Why We Use WikiCamps App When Planning Our Adventures
In this post we explain why we use WikiCamps when planning our adventures, what we love about WikiCamps, and some of the things you should be aware of if using the WikiCamps app. Some of the more common questions we receive relate to how we plan many of our adventures, and what we use for navigation and communications when travelling more remotely. We have promised to write stories on all of these and here is the start of them. This is not a sponsored post.
WikiCamps must be hands down one of the best resources you can use for camping around Australia. If you love camping just for the weekend, or touring around Australia for weeks or months, WikiCamps does make planning any kind of trip that much easier. Even if you have planned your trip extremely well, we all know that plans can change extremely quickly if something goes wrong. Having the WikiCamps app makes last minute changes stress free as you will be finding another camp within minutes.
If you are already a regular user of WikiCamps then this post is probably not for you.
What Is WikiCamps?
WikiCamps is an application created in Australia that has a massive database of campsites, caravan parks, backpacker hostels, points of interest, dump stations, water taps, information centres, toilets, showers, and loads more. The app is updated by users providing extremely useful and up to date information on campsites and points of interest across Australia. Users can add new sites, add photos to sites, rate sites out of 5-stars, and provide comments. As it is being constantly updated by the app users, the information on every site is extremely helpful when planning. The ability to then filter out information based on your requirements, does make WikiCamps one of the most extremely powerful planning tools for any adventure.
WikiCamps is available for download across most platforms, including iOS (Apple) devices, Android devices, and Windows through Microsoft. Currently the app has a once off cost of $8 and is worth every cent. We have heard rumblings since the founders of WikiCamps sold the app to a larger company that there could be changes in how the app is sold as a once off fee. A once off fee does not provide any regular future income so, be prepared for some changes as regular recurring subscription income is what every business is striving for. I am certain WikiCamps will end up becoming a monthly or annual subscription-based app soon. If I owned the business this is exactly what I would be doing, it will happen as maintaining an application like WikiCamps would have a significant amount of development and maintenance costs.
WikiCamps has a bunch of different features. Some are great and we use them all the time, others are ok and could be useful for the right person, but probably not necessary within the app. We discuss all these features below.
WikiCamps App Features
- Australia’s largest database of campsites, caravan parks, backpacker hostels, points of interest, dump stations, water taps, visitor information centres, toilets, showers, and plenty more.
- Detailed list of filters to allow you to find the perfect campsite and point of interest.
- User comments on campsites and points of interest allowing you to get fairly accurate community feedback to assist with your planning.
- User reviews on campsites and points of interest to give you a good overview of a particular location.
- User photos on campsites and points of interest allowing you to see what the site looks like.
- Ability to navigate to a site using other navigation apps like Google Maps and Apple Maps.
- GPS co-ordinates for site locations so easy to add to navigation apps like ExplorOz Traveller or Hema.
- Ability to save campsites and points of interest which can be filtered for future reference.
- Can download app content making it available when offline. This is perfect for remote travelling or when there is no mobile reception.
- As campsites and points of interest change, users update site information and comments to ensure you have the most up to date information on most sites.
- Trip planner allowing you to create multiple trips within the app and then add campsites and points of interest to each trip for easier planning.
- Chat forum if you like this sort of thing.
- Also allows users to create checklists, however we use another app for this.
- There is a digital compass if you need one, however most phones already have a compass.
- View items on the map or as a list. Within the list you can sort items by how close they are too you, how close they are to a dropped pin, alphabetically, and by star rating.
We will look at some of these features in more detail.
Large Database, Great Filters & Lots of Information
WikiCamps does boast that they have the largest database of locations in Australia. We do not know if this is true, but we can confirm that there is a crazy number of sites and points of interest in the app. As users can add locations, the database is constantly growing. All locations are shown on a map based on the parameters you have set in the detailed list of filters. When in the map view, every type of location is displayed with a different icon making it easier to determine what is a free vs paid campsite, a point of interest, water tap location, and so on. If you did only want to see water locations, you can simply use the filter and only see locations on the map where you can find water. The same can be said if you want to find a dog friendly campsite.
