Thanks for making a cool app! Just needs a few tweaks to make it great. While this app is without a doubt very useful. Sometimes, spots need very detailed information, especially when I’m the first one discovering it. When I check-in and attempt to type, the box won’t allow typing in dark mode, so it’s just black text in black background. That’s not too big of a deal, as I just change it back and forth between light and dark in the settings. However, you can’t scroll in the text box. So eventually you have no idea what you’re typing out. If that bug is fixed, I’ll adjust the rating. Edit: The developers have reached out to me regarding a new and improved adjustments to this app, so everyone stay tuned for that. The text box’s ability to scroll when typing has been fixed, which was my primary concern when conducting a check-in. Dark mode isn’t available, but that does not impact the awesome platform these guys have developed, so not a big deal there. I’ll likely edit again when the improvements are released.
of the four apps we use to find places to park our van at night while traveling cross country, iOverlander has become our favorite! we have found a wide range of excellent free sites to camp, as well as showers and water fill stations. obviously the app is made possible by the people that leave reviews and such, so we always appreciate the reviews left by those before us. i do wish the sites that no longer allow camping would turn a different color, like red— i feel like i waste a bunch of time clicking on areas and having to weed through the comments to make sure overnight parking is allowed. but overall, we appreciate the app!
I’ve been using this app for over a year now. The users of this app have submitted many useful locations including dispersed camping locations, campgrounds, water, dump stations, propane, etc... I’ve never had this app crash and it provides me with great information into the areas I explore. If you combine this application with other apps and websites, you will have an exceptional method for route/trip planning. I utilize this app for routing purposes to see where I can camp, pick up water, and dump my tanks. My only gripe is that when I’m adding a location to the app, it never zeros in on my phones gps location precisely. I have an iPhone 11 Pro so I’m not sure what the deal is with that. I often use google maps to find my exact location and then manually add those coordinates into the app when I’m adding a location such as a campsite or free water spigot. Lastly, people that gripe about the user interface being outdated or what not. I mean yeah, I suppose it is, but at the end of the day I believe people using this app are backcountry campers. Why are you griping about the apps user interface haha. It provides you with essential information, who cares how pretty it is. Take that energy you’re using for nitpicking an app and apply it towards cleaning the trash from the next campsite you’re at and leaving it better than the way you found it. Good app. Thanks for developing it. -Dave
I’ve had this app for many years, but it wasn’t until recently I noticed it had quite a few places added. I was so pleased with this that I became a donor to the project. Ironically, that is when the app stopped working. Steps to repeat: download app from store. Works on first launch. Quit app. From now on, app will crash on startup. To restore the app, the only solution I have found is to delete and reinstall the app. If you don’t quit the app or restart your phone, it will work…until it doesn’t again. I wrote the developer and they said it was a permission issue. I’ve tried all the location services options and nothing changes no matter which option you select. I’ve also tried changing the location services setting and restarting; still to no avail. I would like to continue using this app but need to figure out a workaround or ask the developers for a fix. They claim it works on iOS 16.6. I don’t see any crash reporting feature so we can get to the bottom of this.
We are ten months into our journey from the US to Patagonia. This app has been our go-to for everything along the way, whether it’s to check warnings for corrupt police or to find beautiful wild camping spots. It’s amazing to have this huge data base of crowdsourced information, specifically for trips like ours. My only suggestions are to add a star rating for camping sites (1-5) so that it’s easy to get a quick read on the camping site and to also better define the three types of camping spots as many people mark them incorrectly (ex: wild camping vs informal camping). This is really important for those of us using rooftop tents. Thanks!!
Love the app. We just did a 4 day trip from CA to MI and this app was super helpful with finding things like water, ice, showers, and most importantly areas to sleep. I enjoy how everything is crowd sourced so that the information is constantly evolving. There are really only two things that I think could be a little better. The app, at least when I was using it can’t natively integrate with apple maps, and also the UI just seems a little bit clunky..hard to describe but that’s just how it felt. Overall an extremely well thought out app that is super useful and will be getting heavy use on my phone/iPad for years to come.
