Komoot: the ultimate outdoor app for hikers and bikers
When my sister and I were in Germany last September, we learned about Komoot, an application that helped us finding the perfect hiking routes for our holiday in the Eifel region. Earlier I already wrote about the trails we hiked in the Eifel region through the Komoot app during our time in Germany. In this article I’d like to tell you some more about the outdoor app.
NOTE: this isn’t a sponsored post. I’ve written this article, because I’m enthusiastic about this app and would like to share my enthusiast with you.
A short introduction to Komoot
Komoot is an outdoor app, perfect for hikers and bikers, which can be used on the mobile phone or on the computer. You can find all kinds of trails for hiking, but also for other outdoor activities like biking, mountain biking, cycling and running. You can get some inspiration, do a preset route or you can create your own route. There are lots of possibilities!
Make an account and chose your language
If you would like to use the app, you have to make an account. You can do this on the computer, but you can also download the app on your mobile phone. Komoot is available on both Android and iOS, which makes the app accessible for lots of people.
The app provides trails in a diverse range of destinations which can be found in a nice overview on the homepage of the website. You can use the app in several languages: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Dutch. Take into account though that the destinations offered in a certain language can be different from another language. For example: the variation of destinations described in English is larger compared to the ones described in Dutch.
Pick the perfect route for you
When you have downloaded the Komoot app on your mobile phone and you open the app, you’ll get to an inspiration page. Here you can find all the inspiration other Komoot users would like to use with you. If your GPS is on, the inspiration page is selected on your region. You’ll find collections in which Komoot users share several of their favorite hikes with you (or multi-day hikes) but you can also find specific hikes that Komoot users have shared. It’s really nice to get some inspiration out of this page for your own hike!
If you would like to pick a route in a specific region or if you would like to have all possibilities of routes in a specific region in one glance, you can click on one of the buttons at the top of the page. You can chose if you’re planning on hiking, biking, mountain biking, cycling or running.
Take for example hiking: if you click on the bottom, you can first select a region in which you want to look up the possibilities. You can do this by moving the arrow on the map. Furthermore, you can also chose how long you would like to hike and how hard the trail should be. After you’ve selected the points which apply to you, you’ll get a list of possible trails to hike. At each hiking trails you’ll see the route, the time it normally takes to hike the route, the amount of kilometers and the amount of meters you go up- and downwards.
You can now chose a trail which you would like to hike and then you can save it for offline use (offline use of a route isn’t free of charge). The navigation during the hike is perfect, both with on- and offline use. During the hike, you also come across so-called waypoints where you can get some more information about in the app.
Create your own route
There also is a possibility to create your own route with the Komoot app. Eventhough I haven’t tried it out myself yet, I would like to tell you some more about it. There are two possibilities for the feature of creating your own route:
1. Plan the route beforehand
When you would like to plan your route beforehand, you can go to this button in the app (but maybe it’s better to do this on the computer). You’ll see a map wherein you can start creating your route. You can chose which sport you’d like to do, how your condition is and if you would like to create a one-way route or a return route as well.
You can plan your route completely by chosing the places you’d like to go to. At the end, when you’re finished, you can save your route and also use it offline at a later moment. With saving the self-made route you can also see how long it approximately takes you, how many kilometers the route is and how many meters you go up- and downwards.
2. Hike/bike the route and record it
You can also record a route, which means that you don’t prepare the route, but that you’re just going for a hike (for example) and would like to save the route for a next time, or to share it with other Komoot users as inspiration. During the hike, the app keeps track on how long the hike took you, how hard you hiked, how many kilometers it was and how many meters you went up- and downwards.
Share your experiences with other Komoot users
There are several ways in sharing your experiences with other Komoot users and giving them some inspiration. You can, for example, make your own highlights. This means that you can save special places or sights which you came across during your hiking or biking trail. You can also upload photo’s to these highlights, so other Komoot users can see where you’re talking about.
Furthermore, you can save your self-made route as a ‘tour’. When you add some photo’s and make your route public, other Komoot users can use your tour as an inspiration for their own route.
When you have a Premium account, you can also make collections. This means that you can save your favorite trails and highlights in one list (or make several lists from several regions). You can also share these collections with other Komoot users.
Prices
In general, the outdoor app Komoot can be downloaded and used without costs. You can, for example, find inspiration and look for the perfect trail for free.
If you would like to use a route offline, Komoot asks you to pay a small amount of money. You can buy the map for one region (€ 3,99), for several regions (€ 8,99) or for the whole world (€ 29,99). If you buy the map for one region, you can use all routes offline which are offered in that region. A nice extra: you can download your first region for free.
There also is a Premium account which you can take for € 4,99 per month. With the Premium account, you’ll get even more features, such as making your own collections (like I told about earlier).
I’m very enthusiastic about the outdoor app and I really have benefited from it during my trip to Germany. Have you already used Komoot? What do you think of this outdoor app?
Author: Tamara
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