7 Best Apps for a Lap of Australia (the Big Lap) in 2026

What a lap of Australia asks of your phone

Long stretches between towns change what an app needs to do. Tourism Australia says services on the Nullarbor are often 150 to 200 km apart and advises you to top up whenever you have the chance, so fuel and the next stop matter more than they do on a coastal trip.

A lap usually needs five jobs covered: a place directory, an offline map, a fuel app, a weather source and a planner. No app here does all five, so the list is built to be mixed.

The apps at a glance

Pick one stop directory, one offline map and one fuel app, then add the weather and maps apps you already carry.

1. AussieCamps: where to stop, and a plan for the whole lap

A lap is a string of nights, and AussieCamps is built around finding them. It lists 5,552 rest areas, 1,838 campgrounds and 745 national parks, plus 1,393 dump points, 3,004 drinking water points and 1,186 toilets, from state park agencies, road authorities and public facility datasets, and you can filter by water, toilets, showers, power, dogs, vehicle access and fees.

Its trips let you add stops with dates, and it gives you the driving distance and time for each leg and for the whole journey, arrival dates with forecasts, a checklist and a packing list, with sharing and Calendar sync. The guides include road trips such as the Nullarbor crossing, Perth to Broome, the Darwin, Kakadu and Litchfield loop and the East Coast from Sydney to Cairns. Place details stay on the phone and can be read with no signal, while live maps, directions and weather need a connection.

AussieCamps runs on iPhone only, has no traveller reviews, no fuel prices and no offline map, and it is new, so it has no Australian rating yet.

2. WikiCamps Australia: the big community directory

WikiCamps lists more than 65,000 sites by its own count, with reviews and photos from travellers, and costs A$9.99 once per platform. Its Trip Planner shows travel time and distance between stops, with fuel cost estimates, and its Offline Mode lets you explore sites and plans without reception. It is rated 4.5 from 16,662 Australian ratings.

It shows ads, listings are written by users, and version 6 is a rebuild that is still bringing features back, so treat it as a second opinion on a site, not the final word.

3. CAMPS Australia Wide: checked sites and state offline maps

CAMPS lists more than 16,000 sites its team says it has checked in person, with filters for campervan, camper trailer and big rig, price and pets, and live fuel prices. You download maps one state at a time over Wi-Fi, so choose the states you will cross next instead of all of them at once. It is free to download and free for 7 days, then A$14.99 a year, and it is rated 4.4 from 3,478 Australian ratings.

It is a subscription with no free tier after the trial, and downloaded maps need updating by hand to stay current.

4. ExplorOz Traveller and Hema: maps for the remote stretches

Where the phone signal ends, a downloaded topographic map is what keeps you on the road. ExplorOz Traveller costs A$59.99, is designed mainly for offline travel with downloaded maps, lists more than 100,000 places and features routes such as the Canning Stock Route and the Great Central Road. Its full offline EOTopo maps are in-app purchases, and it is rated 4.3 from 1,353 Australian ratings.

Hema 4WD Maps costs A$99.99 on the App Store, with state topographic maps sold separately, and its listing was last updated in September 2022, so check it is current before you buy. Both are for the desert, Kimberley and Cape York sections more than for the coast road.

5. Petrol Spy: fuel prices across the states

Petrol Spy compares real-time prices in Queensland, South Australia, New South Wales, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, and shows user-submitted prices in Victoria. It is free with ads, Premium is A$2.89 a year or A$14.99 for life, and it is rated 4.8 from 185,044 Australian ratings.

Its last update was in July 2025. New South Wales FuelCheck and Western Australia FuelWatch are official alternatives, and CAMPS also shows live fuel prices.

6. BOM Weather: warnings you can rely on

The Bureau of Meteorology's own app is free and ad-free, with hourly and 7-day forecasts, radar, rain notifications and warnings, and an offline mode. It is rated 4.6 from 472,905 Australian ratings. For a lap it is the app to check for cyclone, flood and fire information as you cross regions and seasons.

7. Google Maps and Apple Maps: navigation, with limits

Both are free and already on your phone. Google Maps lets you download an area for offline driving, but offline maps expire, there is no traffic offline, and its help page says a route holds up to 9 stops, so a full lap needs splitting into several routes. Apple Maps allows up to 14 stops on a route.

Planning notes from the official sources

The Top End dry season runs from May to October and the wet season from November to April, when access to some remote attractions can be closed by flooding, so check road conditions before exploring remote areas or national parks. Interstate biosecurity rules are set by each state and territory, and travellers face on-the-spot fines for taking prohibited items across borders, so check what you are carrying.

Park rules differ too: Queensland needs a camping permit for every camp in its parks, booked before you arrive, and Tasmania needs a parks pass to enter its national parks. If you hire a vehicle for the lap, Camplify lists motorhomes and campervans from their owners, free to download and rated 4.6 from 527 Australian ratings.

How we chose

We picked the apps a Big Lap traveller needs for each job, and checked their price, rating, version and features on the Australian App Store and the developers' own pages on 21 October 2026. We left out Roadtrippers, whose listing describes it as a road trip planner for the USA and Canada.

We make AussieCamps and put it first; no other developer here paid to be included. Spotted something that has changed since? Say so on the support page.

Places along the way