Do you remember paper maps? Do you remember the painstaking process of having to locate where you were on a paper map?
Fortunately, these inconveniences are but ghosts from road trips past. Now, your map conveniently rests in the palm of your hand. Yep, gone are the days of sticking to that road trip itinerary that AAA printed out for you. Now, your smartphone is your key to more reliable (and enjoyable) road travel.
With these apps spotlighted below, you can find the nearest rest stops, book the best camp spot, find free camping spots, and locate the nearest dump station. Here are the top 10 best RV apps, starting with the practical ones.
Practical Apps that Every RVer Needs
Apart from your standard Maps and Weather apps, there are practical RV-specific apps that you will use every time you take your RV on a trip
The RV Checklist App
If you’re new to RV life, then checklists are your key to not forgetting important aspects of RV ownership, like winterizing checklists or pre-travel checklists.
Whatever your needs, RV Checklist has you covered with premade checklists to make sure you stay on top of RV maintenance and packing.
It’s a free app, has a simple interface, and it allows you to save your checklists to the cloud, where you can access them on any device. All you’ll have to do is create one list, and you’ll have it easily accessible on your iPad, your smartphone, you name it.
RV Dump Stations
When you gotta go, you gotta go. While RV travel eliminates the need to locate the nearest gas station bathroom or rest stop, there will come a time when you need to locate the nearest dump station. Thankfully, with this app, dump stations are as easy to find as gas stations. When you need to dump, you need to dump. RV Dump Stations helps you find the nearest dump station to drain your black water tanks.
GasBuddy
Saving money on gas is a huge plus when you drive a gas-guzzling RV on a long road trip. GasBuddy not only helps you find the cheapest gas around, but it also rewards you for shopping at GasBuddy partners by giving you “gas money.”
Overnight Parking and Camping Apps that Make You an RV Trip Wizard
These useful apps allow you to effortlessly locate public campgrounds, free campsites, and boondocking locations. While these apps essentially do the same thing, each app tends toward certain niches in the RV market, so you have to know what you’re looking for and where to look for it. They also have ratings right in the app, so you can read reviews to inform your decisions.
RV Parky
Here you find RV parks, campgrounds, rest areas, Walmarts, Cabelas, really anywhere it’s legal to park your RV, you’ll find here. Sometimes you just need to park overnight, get some sleep, and continue on in the morning. You can plan out your itinerary, find routes, compare amenities, and even calculate your trip costs through RV Parky.
Campspot
The Campspot app helps you find reputable campgrounds (some even have the Good Sam honors). These campgrounds are independently owned and operated and have their own unique atmospheres.
Some are all-inclusive family campgrounds, like Yogi Bear RV resorts, with plenty of activities to keep everyone in the family busy. Others offer unique experiences like camping at an apple orchard.
Hipcamp
Where Campspot deals mainly with campgrounds, Hipcamp allows owners to rent out their private land to RVers and other campers. Some are remote and require dry camping, while others have hookups.
And if you want to travel abroad, HipCamp is available internationally in Australia and some parts of Asia.
RV Life
The RV Life app is a real trip planner app. RV Life asks you about your RV before you ever start building a trip. That way, the app can alert you if you’re taking a route that’s not recommended for your type of camper. It helps make the most of your RV season. You can search for campsites, plan routes, and save them for offline use.
You can also get traffic information on the app, but it’s best to check it against your phone’s Maps program as this one doesn’t update as often.
Sekr+
There’s Sekr, and then there’s Sekr+, which is the paid version. Sekr+ gives you the added bonus of offline maps, detailed trip planning and history, and access to a huge community of RVers and events to help you plan an awesome RV adventure.
If you like to meet new people when you’re camping, then you’ll love looking up the local events to enjoy while you’re out of town. There are music festivals, holiday hayrides, wine tastings, and line-dancing parties. So fun!
Move Over Google Maps – We Got This
Google Maps, or Maps for Apple users, is a good GPS app for when you’re on the road. But if you’re looking at offroad adventures in the backcountry, then you need more than these apps can give you.
OnX Maps
OnX Maps provides the most complete collection of detailed, 3-D topographical maps of public lands. You can use the app to plan your daily excursions.
Technically, onX has three different apps. They are all paid versions, but if you find yourself in and out of the backcountry a lot, they’re worth every penny.
There’s onX Hunt, onX Offroad, and onX Backcountry.
OnX Hunt
OnX Hunt provides critical information for hunters to make sure they’re on public – not private – lands.
OnX Offroad
OnX Offroad shows you where you can take your off-roading toys, what type of trail difficulty it is, and what types of offroading toys you should bring. It also functions as a GPS, so you can track your route and set waypoints.
OnX Backcountry
OnX Backcountry provides crucial weather information like avalanche reports for skiers and trail conditions for hikers on top of the maps, GPS, tracking, etc. Whether you’re hunting, skiing, off-roading, or hiking, this app is a must.
AllTrails
Selected as App of the Year for 2023, AllTrails makes it easy to find new trails to hike, bike, climb, ski, paddle, horse ride, and snowshoe wherever you want to go. It provides detailed and up-to-date trail information like trail conditions, weather, and distances that the trailhead may not have. And it lets you save a trail for later.
It’s the perfect way to make your RV trip unforgettable.
Summary
There are, of course, several other awesome apps that you can explore.
- Harvest Hosts
- Gaia GPS
- The National Parks Service
- Boondockers Welcome
- RV trip wizard
- RightOnTrek
- AccuWeather
Explore these apps, and figure out which ones make your RV adventures more enjoyable and less stressful. From trip planning and navigation to weather and campground apps, these digital tools can make a world of difference in your RV travels. But there’s one more app you need. And this one is for when you’re NOT traveling.: the Neighbor self storage app
Part of RVing is storing your RV properly when you’re not using it, so it will be ready when you do use it.
Neighbor is a peer-to-peer storage marketplace. The Neighbor Storage App helps you find affordable, covered storage for your RV close by. So you can rest easy knowing that your home on wheels is ready and waiting for your next family camping trip.