I have used this app for several years and I liked it a lot at the beginning. It was great to find campsites in National Forests and public land and it still is. However the app is now overrun by people who stealth camp and van life making it very difficult to find which campsites are suitable. There needs to be a seperate category for pull offs and parking lots. Too many times I’ve entered navigation only to find the coordinates lead to a dead end street or a highway pull off or a parking lot. That’s not “wild camping” and should not be labeled as such. Overall the app is good but it needs some serious improvements. I’ll continue to use it but it’s not my main source for camping info anymore
Planned a month long road trip expecting to pay for campsites and lodging across America then a friend recommended this app. It was amazing the community that submits spots is helpful and informative and it helped us find spots we never could that were amazing free camp spots. The app is very basic but it’s perfect as it even loads most of the time without service. If you need overnighting spots and recommendations this app is spectacular for that. Will recommend to everyone so the community keeps growing. Keep up the good work!
My fiancé and I went on a month long overland/camping excursion (CO, UT, AZ, NV, CA, OR, WA, MT, WY) and used this app for the majority of our camping sites. Functions pretty well when cell reception is not the greatest! The review/picture function is perfect and allows you to pick some very excluded and absolutely gorgeous locations and to avoid parking lots and rest areas (unless that's what you are looking for)! We found a spot literally on the edge of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon - our ladder to our RTT was ~10 ft from dropping off the canyon! Would never have found places like this without the app. 10/10, hands down, perfect, etc.
Hands down THE BEST APP for those living a nomadic lifestyle
Been using this app for several years and it has yet to let me down. As I travel throughout the western United States living out of my Jeep, iOverlander is the primary aid I use to find dispersed campsites, laundry facilities, water points, and propane suppliers. Kudos out to the team at iOverlander and to all those who contribute information to the app for keeping things updated and relevant; sure makes this an awesome tool for those of us living on the road. ✌🏻
Love the app for finding things but useless for me to add new items. My wife and I share the login on two iPhones and she has probably posted a hundred new spots but while they show up for me in the map and list they don’t appear under my checkin history. Where it’s says “missing check ins?” I try to sync from server and the spinning wheel just spins forever. I’ve let it go for an hour and it just spins, never syncs. Reinstalled the app several times. The history shows up when I use the website but not in the app. That makes it very disappointing for me so I’ve been creating listings in a competing app.
There are quite a few apps out there for information about where to stay but frankly IOverlander has worked so well and helping me find not only the “main”, or obvious places to stay, but amazing and accurate about those out of the way or “unlisted” places that you would not know about without this app. After “real world” use for my Vanlife needs, I see no reason to use anything else. Well done everyone!
Great app, love all the useful crowdsourced data. Could use a UI update to be more modern. Also would love a Favorites section where you could favorite spots you find so you can view them again later. I run in to the issue of planning out where I’m going to camp, use the app to find a spot, then later on when I actually need to navigate to it, I have to go find the spot again which isn’t always easy. So a nice heart button or favorite button would be a very useful addition.
This has been the best app for full time vanlifing/traveling I have found and I recommend it to literally everyone. It’s very simple and easy to use. Takes no data to run so a lot of the time it loads and will work without cell service for me. It takes the questioning out of parking somewhere wondering “will I get kicked out?” You can see how many other people have stayed and what their experience was! Stellar app.
IOverlander is back! This app has been a great resource for my wife and I for over 3 years. I’m blown away by the speed at which the developer responded to so many (including my own) concerns over the last glitch and then how quickly they were able to push an update. Everything is back to working and I can’t wait to continue contributing beautiful sites and staying at others I find via this free app.
I have found this app very useful!! There are definitely some areas of growth pertaining to the user interface. One thing I’d love to see is “Favorites” added to the app. It’s available on the desktop/online web version but as far as I’ve seen is that it is not available in the app. Also wish there was a filter to only show sites which have photos uploaded. This is very useful as I usually will not consider spots in which I cannot see the view or the space. Other than some features and user interface changes, this app is fantastic for discovering places. Wish more people would use it so that everyone could see more up-to-date reviews/photos. Thank you for the app!
