Today’s podcast is with Eoin Hamilton, one of the key players behind the increasingly popular Hiiker App, which I’m sure you’ve seen popping up around various websites supporting various outdoor bloggers and influencers.
The Hiiker is an app contributed to by members of the outdoor community to help users discover, plan, and navigate their outdoor adventures. The app has numerous hikes, paths and trails collated from around the world, so wherever you go, you will probably have access to routes that even locals don’t know about.
The app has everything from day hikes and nature walks to long-distance trails like the Coast to Coast, Hadrians Wall, The Pennine way through to the Camino de Santiago and the Tour du Mont Blanc. Data in the app is sourced from various databases, but what makes Hiiker special is that information on the trails is sourced by those who have hiked it, making the quality of the content more reliable.
This means that as a user, you can not only see the campsites, water sources, shelters, hotels, transportation hubs, and other data points provided within the app, but you can provide your own suggestions, edits, comments, or reviews of individual data points on any given trail (or the trail itself).
In addition to their iOS and Android apps, Hiiker also has a browser-based platform for finding and exploring new trails. This means if you are travelling to a new area in the UK, Europe or even further afield you have immediate access to quality information useful to a hiker, without having to go through various guide books, maps and websites just so you can get out for a day or more.
Even if you are just thinking of visiting an area you can use the Explore feature to see what might appeal to you and customise your plans specifically.
So if somewhere remote is on your route, but you don’t speak the language and may be worried about accommodation, water sources and practicalities you can hunt for a trail, read the notes, download the maps, GPX and waypoints thus your confidence and enjoyment level will increase enormously.
Currently they have over 150K users around the globe with over 21K trails mapped and the team are adding routes and trails every week.
The basic free App will get you up and running with trails, navigation tools, accommodation and up to date information.
The Pro version adds route planning, access to off line maps, elevation, high quality map printing, integration with smart watches and the unique addition of all kinds of maps in layer format. (I particularly like the historical one, fascinating!)
Check out the Hiiker App for your next adventure – find it on iOS and Android and if you listen to the end you’ll get a 20% discount code on the Pro version.