By selecting any item on the map, you will be shown a summary of the location including its rating out of 5-stars, free or paid, dog friendly, facilities, type of camping, distance from your current location, distance from a pin if you have dropped one on the map, and a photo of the location. For more detailed information you then tap on the item summary to be able to get all the information you need about the site. This includes any website links to buy permits if required, a detailed description of the location, list of all the features and facilities, summary of all user ratings, GPS coordinates, ability to get directions to the location, read user reviews, see the fees, and look at user photos.
When looking at campsites and points of interest, if there are any that you like you can save them as a favourite or add them to the trip planner. When they saved as a favourite, the icon on the map changes to a heart to make saved locations more easily recognisable. You can also filter out your saved sites to easily find these later.
Download WikiCamps App Data
One of the best features of the WikiCamps app is the ability to download all the app data. This is fantastic and we would highly recommend everyone does this as it does make it an extremely powerful tool when travelling remotely or you have no reception. When touring remotely, having all the WikiCamps app data downloaded makes it super easy when sitting around the campfire at night to find any interesting points of interest nearby and continue planning your trip if anything has changed. We cannot count the amounts of time we have used WikiCamps to find a great last minute free camp beside a creek in the middle of the Outback. It has taken a lot of the stress out of trying to find somewhere to spend the night when we have found ourselves out of sync with our well thought out plans.
Information is Up to Date
There are lots of different resources out there that are extremely helpful when planning, however as things change it can take some time before that information is updated. The beauty with the WikiCamps app is that it is user updated. As a result, most locations have up to date information which can be seen by the date of the user comment. This is extremely useful if a site has closed, access has changed, or a site feature is no longer available.
Trip Planner
One of the features within WikiCamps is its Trip Planner. We are not going to write much about this feature as we do not use it as it just does not work for how we plan our adventures. There are a few other stories written online by grey nomads that use this feature to plan their trips. If this is something that you are interested in learning more about, do a search online and see what they have to say. Basically, the Trip Planner feature allows you to create multiple trips and add locations from the app to your trip. You can then move locations around to follow your planned trip route and use it to navigate between these locations. When we plan, we know where we are going and have a general idea of the route we will be taking, but on what happens in between it can change regularly depending on how we are feeling and travelling.
Other Features We Do Not Use
Some of the other features within the app that we do not use include checklists, digital compass, and chat forums. When it comes to checklists, we use another note app for planning, taking notes, and creating checklists or to do items before we leave. The detailed checklist within the WikiCamps app might be great for some, but it is not something we find useful. This can be said for the digital compass which every device already has, and the chat forums. Some people might like these features, so they are there if you need them, but we do not use them.
How We Use WikiCamps App
When planning a trip, we use WikiCamps to help curate a list of possible campsites and points of interest along our expected route. Any point of interest that appears to be good we save using the favourite option on each item. When a point of interest is saved, the icon on the map changes to a heart so you know it is one you saved. We use the filters all the time when planning to reduce search results to exactly what we want. When travelling in the Outback the common filters are free camps, water, and points of interest. If travelling with our dog, we can then add an additional filter to show campsites that allow dogs. If we do need to find showers or toilets, there are filters for this as well. We are self-sufficient so we rarely use these.
We then review sites by looking that the site rating out of 5 stars, read the site description, site features and facilities, look at user photos and read the user comments. If the site or point of interest looks good, we add it as a favourite. When we are touring, we do not know where we might end up at the end of each day. We have a general idea so having a range of campsites saved gives us flexibility to find somewhere to stay each night. Even if we have not saved a campsite, as WikiCamps works offline, we can simply open the app and see what campsites are nearby and then pull in and check them out. We do this all the time when travelling in the Outback and quite often stay at a free camp we had not saved during our initial planning.
The other important feature we use WikiCamps for is finding drinking water. When we are towing and using our shower, we do try and conserve as much water as possible, but after a week we will need to fill up our tanks. WikiCamps does make it extremely easy to find the towns where drinking water is available. Having the ability to see other user comments does provide you with a great deal of insight as well. For example, do not use this tap as it is always busy, use the other water tap located on the other side of town. If you carry a chemical toilet, finding dump sites is extremely easy, with almost every toilet dump site stored in WikiCamps.
Points of interest are also extremely useful within WikiCamps. They help to find some interesting things to do along your travels, be it along the coastline or in the middle of the Outback. You can find and save points of interest like silo art, outdoor art displays, museums, historical sites and so on. We find it extremely useful when planning any trip. Any point of interest that looks any good, we save as a favourite to make sure we do not miss it when driving through.