I get that they wanna pressure people to use paid. I get that they’re maybe gonna show me some ads if I don’t pay, although personally I prefer the model where basic features are free and the rest are locked behind the paywall. But this free version is one of those ones that interrupts your browsing to show you a full screen ad every ten seconds, effectively making it impossible to use the app at all unless you pay them to take the ads away. There are like a million competitor apps that I can actually use for free, deleted this one so fast.
Absolutely invaluable when traveling though Bolivia
I can only speak of my experiences, and I’ve only used this app in my travels in Bolivia and it has been amazing to say the least. Found some GEMS of camping spots I would have never come across (and I am born and bred Bolivian). Yes the app could use some modernizing and I understand why some would hold back a star because of it, but for a free platform with such great data I just can not give it less than 5 stars. 6 if I could. Some seriously incredible experiences have been made from it. I just hope it never shuts down. I will donate to keep you guys going! Some features I’d like: - Possibility to download certain areas of map - pin location to check in (too much hassle to find gps coordinates) - favorite locations for quick access
I used iOverlander on my iPhone 7 in Aug 2022 and it was great. But when I tried to use it again in Aug 2023, it crashed repeatedly. I recently upgraded to an iPhone 14 and this app still crashes every time. No other apps are crashing, just iOverlander. I’ve tried all the tips I could find for fixing it (uninstall/reinstall, re-boot phone, reset password, clear cache, and synchronize). Nothing has worked. Two stars only because it sounds like some people can use the app. Otherwise, one star. I’ll change my rating if the app starts working.
I like this app but it's missing a key basic feature
I like this app but there's one feature that it lacks, or I haven't figured out where it is, which is to be able to search by location name. You have to start with where you currently are in the map and scroll to wherever you want to end up. So so annoying. I just want to say "Colorado" and it takes me there on the map. You can enter latitude and longitude coordinates but who wants to do that? Please add this or tell me where to do this. Thanks.
I have enjoyed using this app for the last few years, and have even trusted entire vacations to it, boondocking throughout the western states guides only by this map. It’s a five-star app except… After this last summer, app now crashes once I try to select anything. One I touch any part of the opening screen(map, list, check-in, etc), it dies. Disappears actually. I’m on an iPhone 11 running the latest iOS. Would love to see it back in action. Yes, I’ve tried reinstalling the app many times.
I do appreciate the information found here that’s not on my other apps but the other day I tried to copy/paste the GPS coordinates to put in my mapping software and I couldn’t do it. It was super frustrating as I was fighting sunset and had no one to write it down and zero brain power at that time of day to memorize it. Every time I clicked on the coordinates they just changed format and there was no ability to copy. For this reason alone I’m ditching the app for the time being.
This app needs the ability to upload pictures for the sites. Because so many people are uploading random pull offs with 3 sentence descriptions, it is very challenging to determine if the site is appropriate for your rig. This could be improved by allowing pictures of the local to be uploaded. Next, there is no favorites list, so you can’t easily/intuitively click “save” or “like” and then sort by those locations. Some easy improvements that would make the app much better.
I do not know why it’s so low rating for this wonderful app running by team of volunteers. The app is ads free and cost nothing to users. There is a defiantly a room for improvement, but you can chose between this not so perfect app and a comercial one for $60 per year. If you are traveling once a year I think the choice is pretty oblivious. Thank you for such a great tool!
This was my go to app when we went car camping in summer. After few days, we didn’t even plan ahead. We would just check places to park for the night on the app. This app also helped us find showers and wifi for working. Also the reviews for the locations have been super helpful. Thank you for this.
Im really loving this app! Cannot wait to hit the road and enjoy some of these spots. One thing that’s made living in NYC such a dream is the feature in google maps where you can save places you want to go/eat/shop at. If the app had a feature where you could save places you want to go it would make deciding where to go so much easier!!! Again great app!!! Thank you for all your hard work
Love this app. We heard about it on the tail end of a five week road trip and it saved us in the Midwest (where there’s not much public land available for easy camping). Huge request to the developer - let us drop a pin on the map for check-ins because if I don’t add the check-in immediately, it’s too much work for me to go back on Google Maps, pull the GPS coordinates, and then input them manually.
