iOverlander: New website and iPhone app for finding campsites
 

Hi all,
Just wanted to let you know about this new iPhone app and website for finding campsites (and other accommodation) for overlanders. Currently has 1,900 POI marked, all from past travelers. Most on 4 wheels but a lot of the places are motorcycle friendly as well.

Right now we've only imported lists for North & South America, but we plan to expand worldwide. The system is user editable. So anyone can go on and add/update or review a place they have stayed at.

Did I mention it's free :)

Website: www.iOverlander.com
iPhone app is here.

Some features:

• You can search the database and add places on the iphone app even when you are offline.
• You can download all of our POI as a GPX file (to put on your GPS or BaseCamp) or an Excel, CSV or JSON file.
• We are working on an Android version. :)
• Seriously, it's free.

We are looking for feedback, comments, new feature ideas, bug reports, ESPECIALLY from the motorcycle community. Leave a comment here, or email us, ioverlander.com@gmail.com.

I did download the App. Very usefull if we travellers start to put more informations into the Database. :thumbup1:

I will write an review soon, maybe it helps to find some people from europe to enter some values into the DB too.

I suggest to do add functionallity:

MAPS & Directions - there i would like to have an additional link for "view in Google Maps". Additional, no replacement for directions. If I click on a link who is in southamerica, and i`m in europe, i get an error that there is no route possible..

Hope other readers here will help to let this projct grow :thumbup1:

Surfy

Thanks Surfy!
I like the idea of a "View in Google Maps" button. Should be easy to implement. There is a new version of the app coming our in a week or two. Lots of little bug fixes and things like that. I'll see if we can sneak this improvement in too.

We are looking to bulk add points in Africa and Europe. So if you know any travelers who have marked camping spots for long trips, and have a recorded in GPX, Excel, Google Maps (really any format...). We can add them in bulk to our site fairly easily. We haven't started digging yet, but I know there are good lists out there.

Thanks!
Jessica

Hi Surfy,
Just wanted to give you an update. We've found a fix to the "no route possible" error. And we've also added support to other mapping programs, so you can view the location in Skobbler, Galileo and Maps.me. This will all come out in the next release, probably will be a few weeks. Let me know if you want it sooner, and we can put you on the beta tester list to get these updates instantly :)

Thanks!
Jessica

Jessica- for those of us luddites who do not have I-bones :biggrin:, any chance of this coming out for Android?
Ideas
4x4 icon for places for those with only concrete parking
Moto icon " " which have tent space on soft ground and welcome 2 wheelers
Truck icon " " " " for places large enough to park one of those
Some other icon for those places which cater for all !

Hi Bertrand. Fellow luddite here :) Yes, there is an excellent chance of it coming our for Android. We're talking with a developer now, but realistically may need to do a bit of fundraising first. The cost for the development software is $300, and we're already running is the red from all the site hosting. So, yes it's coming, but realistically, it will be a few months.

As for your icon ideas. Let me tell you what we have currently, and then see what we should add. Right now the icons on the map signify the type of place. Formal established camping (like RV parks, or state parks), Wild camping (free, but no amenities), and informal camping (like a hotel parking lot, or a restaurant that let's you pitch a tent), and a bunch of others that are more self-explanatory. To see all the icons, click the "Show legend" button in the top right of the homepage.

We added to the list of amenities the ability to mark a place as "tent-friendly" and "big rig friendly". But, you have to do a search, or view the details of a place to see this info. For example, go here, and see the column on the left: iOverlander | Altai Oasis. This place is marked as tent friendly and big-rig friendly. For hotels and hostels there is a field for "parking" so you can see how much space there is and where the parking is located. Is it on premise- or the garage 3 blocks away.

Based on your suggestions, I think we are missing two fields.
- A 4x4 icon for places with only concrete parking. I think this is similar to tent friendly. If it's just a parking lot, then we mark it not tent friendly. Am I understanding correctly?

- A moto icon for places that welcome 2-wheelers: This we could add, and we've considered in in the past. The question is, are there places that have parking and are tent friendly that don't welcome motos? What would this field signify aside from a fluffy tent spot and a place to park? Because those two items are already covered by other amenities. Hmmmm... let me know your thought on this.

