The Best Hiking Apps for iPhone in 2026

The iPhone has become a serious hiking tool. The combination of offline maps, GPS accuracy, and a growing ecosystem of dedicated apps means you can navigate remote terrain with nothing but your phone — if you have the right software installed.

Here is what we actually use and recommend.

Navigation and trail finding

AllTrails remains the category leader for discovering trails. The community-sourced reviews and photos are genuinely useful for pre-trip research. The Pro version adds offline maps, which you need the moment you leave signal range.

Komoot is the better choice if you prefer to build your own routes rather than follow existing ones. Its routing algorithm is smart about terrain type — it knows the difference between a gravel path and a scramble.

Maps.me deserves a mention purely for offline reliability. Download an entire country before you go and navigate without any data at all.

Recording your tracks

Most hikers record their route with one of the above apps, then forget the data ever existed. That is a waste.

A .gpx file from any hiking app contains your exact path, elevation changes, timestamps, and total distance. It is a complete record of where you went.

Wanderinga is where those files go to live. Import any .gpx and it appears on your personal globe, linked to the trip it belongs to. After a season of hiking, you have a map of every trail you have ever walked — with the context of the trip around each one.

Safety and conditions

Mountain Forecast gives reliable high-altitude weather, which is more accurate than generic weather apps above the treeline.

PeakVisor is genuinely impressive for peak identification — point your camera at a skyline and it names every summit in view. Useful and slightly addictive.

A note on battery

None of these matter if your phone dies at kilometre eight. Airplane mode with GPS still active extends battery significantly. Bring an external battery on anything longer than a day hike — full stop.

The setup we recommend

1. Download AllTrails or Komoot for navigation, offline maps enabled
2. Record your track throughout the hike
3. Export the .gpx at the end of the day
4. Import into Wanderinga to add it to your travel log

The whole import takes under a minute and the result is a permanent, searchable record of the hike as part of a larger journey.

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Ready to build your hiking archive? Download Wanderinga free on iOS and import your first trail today.