This app is an absolute must have for van life! Can’t tell you the number of times that this app has given us incredible places to stay while we hear of others around us without the app who had to splurge on pricey campgrounds. In months of traveling, we’ve almost never had to pay to spend a night. What would we do without IOverlander?!
I’ve been traveling in a van for the past five years through Central America and this app has been fire! I can’t imagine the journey without it. I hope whoever made it reads this and may they receive all the good vibes I’ve received as a result of finding beautiful places to stay throughout my journey. This app is an amazing tool for full time travelers. Thanks X infinity!
This app has been my go-to for finding free camping spots, particularly in cities and along highways. The one issue I have is not being able to separate out or hide the paid camping locations. I would LOVE for you to add a filter for that. It can get really discouraging for ten camping locations to come up in your city, only for all of them to be paid places.
So far my favorite app for vanlife across the country. Other apps feel like they’re just trying to sell me a place to stay while not being useful enough to use. This app is useful in finding whatever you need. A couple tweaks here and there and it could be the best.
Found this app while traveling across WA and OR and it’s been a life saver. Stayed every night in beautiful secluded places: forest, river, mountains - you name it. And 95% of the time met no one around. App did not crash at me even once! Had map even with no connection! Thank you guys you made wonderfully helpful app 🤍 Fell in love with hiking and camping again
Highly Recommend and thanks to creators and contributors
We used iOverlander for so much on our 6 month trip across the US. From rest areas to wild camping to propane. So helpful. Really appreciate the contributors as well. I did find it hard to contribute as I would forget to do it when I was at the spot. Anyway thanks
Not as slick as other apps, but then again, all the fancy features found on other apps aren’t any good if you aren’t finding any unmarked backcountry spots. Wish the user pool was a little bigger with more camper involvement. But found some awesome spots using it, and it was way easier than using .gov website!
I would like to thank the developers of and ALL contributors to the iOverlander app. A two days drive became a 10 days journey because y’all made it possible for us to have safe places to sleep every night. The intention for the app is to help, and that it does, a whole heap.
From a quick night stop on the side of the highway to a scenic retreat deep into the woods this app makes sure u know what your getting and shows u some amazing spots. I would 100% recommend this app for anyone into camping , overland travel / van life , and even just for road trips. GPS works offline, shows dump stations, cool attractions , water , pretty much everything you need. Super cool u can add stops to and gives users input. I think in the future it would be pretty cool to link with an app like the dyrt or hipcamp to broaden the amount of established campsites. Maybe see other overlanders to haha
This app is awesome! Biggest complaint is that a lot of spots are marked as closed, but you don’t know until you click on it - it would be helpful if the color of the pin changed when the spot is marked closed. It would also be cool if you could save spots you want to try
This would be a 5 star review if there were options to use something other than Apple maps as a default. Yes...we can use Google maps once we find a location we want to travel to, but having Apple maps as the only option when searching for a location totally ruins this otherwise wonderful app. Apple maps just doesn't cut it.
Full time vanlifer for the past 2yrs, 50% of that time has been travelling. This app has been crucial to the success of my roadtrip, always making it easy to find good spots in cities I've never been before. If this was a $100 app, it would still be undervalued.
While the UI isn't anything to write home about, what makes this app so great is the community. The amount of user input really is plentiful, which makes it really helpful when trying to decide on places to rest, camp, sleep, etc. I can't imagine doing van traveling without this app.
Unusable if you’re on the move. You have to scroll to the bottom of each and every review/comment before you can access the links for directions which with popular spots can be 9-15 pages of scrolling just to get the directions link. Not sure anyone there has ever tried to use their own product. Doesn’t work with Apple Maps.
