Wikicamps; the best money you’ll ever spend on anything camping
I’m not sure why its taken so long for me to write a post about Wikicamps Australia, given how incredibly useful it is.
If you haven’t heard of it before, today is your lucky day. The Wikicamps app can be downloaded on android, apple and windows smart phones (and also desktops).
The app is used to find camping areas, points of interest, caravan parks and more. However, its the way in which it does this that is most useful.
What’s so good about Wikicamps?
There are a myriad of books and websites out there that list places where you can camp, points of interest and caravan parks.
The problem with them though, is the information takes time to find, and it doesn’t change. Camp sites change all the time, and then a static page or book becomes redundant.
Wikicamps is updated by users, and has the ability to leave comments, add news sites, add photos and reply to others.
If you want to find somewhere to camp, you can filter sites by various requirements (free camping, dog friendly, camper trailer friendly etc) and see them visually on a map, to work out how far away they are.
If you are looking for free camping in Australia, you’ll love this app, as it will save you thousands of dollars on a longer trip. Simply filter by free camps and away you go!
If you find something you like, you can click on it and see how much the camping is, read comments left by those who’ve been there before, and check out photos.
The fact that is crowd sourced means information is more up to date, and you can often even get track conditions, how bad the toilets smell and what to look out for through the comments!
Everything is downloaded too, so you don’t need an internet connection to find your next amazing camp site. With over 32,000 listings across Australia, you can be sure to find somewhere amazing to rest your head.
You can find dump points fast, a place to have a shower, what sites have phone reception and the list goes on and on. It’s super fast to use, and very effective.
Wikicamps Australia has allowed a huge number of people to travel with a much greater ease!
Read the comments with a grain of salt
One of the problems with crowd sourced information is that you get varying opinions.
For example, you’ll often read comments on the Wikicamps app saying that the road was in terrible condition, or that that there wasn’t enough room to set a tent up.
I usually take comments like that with a grain of salt and go in and find out for myself.
In most cases, things that are written negatively about a camp site turn out to be incorrect; its just how people see things differently.
When we did the Gibb River road, the locals told us the track was in the best condition they’d seen in years, and yet we came across others telling us that its the worst road they’d ever done.
It’s all about perspective, so take the comments with a grain of salt.
Not all the information is accurate
The other thing to bear in mind with the comments is they can actually be incorrect. Just because someone posts saying you can camp there doesn’t guarantee you actually can.
Obviously shire, council, National Park and general civil law comes way above the comments of those left on Wikicamps! If you think the camp site might be a bit sketchy in terms of being allowed to be there, do some further digging.
This is especially paramount for camp sites that are on private property; comments saying its free and the owners welcome visitors are often not correct, and there have been some bad run ins in the past.
Use your common sense, do some additional research and you’ll find it very useful.
Wikicamps Cost
Wikicamps is a measly $7.95, and I believe they have a free trial too. I guarantee it will be the best 8 bucks you spend.
You can run the app across multiple devices, as long as they are the same type – apple to apple, windows to windows etc.
If you want to run it on an android and a windows device, you’ve got to purchase it twice. You can run the device on smart phones, tablets, laptops and PC’s. When it comes to the cost of travelling around Australia, this is a very, very smart decision!
Bonus tip; download Fuel Map
A while after releasing Wikicamps, Fuel map was released too. This allows you to find cheap fuel while travelling around Australia.
Again, the information provided is crowd sourced, but its usually pretty accurate. You can save a fortune with this app in fuel costs.
Wikicamps Review
Honestly, there is no better money that you can spend towards camping/4WDing/hiking than Wikicamps. It is amazing, and will pay for itself hundreds of times over.
Whether you use the Wikicamps trip planner, or you just use it for finding amazing day use activities, or where to get water from, it’s a must for all travellers in Australia.
Do you use Wikicamps? What do you think of it?
Hey Jan,
Fully agree. I’ll have to update this.
Wikicamps is incredibly frustrating these days
All the best
Aaron
A lot of camping info but quite glitchy & extremely slow.
Aside from the issues below, the recent upgrade has made the app incredibly slow to load reviews, costs, or photos which makes it even more frustrating to use.
