Best 4 iPhone Apps for Travelling in Australia

After having looked in to a lot of iPhone and iPad apps that will help the traveller get around Australia, these are the ones that I travel with and I think are the best 4 iPhone apps for travelling in Australia. There are plenty of others that deal with restaurant reviews and a plethora of other categories, these one are specifically tailored to help you out if you are travelling Australia in a campervan. That being said, some of them can come in very handy when doing day walks around the city or when floating through any town in the country.

Show the Loo – free

This great little app shows you where all the public toilets are that are near you. It is particularly handy when doing city walks but also can be handy if you are looking for a sneaky free park in a larger city. In all the major capital cities it can be difficult to find official camping places that are close to anything good. If you are trying to save money and continue to use your camper in one of these larger cities, this app can show you where all the toilets are in the area. Some are 24hr toilets and it will also show ones that have showers etc. Provided you obey any parking restrictions (if there are any), then you are free to stay in the vehicle over night. Its a simple app, but is THE handiest app to have in Oz.

Campee – free

This app shows you where all the free camps and caravan parks are around Australia. Its free but you must set up an account with them. It wants you to sign in with Facebook, however there are other options to set up account with an email. I used an email address and I have had no spammy contact from them. The most annoying thing about this app is that if you leave it for 5 minutes or so it asks you to log back in which means repeatedly typing in email and password.

There is a “near me” icon on the home page so if you just want to find out what is closest camp site or caravan park to you, then click that at it will bring up your current position. Surrounding your location on the map will be places to stay. Alternatively, type in the town you want to camp near and it will bring up a map with the town pinned and show all the campsites, roadside rest areas and caravan parks nearby.

There is also a massive filter range to pick different elements that you are keen on. To start with you can differentiate between campground and caravan park or both, you can also filter free or paid or both. Then there is a list of 41 filters of “must have” things if you are after them, this is things like toilets, showers, laundries, phone reception etc. After you have filtered things, each remaining icon on the map will show you the facilities available once you select them.
The app is user driven, so users add info as they go along. You can add in details like photos and reviews to help out the community. This app is free and does an excellent job.

Wiki Camps Australia $2.99  (also available for Android)

If you are looking for the best camping and caravan iPhone app for Australia it is going to have to be this one. It costs a small fee though.Setting up an account is optional, but gives you access to post in forums if you do. If you don’t set one up you can still read the forums that are accessible within the app.

This app is also user driven and so has information uploaded by others. It seems to have the jump on Campee for the moment with a few more comments and photos added by users. This app tends to have more listings for places to camp and has a lot more obvious listings for additional services like dump sites. If you have a campervan that has a toilet then this app is for you. If using no filters at all in your search, then this app will also show things like information centres and Points of Interest on the map near the town you asked for. It has 57 filters to customize your search, but can be a little harder to initially navigate than Campee. Once you get the hang of it though, it is pretty easy to handle and is more powerful.

There is also a download for offline section which is handy in a country that has such awful mobile data coverage. You can select by state but it takes a looong time to download, even on a wifi connection.

Around Me – free

This iPhone and iPad app is designed to show what is around you wherever you are: it has categories like ATM (automatic teller machines), bars, coffee and cafes, hospitals, hotels, parking, fuel, supermarkets and more. It is updating all the time and unfortunately is now ad driven. They are not too interfering though. It doesn’t always list everything that is near you in the category you search, but it is very quick and will find something in the category you want. Handy not only if you are driving through a town looking for a supermarket, but also great if you want a stay a while. I know that this app works in the US so I am thinking it will probably work across the Tasman in New Zealand as well. (so put it on the list for the iphone travel apps for New Zealand too).