We’ve hunted and gathered to find you the best apps to use while caravanning, camping or road-tripping.
Wiki Camps – $3.99
WikiCamps is a dynamic user generated camping app for Australia. All sites are added, edited and shared by users like yourself! The database is constantly growing and always being updated with the latest information about sites from all over Australia.
With over 21,000 listings already, join the largest and fastest growing camping app in Australia. Listings including Caravan Parks, Camp Sites, Backpacker Hostels, Day Stops, Points of Interest and Information Centres.
Each site has loads of information to help you plan your get away from activities including swimming, fishing, 4x4ing, pet rules, Wi-Fi hotspots, pricing, toilets, showers and heaps more.
You can use Wiki Camps to add and view photos from other happy campers all around Australia. So you can see what the camp site is like before you go there.
Rate sites as you go and add them to your own personal favourites list.
With heaps of extra gadgets including:
- Satellite dish pointer
- Camping Checklist
- Home Clock
- Chat Forum
- Compass
- High Quality Offline Map
Available on Apple and Android
Go Sky Watch – $4.99
GoSkyWatch utilizes many of the unique capabilities of the iPhone/iPod touch to bring you an easy to use interactive way to explore the sky.
GoSkyWatch was designed first and foremost to be simple to use. They’ve used the accelerometer in a unique way for touchless operation to be able to identify objects in the sky quickly and accurately even with the iPod touch or earlier iPhones that don’t have a compass. No buttons to press, no modes to select, just point to the sky and start exploring.
The app comes with many features especially for efficient outdoor use:
- Red light mode to preserve night vision.
- Touchless sky navigation.
- Planets are color coded showing their relative brightness to other stars for easy identification.
- Search for a planet, star or deep space object and let the arrow guide the way.
- Star magnitude adjustment to viewing conditions
- The display automatically orients correctly to any angle so you don’t have the hold the device exactly in landscape or portrait to line up the view with what you see.
Available on Apple
Australian Road Trips – $4.99
Planning a driving holiday is made easy with 40 detailed itineraries from family drives along the coast to 4WD adventures. Each itinerary includes details on what to see and do, where to eat, where to sleep and where to camp. Routes include the three iconic transcontinental journeys: across the Nullarbor from Sydney to Perth; Adelaide to Darwin; and the Savannah Way from Cairns to Broome. Also plenty of day drives and weekend getaways from each capital city.
Available on Apple and Android
First Aid by the Australian Red Cross – Free
The Red Cross First Aid App is a free, comprehensive pocket guide to first aid and CPR, giving you access to the most up to date First Aid information anytime, anywhere.
The app supports the important life saving skills acquired through Red Cross First Aid training with quick and easy to use instructions, interactive quizzes to test your knowledge and helpful videos and images.
Available on Apple and Android
GeoCaching – free and premium version
Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.
Whether you are off to find your first geocache or your ten-thousandth, this app is your ultimate geocaching toolbox. There are millions of cleverly hidden containers called geocaches scattered throughout more than 185 countries, just waiting to be found—there are probably even some near you right now.
Just getting started? This app walks you through the adventure of finding your first few geocaches. There are tips, hints and instructions for geocaching as well as using the app.
- Live Search continuously updates nearby geocaches as you move
- Find all easy Traditional geocaches and geocaching events
- Message other players for tips, hints and more
- Learn about the world of trackables: geocaching game pieces that travel from geocache to geocache
- Search for and log trackables you find in the wild
Available on Apple and Android
Spotify – free and premium version
Spotify is the best way to listen to music on mobile or tablet.
Search for any track, artist or album and listen for free. Make and share playlists. Build your biggest, best ever music collection.
Get inspired with personal recommendations, and ready made playlists for just about everything.
Listen absolutely free with ads, or get Spotify Premium.
Free on mobile
- Play any artist, album, or playlist in shuffle mode.
Free on tablet
- Play any song, any time.
Premium features
- Play any song, any time on any device: mobile, tablet or computer.
- Enjoy ad-free music.
- Listen offline.
- Get better sound quality.
Available on Apple and Android
Hurley Coastal Watch – free and premium version
Hurley Surf – powered by Coastalwatch. The most comprehensive surf & beach conditions app, check the surf anywhere anytime with over 95 live streaming Australian Surf Cams.
Find Surf Reports, Surf Forecasts and the latest Surf Cam streams from over 95 popular beaches & surf spots – the largest network in Australia.
Detailed features for every location:
- Surf Cams – Direct from the beach to your phone.
- Surf Cam Photo – updated every 5-10 minutes.
- Surf Cam Replay – a 2 minute cam replay that’s updated every 15-30 minutes.
- Surf Report updated early each morning by local surf experts.
- Live Wind speed and direction
- Live Wind History Vs Wind Forecast for 72 hours forward
- Surf Forecast 5 Days forward created daily by Coastalwatch forecast team
- Daily Tides Times & heights
- Water Temperature
- UV Index
- 3-Day Weather Forecasts
- Map View
- News and Videos from coastalwatch.com
- Favourites function
- GPS Near Me location finder
Available on Apple and Android
Hema maps – offroad mapping system
Hema Explorer and 4WD Maps are Hema’s two GPS navigation apps for exploring Australia, each with their own unique features and functions for guiding adventures.
Hema Explorer – $29.99
Hema Explorer combines reliable Hema maps for navigation with innovative content and features for planning ahead.
Hema Explorer has offline Hema base maps (1:1Million Touring and 1:250k Topo) and online access to satellite, street and terrain mapping which you can clip and save to use out in the bush. 40,000 interactive points of interest (POI) with facilities, activities and contact details attached are pinpointed on the mapping, informing trip-planning and real-time navigation decisions. Meanwhile, online access to the Hema Explorer Cloud, Hema’s public track database, in addition to in-app weather and rain data will ensure you have all your bases covered when your next adventure rolls around.
4WD Maps – $99.99
Preloaded with the entire Hema digital map collection, 4WD Maps is the ultimate offline GPS navigation app for four-wheel drivers.
4WD Maps comes with 105 Hema maps preloaded, including Australia-wide base maps (1:1Million Touring and 1:250k Topo), state maps, regional maps and national park maps that you can find and track your location on, all completely offline. Perfect for long-range touring, 4WD Maps offers explorers Australia’s most comprehensive and accurate off-road map collection inside a pleasingly uncomplicated user-interface.
Available on Apple and Android
Pocket Weather Australia – $2.99
Australia’s original and best weather app sources its data from the only place that matters: the Bureau of Meteorology.
Built by locals right here in Australia, we’ve spent a lot of time refining and building the weather app we all want to use. So whether you need to check what it’s going to be like this week on your phone, tablet or watch, we have you covered!
- For those that love details though, we have some for you:
- Detailed weather information for every suburb in Australia
- Hourly temperature predictions 7 days into the future
- All the Bureau of Meteorology rain radars
- National synoptic chart
- Tide times (with offline download support)
- All the Bureau of Meteorology warnings for around the country
- Notification support if you want to know the weather at a particular time of day, or be notified of warnings as they occur
- Glance at the weather from the App icon badge, which you can set to show you the current temp, todays maximum and many more things
- 72 hours of historical information for each location
Available on Apple and Android
Toilet Finder – free
Find the Toilet is a collaborative app that helps a user locate the closest toilet facility based on their location.
With over 150,000 toilets listed worldwide, find the toilet is a quick easy app that that shows you the closest toilet to you in an interactive map.
- Lists public, shopping centre, service station and restaurant toilets
- Displays disabled access details
- Five star rating system for each facility based on other users experiences.
Available on Apple and Android
Is there any you think we have missed but should know about? Let us know in the comments below!
Check out our other camping and caravanning related articles here!
