With summer just a month away, I’ve been gearing up for outdoor activities and preparing for the blistering heat coming my way. There are many third-party apps to help you prepare for your bucket list of summer activities, depending on what you’re planning to do.

Apart from water-tracking apps like Waterllama, there are many outdoor-focused apps to try out. Here are eight essential apps I use every summer, why I use them, and what you can do with their unique features.

8

Komoot

There are many outdoor activities you can indulge in during the summer. For me, hiking and discovering new trails is something I’ve picked up in the past year, given that my city and the surrounding areas are riddled with hiking trails. Komoot is an essential app for all your outdoor fitness activities, including hiking, running, and biking.

Once you customize which activities you’re interested in, Komoot helps you discover trails in your close vicinity. You can choose trails between 5 and 100 km near you, and filter them out by activity, difficulty level, duration to finish, elevation, surface, and accessibility. Once I find a trail I want to hike on, I save it to my profile to access during weekends. Komoot also lets you record an activity and track your time, distance, and speed. This is made easier because you can connect the app to Apple Health, Garmin Connect, or any other fitness device through Bluetooth.

Komoot has been very useful since I was unfamiliar with the city I moved to last year, helping me discover some underrated gems. It also helps me track my fitness stats for every trail I go on, and see my progress over time. While I can track my fitness data using Apple Health, having a dedicated app that helps me discover new trails while recording my progress is a great asset for my summer activities.

Download Komoot on the App Store or the Google Play Store.

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7

AllTrails

AllTrails is another hiking and outdoor activity app I use in combination with Komoot. While Komoot also has trail navigation, I find AllTrails’ navigation interface to be slightly neater and easier to use. AllTrails also lets you explore nearby trails, and is a good tool to find dog-friendly trails and parks near you.

With a map and trail navigation feature, you can easily track your routes, time a hike, and share your live location for safety. AllTrails also lets you create lists of trails and routes, which I use as a bucket list for trails I want to cover each summer.

With an AllTrails+ membership, you can use a 3D map, use offline maps for low connectivity areas, and even download entire park routes. The last feature comes in handy if you live near bigger parks and longer routes, given how detailed and accurate the navigation can be. With filters, you can find trails or parks that are kid-friendly, near rivers, waterfalls, or lakes, have amazing views, hidden gems, or are recommended the most by people near you.

For iPhone users, AllTrails also has a few Control Center widgets, such as “Trails Near Me” and “Favorites.”

Download AllTrails on the App Store or the Google Play Store.

6

AccuWeather

The last thing you’d want when you start on your hiking or biking trail is bad weather. Keeping your eye on the weather is an integral summer experience, which is why I’ve been on the lookout for a very accurate weather app. AccuWeather has been one of the best weather apps I’ve used, given how precise its forecast has been.

AccuWeather gives a minute-by-minute update for your location’s weather, and gives a snapshot of the big picture with hourly and weekly forecasts. It also takes forecasting a step further with up to 45 days of weather forecast, with a calendar view that makes it easy to read. What I love about using AccuWeather during the summer is its additional weather details, including “RealFeel Shade,” indoor humidity, cloud cover, and cloud ceiling. These details make it easier to plan upcoming outdoor activities and prepare for extreme weather.

AccuWeather has hyper-local radar, cloud, and temperature maps, and can also show a satellite view of upcoming weather events. The 5-day precipitation map is another feature I use fairly often, given how unpredictable weather can be.

The interface is pretty sleek and easy to navigate, making it easy to switch between hourly and weekly/monthly forecasts. I switch on notifications to receive warnings about upcoming thunderstorms, heat waves, and snowstorms.

Download AccuWeather on the App Store or the Google Play Store.

5

UVLens

Beyond the temperature and cloud conditions, there’s one more thing I’m always cautious about when stepping out for a long day out in the summer: the UV index. While most weather apps inform you about the UV index, they usually don’t give you a detailed forecast or breakdown of UV. UVLens is a key app in my summer app pack, and it’s the first thing I tend to check when I see sun rays peaking out through my window.

UVLens gives you a picture of what the UV index for two days looks like. You can check the current and next days’ UV index, including at night, and click on any time of the clock to see how the UV index is changing as your day goes on. The app also informs you whether the UV is low, moderate, or high for an easier reading, and shows the weather in a corner to make it easier for you to prepare for your day out.

But beyond its core features, the main reason I like the app is its personalized analysis of how you need to prepare to protect yourself against a high UV index. Once you input your complexion, eye color, skin sensitivity, and susceptibility to sunburns, UVLens gives you an idea of how long it would take for you to get a sunburn under current conditions. It will also give a small, precautionary tip about what you need to protect yourself against sunburn. I also add my sunscreen details on the app for a more accurate time reading, and switch on the reapplication reminder to make sure I can be consistent with my sunscreen application every 2–3 hours.

Download UVLens on the App Store or the Google Play Store.

4

What3Words

One of the most bizarre yet interesting apps on my phone is What3Words. This location app has a distinctive concept: once you search for a location, you can select any 3-meter square within that area to generate a unique set of three words (for example: visual, radio, daisy). These words can then be shared with friends, family, and even delivery people for precise location tracking.

While What3Words is a good safety app for emergency services as well, the reason I’ve been using it as a summer app is how helpful it can be for outdoor meet-ups, picnics, and hikes. If you’re not a big fan of sharing your location through your phone’s location apps, What3Words is simply a more fun and surgically accurate way of finding a specific location. You can also use a satellite view to make locations easier to find.

You can also save a unique location square to remember important events or memories, assigning them a special word combination.

Download What3Words on the App Store or the Google Play Store.

3

Merlin Bird ID

If you’re looking to pick up a new outdoor hobby this summer, bird-watching or birding is a good option, especially if you’re someone who likes to spend time going to new places and getting some fresh air. A starter app for keeping track of your bird-watching adventures is Merlin Bird ID. This app lets you identify birds you spot on your birding journey by sound or photo (or by a step-by-step identifying process). You can explore the app’s list of birds you’re likely to see in your neighborhood or city, and maintain a life-list for birds you spot on your birding day out.

I like to use Merlin Bird ID because its simple interface is perfect for beginners, and its features make the bird-watching process less intimidating. The app also provides a bird of the day trivia that helps you improve your birding knowledge, in addition to getting a new, interesting hobby.

Download Merlin Bird ID on the App Store or the Google Play Store.

2

Dice

Apart from exploring local trails and going on runs, my favorite summer activity is going out to live shows and concerts. Given that most music festivals and concerts happen between May and August, where I live, I like to keep an eye on new shows and sign up for pre-sale queues for my favorite artists. With Dice, a dedicated live show app, you can discover local music shows near you. You can connect either your Spotify or Apple Music account, and Dice will do the searching for you.

While I also use Spotify’s Live Events feature to find if my favorite artists are performing in my city, Dice is much better for finding live shows. Not only can you see shows you might be interested in, but you can also discover new festivals, concerts, operas, and more. Dice also lets you purchase right from the app if eligible, follow venues or artists, store your tickets in one place, and choose another location to discover live shows. These are things I wouldn’t be able to customize or do on Spotify, where ticket purchase is automatically redirected to a third-party ticket website like Ticketmaster.

I also use Dice’s filters to find shows within my budget and preferred dates, and find live shows for impromptu plans by searching for nearby concerts or shows happening the same day and week.

Download Dice on the App Store or the Google Play Store.

1

OpenTable

A good summer is not complete without some great food. Every summer, I try to try at least eight new restaurants, and while I use apps like Yelp to discover top-rated restaurants, there is one app that helps me track my reservations efficiently. OpenTable is a reservation and discovery app for local restaurants that helps you manage all your reservations.

Beyond online booking and quickly managing upcoming reservations, OpenTable has been a good resource for exploring new restaurants and cuisines around you. This app, along with online recommendations and reviews from influencers and blogs, was a key part of my summer experience last year, helping me discover hyper-local hidden gems in my city.

You can filter restaurants by ratings, cuisine, type of dining, and other categories such as kid-friendly, pet-friendly, and best for group bookings. When you tap on a restaurant you like, OpenTable lets you view the menu with prices and see reviews from other patrons.

Download OpenTable on the App Store or the Google Play Store.

Going beyond the native apps on your phones, these third-party apps cater to specific activities and purposes. You can also find a lot of fitness and outdoor apps for the summer, depending on what you’re looking to do to beat the heat.