The motto of the Scouts is Be Prepared! I’m a fan of planning ahead and being prepared when it comes to camping and set out and find the best camping apps to enhance my enjoyment of the great outdoors.
I’m not talking about being glued to a phone the whole time here, these apps will help you to prepare for your next camping trip and could get you out of a sticky situation.
Read on to find what I believe are the 15 best camping apps in 2024.
Weather Apps
Whilst you can’t necessarily plan the weather for your trip, you can at least plan ahead and see what provisions and equipment you might need. The following apps will give you some great insight as to what lies ahead.
Met Office Weather Forecast
The Met Office Weather Forecast app a great way to see what lies in store for the next 7 days. You can watch the latest weather forecast for the country ahead of your trip as well as receiving up to date weather warnings.
Key features:
- 7 day weather forecast
- Probability of precipitation (rain, sleet, snow, hail, & drizzle)
- Actual and ‘feels like’ temperature
- UK National Severe Weather Warnings alerts
- UK national weather forecast video
- Wind speed, direction and gusts
- Sunrise & sunset times
- Air pollution forecasts
- Pollen push notifications (March to September)
- Local weather forecasts unlimited locations
- Ability to change your unit settings for temperature & wind speed
- UV Index, visibility, humidity & pressure
Available now on IOS and Android for free.
BBC weather
The BBC Weather app takes the best parts of the BBC weather website and crams it into a handy app. With an absolute ton of locations and clear weather information, this app is perfect for those who like a clear app design.
Key features:
- At-a-glance forecasts, so you can make decisions quickly
- Hourly data up to 14 days ahead (in UK locations and major international cities)
- ‘Chance of precipitation’, giving you a heads up about rain, hail or snow
- ‘Feels like’ temperature, which takes into account wind speed and humidity
- Met Office weather warnings, personalised to locations that matter to you
- Social-friendly forecasts, sharable on Facebook, Twitter and email
- Text-to-speech accessibility
- Easy-to-read, intuitive layout
Available now on IOS and Android for free.
Navigation
Knowing how you are going to get to your destination is key. The next app is my personal favourite for getting around.
Google maps
Google maps is the gold standard in mapping and in my opinion the best app for navigation. I regularly try to memorise my route to a destination, but when in doubt (and lost) I whip Google Maps out.
Key features:
- Beat traffic with real-time ETAs and traffic conditions
- Save time with automatic rerouting based on live traffic, incidents and road closures
- Offline maps to search and navigate without an Internet connection
Available now on IOS and Android for free.
Camp Sites
Now you have checked the weather and know how you can plan to get there, it’s time to work out where to go.
The following apps will help you to find a great place to camp.
Wikicamps
Wikicamps is a crowd sourced database of campsites, caravan parks, hostels, day stops, points of interest and more. It contains over 6,500 listings for you to find the ideal place to camp.
Key features:
- Works completely offline once you have downloaded the data
- 6,500 listings from other users
- Constantly being updated with new places to go
Available now on IOS and Android with a 14 day free trial
StayFree – Vanlife App
The StayFree Vanlife app is another user-powered app identifying some of the most beautiful RV and Wild-camping spots all around the world.
With pictures of the locations and user-added moments, you really get a feel for where you will be camping.
Key features:
- The most beautiful wild camping places
- Protect the best wild camping spots by sharing them only with your friends and not public
- Be part of the fast growing StayFree community
- Add new spots
- Review all camping spots you were staying at and help other app users find the perfect place
- Comment and like the best moments shared by app users
- Reviews and community uploaded images helps you to find the best place to stay
- Easily share camp spots with your friends
- Filter all vanlife spots
- One click navigation
Available now on IOS and Android for free
Campr Beautiful Camping
Campr is a great app for finding campsites. It works like an interactive guide, allowing you explore different camping regions and see 360° panoramic views. You’ll know exactly what to expect when you arrive!
Key features:
- In-depth reviews for each location
- Mood videos to help you get a feel for the location
- Panoramic, high quality location photos.
Available now on IOS for free.
Siteseeker Campsite Finder
The SiteSeeker campsite finder app has been created by The Camping and Caravanning Club, with the aim of providing detailed information about campsites at your fingertips.
This is the best app for those who would prefer a curated list of sites, rather than user-submitted locations. Simply sign up to the club and you will get access to over 1,500 certified sites.
Key features:
- Filter your results by location, distance and on-site facilities
- In-depth site information including photos, facilities, prices and booking options
- Use the interactive map to find site anywhere in the UK
- Made to be used both online and offline for flexibility on the move
- Includes all Club, Forest and Certificated Sites
Available now on IOS and Android for free.
Walking / Hiking Maps
One of the great things about the great outdoors is going for a long walk across fields and country. Perhaps you prefer to hike up hills and mountains. The following apps will help you find your way and discover new routes for your trip.
