If you’re planning a camping trip, a hike, or any outdoor adventure, having the right apps will make your day much easier.
Whether you’re looking for directions to the trailhead, need to find your way without cell service, or want to keep track of your trek once you get out on the trail, these apps have you covered.
If you’re planning a trip to the great outdoors, hiking is an awesome way to explore your surroundings and get some healthy exercise while you’re at it. But before you hit the trails, you’ll want to make sure you have the right tools and knowledge for a safe and exciting trip.
Read on to learn all about hiking apps!
Best Apps For Finding Hiking Trails
Why Do You Need Hiking Apps
There’s a seemingly endless number of hiking apps out there, from navigation to inspiration! So what can a hiking app do for you? Well, it turns out quite a lot…
Inspiration – An app is a great way to discover hikes in your area and across the globe! You can save hikes you’re interested in, avoiding the Saturday morning google search of “best hikes near me”.
Navigation – An app can also help you find your trailhead and stay on course. This is particularly important if you’re going on a hike in an area with limited cell service.
Learn – A smartphone is a walking encyclopedia, ready to help you learn about anything (it’s smart for a reason!). There are hiking apps out there to teach you about plants, wildlife, and constellations.
Performance Tracking – Not only can you use an app to track a hike for later, but you can also share hike performance. I love a good competition, so tracking hikes with friends and family is great motivation.
best free hiking apps 2021
The Best Apps for Hiking
So what is the best app for hikers? From sharing custom trails with friends to navigation features to help you find your way on a mountain, the answer depends on what your needs are.
That’s why we’ve broken down five different but totally versatile types of hiking apps and explain the pros and cons of each for when you’re travelling.
These apps are great tools to complement a travel planner app for when you need help finding the perfect hike as a tourist or for organizing local trips in your own neck of the woods!
Of course, if you’re new to the hiking world and looking for some advice, be sure to study the top hiking tips so you can feel at ease and prepared when planning your next adventure!
Here are the five best hiking apps you won’t regret downloading!
AllTrails
Spyglass
Hiking Project
PeakFinder
Cairn
Which one should you choose? What is the best free hiking app? What’s the best hiking app to find new trails, for safety or for getting around different terrains. Read on to find out!
Here are the top 5 best hiking apps you won’t regret downloading!
- AllTrails (iOS, Android: Free/$29.99 annually)
AllTrails is one of the best hiking apps for novices and experts alike. All it takes is a few taps on your phone to find curated hiking, biking, and running trails for various lengths and difficulty levels.
The app also lets you create custom trail maps, follow friends’ activity and read trail reviews from its user community.
While the app’s premium paid version has additional features like offline off-route navigation and real-time overlays, the free version offers more than enough for most explorers.
And for more in-depth information, check out our AllTrails app review to see if AllTrails will be a good fit for your next hiking excursion!
AllTrails app preview on an iPhone
A preview of how the AllTrails app appears on your phone.
Why We Love the AllTrails Hiking App
At Pilot, our goal is to help people live a happier life through shared experiences and AllTrails helps facilitates this really well.
The app makes it easy for you to share custom maps, routes, and experiences with family and friends.
Plus, real people contribute the reviews and pictures of many locations which definitely makes the app’s information more honest and reliable.
- Spyglass (iOS, Android: $5.99)
Spyglass is the best hiking app for outdoor navigation. Although it’s not a free hiking app, it’s a one-time fee of $5.99 is more than palatable and definitely worth it.
With modern features like augmented-reality navigation, the app operates in 3D, shows you real-time object locations, and overlays directions over images and maps.
Spyglass also has the power to turn your phone into a GPS receiver, altimeter, speedometer, star finder, coordinate converter, a pair of binoculars, and more.
Screenshots of SpyGlass mobile interface
Just a few screenshots of all the information Spyglass offers you.
Why We Love the Spyglass Hiking App
Spyglass’s gazillion features will turn you into a proficient navigator and explorer in no time!
What’s more, the advanced object-location data features can really elevate your wildlife-spotting or star-gazing experiences.
- The Hiking Project (IOS, Android: Free)
Hiking Project is the best free hiking app that uses community-sourced content to help you pick and choose the perfect trail.
Users submit information like route descriptions, images and reviews that are then vetted by an in-house team before they are added to the app.
The hiking app basically functions as a living guidebook that is constantly updated with new information and more reviews.
Plus, Hiking Project works offline so you can use it literally anywhere your explorations may take you.
You can learn more about the Hiking Project app with our Hiking Project review that grades the quality of the app and goes into detail about the unique features so you can get the best out of it!
The Hiking Project Mobile Interface
You can use The Hiking Project app to learn about featured hikes in your area and read their reviews.
Why We Love the Hiking Project Hiking App
All the info on the Hiking Project is contributed by real hikers who have actually “tested” the trails they write about, so the app includes useful tips that aren’t on just any website.
The Hiking Project is the best hiking app to learn specific things like how much water to bring or the best place to park your car to start off a particular hike right.
Another amazing bonus is that the app is free and it doesn’t have any built-in annoying pop-up advertisements, which makes for a great user experience.
- PeakFinder (iOS, Android: $4.99)
Attention budding mountaineers—this app is for you!
PeakFinder contains information about more than 650,000 peaks all over the world and helps you identify the ones you find during your trips.
From Mount Everest to that small hill you can see in the distance, PeakFinder uses your phone’s location and camera to label the peaks you are looking at.
The app also offers labeling and naming features within a 360-degree panoramic display.
Peakfinder mobile hiking app preview.
You can use the app’s camera and photo editor mode to capture locations and share them with friends.
Why We Love the PeakFinder hiking App
Hiking is as much about discovery and exploration as it is about health.
PeakFinder lets you learn all the names of the new peaks you discover, so when you talk about your weekend hike, you can say you saw Mount Owen instead of some nondescript hilly area.
- Cairn (iOS, Android: Free/$26.99 Annually)
Cairn is one of the best hiking apps that can help you stay safe during your adventures.
You can use the app to share your real-time progress and location with family or friends for their peace of mind, and yours too!
Cairn helps you plan routes by offering helpful estimates of how long you will take to complete a particular trail based on personalised data and points out areas with weak cell reception.
If you take longer than expected for your hike, the app also notifies your emergency contacts to let them know.
The premium version of the app lets you use its features offline and automatically sends live updates to your contacts.
Conclusion
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