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Planning a campervan trip in New Zealand? Having the right apps can make a huge difference.
From finding campsites and dump stations to locating fuel, food, and things to do, these are the best camping apps for New Zealand to help you travel with confidence.
We have put together our list of essential New Zealand camping apps to download before you leave home!
Best NZ Camping Apps – Quick Guide
- ✔ Best overall: Campermate
- ✔ Best for DOC sites: Rankers
- ✔ Best for private camps: Campable
- ✔ Offline use: Essential in remote areas
- ✔ Worth downloading? Absolutely
PLANNING A NZ ROAD TRIP?
Our favourite way to explore NZ is by motorhome! Check out Jucy Campervans for a budget option or for extra comfort try Star RV.
THE ESSENTIAL CAMPING APPS FOR NEW ZEALAND TRAVEL
Each of the NZ travel apps we share is free to download. They are all available in the Apple store and should also be available on android operating systems also.
We recommend downloading the apps before you leave home so that you don’t have any issues with finding wifi to connect to once you arrive.
After all, you want to be on your way to exploring New Zealand quickly!
While most of the apps can be used without a Wifi or 3G connection, with offline features, some will only work when you are connected.
The ones that do work offline may also have features that work only while connected too.
1. Campermate (Best Overall)
Campermate was our most-used app during our New Zealand campervan trip.
It shows a huge range of campsites — including free camping spots, holiday parks, and DOC campgrounds — along with useful extras like fuel stations, dump points, and places to eat.
We found it especially helpful when planning our next stop or finding last-minute camping options. It can also be used offline with the ability to download maps in case you’re travelling somewhere with patchy coverage.
If you only download one app, make it this one.
The Campermate App NZ includes the following:
- Campgrounds
- Dump stations
- Things to do
- Accommodation/hotels
- Food & drink
- Campervan day parking
- Groceries
- EV charging stations
- Road warnings
- Public toilets
- ATM
- Petrol stations
- Wifi
- Information centres
- Emergency services, police and hospitals
- Rubbish and recycling bins
- Playgrounds
- Public showers
- Laundromats
- Water refill stations
- Gas bottle refills
2. Campable App
Campable is a campground search app for private-owned camping sites.
This means they only show paid campsites and each of the listings only appears as they have paid a fee to be featured on the app.
The Campable campsites are mostly private properties, whether they be within someone’s yard or on a block of land they own in a scenic location.
You can search the app for self-contained, non self-contained or tent sites and they will let you know the type of vehicles they can allow.
We used Campable only once during our trip, for a private property right on Lake Tekapo. It had nothing and was a little tricky to get to, however, the location was pretty amazing!
If you sign up to Campable, they will send you vouchers to spend on your first 2 bookings too. It may only be $5NZ however it is a nice saving if you do use the app.
In many cases you can find and book plus pay via the Campable app, making it convenient. However, in saying this, we used this app the least during our trip.
3. Rankers NZ App
Rankers NZ app was our second favourite camping app. While most of what they featured also showed up on Campermate, there were a few campgrounds we found via Rankers that did not appear in the other apps. For this reason, having both free apps is a great idea!
Rankers NZ app allows you to search for the following:
- Holiday parks
- Self-contained campgrounds
- Non self-contained campgrounds
- DOCs campsites
- Conservation camping
- Free camping
- Tent camping
- Dump stations
- Pets allowed
- Top-ranked activities
- Top-ranked walks
- Visitor centres
- Supermarkets
- Petrol stations
- LPG refills
- Free wifi
- Penguins, seals etc
- Top-ranked playgrounds
The listings on Rankers are mostly community submitted and rated so it will give you an idea of the quality of a campsite or attraction based on the rating percentage.
Rankers NZ app is great if you are wanting to stay at the Department of Conservation campgrounds.
These are usually relatively cheap campgrounds that are approved by the New Zealand government. Many are quite basic but some do have basic facilities such as toilets and bins.
What is the best New Zealand Camping App?
We recommend downloading all 3 of the apps mentioned above as they all offer useful resources.
They each allow community reviews for every campsite, dump station and other service listed.
This helps you to choose a suitable option for your trip. This can help you avoid anything really awful but also gives you a heads up if somewhere has recently closed or flooded.Â
However, if you are looking for a single free camping App for NZ and want to keep it simple, our top recommendation would be Campermate as it covers the most and had more options listed for each type of search term.
RELATED READING – BEST NZ SOUTH ISLAND CAMPSITES
Other Useful Apps for Camping in New Zealand
Aside from planning your campsites during your New Zealand road trip, there are other apps that will make your trip smoother.