I check into a lot of place’s since I’ve been on the road a year now and I’ve been getting a bunch rejected lately or deleted for not enough information on the description almost a month after posting. Some places will show up as marked as closed even though they clearly aren’t . Waiting for a better app to switch to with more useful administrators
Cannot stress enough how important this app is for any camper/vanlifer out there, so thank you for the app! However a couple things are a bit annoying: - it would be nice to be able to toggle off all the „location has been closed“ sites. They could essentially just be deleted. It’s a lot of stuff to sieve through sometimes. This is more specific: - it doesn’t show me all comments for no reason. Everything is updated, but on my husbands iphone there are more recent comments/places and I have no idea why…
Similar to prior comments, the app is malfunctioning entirely after the previous update. 4 stars nonetheless because when it is working, it’s incredible! This app has been my lifeline over the last 3 months so I truly hope this gets fixed promptly.
While it’s understandable that they can’t prevent ignorant and/or scofflaw people from adding campsites, listing them as free when they’re permit-only or otherwise NON-free. But they won’t even allow check-in comments that point out the error, much less actual corrections. I’ve waited fruitlessly for two months or so to have mine (one of both) posted while illegal campers flood into the area, guided by the erroneous recommendation.
I am so surprised to see a 3.5 rating for this app. This app is extremely reliable and my go to for whenever I need a spot to sleep at. The community is constantly adding new spots and I am very grateful this app exists.
I love this app, it’s incredibly useful and an absolute lifesaver when it comes to planning. My only issue with it is that it doesn’t work well in dark mode, certain parts of the app are unable to be read (the browse screen in particular).
There’s so much to love about this app. For finding dispersed or free camping spots, it has been extremely helpful. BUT, it needs more updating. You click on spot after spot and see “Marked As Closed” over and over. If closed, then take those spots off the map, please!
Text interface at beginning. No design. Preferences? Oh look: unit of measurement. Hmm it’s on metric (why the app can’t figure this out based on the OS language setting (hint: it’s ENG-us). Can’t change the setting because clicking on it presents a page of a ton of blank lines all in black. So back to the front carefully designed page of text choices. Let’s click on “nearby”. Wow! Another scrolling page of blank listings all in black with a small icon of a tent on the left. Everything else is blank. Wonderful execution. Please don’t try to be an app dev. It’s not working. And if this is merely some website wrapped in an app, just don’t. Clicking a few buttons in Xcode does not a programmer make you. Stick to the website and burn this.
It is the app that all "round the world" must have in their tablets or smartphone. Waypoints are added daily by travelers and updated bi-weekly by the developer. Info includes gas station, mechanics, hotel/hotels, campground, wild camping sites, warning of thief/corrupted police seeking bribe, border crossing details, insurance agents, etc.
Find and share your next destination!! iOverlander is a database of places for overlanders and travelers. It includes camping, hotels, restaurants, mechanics, water, propane filling and may other categories. Details are listed for each place, including amenities, photos, date last visited and GPS coordinates. Search our listings or browse on a map! In addition to finding places, you can add new places, record your trip, and share places with friends or other travelers. All of these features will work offline, except you will not be able to view the map. iOverlander is an app built for Overlanders, by Overlanders. It has been tested in dozens of countries and across tens of thousands of miles. Don't believe us? Here are some recent testimonials: "We have been on the road for over a year and have been using iOverlander all through Central America. It had been immensely helpful in finding the perfect 'away from civilization' spots, especially when arriving in a new area late in the day when we have little daylight hours to explore. The app has been an invaluable tool, allowing us to experience spots our friends have raved about and share our own favorites as well. We also love that it can locate our GPS location even when we don't have phone service. A must have travel app for sure!" ~ Sarah and Hani, www.adventuresinskyhorse.com "An overlander must have for Central and South America, you know all those blogs you have been taking notes from to find the good camp spots? Well they are all here now, in one easy to use app. We have found some spectacular spots through the app and have share the best of the ones we have found. Whether you are looking for paid with services or off the grid this app has you covered... And as it is open source you can add to the adventure." ~ Toby & Chloe, www.facebook.com/CarpeViam.net "Great App if you are traveling the Panamericana with your camper. It helps you finding the best camping spot with detailed descriptions of the same. Absolutely helpful and a must have for all the overlanders!" ~ Simone & Michael, www.off-we-go.ch So what are you waiting for? Start exploring with iOverlander today!