Thank you for the feedback! It is always appreciated.
Jessica

Need more input- need more input!

Not all accom. places welcome motorcyclists as they often are dripping wet with dirty boots!

Thoughts...
Green tent icon for grass camping?
Red tent icon for wild camping
Black tent icon for camping on concrete? ( not everyone has free-standing tents)
The hard part is designing simple bitmaps which are self-explanatory especially due their shrunk size!

Surfy

"If I click on a link who is in southamerica, and i`m in europe, i get an error that there is no route possible.."
Could this have something to do with the... err.... Atlantic ocean I wonder? Is your Toyota amphibian??
(sorry for the cheekiness but you did 'fish' for it ):Beach:

Good ideas for implementing!

Please add MotionX GPS! It is the currently most powerful Navigationtool for Overlanders, who is able to download huge areas of Google Satellite, Terrain, Road and many other mapsources for offline usage. Offers Trackercording, Track & Waypoint sharing/import/export and so on.

I will start soon the panamericana, therefore i better didnt join the betatester program.

Exactly :cool4:

therefore i would like a button for just viewing the spot in Google, together to the option to get a direction (routing).


Surfy

Thank you for link for gps Surfy

Ok, I think what you're saying is, make the icons suck less :) Noted. We'll work on it! Thanks.

Haven't downloaded the app yet, but from looking at the website, I have a couple suggestions.
1. If you can't edit each and every location, set down some rules. i.e. "Keep it simple." Some of the comments such as "Another night, another campground." or "First night on the Oregon coast" are not of any use to other users.
Frankly, I don't give a :9898: whether it is someone's first or 25th visit.
2. Add a field for price if campsite/hotel. Some descriptions include price, but some don't. Prices change over time, but a rough estimate could be helpful.
3. Change "Agricultural Checkpoint" to just "Checkpoint". Some countries have police checkpoints. It could be helpful to know when approaching one.

I can't find the download button. Could you make it a bit easier to find?
Downloading the GPX file will allow it to be input to MotionX GPS! which Surfy mentioned.

Good luck with your further development!

On the list! We'll try to squeeze it in the next release.

If you want to be a beta tester, just send an email to ioverlander.com@gmail.com. Sam will get you all set up.

Hi Chris!

I know, it's annoyingly hidden. We're working on a redo of the main navigation to fix this. Two ways to download:
1. By country
iOverlander | Places by Countries or
2. Do a search iOverlander | Search Places and at the top of the page right under the # places found, it says "Download these results as GPX | JSON | CSV | XLS."

Good point. A lot of our places initially came from big lists. Some of them great and lots of descriptions, some with really crappy descriptions. Our hope is that users that visit these places will clean up the information and give better information. The new places being added are excellent, it's the older info that was recorded before the site even existed that isn't as good. That's also why you see a lot of places where all of the amenities are marked as "unknown". Thankfully these are getting fixed quickly, we get two dozen place corrections every day!

We are struggling with this, because price can be measured so many ways. Per person, per vehicle, per site, per room, etc. And currency fluctuates as well. Currently when a user checks-in to a place it asks them to put the price paid in their comments, so that the price is also tied to a user and a date. Many of the places we added in bulk didn't have prices listed. That's why so many don't have the data. We could add a price field that is tied to the place itself, rather than having it in a comment, but you wouldn't know who added it, or how old it was. Would that be better than the current system?

Ohhhh, good point! We'll fix that.

Thanks for the feedback!!

Hi Jessica, this is a great idea I really wish you the best of luck getting it off the ground! Without repeating what others have said here, I would just add that surely gas stations (or maybe unofficial places to find gas in places like Bolivia, etc) would be of great value to overlanders. That, and maybe even places of interest, i.e. tourist attractions that overlanders find along the way, or other places of interest. Just a thought!

Cheers!
Rtw

A few quick updates:

@Surfy: The view in MotionX GPS feature will be in the next release. I think Sam has you down as a beta tester, so as soon as he pushes that to beta you should see it. Email with questions, like always.

@Chris - Just changed Agricultural checkpoint to just checkpoint. Working on the price field solution.

@ridetheworld - Yep, we'll get these added too. Right now we have an "Other" category, so feel free to add anything in that, and we can update it later.

More coming soon :)