It’s finally that time of the year where you pull out your dusty suitcase, put on your favorite sunglasses and leave the city to go towards exotic beaches, steep mountains and unexplored places. On the other hand, we know that going for holidays can be very tricky and stressful sometimes, for example when you get lost in the middle of the Sahara desert where all you see is sand, or when you can’t find your way out from the depths of the jungle with that tiger staring at you…. Ok, perhaps we are going a bit extreme, but your struggle during your holidays may be very real.
Luckily, we have some Augmented Reality tips that can help you relax a little bit more and enjoy your holiday the way you deserve. Whether your dream place is the highest peak of a mountain or the flattest wave of the ocean, we got you covered. Let’s discover now the best AR apps for your holidays.
The best AR Apps for your Holidays into the Wild
Peakvisor
If you love trekking and exploring new mountains this AR App is a must have. Peakvisor allows you to instantly see the names of the mountains in front of you, so that you immediately identintificate where you are and your surroundings. By pointing your smartphone in front of you, little banners with the names of the mountains will appear together with the high. Moreover, Peakvisor also has a 3D map program incorporated so that you can do your research before going exploring. Being an App for explorers, it can also work offline, you just have to remember to download your trails before your hiking.
iNaturalist
While hiking, we happen to meet unseen gems like particular flowers or rare trees and unfortunately we might not know what kind of plant/tree is. With iNaturalist, by scanning the image in front of you with the camera of your smartphone, you are able to see the name and some information about the plant you are looking at. Of course you might encounter some inaccuracies. For example if the quality of the image is not very high, the system might not be able to recognize the right species, or if the element you want to know about is too rare you might not find it at all inside of the app. This App, indeed, is managed by experts and a community, that is why it can happen not to find the exact match.
iOverlander
iOverlander is one of the best Apps for campings. Using GPS recognition, it allows you to find the perfect camping spot WORLDWIDE. It also gives you information about the condition of the campsite, where to find water, food, wi-fi and nearby points of interest. The beauty of iOverlander is its community: you will find lots of people just like you that give tips and precious advice in order to give you the best camping experience.
The best AR Apps for your Holidays in a famous City
Are you thinking about going to visit a new city and feeling afraid not to make the best of it? Well, it all depends on which city you are going to. There are some tourist places now that have implemented AR in their touring guides in order to give to the tourists more immersive experiences of their City and a fuller and deeper involvement in the exploring aspect.
For instance, if you are planning to spend your holidays in the north of Italy, you should definitely have on your smartphone AR Apps like TabUI. TabUI is an Italian App that allows you to gather information about the places you are visiting by simply pointing your smartphone at your point of interest. For now, though, it only works in some areas of North Italy. While, if you are keen to visit Italian Architecture Monuments among the cities of Turin and Rome, you don’t want to miss trying Arch.i, an AR App that works by pointing your smartphone at basically any monument of architectural work to instantly have the chance to know everything you want about it. Moreover, if you are planning to stay in the Italian Capital a little bit more, we suggest using another AR app that can guide you through the ancient streets of Rome and tell you everything secret of the Roman Empire: Charta Roma.
Other numerous Apps that help you visit a place in a deeper and more immersive way might be “Santorini AR”, focused on the greek city of Santorini and “National Parks by Chimani”, an amazing Augmented Reality Guide that will let you explore the American National Parks in way you have never imagined.
Your must have AR Apps for every Holiday
Virtlo
Virtlo is an Augmented Reality App only available for IOS for now, able to tell you all the points of interest nearby, such as restaurants, hotels, museums, parks and even stations by using your smartphone. You can also see the distance from where you are so you can explore the city in the best way possible. The app is completely free and it’s open source, which means that everyone can add some tip or point of interest and help the others.
Google Translate
How not to mention Google Translate when it comes to travel and technology? Google Translate allows you to instantly translate every written word to every language by putting your phone’s camera on the word you want to translate. Google will do all the rest. This means that if during a trip you want to know what is written on a street signal, in a restaurant menu or a contract, you can instantly translate it by using your phone. Of course, you need to be careful because not every translation is accurate and the chances of a misunderstanding are quite high, but for basic sentences it will work just fine.
All you have to do now is just pack and enjoy your holidays, wherever you are going!