10 best hiking apps of the moment

Want to get some fresh air after a long working day or plan a long walk during your vacation? For this we have selected the best apps for you that can help you with this.

The best hiking apps

Do you want to be well prepared for your mountain or hike hike or are you going for a stroll in the neighborhood? With these apps you will discover the most beautiful hiking trails in the Netherlands and Belgium.

1. Komoot

Komoot’s description is ‘Bicycle & Hiking Maps’, but it is certainly much more than an app with cycling routes and hiking maps. Komoot is a complete navigation app with route planner, Highlights and Collections intended for the outdoor enthusiast and active athlete. Komoot contains various hiking trails for walkers, from normal hiking trails that everyone uses to hiking trails with steep slopes where an ice ax and ropes are necessary.

Komoot not only contains routes for (mountain) hikers, but also for touring cyclists, mountain bikers (Enduro), gravel bikers, racing cyclists and runners. Do you want to know everything about Komoot? Then read our review of this app.

2. Clog paths

The website klompenpaden.nl contains an overview of the most beautiful clog paths across farmland in the provinces of Utrecht and Gelderland. During these walks you enjoy the peace, small scale and the combination of culture and nature. Klompenpaden go as much as possible on unpaved paths, farmland and historical routes and along the way you will learn more about the cultural history and the landscape via the information in the Klompenpaden app. The app also contains clear route navigation, extra videos, catering and background information.

3. IVN Routes

IVN Routes is the app of the Dutch organization IVN (Institute for nature education and sustainability) that focuses on nature education and nature experience. IVN wants to bring nature closer to everyone and this app is part of that. With this new app you can walk and cycle through the most beautiful nature in the Netherlands with your own (digital) IVN nature guide. According to the organization, the routes offer more than just left, right or straight ahead, but routes for hikers and cyclists in the most beautiful nature in the Netherlands.

All routes can be used offline, only an internet connection is required for downloading them. The app has been available since October 2018 and the number of routes will increase steadily in the near future. Do you want to know everything about IVN Routes? Then read this article.

4. Walking tours

Walking tours is a handy app to find an organized walking tour in the Netherlands and Belgium. The app contains an index of the registrations or starting places of hiking tours organized by hiking clubs. In addition, the search for a walk is made very easy, because the tours are sorted by distance from your home town.

5. Relive

Many sports apps record the route you take during your workout, but that picture is never as beautiful as the 3D video that the Relive app makes of it. This app converts a route traveled while walking or running into a video where you can view the route from above, in a bird’s eye view. The photos you have taken during the route are added to it. Certain functions such as adding different types of music to the video are only possible with Relive Plus. Do you want to know more about the Relive? Then read this article.

6. All benches

The Alle Benches app provides you with information about benches or picnic tables in the area during your walk. The app contains more than 150,000 benches, picnic areas or other rest points throughout the Netherlands. You can see the benches on a map, or view a list of everything within 3 miles of your current location. You can also report new or missing benches in the app. As a result, the list of benches is constantly updated.

7. Walking around

Taking a walk every day is important for your physical and mental health. You get more productivity and energy after taking a walk. It also helps you to slow down and improves your creativity. The Ommetje walking app helps you with this and motivates you to make a daily Ommetje. You can even turn it into a game.

This is possible by entering into hiking competitions with friends, family or colleagues, without being at the same location. You can start a walk in the app and see in a ranking how you are doing compared to other app users. You can earn medals and XP for the walks.

Ommetje was developed by the Brain Foundation, in collaboration with professor of neuropsychology Erik Scherder. This professor will give you an interesting brain fact after every walk. Want to know more about Ommetje? You can read it in this ‘App of the week’.

8. Walking junction

Are you planning to go hiking in Belgium? Then use the Wandelknooppunt app: an app in which you can compile routes within the Flemish walking network. Just like cycling, you can use so-called walking nodes to compose a route. In Flanders you can walk more than 12,000 kilometers with such walking nodes.

If you do not want to set up a route yourself, the app also offers a Surprise Me function, with which a route is drawn up based on the desired distance. Basic use of the app is free. You can subscribe without obligation for € 9.99 per year, which gives you access to a number of extra fun functions.

9. Geocaching

Are you a fan of treasure hunting during your walk? Then you can use this app to search for geocaches in the area. Geocaching guides you step by step through the adventure of finding your first few geocaches. The app is also suitable for the advanced geocacher.

10. ObsIdentify

Observation is the largest nature platform in the Netherlands and Belgium. The platform wants to enable everyone to save and share nature observations via the internet. For observers it is actually an online notebook in which your own observations can easily be stored and managed. Because all observations are collected in one system, all kinds of overviews, maps and statistics can be generated from them, which are always based on the most recent information.

Most observations are visible to everyone and only vulnerable situations are shielded. This open approach means Waarneming.nl is an enormous source of nature information and there is extensive social control for errors.

With the ObsIdentify app you can record, collect and view observations of others yourself. Your observations are automatically linked to the current time and GPS location and via online image recognition based on photos of 18,000+ species, plants and / or animals are recognized. You can read more about this app in this article.

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