Updated April 30, 2021
Frommer's readers love to travel and save -- it's what we do -- so with the cost of fuel creeping up, both our day to day driving, and our ability to take an affordable road trip, are being affected.
I personally am not willing to give up on getting out of the city for a few days of R&R, simply because of prices at the pump. With that in mind, here are some of our best tips for affordable, and less frequent, fueling up.
Community Price Watch Sites
It's at times like these that consumer websites (and their app offshoots) like Gas Price Watch (www.gaspricewatch.com) really come in handy. The website is designed to help users find the lowest price of gas in their own neighborhood (or in a city that you are planning to visit). In fact if the price of gasoline is really influencing when and where you travel by car, you may want to consider Texas for your next getaway -- though the country-wide average is $2.95 today, the city of Fort Worth currently has the lowest prices in the entire country -- a gallon of gas here will only set you back $2.19.
Of course, we're not suggesting you'd use this website/app, or its rival Gas Buddy (www.gasbuddy.com), just to compare state-to-state fuel costs (our condolences to Alaska, by the way). These two sites are indispensable in finding the lowest gas costs near you. You simply input a zip code, and boom: you get a list and a map, showing you what local gas stations are charging.
The differences can be significant. When I did a search for gas stations in Avondale, Arizona, I found a few stations fueling up customers for just $2.79 a gallon, with most charging $3.09, and a buzzkill Chevron station charging a whopping $3.39.
All of the prices are being input, in real time, by neighborly drivers. If you would like to become an oil price vigilante, you can register as a spotter for free on these websites and/or apps, and help spot and post prices in your neighborhood so others can benefit. The more participants, the better.
Another Terrific Resource: Gas Cost Calculator
We can thank the Automobile Club of America for this primo resource, which gives estimates of fuel costs before trips, so vacationers can better plan out how much to spend on lodgings, food, and other expenses. Its Gas Cost Calculator (https://gasprices.aaa.com/aaa-gas-cost-calculator) has you input your route, followed by the make, model, and year of your car. Then it shoots back a guess (an accurate one, we've found) on how much you'll likely spend to fuel up.
Top Tips for Topping Off Your Tank
How you drive and what you drive will also affect how much fuel you need to put into your vehicle. Our top 10 overall tips are: