11 Best Camping Apps!

11 Best Camping Apps to make your camping experience more enjoyable than ever! From birdwatching to first aid, trails, campgrounds and more!

We’ve updated this post (January 2020) to include a few more apps!

Even though we try to get away from technology when we’re camping, we can’t deny that a great app can definitely add to the enjoyment of our trips.  The technology available to us is really quite amazing…picture yourself under a starry night sky, and with an app right at your fingertips that can tell you exactly what stars and constellations you are looking at?  Or an app to help you find trails and document your family hike?  Or identify birds, bird calls and mountain peaks.  Fantastic.

11 Best Camping Apps:

Sky Guide App:

This is an amazing app!  Just hold up your phone or iPad to the sky and see the names of stars, constellations, planets, satellites and even the International Space Station.  This is by far our most favourite travelling app, and have used it everywhere we go.  We love the visuals of the constellations, the notifications and how easy it is to us.  Picture yourself under a starry sky this summer (or any time of year)!

Features:

• Cost:  $2.99.  Definitely worth the price!
• Set the app up to receive notifications of sky events in your region (meteor showers, space station sightings…)
• Works with or without Wi-Fi, cell service or GPS.
• The app has a massive star catalog of over 2.5 million stars!
• Find more information here.

Peak Finder Earth App:

Have you ever been driving through the mountains and wondered what the names of the mountain peaks were that you are looking at?  Well now you can find out in seconds!  The Peak Finder app shows the names of all mountains and peaks at your location with a 360° panorama display.

Features:

• Cost:  $4.99
• This app knows more than 650,000 peaks, from Mount Everest to the mountain or little range nearest to you!
• The app shows the surrounding landscapes in a range of 300 km.
• The app works completely offline.
• Has the ability to zoom in to less prominent peaks.
• Find more information here.

Parks Canada App:

This new app released by Parks Canada this year, is perfect for planning trips to our national parks!  What I love most about it is being able to discover lesser-known hidden gems in the parks.

Features:

• Free
• Discover our National Parks and what they have to offer.
• Find travel tips, hidden gems, and events in the National Parks.
• Tag special events happening in the parks, that you would like to attend.
• Create a personal packing list.
• It also has fun frames and stickers for social sharing on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
• Find more information here.

AllTrails App:

The AllTrails app has the largest collection (100,000) of detailed, hand-curated trail maps as well as trail reviews and photos crowdsourced from a community of millions of hikers, mountain bikers and trail runners!  This is a perfect app for all your hiking adventures!

Features:

• Free
• Filter by trail difficulty level
• Filter by dog-friendly, kid-friendly, and wheelchair-friendly trails
• Save your favourite trails
• Get driving directions to trails
• You can record your activity:  track your distance, pace and GPS location
• You can follow your friends and share your experiences with others
• Find more information here.

Coleman Camping App

The Coleman Camping App is designed to make your family camping trips fun and simple.

Features:

• Free
• Has handy checklists, search for campsites, identify road trips, find delicious recipes, expert gear recommendations, tips on packing and unpacking, keeping critters at bay and much more!
• Find more information here.

SAS Survival App:

This app has everything you ever wanted to know about surviving in the outdoors!  There’s probably too much information for family camping, but you can never be too prepared!  😉

Features:

• Cost:  $8.49
• This self contained app doesn’t require internet connection for most features (with the exception of videos and social sharing).
• Photo galleries of animal tracks; tying knots; edible, medicinal and poisonous plants; sea creatures and snakes
• Survival checklist
• Sun compass
• First Aid
• Find more information here.

Audubon Bird Guide: North America:

This is a fantastic app for bird watching!  The best thing about using an app for birding, is you no longer have to carry guides in your backpack.  Instead you have access to over 800 birds in North America, right at your finger tips.

Features:

• Free
• Includes bird calls!
• Quick identification with filters by shape, region and colour.
• Keep lists and log your bird sightings.
• Join and participate in a social community of birders who observe, identify, and share their observations.
• Find more information here.

Canadian Red Cross First Aid App

The official Canadian Red Cross First Aid app gives you instant access to the information you need to know to handle the most common first aid emergencies.

Features

• Cost is free
• With videos, step by step advice, and interactive quizzes to test your knowledge.
• Find more information here.

My Nature Animal Tracks

My Nature Animal Tracks is a comprehensive field guide to animal track identification.

Features:

• There is a cost to purchase this app.
• Illustrations of both fore and hind feet, with a complete description of track measurements, gait patterns used trail widths and animal life cycles.
• Full colour images of actual tracks, scat, and sign in the wild.
• Photos of each individual animal featured.
• Sound files for animal vocalization.
• Range maps showing each animals distribution across North America.
• Doesn’t require a wireless connection once downloaded.
• Your own Nature Journal for notes, a built in ruler, tracking tips and much much more!
• Find more information here.

Camping Passport

Camping Passport is an to help track and plan your camping trips. Enter where you went and when, what you liked about each trip. Add a few images to remember each location, enter notes about where you’d like to stay next time.

Features:

• Cost is $3.99
• Plan and track your camping trips.
• Add images and notes.
• You can create menu lists, grocery lists, winterization lists… any kind of list and additional notes to make your planning easier!
• Find more information here.

Ultimate Campground Guide (Canada and U.S.)

The Ultimate Campground Guide is a comprehensive guide to public campgrounds of ALL types across Canada and the U.S.  With over 4,100 U.S. and Canada public campsites and growing…they update it regularly.

Features:

• There is a cost associated with this app.
• They are constantly adding new information to the app.
• Public campgrounds only, no private campgrounds.
• Detailed information about the campgrounds.
• Campgrounds range from full facility, to backcountry
• Several filters allow you to find what you are looking for (example: camping preference tent or RV, locations)
• Can keep track of your favourite campgrounds.
• Find more information here.

There are so many camping apps that are available for download.  Do you have any favourites?  Share them here in the comments!