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Road Trip Resources

Ready for the road trip of a lifetime? Welcome to The Road Trip Expert’s resources page! As exciting as your trip may be, chances are you might need some help with planning your trip beforehand.

You’re in the right place. Below is a list of all the resources you could possibly need for your road trip.

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Key Pages on The Road Trip Expert

Here are the key pages on this website that will assist you in planning your road trip experience:

Free Road Trip Resources


Flights

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Skyscanner

My favorite flight comparison site due to the awesome search interface. Easily filter the results to find the perfect flight.

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Going

Going (previously Scotts Cheap Flights) sends awesome flight deals straight to your inbox. Loved by over 2 million travelers.

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Google Flights

A great alternative to Skyscanner. I really like the map feature allowing you to visit all possible destinations from a starting airport.

I like to check the prices and options on multiple platforms before booking flights. Aside from Google Flights, I usually check the options on Skyscanner as in my view it’s one of the best flight comparison sites. Kiwi.com can also be a good option for a final price check.

Going (previously Scotts Cheap Flights) sends awesome flight deals straight to your inbox. Check out our full article on How To Find Cheap Flights.


Car Hire

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RentalCars

My preferred site to book a rental car for a trip. It’s the site I’ve been using for years without any problems. They compare prices and options from multiple car rental companies so you can get the best value.

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Discover Cars

Discover Cars is also a price comparison site. Given that rental cars are one of the largest costs of a road trip It’s absolutely crucial to get the best price! I always check multiple places before booking.

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Economy Bookings

A final option is Economy Bookings. It’s a good idea to check all three before booking. Economy Bookings checks over 800 suppliers for the best price.

For many years I’ve been flying into new countries and renting a car for a road trip. It’s one of my favorite ways to explore a new destination. If you’re looking to do the same thing, I’d recommend reading my article on getting the best price on your rental car first. Both articles are full of rental car tips that you won’t regret learning!


Accommodation

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Booking.com

Booking.com is my go-to resource for booking private rooms and apartments. I prefer it to Air BnB. It tends to have multiple options, from hotels to homestays. The trick is to filter through the options to find exactly what you are looking for, by selecting facilities, price, and location.

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HostelWorld

Hostelworld is my favorite app for beds in a shared dorm and private rooms in hostels. It’s a great budget option and perfect for solo travelers. The site has a decent review system which is important as hostel quality can vary significantly.

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Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing is a nice resource that allows travelers to network and put each other up for free. It works on the assumption that you may let someone ‘couch surf’ at your place at some point in the future. I haven’t used this service since backpacking in the USA in 2014, so I can’t give much info.

During over a decade of travel, the platforms I use the most by far are Booking.com and Hostelworld. This is mainly because they meet all my needs and I feel like in my experience I haven’t found the same accommodation for better pricing when checking elsewhere.

Check out my full article on finding cheap accommodation on a road trip.


Travel Insurance

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Safety Wing

Safety Wing offers a product called Nomad Insurance, which I researched while planning the trip I’m currently on around SE Asia. From my research, and reviews written by others, I think it’s fair to say that Safety Wing offers a budget-friendly, but less comprehensive travel insurance product.

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World Nomads

I’ve used World Nomads multiple times. However, It’s important for me to state that I have never had to claim from them so I cannot review this element of the service. I like that I can add specific activities I’m doing and a list of countries I plan on visiting to get a specific quote.

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Insure My Trip

InsureMyTrip serves as a comparison platform, assisting you in finding the optimal insurance plan at the best price. They have thousands of travel insurance plans and a one-of-a-kind recommendation engine to help travelers find the right plan.

If you’re like me then you will agree that the most important reason for taking out travel insurance is reimbursement for medical expenses incurred due to emergency illness and injury. I want to know that if I go abroad and something happens to me, I can get the care I need. That’s why my first piece of advice is to make sure you always read the exclusions of any policy and check what you are covered for.

Always take your time when arranging travel insurance, it’s THAT important. Get multiple quotes and always read the description of coverage carefully. Make sure you enter your details accurately.

