These awesome motorcycle apps will make your life so much easier on the road. They’re perfect for adventure bike riders, motorcycle travellers, overlanders and anyone travelling the world. These phone apps have been tried and tested by us in over 80 countries and we reckon are the best travel apps out there…
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The Best Apps for Motorcycle Travellers
By Alissa Potter
Mad or Nomad - RTW motorcycle travellers
Welcome to our best mobile apps for motorcycle riders guide. This article is specifically aimed at free mobile phone apps for motorcycle travellers and overlanders. But, they’ll come in handy whether you’re on a weekend blast or a round the world epic, these apps will help you on your two-wheeled adventures.
We’ve been using these apps for years, some before we even started our round the world motorcycle ride back in 2018.
And that’s because they make life easier on the road, from planning, communicating, navigating and importantly – increasing your safety so you can have a better trip. Have a read, download them and see what you think!
iOverlander
iOverlander is the best and one of the most important travel apps for motorcycle travellers. And with good reason.
This travel app can be used offline to find incredibly useful places, pins and reviews around the world. It’s a community based app packed with reviews from fellow overlanders and bookmarks of places that are crucial to travellers.
We use it almost daily at times. It’s incredibly useful for finding up-to-date info on border crossings, shipping, hotels – everything you might need on the road.
It’s an amazing tool, made by overlanders, for overlanders and massively helps anyone travelling the world. It’s a must-have-app!
iOverlander has been upgraded to version 2, which makes it a paid app. You can use a free version or pay a yearly subscription for extra perks.
How do you use it?
Zoom in on a city or area you’re visiting and you’ll see a bunch of bookmarks with different icons. These include everything from border posts, consuls, embassies, propane stations, gas and diesel stations, markets, hotels, hostels, wild campsites, official campsites, road closures, dangerous areas and other points of interest. Click on one and you’ll see a load of information from the overlander who created that bookmark, for example, border opening times, impassable road information, what to take to a specific embassy and so on.
Having a review on there encourages other overlanders to also ‘check-in’ on the same location and update the info.
If you find something that you think may be useful to other travellers, simply click ‘check-in’ and fill out the info. It’ll then be uploaded to the online database.
Extras
A handy tip: when you find somewhere you want to visit, just open the icon and scroll down to ‘View in Mapping App’. Click that and it’ll open the exact location in Maps.Me or Google Maps. You can then plot a route to the exact location – all offline!
Pros
- It’s a service which flags up incredibly useful points of interest around the world.
- You can reciprocate to the community by updating reviews and adding your own points of interest.
- It works offline and you can open the pin in your navigation app.
Update: iOverlander2
As of 2024, the iOverlander team has rolled out a new version of their app: iOverlander2.
Importantly, the original app is still available, downloadable and usable. There’s just another version that you can use if you so wish.
iOverlander2 is a paid version, and the people behind it say they have done this to help cover the running costs.
The new app is still in its early days and so they’re working on a lot of new features and fixes including a better search and support. You’ll find more info on the updates and what to expect here: ioverlander.com/apps
Maps.ME
Maps.Me is the best offline navigation app out there. We used the app to travel from the UK to Japan, through West, Central, East and North Asia overland. It works in the remote regions of Mongolia, showing up tiny riding trails that a regular GPS and even Google Maps wouldn’t show. And it even worked in the depths of the Wakhan Corridor in Afghanistan. We completely relied on this phone app as our sole navigation device.
How do you use it?
Once you’ve downloaded the app, you just need to zoom in on a country or location that you will be visiting. It will then ask you to download that map. The download file is small, typically a few KBs or a MB dependent on the area. You can download as many area maps as you like, there is no restriction. We download ours well in advance (you will need internet connection to download) and then delete the individual maps once we’ve left the country to save phone space.
Once you’ve downloaded the map you can use it offline. While offline, you will have full access to the GPS and sat-nav services. You can plot routes, search for hotels, banks, ATMs and use it as a sat-nav to get you to your destination.
Bookmarking
You can also bookmark your locations, allowing you to plot multiple routes, save points of interest for later or even to record your journey. These bookmarks can even be backed up.
Who is it for?
It doesn’t matter how you’re travelling, Maps.Me is still useful. It’s able to plot driving, walking, cycling and train routes.
The travel app can be used while travelling in a vehicle or while hiking. It will show up places of interest that aren’t on Google Maps and walking and hiking routes, which you can access on a mountaintop with no signal. So as long as you have battery on your phone you won’t be lost. We used the device for multiple long trekking excursions as well as for riding into the middle of nowhere in far flung countries.
