.

Plan with friends

Traveling with other people? Create a Group from the menu, share its six-character invite code, and everyone in the group can chat, share photos, and see the same plan. Read the Groups guide.