Now lockdown restrictions are easing and the weather is looking good RN, a few hours discovering a beaut new walking route or bike trail is exactly what you need after months of being locked indoors.
Gone are the days of opening up a giant map and plotting a new walking route (and not being able to fold it back as neatly as you found it, soz Dad). Things have changed, tech has made it easy for us to discover amazing new walks and routes right beneath our noses – without the fear of getting stranded without signal. And even better, not only do some of the best walking and cycling apps give us the most up-to-date information on things like elevation, distance and trail conditions, some will also give you metrics on your own steps and calories you’re burning during all the action.
Here’s our pick of the best apps for walking and cycling…
Ordnance Survey, the national mapping agency for Great Britain, is a brilliant free app for anyone wanting to find routes that can easily be planned, shared and printed. Once you’ve plotted where you want to go, you can follow it with your phone’s GPS (remember, it’s always worth properly investigating any new route thoroughly and not solely relying on your phone and its battery!), with an arrow showing your location on the map.
If you want an app that can do it all, Kamoot is a top pick. You tell them where you’d like to start and end your route, whether it’s walking or cycling, and it will produce the best trail for you based on data collected from other users. The app also features highlights on routes inputted by others and there’s lots of options for cyclists including the type of trail you want, whether that’s scenic cycle paths, road or mountain biking. When you’ve completed a route, you’ll get a breakdown of the stats on duration, distance and average speed.
This walking app will help you discover thousands of great route guide ideas with clear and detailed ordnance survey maps that you can download easily. The great thing about this app is that these routes work even when you’re offline (which, let’s face it, is likely if you’re heading out of a town).
This is a fab app for bringing the fun back into walking again helping you uncover new routes, as well as nature and city trails. You’ll be able to find walks based on your location and simple photo guides help you navigate with info pointing out things of interest and places to eat and use the loo. It has a database of over 700 walks around the UK and is targeted more towards city users looking for some green escapism.
For those looking for a ramble on less-trodden walking routes, this app will help you find them. Enter your location and it will fire up a selection of curated walks, with useful extras like difficulty level, if it’s dog-friendly and even a weather forecast – with Google Maps directions to get to the start.
This app will inspire you to immerse yourself in nature and give you the incentives to keep it up by counting the steps and calories you’ve made after venturing out. You can plot a walk or simply use it as a monitoring device. There’s also other features such nutrition tips and workouts to try too – bonus!