Compass Galaxy
The Compass Galaxy is a simple compass app that has a clean design and simply interface. Are you prone to getting lost? This app may just be your ideal walking companion, particularly if you don’t have access to a map.
Key features:
- It’s a compass, simple as that.
Available now on Android for free.
AllTrails
The All Trails app is a great navigation app that can be used to discover hiking, biking, backpacking and running trails.
It works in a similar way to a running app, in that you can track your efforts via GPS.
A real plus with this app is that you can download maps ahead of your adventure. This means that you can reduce the battery usage on your phone using 4G the whole time and there’s no need to worry about the route disappearing mid-hike.
If you’re looking for an app to help you discover new walking routes, this is a great option for you.
Key features:
- Explore 100,000+ Hiking Trails and Mountain Bike Routes
- Record Your Outdoor Adventures with the AllTrails GPS Activity Tracker
- Save Your Favorite Trails
- Get GPS Driving Directions to the Trailhead
Available now on IOS and Android for free.
OS Maps
As a kid (and adult) I love looking through OS maps to find interesting places to walk near me. Whether on holiday or even just a short ride from our house, give me an Ordinance Survey map and I’m in heaven.
Discovering the OS Maps app was game-changing for me. Not only can you use this app to see the beautiful OS map images of areas, you can also discover new routes all across Great Britain.
If you love maps and especially OS maps for walking, this app might just be your ideal companion. The downside? It’s on a subscription service!
Key features:
- Discover thousands of map routes on your mobile device
- Based on the OS award winning mapping technology
- Map routes on every device
- View maps offline
- Augmented reality annotates what you can see
Available now on IOS and Android on subscription (available for £2.99 per month or £23.99 paid annually)
What3words
The term “game-changer” is often thrown around these days with little care for its true meaning. Describing What3words as a game-changed is absolutely appropriate.
What3words is an app that divides the world up into 3m squares, which are based on a 3 word combination and entirely unique.
Want to let your friends know exactly where you are? Are you in urgent need of rescue and can’t describe your location well? Find your what3words address and you will be found in no time.
Key features:
- Help emergency services know exactly where to find you
- Plan exact meet-up locations
- Tell car breakdown services where you are
- Navigate to any destination easily
- Save your favourite memorable spots – a viewpoint, waterfall or proposal location
- Save key locations, from incident reporting to delivery entrances
- Help people find your business or Airbnb
- Guide people to accessible entrances.
See what the BBC say about it here.
Available now on IOS and Android for free.
Camping Skills/Essential
Offline Survival Manual
If you’re a doomsday prepper you might already have this app. It provides vital information you might need should the worst happen and you need to survive.
Whilst you might not need to know the psychology of surviving, there are some great guides into first aid, making fires and building shelters. The best thing is that this is all offline, so you don’t need an internet connection to find out what you need to know.
Key features:
- Basic medicine
- Building shelters
- Building fires
- Foraging for plants
- How to find water sources
Available now on Android for free.
First Aid by Red Cross
You never know what might happen when your out camping. Injuries can happen quite easily and knowing how to deal with them might be the difference between life and death.
The First Aid app by the British Red Cross might just be a life saver one day. This completely offline app has all the information you need to deal with many injuries, burns and scrapes.
Key features:
- Learn with videos and step by step instructions
- Lists to help you prepare for common emergency situations
- Learn with interactive quizzes
- Completely offline and add free
Available now on IOS and Android for free.
Knots Guide Free
The Knots Free Guide app is simple picture guide to some of the key knots you will need as a camper. The app itself is simple to use and might just come in handy when desperately trying to keep your tent up in the wind!
Key features:
- Key apps for hikers and campers
- Simple descriptions and images
Available now on Android for free.
Star Gazing
If you’re anything like me, you love looking up at the sky and admiring the stars. If you’re also like me, you have no idea what any of the constellations are. The following apps allow you to interpret what you see in the sky and look like a pro astronomer.
SkyView Lite
The SkyView Lite app is a simple to use app that uses your camera to spot stars in the sky and work out which constellations you are looking at. You can also discover far away galaxies as well as locating planets closer to home in our solar system.
Key features:
- Simple: Point your device at the sky to identify galaxies, stars, constellations, planets, and satellites (including the ISS and Hubble) passing overhead at your location.
- Night Mode: Preserve your night vision with red or green night mode filters.
- Augmented Reality (AR): Use your camera to spot objects in the sky, day or night.
- Sky Paths: Follow the sky track for any object to see it’s exact location in the sky on any date and time.
- Time Travel: Jump to the future or the past and see the sky on different dates and times.
- WiFi is NOT required (does not require a data signal or GPS to function). Take it camping, boating, or even flying!
Available now on IOS and Android for free.
Conclusion
I hope you found this list of the best camping apps useful. If there are any apps I have missed then let me know. I’m always interested in finding more apps that will make the great outdoors even better!