The great, socially distant outdoors
Get in touch with nature — and your sanity — with apps
Planning to escape to the great outdoors for a socially distant summer? There are a few apps you may want to download before you go. After all, the tools below won’t just help you travel from here to there, they’ll help you get off the beaten paths in national parks, learn about road and trail closures, discover nearby preserves and beaches, find scenic rest stops, satisfy cravings for takeaway food and keep you up to date on the latest travel and health information.
To be sure, there are many practical apps for outdoor adventure and road tripping, like Waze (for navigation), GasBuddy (for finding affordable gas stations) and Flush (for locating public restrooms). And planning and booking apps, like TripAdvisor Hotels & Vacation, have been updated with guidance about travel amid COVID-19. But the following apps may prove to be particularly useful by helping travelers stay socially distant yet still savor the timeless pleasures of summer: hiking, biking, camping and dinners under the stars in wide-open spaces.
Discovering the great outdoors
Wondering what lies just around the bend? Roadtrippers uses your location to show you beaches, parks, lakes, nature preserves, farms, botanical gardens, public art, monuments, vacation photo ops, and camping and RV spots, to name but a few. You can easily search for attractions near you, or along a route you set, then navigate there with turn-by-turn driving directions.
Roadtrippers is especially handy because you can filter for the types of places you want to see, outdoor activities and destinations. Tap an attraction for more information and photos, and select “add to trip” to include in your itinerary, which you can save and export to a PDF if you like. The app also has inspirational travel guides, like “Classic USA Road Trips.” And you can choose from nearby itineraries such as “The Coolest Attractions and Stops Along I-80,” so you can begin to feel as if you’re on vacation long before you reach your destination. Cost: free; $29.99 a year to upgrade to Roadtrippers Plus, which has features such as offline maps, live traffic information, itineraries with numerous way points and no advertisements.
For those with a yen for oddities — an outdoor bathtub in West Virginia’s Berkeley Springs State Park said to have been used by George Washington; a memorial stone in Hampton, New Hampshire, for a woman accused of witchcraft in the 1600s; the Jell-O Museum in Le Roy, New York, where the jiggly dessert was invented — there’s the Roadside America app, which displays (occasionally dubious) attractions (like a 22-foot so-called evil clown sign in Middletown, New Jersey) by city, route and theme such as “ghost towns,” “railroad” and “freaky hoo-ha.” Cost:
$2.99 for one region, such as the Northeast; $6.99 to unlock the remaining regions.
Choosing the hike that’s best for you
With more than 100,000 trails for hiking, running and biking, AllTrails makes it a breeze for travelers around the world to discover nearby trails and sort them by length, difficulty, elevation, attractions (waterfalls, caves, wildlife), dog-friendliness and trail traffic. There are photos and reviews from fellow app users (“Very challenging on the knees, but worth the effort”), and helpful information like weather, UV indexes, and sunrise and sunset times. You can track where you go, record your route on a map and share the details with friends and family. Cost: Free.
(Note: Beachgoers who regularly walk, run and swim might like the interactive and eye-pleasing Tide alert (NOAA)-USA app, which has tide charts, sunrise and sunset times, and a moon phase calendar. Cost: Free.)
National park lovers may want to try the National Park Trail Guide app, a user-friendly collection of thousands of trails through some of the nation’s most breathtaking places — Acadia, Badlands, Mount Rainier, Zion — with no cell signal required. Cost: Free.
GPS Tracks is a favorite of outdoor enthusiasts who want to track their routes, navigate to way points, share their location, and see and save maps of precisely where they’ve been. Cost: $3.99; more features through in-app subscriptions, from $19.99.
Reserving RVs and campsites
Whether it’s a camper van, motor home or pop-up trailer, if you’re thinking about renting an RV, consider the Outdoorsy app. A peer-to-peer marketplace, it enables you to search by location and filter results by things like vehicle type and size, as well as kitchen features (oven, microwave, dining table); amenities, including bike racks and washer/dryers; and entertainment options like televisions and Wi-Fi. Cost: Free.
Once you’ve got a recreational vehicle, the question becomes: Where will you go? RV Parks & Campgrounds makes planning (or winging it) easy by showing you nearby RV parks and campgrounds, including photos, reviews and amenities (water, electric, Wi-Fi, pool, pets allowed), along with grocery stores, sports shops and places to fuel up. Cost: Free.
You may also want to check out the Recreation .gov app, where you can search and see availability for tent camping, RV camping and cabins. Cost: Free.