We switched from Roadtrippers to RV Trip Wizard for trip planning. Here's why.
When we were planning our first big road trip - our East Coast Road Trip in 2017 - a friend suggested that I try Roadtrippers.com. The site is kind of like having a travel agent on your computer. You can plug in your starting point and destination, and Roadtrippers will give you suggestions of sights to see along the route. While there are many options for these suggestions, including landmarks, activities, campgrounds, lodging, parks, and more, in 2017 I narrowed in on unique landmarks that we might want to see along our route. Because we weren't in an RV, it was easier to stop where we wanted. Roadtrippers is responsible for us coming across this gem:
What I didn't realize back in 2017 was that Roadtrippers is actually a site that many RVers use for planning their travels. There is an option when creating your route that allows you to check off "RV Travel" and you can add your RV details so that the map will give you a safe route, avoiding weight, length, or height restrictions. What's interesting to me is that many RVers who use Roadtrippers don't talk about the option to find "places to camp" in the map. Personally, I find this extremely helpful because when I'm planning my travels, I plan them around the places I'm staying. Obviously I didn't need this option in 2017, but in my research I noticed that clicking on the campsite icon yields a dearth of information. Some campgrounds have a few reviews or photos and oftentimes there are descriptions of what's offered at the campground, but I find myself also wanting to go do my research elsewhere.
Roadtrippers is part of a package of road trip tools. Paying for a membership gives you access to an RV GPS, an RV community app, and Campendium, which is a website that lets you search campgrounds. I will use the Campendium site occasionally, specifically when I'm looking for free camping or want to see people's reviews of cell connectivity at a specific site. I don't need to be a Roadtrippers member to use it. I suppose with both Roadtrippers and Campendium, RVers are able to narrow their campground options fairly well, but for me personally, I try to keep things extremely simple, and the less websites I need, the better.
This is why I gravitated toward the RV Life trip planner, RV Trip Wizard, when we started our RV travel planning. The site works in much the same way. There is a map, you plug in your starting point and destination, and it gives you an RV safe route based on your dimensions. Unlike Roadtrippers, RV Trip Wizard focuses more on the campgrounds. There are options to add points of interest including sights and landmarks, but the attention is rightly paid to stops that are important for RVers, such as truck stops over RV overnight options. I will only filter for campgrounds when I'm doing the bulk of my trip planning.
It's nice that both Roadtrippers and RV Trip Wizard let you turn off unnecessary options, or else the maps would be a cluttered mess of icons. I want to plan my trip in a way that's least overwhelming. I start with the route, then look for the campgrounds, and if I need an overnight stop along the way, I can always turn that option on temporarily. As far as pit stops go, I don't really use that option on Trip Wizard because we don't plan our pit stops ahead of time. Typically I just use our Garmin GPS or Google when we're on the road. I do have the RV Life GPS, the included GPS with paid membership, but often the route is not the same as where Garmin takes us, so when we're on the road it's hard to look up pit stops in this app.
I never search for roadside attractions, simply because it's hard to stop places in an RV. We love the drives because we can see the changing scenery out our window, but unlike our car-only road trips, we can't just pull off wherever we want. We want to stay productive on travel days and make sure we get to our destination in good time. On our road trips years ago, we'd spend an entire day exploring a city before moving on, arriving to our hotel late at night. In an RV we very much prefer to get places before dark, especially because we have a whole unhitching/unpacking process to do once we get to where we're going.
The one thing I like about RV Trip Wizard over Roadtrippers is that it's very user-friendly for reading campground reviews, leaving my own reviews on places I've stayed, and taking notes. If there is a seamless way to do this in Roadtrippers, I haven't found it. I will scratch notes on RV Trip Wizard, right in a window that links to the campground. I can add the price, reservation information, and any other important details such as site number and whether or not we'll have hookups. I will then copy all those details into my Google Calendar. On RV Trip Wizard, most campgrounds have ample reviews. The user base is extensive, and we all pitch in to provide the most accurate information possible. We take our job to review these sites seriously, posting pictures, tips, speed tests, and more. RV Trip Wizard makes it extremely easy to do this, which is probably why reviews abound on this site. The more information I can see at a glance, the better. Many times I just need to use Trip Wizard and the specific campground's website, and I've done all the research I need to book a campsite.
Other apps and websites included in the RV Life membership are a maintenance tracker and expert masterclasses/community forums. We pay mainly for the trip planning and review site, but having these extras is nice. We're thinking about transferring over our maintenance schedule to RV Life and seeing how we like it.
Both Roadtrippers and RV Life have their paid options, so what's the difference? If you're looking solely for a trip planner, which is my main use of the website, Roadtrippers has a bigger learning curve and seems to necessitate more research off the site. RV Trip Wizard is fleshed out, and 99% of the time I can count on it to provide me thorough, accurate campground information. I'm not a huge fan of the GPS and have never used Roadtrippers' version, ToGo RV, but with our Garmin, an RV GPS app isn't a top priority. The RV Life maintenance schedule and masterclasses are things we've yet to partake in, but they're there for the future.
It all comes down to how we plan our travels and if we want more bells and whistles or if we just want clear information. I'm a fan of the latter. Pricewise, I guess I prove my fandom, because RV Life Pro is $59/year, compared to Roadpass Pro, which is $49.99/year. At the end of the day, I just want the no-frills organization that RV Trip Wizard offers me, but having used both for different types of road trips, I can confidently say that we travelers are lucky to have so many incredible resources at our fingertips. Road tripping sure isn't how it used to be! We have ample choices of where to stay and tons of guidance on how to get there safely. It's a great time to be a roadtripper.