Download These Apps Before Your Next Road Trip

If you don't like to be locked in to staying in a particular hotel or town as you travel, you can book your room while you're on the road. TripAdvisor (Free on iTunes and Google Play) lets you search for hotels by city or zip code. Or you can find hotels that are closest to your current location. The app pulls up the highest ranking hotels first, lets you check rates and tells you how many miles away they are or shows them on a map relative to your location.

If you're in or near a large city, Hotel Tonight (Free on iTunes and Google Play) provides last minute travel deals (sometimes up to 70 percent off) for hotel rooms, literally, tonight. It can be the perfect app for finding a hotel that evening when you're out on the road—and around one of the locations that the app supports.