Spontaneous detours are fun but RVers know better than to exit highways on a whim. We understand that it’s not smart to unexpectedly travel down a bumpy dirt road just to see an oddball curiosity like the Alley Oop Museum and Fantasy Land Park in Iraan, Texas. The good news is you don’t have to totally avoid those kitschy roadside attractions when you’re on the move: just plan ahead. These four great roadside attractions planning tools will help you do just that, so you can enjoy all the fun of traveling off-the-beaten path.

Roadtrippers

Roadtrippers is a web and mobile travel planning platform whose unique content covers the wonderful “off the beaten path” places to visit and their unique database contains millions of the world’s most interesting locations. Roadtrippers helps people discover the world around them in an entirely new way by streamlining discovery, planning, booking and navigation into an engaging and intuitive process. The web and mobile applications are free to use.  Their alluring trip guides include exciting categories like Weird Guides, Movie Filming Locations, Ghost Guides, and 48-Hour City Guides.  You must check them out!

Roadside America

As the name implies, Roadside America covers fun pit stops in all fifty U.S. states, plus Canada. Formed in 1996 by three avid roadtrippers, it’s a kamikaze assortment of big and small detours alike. Planning tools include interactive maps, interesting articles and a semi-regular newsletter about highlighted destinations. Roadside America has a grassroots charm and relies on community members to share information about destination hours, directions and other important details. If hours have changed or a destination has permanently closed, you’ll know before you make the drive.

Roadside America also has the added advantage of an iPhone app. It’s not free, but you have a choice of paying $2.99 to download just one U.S. region or you can take a leap of faith and pay $5.99 for every oddball attraction in the U.S. and Canada. The app is much easier to navigate than the primary website, making this roadside attractions planning tool a great investment.

 

Atlas Obscura

Not only does Atlas Obscura cover thousands of oddball attractions in the U.S., but also on every continent! The creators leave no stone unturned when it comes to sharing fun and funky places from The Thing in Arizona to prehistoric ruins in Zimbabwe. With great writing and amazing photos, Atlas Obscura is easy on the eyes for trip planning purposes. You’ll also find it useful if you’re planning travels into Mexico and beyond.

Find-a-Grave

Are you a “taphophile”? You are if you enjoy looking for interesting epitaphs in cemeteries. Thankfully this website and accompanying app can put you on the highway to heavenly adventure. Simple and functional, Find-a-Grave allows you to search through over 152 million burial sites. You can search by name, claim to fame, death date and more. The only problem? It’s so comprehensive that your searches must be very specific to find who you’re looking for. For example, when I search for “Isaac Hayes” grave, it gives me 144 matches.

One of the greatest things about RVing is you’re always within one tank of many fascinating destinations. These roadside attraction planning tools help you find them. And while you won’t add much more time to your journey, you will create many more adventures. The only downside? Once you find all of these interesting detours, it might take you twice as long to get to your original destination.

About the Author:

Rene Agredano, a Coach-Net member since 2015, is a self-employed full-time RVer who enjoys writing, jewelry design and animal advocacy. Her adventures with a three-legged dog and husband Jim are chronicled at LiveWorkDream.com.

David P. ~ “I had to use the Coach-Net system for coach jack problems.  They were very helpful in resolving the issue and i was able to continue my journey.  This was the first time I had to use Coach-Net and it worked out great! When time to renew, I most definitely will.  Thanks for all of the help!”