Be Wary of User Comments & Reviews
Our recommendation when using WikiCamps is to be wary of some user comments and reviews. Everyone is different with varying likes and needs. We have read some comments on campsites that are ridiculous. The common ones we see are for campsites in the Outback. The number of people that complain about the amount of dust, that there is no grass, far too many flies, and there are too many thorns is laughable. What do people expect when camping in the middle of nowhere in the middle of Australia?
Like anything when it comes to user input, read between the lines, look at the photos, and be very wary of negative comments. If any site has many comments, you will be able to get a good idea based on the number of reviews and filter out the nonsense. This tends to be more difficult when travelling remotely as far less people venture this way, you are lucky to get a handful of user reviews. We save many sites and then when passing through stop in to see if they are any good, if not we move on to the next one. Even if we are ahead of schedule we sometimes pull in and look, as you never know where we might need to camp next time we are passing through.
Some Information Can Be Misleading
As users can create sites and post comments there can be misleading and inaccurate information, so be careful when reviewing different site locations. One issue that does occur is user created campsites on private properties when in fact you cannot camp there. Just because someone says you can, does not necessarily mean you are allowed to camp somewhere. With these sorts of camps be careful and do some additional research. Most campsites on private properties will have a fee associated with them, so if they are free, they are less likely to be a campsite. When travelling in the Outback you will be far more flexible with free campsites as most are usually fine. Other issues occur with inaccurate comments especially when campsites or locations have the same name.
WikiCamps App is Fantastic & Worth Every Cent
Overall WikiCamps plays an extremely important part in our planning process for any camping adventure. The amount of information that is available with detailed filters, does make it a fantastic resource if you love camping and exploring the outdoors. At a current cost of $8 it is a no brainer in our opinion. We use the app constantly and would highly recommend it to anyone.
Please always remember when camping and exploring this beautiful Country, remove all your rubbish and leave no trace. If camping in locations with no toilet facilities, carry your own toilet. We have written several posts on the different toilets we use and how to use the toilet in the bush.
For more planning and other tips, read our stories here. If you would like to read our adventure stories, you can find them here. To keep up to date on our future posts, join the 4WD Adventurer Community here. For more regular updates, follow us on Instagram.
For more information on the WikiCamps app, check out their website here.
Thanks for reading.
The thoughts of Peter.
01/09/2022 @ 2:48 PM
We are in the planning stage, checking outs app’s, websites free camping , pub stays , should I be taking notes on where people stay / recommend or are most sites / back of pubs/ Showgrounds etc are listed on Wikicamps . There are so many it’s confusing, where I should google!! Do you suggest wikicamps for us newbies to travelling distances , free camping. It’s abit scary! Thanks
01/09/2022 @ 3:00 PM
G’day Josie,
Exciting times for you. It can be a bit nerve racking when you start doing something a little different.
My advice to you is pay for WikiCamps (we are not affiliated in any way) it is cheap and it will be extremely useful. You can download the app data so you still have all the information available if you have no reception. You will find most main campsites will be on WikiCamps as the app is used by many a grey nomad and they keep all those sort of camps up to date. Use the app to save places you like based on your filter preferences. For newbies, WikiCamps will be the best option for you for campsites and points of interest. I always make notes and use a note app on my phone if I need to make any. But buy the app and have a play around with it, you will find it is extremely helpful.
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Peter
22/08/2022 @ 4:37 PM
Actually I find WikiCamps largely a waste of time. Seems to be dominated by nomads who only have a focus on caravans and money to pay for a site. There are many many quality camps not on there and in a way it’s a good thing because most of the campgrounds on WikiCamps seem to end up being no different to caravan park with everyone parked next to each other.
22/08/2022 @ 9:57 PM
G’day Mate,
I suppose it really depends on where you are travelling. We find that when we head west and start to get into the outback the app can be extremely useful. Especially for finding water and a last minute campsite, although campsites when you venture that far are mostly anywhere. There are definitely an abundance of sites created by caravaners but lots of great ones as well. But yes there are many other resources that are helpful and it will really depend on the user and what they are after.
Thanks for reading and your feedback mate, much appreciated.
Cheers,
Peter