Extras
It’s handy when searching for hotels as it will bring up saved reviews and scores. If you get Wi-Fi or internet access it will show even more reviews. You can check your elevation by clicking on your position. It also displays your exact coordinates, which can be copied and pasted into other navigation devices or online. Entering coordinates into Maps.Me is also simple, just type the coordinates into the search bar to find the exact location you require.
Pros
- Works offline
- Has masses of information such as hotels, sights, restaurants, banks and points of interest
- Can be used to record routes via bookmarks
- Can be used as a sat-nav or moving map with its GPS
Cons
- The timings are always way off. You can rely on the routes, but don’t believe however long it says it’ll take to get there. That’s because it doesn’t take into account road conditions, traffic and so on.
- It doesn’t allow you to alter route preferences, like ‘no-toll roads’, which makes using a vehicle in countries with toll roads tricky, like Japan.
Connecting to the internet while travelling makes life so much easier on the road and is important for a lot of people. As we ride our motorcycles around the world we need constant access to check borders, remote routes, find places to stay and so on. It’s a must for us.
Using your home SIM abroad isn’t possible once you’re outside of your coverage area – unless you want an eye-wateringly massive phone bill. So, you can either buy a local SIM card, which can often be a pain as you have to find one, register, top up etc and remove your current SIM – or you can opt for an eSIM.
Most mobile phones are eSIM enabled. The beauty is that you can keep your current SIM card in your phone as you normally do, but also download another digital SIM onto your phone (eSIM) and use that SIM in a foreign country.
This is where Holafly comes in. It’s perfect for motorcycle travellers because you can select a country or region you’re going to be riding in and download their eSIM before you even left home. That means, by the time you get there, you’ll already have working data and won’t have to go searching for phone shops etc.
We’ve been using Holafly for a while now and it’s proven to be the best eSIM service we’ve tried (and we’ve tried quite a few!). The data packages are unlimited and it’s the easiest service to download a SIM and get online.
We asked Holafly if we can give our readers a discount and they kindly offered a 5% off code here. Holafly.com
Google Translate
You’ll be surprised at how many people use this app – and not just travellers. Little old ladies in the middle of Mongolia seem to be using it. It does what it says on the tin – it translates! The benefit is that it works offline, so long as you download the language package while you have internet before. It’s a useful tool if you’re stuck and need to get your words across to someone.
How do you use it?
Google Translate is easy peasy. Simply select the languages you wish to use, for example English and Japanese, and download them. You can then translate between these two languages while offline.
One really cool feature is the camera function. Click ‘camera’ and then hover your phone’s camera over a foreign language and watch it translate before your eyes! Very handy when it comes to translating important documents, reading ingredients, sign posts and so on.
You can also use the handwriting function and draw out the word with your finger tip.
Extras
The camera function and handwriting tools are fantastic extras. But Google Translate also has a conversation function where you can have both languages at the click of a button. You click English and speak into the phone. It’ll then playback in Japanese with the Japanese spelling. Your friend then clicks the Japanese button and speaks back, translating it to English with English words for you.
You can also save words and phrases into a handy phrase book.
Pros
- Works offline
- Clever camera function
- Downloadable language packages
Cons
- The camera function doesn’t always translate exactly. It works well with most languages but sometimes struggles when it’s not the Roman alphabet.
Currency Plus
It’s definitely worth having a currency converter on your phone while travelling. And Currency Plus is one of the best ones out there. It’s free, allows you to see five currencies simultaneously and allows you to flick between world currencies while offline.
How does it work?
Simply click on the currency you want and then click on the currency you want to convert to and type the amount in. It will then automatically convert. It’s handy having five up at once as when you’re travelling between borders you may want to convert one foreign currency to another and you’ll be able to see what it’s worth in your home currency instantly.
The reason we like Currency Plus so much is its accuracy with foreign exchange rates.
Extras
There aren’t a lot of extras for a convertor app, but Currency Plus does have a handy calculator included in the app, you can view five currencies at once and the foreign exchange rates are very accurate.
Snapseed
Okay, fair enough, this app isn’t essential for travel. But it’s a damn good app and worth putting on our top five list because at the end of the day, there’s no one out there who travels without taking pictures anymore!
Snapseed is a brilliant app for editing pictures. It has an impressively comprehensive set of editing tools, and what it can do with a drab picture in no time at all will surprise you. It’s free, easy to use and has plenty of complex functions for more advanced users.
How do you use it?
