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best road trip tips for saving money

august 26, 2020

“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.” - T.S. Eliot

Road trips are already a popular pastime for those living in the United States. But due to COVID-19 travel restrictions and safety concerns, they’ve also become one of the safer ways to travel in 2020.

There are a lot of great benefits to opting for a road trip. They can be cheap, you get to travel at your own pace, and it’s a great excuse to explore off the beaten path. With this in mind, we’re sharing our favorite road trip resources for saving money and discovering unique destinations along the way.

Inspiration

Dreaming up where to go is half the fun!

Pinterest is a vast resource for discovering great ideas for travel. Unlike other social media channels, Pinterest is really more of a search engine, just like Google, except users group their ideas into collections called boards. If you’re not a Pinterest user and this sounds daunting, don’t worry. It’s free and easy to sign up, and you don’t have to build collections if you don’t want to. You can simply search for unique places, or anything else for that matter, and benefit from the cool knowledge that others are sharing.

If you love weird roadside finds and attractions, Roadside America has several user-friendly ways to search for places along your route.

ReidsGuides is a worldwide trip planning website, and it’s packed with information and resources on everything you could ever need or want. Among our favorites are their road trips guides and fun articles like Seven Alternatives to the Grand Canyon.

Where to Stay

The Dyrt and Freecampsites.net are both great for finding free and paid campsites. If you’ve always wondered what a road trip in an RV might be like, Outdoorsy claims to feature “the best RV and trailer rentals on the planet.” We’ve not tried them, mostly because we own a Honda Element camper, but I’ve read good things.

Allstays incorporates various types of rental options underneath one umbrella, hence the name. Travelers can search campsites, rooms, spa hotels, yoga retreats, truck stops, RV parks, and haunted hotels, just to rattle off a small portion of their offerings.

We love Airbnb, which is probably pretty obvious if you’ve been following our site. First-time users can score a discount with this link.

If you enjoy quirky and remote properties, check out our Amazing Off-Grid Places to Stay for some seriously fun vacation rental options, some of them right here in the US. And if you’re into camping, check out How to Find the Best Campsites to help keep your road trip on the cheap.

Budgeting

It’s actually pretty easy to overspend on a road trip. There are all the fun eating out options and the yummy road trip snacks. And if you’re traveling far enough that you’ll need a place to stay, this can greatly impact your spending.

GasBuddy has a great trip cost calculator that allows you to predict what you’ll spend on fuel.

And if you’re looking for an all-in-one budgeting solution, Mint by Intuit has some great budgeting tools that can help you plan for travel and other one-time expenses. This might be a good thing to consider if you’re not already using a budget, and especially if you’re looking for something that can be easily accessed through a smartphone app.

written by elaine skylar Neal / Travels and Curiosities

We love storytelling in all its amazing formats. As a photographer and online publisher, Adobe is a critical tool for running my business. Their creative cloud membership incorporating Lightroom and Photoshop speeds up my workflow and helps me make my images look their best. If you’re new to Adobe and the Creative Cloud membership, they have several plans to fit your creative needs, but the $9.99/mo photography plan allows you to access Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and Photoshop from anywhere your photography takes you.