YOU GOTTA STROLL WITH IT
THESE APPS CAN HELP INSPIRE YOUR NEXT OUTDOOR ADVENTURE
I’D BE willing to bet that getting out for a good old fashioned walk has saved the sanity of many over the last two extraordinary years.
I know it worked for me. So now spring has more or less sprung, there will be a lot of people looking forward to getting out there once again.
But, where to go is the question – and now we can go where we like we’re more in need of some inspiration.
So, here are three services designed to help you find new places to explore, and share your journeys with others.
All have apps for IOS and Android, and offer their core functionality for free.
Go Jauntly: Discover Walks
■ They say:
You don’t need to travel to the great outdoors for a great hike. Discover the greenest, quietest, least polluted walks in your local area.
■ We say: Go Jauntly is all about finding new places to walk and new things to see.
There’s a huge global community, with everyone sharing routes and the ‘Nature Notes’ they capture in-app along the way.
There are also walking challenges built-in, with the goal of helping you step out of your comfort zone. You can also make up your own walks and share them with others.
Premium access allows you to download routes for off-line walking, and opens up some extra specially curated walks too.
■ Cost: Free, premium access £1.99/month, £19.99/year
Wikiloc
■ They say: Discover millions of outdoor trails around the world. Choose between hiking, running, bike, MTB, kayak, ski or up to 70 different types of activities. Record your own routes on a map, add waypoints, take pictures along the itinerary and upload them to your Wikiloc account from your phone.
■ We say: Wikiloc is not just for walkers, and opens up a whole host of community created routes for cyclists, runners, and just about any other kind of outdoor activity you can imagine.
There are more than 10 million users across the globe, all creating their own GPS routes for you to follow.
The service offers a great search function that allows you to seek out nearby routes focused on the things you’re interested in – so if you’re after an urban stroll through a city, or a challenging climb in the mountains, it’s all here.
Each trail is accompanied by lots of photos so you can see if it’s for you before you even leave your house.
Premium access adds features like weather forecasts, downloadable maps, live tracking, and the knowledge that 1% of your payment goes directly to 1% for the Planet, a global network of businesses, nonprofits and individuals working together for a healthy planet.
■ Cost: Free, premium access £9.99/year
Relive
■ They say: Millions of runners, cyclists, hikers, skiers, snowboarders
and other adventurers are using Relive to share their activities with 3D video stories. Show what it was like out there, create amazing stories and share your passion with friends.
■ We say: Relive is more about what happens after your trek than during – creating an easy-on-theeye video to share wherever you like. It is a full-featured tracker, though, and can record various stats about your journey in addition to the route.
It connects with many other services, too, like Garmin Connect and Apple Health, so you can add info from them into the story you create with Relive.
You can, of course, follow other people on the service and Relive their journeys as well as your own – and maybe pick up some tips about where you should go on your next adventure.
A premium subscription adds the ability to add music and more photos to stories, as well as track long activities – up to 12 hours in duration.
■ Cost: Free, premium access £6.99/month or £38.99/year