4. Google Maps
Most of us already have an inbuilt GPS or map app on our mobile phones. For us, we already had Apple Maps, which was fine, but Google Maps was more accurate at the time.
There were places we were attempting to locate, such as off the beaten track recommendations from a guidebook that did not show up on our campervan GPS or Apple Maps. They did show up on Google Maps.
You can download maps for use offline later if you are likely to have poor coverage.
5. Track My Tour
This one is a fun travel app to help you keep track of your travel, where you stay and what you do during your trip. Track My Tour allows you to add accommodation, points of interest and other things you do and maps out your itinerary on a map.
This was useful for us when wanting to put together posts like our complete South Island itinerary so that we didn’t forget any of the amazing things we did or meals we ate.
6. XE Currency
Travelling internationally means keeping track of your travel budget and making sure you don’t overspend! New Zealand is expensive.
There is no doubt about it! The cost of living is high, so having a currency conversion app can help you stay on top of your finances.
This app allows you to compare local currency values with several different international currencies, which is perfect if you are doing a multi-destination holiday! It also tells you the current approximate exchange rate too, so you can monitor changes.
Definitely a great tool to have on your phone!
7. Wanderlog
We used Wanderlog to plan our trips and it’s a fantastic app. We only use the free version as we don’t need the extra features from the premium plan.
This app also has a website version where you can plan every aspect of your trip, from your daily itinerary, activities and even budget.
You can submit your booking emails to a special email address and they will appear in your trip, including costs so you can keep track of your budget easily too.
We use it for overseas travel planning as well.
8. Weather NZ App
You probably already have a weather app on your phone, which is great. Add the main cities in New Zealand you are planning to travel through so you can keep track of the weather.
While this is less important in the warmer months, it can still be really helpful for planning ahead. In winter, it’s a must so you can be aware of snowfall and extreme weather conditions.
If you know there is snow or heavy rain, you can keep an eye on the New Zealand roads website for road closures or warnings. Safety first!
Optional Free Apps For Entertainment
When you are packing light for a campervan or camping trip, there’s only so much entertainment you can bring for you or the kids. This is where a few of our favourite entertainment apps were great.
We were lucky enough to have Bluetooth in our Wilderness Campervan, so we could listen to our favourite music on Spotify, or listen along to an audiobook via Audible.
I am also a big fan of podcasts, so popping in my earphones during some downtime was a welcome activity.
RELATED READING – CAMPERVAN COOKING TIPS
If you are camping with kids and have wifi during your travel, Netflix on a phone or tablet can be a good one too. And there’s a great hack in case you don’t have wifi!
For downtime, apps like Netflix, Spotify, and Audible can be useful — especially if you download content before your trip for offline use.
For a complete breakdown on the cost of travel in New Zealand, check out our South Island campervan trip expenses.
Staying connected on the road
We were lucky enough to be travelling in a luxury campervan during our New Zealand road trip and we had unlimited wifi using a roaming wifi device however more practical would be something like an eSim.
An eSim is more cost-effective than enabling international roaming on your phone, usually, and it can be set up before you leave home.
This was great because it meant we could research and plan our days as we went, changing it up as much as we liked and keeping things flexible.
Do You Need Camping Apps In New Zealand?
Short answer: Yes — especially if you’re travelling by campervan.
Apps make it much easier to find campsites, fuel, and facilities, particularly in remote areas where signage can be limited.
The Best Free Camping App For NZ
In Summary, by far Campermate was our favourite app.
It had the most details, most up-to-date and helped us not only find free camping sites and paid camping sites, it also helped us know where to find a dump site, petrol, gas and even simple things like attractions nearby.
This is a fantastic free camping app for New Zealand and you can’t go wrong!
We would recommend getting Rankers NZ and Google Maps as well and making use of the offline maps downloads options if you are likely to go out of reception zones.
Having the right apps can make your New Zealand campervan trip so much easier — especially when you’re navigating remote areas or planning your next stop on the go.
Download a couple before you arrive, and you’ll be set for a much smoother road trip experience.
Happy camping!
Heading to NZ soon? Check out our ultimate guide to what to pack for New Zealand for adults & kids.
Plan Your Trip
Here are a few things we always organise before travelling:
- Stay connected: We use Airalo eSIM
- Car hire: Compare options with DiscoverCars
- Travel insurance: Check SafetyWing or World2Cover via Klook
- Airport transfers: Book with Welcome Pickups
- Accommodation: Find the best deals here
- Tours: We always use GetYourGuide
Time to start your epic New Zealand camping adventure with these camping New Zealand apps to help you along!! You won’t want to leave…
More resources to plan your motorhome road trip: