Everyone can view any episode for free. Just click on the play button above.
Scroll down to see the show notes, these will be available for Members Only.
Members get access to the extensive show-notes Chris writes up after each show. Read them online and follow links directly to the parts you’re interested in. We recommend you print them out and keep them in a notebook. It’s a great way to learn.
Not a member? Join here. This episode covers:
- Quick Tip: putting all your travel apps in a folder on your phone
- Travel planning steps: Research, Plan, Navigate, Stay, Remember
- Google Maps, Roadtrippers, RVParky, Google My Maps, Allstays, Google Photos – navigate to a photo
Download show notes .pdf (you’ll see a dropbox login, but you can just close it – no Dropbox account is needed)
1:40 Beginning Tip: Add all your travel apps to one folder.
On iPhone: Long-press on a travel app’s icon and tap “Edit Home screen”. You should see the icons wiggling. Drag one icon on top of another to create the folder, then drag others into the folder.
On Android: You can also drag one icon on top of another to start a folder. Dragging other icons into the folder can be a bit tricky, you can also open the folder and tap the + icon. Then choose the app(s) from the alphabetical list and Done.

8:09 Hello everyone and Happy New Year. We are coming to you from our home in Fort Lauderdale, FL. We are headed to Tampa for the 2021 Florida RV Supershow this week. We will be presenting a seminar every day on Maps and Apps for RV Trip planning!

10:39 Maps and Apps for Trip-Planning

Google Maps can do it all:
Each of these 5 steps have their own tools. Google Maps can do it all, but there are some other apps that are better at certain of the steps. Research is being done all the time, thinking about places you want to go and things you want to do – Google it! Plan means putting a specific trip together. Where you’re starting from, where you going and when you’re getting back. Google My Maps lets you make your own map. Navigate with turn by turn directions with Google Maps on your mobile device. Where you’re going to stay? you can Google for “Campgrounds near ___” The Remember step is extra but we think it’s important – Google Photos and Google My Maps provides our permanent record of where we went and what we saw.
14:11 Roadtrippers

The photos in this slide represent 3 memorable places we visited that we would not have known about but for using Roadtrippers. Whenever we had a few days to spare, we pull up Roadtrippers and see what pops up as fun things to do in the area.
You can use Roadtrippers even without an account. Just go to Roadtrippers.com and enter a start and a destination. You will see major sights along the way. As you research places you want to go. As you zoom in more places will pop up. You can specify what types of places you want to see by clicking the icons at the top of the trip list. And you can adjust the tistance from your route that you want places to appear by adjusting the slider at the bottom of the list. See this article for more info about using Roadtrippers.
22:25 More research and Want To Go markers on Google Maps


When you learn of places you want to go – save those places on a list that shows up in Google Maps. With each saved place you can also add a note. Whenever you are in the area, the marker you saved will show up. This way you’ll remember those places even if its been years. You can even make separate lists for different purposes. To see all your lists, go to google.com/collections.

36:04 Making your own maps with Google My Maps. When I want to start planning a particular trip, I use My Maps to make my own. If the “want to go” saved paces is like pushpins on one big map, My Maps is for creating a file folder for each trip. Go to MyMaps.Google.com and create a new map, then you can search for places and add them to your map. You can also use the marker tool to add places on your map that aren’t on Google Maps – like a special desert parking spot.
See video 585: 585. GM-make your own map
RVTripWizard – is the most complete trip planning tool specifically for RVers.
Trip Planning Tools
- Google Maps – go-to app for searching and navigating, anything travel related
- Google My Maps – for creating your own custom maps
- RoadTrippers – the easiest and best way to find points of interest
- RVTripWizard – the most complete planning tool specifically for RVers
- RVParky – wonderfully simple trip planner which automatically calculates dates of arrival at each stop
- Furkot – free website (Furkot.com) for complete set of tools for any kind of trip planning, including motorcycle, car/hotels, and RVs. This is the only one that includes a tool to say, “I want to travel from here to Boston and drive 300 miles each day – show me where to stop each night.”
and probably lots more
45:26 Navigate
Google Maps is the best, most up-to-date turn by turn navigation available. It behooves everyone who travels by RV to learn how to use Google Maps. BUT, it doesn’t know about height restrictions, so if you are traveling by RV that is over 9 feet high, you need an RV aware GPS system that will be sure you are not traveling on a road with a low-clearance overpass! Garmin is one. An app on your phone is Togo RV GPS See video 674

Favorite travel tip = navigate to a photo. If you use Google Photos and Google Maps and your phone is set to record the GPS location when you take a photo – Then
- open that photo,
- swipe up on it to reveal the map of where the photo was taken
- tap “Open in Maps”
- Now you’re looking at the spot in Google Maps where that photo was taken and you can tap on Navigate.
51:23 Review Questions