While the information in this app can be quite good at times, the app itself is quite glitchy. It keeps refreshing multiple times a day, which is annoying when you just want to take a quick look. The ‘Point Of Interest’ category contains what should be ‘Services’ such as Libraries, Laundries, etc, which leads to lots of unnecessary searching when looking for POIs in the area. The star Rating shown is often different from the scores given. A photo appears in the thumbnail but can be absent from the Photos tab. Don’t know how that happens? Many sites have no information or photos. Plus the moderation team pull down new site listings with no explanation (unless hassled to explain), so keeping things current is difficult.
Hi Suzi,
They’re having lots of issues with the app at the moment. The reviews are still there, just not always showing up properly
PS – there’s no subscription; its a once off payment from when you first signed up
All the best
Aaron
Where are all reviews gone? I know I have submitted many WikiCamps reviews of great camps around Australia over the past few years and all reviews are no longer visible? Not happy with the app now it’s been taken over. Not even worth the subscription if they’ve removed all the reviews. Cancelled !
Hi Marg,
I heard it had been taken over. It will be interesting to see what they do with it. What reviews have been censored? Were they yours?
All the best
Aaron
Wikicamps has always been my GOTO for free camping and reviews about caravan parks. Unfortunately it has now been taken over by a large caravan park chain and they are already censoring negative reviews about caravan parks.
Hi Carolyn,
Once off, unless you want to install it on a different device. For example, if you had an apple phone, and wanted to run it on an android phone you’d have to buy it twice.
All the best
Aaron
Please advise if subscription is monthly or one off
Yep.
Take care.
Aaron
Is the wikicamps subscription a one off payment?
Hey Dave,
I believe so. There might be a way of sharing it, but not that I am aware.
All the best
Aaron
Gday Aaron.
Love your article.
If I purchase the app for my Android phone and then another one for my laptop, and the plan and save a trip on one device,,can I access my plan on the other device? Or are they completely separate, ie I have to plan and save 2 trips, 1 on each device?
Cheers
Dave
Hi Brian,
This is just a review mate, not the actual wikicamps company.
However, you are correct. You pay for a license for your chosen device. I too purchased one for Android, and had to buy it again for Windows on a different device.
All the best
Aaron
Hope I have the right area for complaints:-
I purchased Wikicamps some years ago to you on my Apple device.
I have now switched to an Android phone but still use my iPad where Wikicamps works fine… but,
It appears that to use my android phone I will have to purchase over!
Is this correct? If so, I am not impressed.
Regards
Brian
Hey Barrie,
I would send wikicamps an email; they are usually pretty helpful.
All the best
Aaron
We have been members for some years, but now I can, t get comments etc on different camp sites. I always use this tablet when we are travelling, hopefully this can be sorted out before we go away shortly. I found a wiki site somewhere that said my tablet is not compatible. Hope you can help. Barrie
Hi Rodney,
Contact Wikicamps. They will sort it out for you no problem
Aaron
Airways used wiki camp had phone problems now won’t allow ME to sign in doesn’t recognise email address
Hey mate,
Sorry you are having issues. I’d suggest you send them an email. They are usually pretty helpful and should have you up and running quickly.
All the best
Aaron
I used to highly vale Wikicamps Australia, but it stopped to do any updates, and said my Android is no longer compatible. What is going on?! I played for it. I used it for years, and suddenly not compatible?! What are they doing there?!!!
Hi Petr,
Once off mate.
Aaron
Hi, is it $8 per month or per year?
Hey John,
Unless it runs android as well, no. You’ll have to pay for another version to run on windows. I had to do the same
Take care
Aaron
Hi was wandering around the if I could transfer my registration to the from my tablet Android to my new lap top cheers
Hey Phil,
Sorry to hear what happened. I wonder why it was deleted. My understanding is nothing comes close to Wikicamps in terms of functionality, but let me know how Camps Australia goes. Like everything, I always take the comments on wikicamps with a grain of salt and do my own research
Aaron
Have just deleted my Wikicamps subscription. After emailing NSW Dept of Maritime and Roads regarding rest area camping I posted reply on Wikicamps, Wikicamps deleted my post so I posted a request why they did this and instead of replying they just deleted. Will use “Camps Australia ” instead.