I do the best countryside walks thanks to a 10p-a-day app – it’s changed my summer

AllTrails is a popular walking and hiking app with thousands of UK walking trails and routes worldwide

If you’re a fan of walking and hiking, chances are you’ve already come across AllTrails. Available on both iPhone and Android, the app has more than 90 million users worldwide, bringing together thousands of trail maps alongside user reviews from across the globe.

This means you can touch down somewhere new and instantly discover a well-trodden route to explore, complete with handy photos and feedback from fellow walking enthusiasts. Whether you’re embracing technology in the great outdoors or stubbornly clinging to your well-worn Ordnance Survey (OS) maps, you might be wondering whether the hugely popular AllTrails app is actually worth your time.

That’s because while a free version exists, the company also offers Plus and Peak subscriptions at £35.99 and £79.99 per year, respectively. The leap from Plus to Peak unlocks four additional features, including community heatmaps, the ability to build and customise routes within the app, and a nifty new tool that can identify plants.

While not every rambler will find those features essential, the Plus subscription is well worth considering, as the entirely free version of AllTrails, known as Base, only allows users to save trails, create trail lists, and navigate to stay on track. I’d describe myself as a casual walker and hiker, reports the Express.

Growing up in the Cubs and cadets meant plenty of compass-and-map expeditions, and having a dog ensured I spent most days exploring the woods and forests. However, my 20s weren’t exactly filled with outdoor adventures, which makes me the ideal audience for AllTrails: those who want to spend more time outdoors but aren’t seasoned hikers with equipment from their Everest expeditions.

This broad appeal works for most people, though experienced adventurers might find it somewhat basic. It’s also not particularly strong at displaying lesser-known routes in developing nations.

But for UK hikers, it’s ideal and motivates you to venture out more without being condescending or daunting. Paying for Plus, which requires an annual upfront payment but works out at £2.99 monthly, provides access to offline map downloads, which I discovered were essential when using AllTrails.

Even on walks with reasonable signal coverage, the in-app performance is significantly better when not dependent on a continuous data connection to display the map. The GPS functions without signal, so with an offline map saved, my precise location on the map remains completely accurate even without reception.

The platform also allows users to create and edit custom routes, which is precisely how trails end up on AllTrails in the first place. AllTrails verifies routes before they appear on the app for others to use, which goes a long way towards ensuring the information is reliable.

With more than half a million curated trails worldwide, that’s reassuring to know. Additionally, members can create and edit routes on desktop, whereas only Peak members can do this on the mobile app.

The fundamental experience of using AllTrails involves finding a hiking route in the app and tapping the start button. This opens a top-down map view of the route and your current location, allowing you to navigate as you would with a traditional paper map or Google Maps.

It quickly becomes apparent why AllTrails is far superior to Google Maps for navigating on foot. Google’s app might appear to have the entire world mapped in your pocket for free, but it is designed to get you from A to B as swiftly as possible, with a few adverts for local businesses thrown in for good measure.

If you arrive in a charming English village and fancy a circular 10km walk taking in the surrounding rolling hills via points of interest, Google simply won’t cut it. The chances are that someone has already uploaded a route on AllTrails that’s perfectly suited to your needs.

It’s worth noting that AllTrails maps can be less detailed than Google Maps or OS maps. The latter offers remarkable detail, including both natural and manmade features in the surrounding area.

AllTrails maps are far more pared down, concentrating on roads, paths and elevation. There is an official OS Maps app available for iPhone and Android with comparable features and subscription pricing (also £35.99 per year), but being an OS product, it’s only available in the UK.

With AllTrails, walkers can select routes based on rough starting points plotted across the map of whichever area you’re in or planning to visit, but you can also filter by location, distance and other variables such as difficulty rating to narrow down the walks most suited to you. Tapping the Explore tab at the bottom brings up nearby trails, while the For You tab offers a more tailored suggestions section featuring original editorial content from AllTrails, with lists of routes in far-flung destinations as well as walks closer to home based on your previous app activity.

Completed routes are saved to your profile, which helps shape these recommendations. With Plus membership activated during a walk, I received off-route alerts both on my iPhone and connected Apple Watch.

This proved incredibly useful, as it notified me whenever I veered off the designated path, meaning I didn’t need to have my eyes glued to my phone throughout the entire hike — something I was particularly keen to avoid while soaking up the great outdoors. One of the key advantages of pairing an Apple Watch with AllTrails is the ability to keep your phone tucked away while accessing maps and off-route alerts directly on your wrist, which is far less intrusive.

This feature also extends to Android users with a WearOS smartwatch, such as a Google Pixel Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch, provided the AllTrails app is installed. AllTrails also allows you to send routes to Garmin and Coros sports watches.

Having tested this on the latter, it works brilliantly – you can even kick off a route directly from the watch, with the data automatically syncing to your AllTrails account afterwards, meaning your phone can stay firmly in your pocket throughout your walk. Additional Plus features include 3D maps, which may not appeal to everyone, alongside a Live Share option that broadcasts your real-time location to friends and family while out on a trail – a fantastic safety feature.

The greatest strength of AllTrails is that it does just enough to point you towards a brilliant walk, before largely getting out of your way. However, as it continuously draws on your phone’s GPS while you’re out, it’s worth packing a power bank.

For those eager to get outdoors but unsure where to begin, AllTrails could provide the confidence needed to venture out and tackle a trail. At £2.99 per month, it represents solid value for anyone looking to get into walking and, most importantly, stick with it.