Explore Illinois Route 66 vs Roadside Strange
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Explore Illinois Route 66
Plan your ultimate road trip along America's most iconic highway. Discover attractions, find upcoming events, and build a personalized itinerary to share with loved ones. Experience the essence of American highway culture.
- Discover activities and attractions
- View upcoming events
- Add events and places to custom trip
- Share itinerary with friends and family
- Personalized vacation planning
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Route 66 is the most famous road in America. Generations of travelers have romanticized this highway as a symbol of unlimited mobility and freedom of the road. Its iconic status is enhanced by the unprecedented volume of music, books, films, and other art forms that depict it as the essence of America's highway culture. The Explore Illinois Route 66 app is designed to help you plan the perfect vacation, trip or getaway along Route 66. • Discover activities and attractions that match your interests • View upcoming events near you • Add events and places to your custom trip • Share events, places and your itinerary with friends and family
Roadside Strange
Discover unusual and unexplained locations near you. Explore hauntings, cryptids, and strange stories with an interactive map, directions, and trip planning features. Turn everyday drives into adventures with curated or randomized road trips.
- Interactive map of strange locations
- Discover cases near you
- Hauntings, cryptids, UAPs, ghost lore
- Directions and public access info
- Save cases and mark found locations
- Build and manage road trips
- Randomized adventure generator
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Roadside Strange helps you discover the weird, unexplained, and unusual hiding just off the road. Explore thousands of locations and cases including hauntings, ghost lore, cryptids, UAP sightings, strange stories, and other unusual history. Use the interactive map to find cases near you, explore the details behind each location, get directions to safe public access points, save cases for later, and mark the places you’ve found. Want to make a day of it? Roadside Strange can turn the strange places around you into a road trip. Premium members can build routes automatically, add locations to trips, and use Surprise Me to generate a randomized adventure based on distance or the amount of time available. Features include: • Explore strange locations on an interactive map • Find cases near your current location • Hauntings, cryptids, UAPs, ghost lore and strange stories • Directions and public-access information • Save cases and mark locations as Found • Community comments and case submissions • Build and manage Road Trips • Premium Surprise Me randomized road trips • Achievements for exploring and contributing Roadside Strange is built for curious travelers, paranormal fans, history lovers, cryptid hunters, UAP enthusiasts, and anyone who would rather take the weird way home. Some locations and stories involve folklore, legends, alleged paranormal activity, or other claims that may not be independently verified. Always respect private property, posted restrictions, local laws, and your surroundings while exploring. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Roadside Strange at 100% against Explore Illinois Route 66's 33%. Roadside Strange also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 3 months) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). Explore Illinois Route 66's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and ads (none vs shown). On price, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Roadside Strange sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.49 per month. Explore Illinois Route 66 asks for nothing beyond the download.
Roadside Strange holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Explore Illinois Route 66 has 128 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 33% of Explore Illinois Route 66's written reviews are positive against 100% of Roadside Strange's.
Explore Illinois Route 66 ships an update every 3 months, Roadside Strange weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Explore Illinois Route 66 | Roadside Strange |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (128 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 33.3% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 128 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 78 MB | 60 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | ILLINOIS ROUTE 66 HERITAGE PROJECT, INC. | nathan wood |
Customer experience
Explore Illinois Route 66
Roadside Strange
In-app purchases
Explore Illinois Route 66
No in-app purchases
Roadside Strange
- Roadside Strange Premium Monthly$4.491 Month
- Roadside Strange Premium Yearly$24.991 Year
- lifetime premium$8.99
Questions
Is Explore Illinois Route 66 free?
Is Roadside Strange free?
Which has better reviews, Explore Illinois Route 66 or Roadside Strange?
Do Explore Illinois Route 66 or Roadside Strange have ads?
Which is updated more often, Explore Illinois Route 66 or Roadside Strange?
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