Take a photo on your phone and open it in Snapseed. Click on ‘Tools’ and play around with all the options you have. You can change saturation, details, drama, shadow, use the select function to brighten or darken certain areas, add lens blur, increase the HD, crop, rotate and so on.
And all of that on your mobile phone.
The trick is to not go over the top with edits, we’d recommend using the following to get you started, and only a small amount on each:
Extras
We listed most of the best functions above. But another, very handy function is the ‘Healing’ option. You can get rid of pesky unwanted things in your picture (like a telephone wire) with the swipe of your finger!
The pros are it’s a powerful tool with plenty of functions and easy to use. The only con is that you can’t get the same software on your computer.
WikiCamps
WikiCamps is an invaluable app for motorcycle travellers looking to camp in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It costs around £5 per country (you only need to pay for the country you want to download) and shows a huge selection of campsites (paid and wild sites) throughout the country with reviews, prices, contact info, location and much more.
We have personally used it in Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand and couldn’t have done without it. WikiCamps saved us so much time and money. It’s well worth it and highly recommended.
Visit the WikiCamps website. And check out our camping guides for more info on where and how to camp with your motorcycle.
READ MORE: Motorcycle Camping Guides
Navigation apps
Above we mentioned Maps.Me because it’s the app we’ve been using to navigate since starting our round the world motorcycle trip back in 2018. However, there are plenty of other options out there. If you’re interested in trying out others, then here’s a selection of the most popular navigation apps that are frequently used by overlanders and motorcycle travellers.
Waze
Waze is another navigation app worth having in your arsenal. Personally, we found it very useful in countries that primarily use and prefer it to Google Maps. For example, in Central America Waze is the preferred navigation app and far more accurate than Google Maps. waze.com
Scenic
Scenic is another much loved app. You get scenic route planning, offline maps, navigation and can share your maps via GPX files. However, some functionality like offline maps you will need to pay for. scenic.app
Calimoto
Calimoto is a route planning app that you can use for free, but is much better when you use the paid version. The main benefits of this app are curvy road planning, offline maps, ride tracking and community shared routes. calimoto.com
My Route App
Similar to Calimoto above, My Route App allows for custom route planning, has GPS navigation, offline maps and most importantly – allows you to share your routes and rides with others. myrouteapp.com
Organic Maps
Organic Maps is a lightweight GPS app built for travellers who value independence, accuracy, and data-free navigation. It’s powered by the collaborative OpenStreetMap project and offers precise maps and voice-guided directions—even off the grid and off-line. With no ads, no tracking, and no need for a constant internet connection, it’s perfect for remote motorcycle routes. organicmaps.app
OsmAnd
OsmAnd is an open-source navigation app that uses OpenStreetMap data to provide detailed offline maps and customizable routing. It supports turn-by-turn navigation, GPX track recording, and terrain features like contour lines and hill shading. Users can adjust routing profiles for motorcycles, 4x4s, and other vehicles, and exclude certain road types or surfaces. osmand.net
Read more on motorcycle travel preparation
Thanks for checking out this Best Mobile Apps for Motorcycle Travellers Guide. We hope you enjoyed it! Here’s a few more articles on motorcycle gear and accessories that we recommend you read next.
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I am missing a offline navigation app: OSMAND !!! It will do everything you describe above and it is totaly free. I own an Garmin XT but I carry OSMAND on my phone as a backup. Export your routes from TomTom or Garmin into a .gpx file and you are ready to go. It uses free Open Street Maps has POI and spoken navigation. Even off-road with topo maps works fine. OSMAND has a learning curve but for me it is the Swiss Knive for navigation.
Hi! Sorry for the late reply, I must have just completely missed your comment and only noticed it now as I’ve come to update this page. Huge apologies.
Anyway, thank you very much for your comment and for adding such a great suggestion to the list! Much appreciated.
Cheers,
Andy
Haven`t seen one in your list and is a great one for me when it comes to pay by card or withdraw money abroad, while being charged very small fees – Revolut. For those who dont know about it, its an app that is connected to an account and you can use it to pay all over the world. Either with the phone (virtual card) or you can receive a Revolut physical card. Very useful for international money transfers or ATM withdraws too. Its so good and full of features that I have entirely moved my finances onto it.
Hi Raul, good shout on Revolut – we do actually talk about Revolut in our Travel Resources page
But it’s a good idea to mention it here too, so thanks for contributing!
We use it on our trip and it’s been excellent. We use both Revolut and Monzo. So I totally agree!
Cheers and all the best,
Andy