Five great mobile apps to help get you outdoors

gojauntly.com

This is one that I had not heard of before, but within minutes of downloading it I had plotted a short 2km circular route that I could fit into my half hour lunch break, or a 3km route that I could squeeze in if I walked quickly. As well as these great local suggestions, you can explore much bigger routes further afield, all of which have been walked by real people who input the route into the app along with photos and detailed instructions so that you don’t get lost. You can even upload your own guided walking routes for others to use!

There are some premium walks that you can only access with a paid subscription, but there’s plenty on there to do with a free account, and if you really enjoy it then you could think about subscribing at a later date.

alltrails.com

This one is another walking trails app similar to Go Jauntly, but it does appear to have a lot more set trails that are local to me when I had a browse. It also allows you to browse the trails by activity type, so for example, I could tap the Bird Watching activity and it loaded up all the best walks on which I could do a spot of birding.

AllTrails doesn’t offer me the bespoke walking routes that I could fit into a lunch break like Go Jauntly did, and it also tried to sell me a subscription every other time I clicked on something. Saying that, if you want to do some more varied trails and activities in your local area, then AllTrails is probably the one for you.

geocaching.com

Geocaching is like taking part in a worldwide treasure hunt. Essentially people hide containers (a cache) out in the world, they upload the location to the app, and then it is up to you to find it! The cache’s often contain a log book or a small slip of paper for you to sign when you’ve found it, and you can mark it as ‘Found’ on your app so that you can keep track of the ones you’ve been too.

The caches themselves can sometimes be a big box that’s easy to spot and is filled with assorted treasures left by other Geocachers, or sometimes they can be a tiny magnetic container affixed to the bottom of a park bench that would be almost impossible to find without the hints contained in the app.

As with the other apps, if you enjoy finding the free to access geocaches then you can upgrade to a paid subscription so that you can find even more hidden treasures.

pokemongolive.com

This one might sound like an odd suggestion if you don’t already know what Pokémon GO is, but please hear me out! Pokémon GO is a game that is designed to get you outside exploring the city around you. Pokémon are little monster characters that inhabit the world outside your window, and by walking up to them you get the chance to catch them and add them to your collection. There are a lot of other features like battling them, or using your strongest Pokémon to defeat big boss Pokémon, but you can take part in this aspect of the game as little or as much as you like.

Exploring different areas allows you to find different types of Pokémon. For example, if you live in a city then you will tend to encounter different Pokémon to those you might find at the beach. You want to catch some water type Pokémon? Head to a nearby river! You want a grass type Pokémon? Then get to your nearest park!

I played this for a few years, mostly on my walk to and from work, as well as on my lunch break. It got me walking more than ever, and I even met other players doing the same thing.

merlin.allaboutbirds.org

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology created Merlin to be your personal bird watching coach. If you see a bird in your garden or out on a walk, you can input the details of the sighting into the app and it will tell you what bird it most likely was. Complete with pictures and descriptions, you can click ‘This is my bird’ and add it to a list of birds you have sighted.

You can even use the app to identify a bird by its call! Just hit the ‘Sound ID’ button and the app will record the bird call and tell you what species it sounds like.

I’ve been using this app just to track the birds in my garden so far, but you could make it a challenge for yourself to log as many different species of birds as you can, and then team it up with the AllTrails app to get out exploring popular bird watching spots.