Check out my full article on Choosing Travel Insurance.


Experiences

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Get Your Guide

Get Your Guide allows you to book a wide range of things in 150 countries. These include guided tours, entry tickets, city cards, hop-on-hop-off tours, and transfers.

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Go City

The world’s largest sightseeing pass business. Pick a city and choose the attractions you want to see. Download your pass to your phone or print it out. Aims to save you money.

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Viator

Explore over 300,000 experiences globally on Viator. Free cancellation with thousands of trusted reviews. Browse top destinations and choose the perfect experience to make lasting memories!

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We Go Trip

A Marketplace to book self-guided audio tours and tickets to museums. Guides, local experts, and museums create self-guided audio tours that travelers take with the WeGoTrip app

Something that’s important when planning a road trip is to include some trip highlights. Often I like to just explore places by myself. However, I do enjoy going on some organized experiences as it’s a good way to interact with other travelers.


Spending Money Abroad & Esims

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Wise

Spend money abroad with one account/card for 50+ currencies. No hidden fee in the exchange rate. Very low fees in my view and useful to have multiple fee-free allowances for ATM withdrawals.

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Monzo

Monzo is an online bank based in the United Kingdom. Monzo allows me to spend abroad and passes on the Mastercard exchange rate directly to me. They also give me an additional monthly fee-free allowance for ATM withdrawals

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Airalo (eSIMs)

Giving you access to eSIMs (digital SIM cards). With eSIMs from Airalo, download and install a digital data pack from 200+ countries/regions and be connected anywhere in the world the second you land. Download the mobile app to get internet abroad.

When you are traveling abroad then it’s important to ensure you don’t overpay fees for spending and withdrawing money. I am not a financial technology expert, so please know that this is just what I personally use.

What I do is carry multiple cards with me. This is because lots of providers have a monthly fee-free allowance for making ATM withdrawals abroad. So to minimize costs, I take multiple cards to take advantage of each allowance.

Wise and Monzo both offer a monthly fee-free allowance. Monzo (UK & US) doesn’t charge me (UK citizen) to use my card abroad and Wise charges (in my view) very low fees for doing so.


Navigation & Parking

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Google Maps

Google Maps is my go-to navigation and route-planning resource. Useful features include the ability to download offline maps which is great when you’re abroad without mobile data. It’s particularly accurate in cities, where one-way streets and abnormal driving regulations can be abundant. Also useful for public transport or walking route information.

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Waze

Waze is a road navigation app owned by Google that has a nice visual experience and easy-to-follow directions. It often suggests a shorter time to the destination than google maps and has accurate estimated arrival times. Alerts for incidents are particularly useful.

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Parkopedia

Parkopedia is an app I’ve used all over the world to find cheap car parking. Search for parking in 90 countries and get directions via Google/Apple Maps. Featuring impressive filtering functionality, price data, and pre-booking capabilities.

In my experience of taking numerous extensive road trips abroad, keeping car parking costs low was one of the biggest challenges. I wrote an article on finding cheap car parking which passes on the tips and tricks I learned over the years.


Road Trip Budgeting

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Budget Your Trip

Budget Your Trip is a useful resource for creating a trip budget prior to leaving. You can search by destination and see estimates and averages for costs you might incur during your trip. It also provides daily, weekly, and monthly living budget amounts in any currency.

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Fuel Cost Calculator

Fueleconomy.gov is a helpful resource to help you figure out fuel costs for your trip. You can enter your exact vehicle details and the route you plan to take into the trip calculator, and it will figure out fuel costs for you.

Go ahead and check out our full article on creating a road trip budget.


Camping

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Ioverlander is an awesome site/app that will show you campsites (in map format) along your route. It will tell you how much a site costs or if it is free, as well as what amenities are available such as toilets, wi-fi, cooking areas, and showers.

One of its main advantages is the reviews from a large community of other users. There are often photos and descriptions of camping areas. You can add or update this information as a fellow user.

Don’t forget to check out our comprehensive car camping guide.