Out of all the possible summer vacations, road trips have the unique ability to crumble apart as soon as they begin. What you predict will be a long, character-building family trip through the countryside quickly dissolves into a car of hungry, screaming relatives — if you're not careful.
We've compiled this list of free, helpful apps to make your road trip roll smoothly, and to keep your family from attacking each other at the next truck stop.
1. RoadNinja
Mashable composite, images courtesy of RoadNinja
Billboards become redundant with the free RoadNinja app — users learn the locations of restaurants, gas stations and points of interest near every highway exit. View real-time gas prices and access RoadNinja special offers and coupons.
2. HotelsByMe
Mashable composite, images courtesy of HotelsByMe
Plans changed last minute? The HotelsByMe app can help. Offering real-time availability and hotel pricing in your area, this app pulls hotel ratings from TripAdvisor. So, you'll know whether the "Five-Star Inground Pool" is actually a four feet-deep mosquito habitat lorded over by a territorial Canadian goose.
3. Roadtrippers
Image courtesy of Roadtrippers.com
Download: iOS.
Take the road less traveled with this app, which finds obscure small businesses and attractions on your custom vacation routes. Roadtrippers — both a web and mobile app — gives you a localized road trip, for a more adventurous feel.
4. OpenTable
Image courtesy of OpenTable
Make a dinner reservation while you're still stuck in traffic three states away, with the OpenTable app. Restaurants opt in to the service, often providing menus, photos and more. You can search for available locations by price, cuisine and rating.
5. Field Trip
Image courtesy of Google
This free Google app runs in the background of your smartphone, alerting you to locations fit for a field trip: historical sites, architecture, entertainment, etc. The app talks about interesting places as you drive by and will customize recommendations based on your "thumbs up" or "thumbs down."
6. BatteryGuru
Download: Android.
If you have an Android, you have battery problems — this is a fact of life. If you're taking a long road trip and haven't invested in a car charger, BatteryGuru can help. After a few days of "learning" how you use your smartphone and data, the app creates a customized battery optimization plan that'll give your phone a bit more juice.
7. Project Noah
Image courtesy of Project Noah
If you have any science lovers on your road trip, use Project Noah, a great app for discovery. Just upload a picture of a cool specimen, tag your location and it will document in the huge, crowdsourced science experiment that is Project Noah. You can also view any recent documentations near your area or filter based on organisms that interest you.
8. Sky Map
Image courtesy of HDRshooter.com
Download: Android.
Decided to pass up the hotel and camp out for the night? Use this educational app to search for stars — as you see them. Sky Map uses GPS data, compass data and date/time to display planets and constellations viewable in your location. A similar free iOS app called Star Chart is available in iTunes.
9. Postagram
Image courtesy of Postagram
Want to keep family and friends up to speed on your road trip? This free app sends customized postcards anywhere in the U.S. for $0.99 ($1.99 for addresses outside the U.S.). You take the picture, write the message and the app sends your creation anywhere you'd like.
10. The Traveler
Image courtesy of The Traveler
Download: Android.
The Traveler app organizes, documents and stores your trip all in one place: a virtual road trip scrapbook. When you capture photos and videos, the app will add corresponding markers to your map. Compatible with the newest version of Google Maps, it takes pictures through the app's action bar.
Credits: Mashable
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