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obie311's avatar
obie311
Explorer II
Jan 21, 2019

best RV trip planning app for MacBook?

mods: please move to another forum if you think I have posted in the wrong place

We're planning our first long RV trip. I am a former (medically grounded) pilot so I'm good with maps and trip planning. However I'll be doing the driving so I want my wife to be conversant with trip planning and modification on the go with her MacBook. I don't mind spending the money for a good reliable app or program so I don't want freeware with distracting ads.

Also how do you connect with the internet while on the Road? Do you use your cellphones data plan? How about OnStar? Our truck has it but the charge for unlimited data seems pretty expensive. I don't much care for the other "services" it offers.

Retired newbies here getting our feet wet for the first time so we'd appreciate all the help you can give.
Roads and Routes
  • jplante4's avatar
    jplante4
    Explorer II
    Jan 21, 2019
    RV Trip Wizard. Web based so it should run on Safari. You put in the info on your rig and how many miles or how many hours you want travel days to be. It draws a circle of that radius around your current location and shows the campgrounds at the edge. Click on one and it drops a link to campgroundreviews.com (formerly RVParkReviews) for that CG. We used this to plan out an 11 week, 6000 miles trip last summer and it worked great.

    For over-the-road connectivity, we got the FMCA/Verizon plan $50 a month for unlimited (they throttle above 25 gig) and they send you a JetPack hotspot for a penny.

    Have you checked out BasicMed to get back into the air?
  • dedmiston's avatar
    dedmiston
    Moderator
    Jan 22, 2019
    obie311 wrote:
    Also how do you connect with the internet while on the Road? Do you use your cellphones data plan? How about OnStar? Our truck has it but the charge for unlimited data seems pretty expensive. I don't much care for the other "services" it offers.


    The connectivity from your truck is expensive and you can only use it when you're in the truck. I just piggyback off my cell phone's "unlimited" data plan. (It's theoretically unlimited, but at a certain threshold they will supposedly throttle the speed if I've used too much data. I haven't hit that wall yet though.)
  • obie311's avatar
    obie311
    Explorer II
    Jan 22, 2019
    Thanks!

    We went with RV Trip Wizard. It seems to have a lot of depth that will be useful to us. Yeah I didn't see much advantage to OnStar considering what it cost. Looking into hotspots with unlimited data (even if throttled). Would appreciate recs for a few reliable plans at a decent rate.
  • DilanYah's avatar
    DilanYah
    Explorer
    Jul 30, 2019
    When it comes to navigation, I vote for Google Maps. My job is essentially driving from place to place. I use the voice feature to say what street and it's fairly good, it gets it right all the time on straight forward street names. It does a pretty good job at guessing strange street names. Navigation is good and I like the feature which highlights traffic buildup.

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