I tested Visorando, a site to plan or find hikes

On this site there is a hiking forum to discuss with other members of the community but above all a huge hiking directory, classified by region. Click on “hikes” to access it

Visorando

Visorando is an application for hikers on iOS and Android devices, as well as a website accessible by browser.

• Android
• iOS iPhone / iPad / Apple Watch
• Online service

Description

Visorando is originally a French website for all hiking lovers, which offers hiking ideas, online tools to create routes, all in a spirit of sharing. The Visorando application offers to use a smartphone or tablet as a GPS for hiking. It allows you to download and visualize IGN (France and Overseas) and OpenStreetMap (whole world) cards, and to use them including in off-line mode (unlimited chatting). Visorando user hikers also have access to the site database with thousands of hiking ideas. They can be made a binder with their favorite routes, follow an existing hike by visualizing the route and their position, save their wanderings thanks to GPS functions and then share them on the website thanks to the editing of a file in format .GPX. The reciprocal is also possible, the user can import data to Visorando.com. Prepare your course from the site and load it in the application for hiking the next day is therefore possible. Visorando is suitable for walking, cycling, skiing, snowshoes or equestrian hikes.
Available in French, free of charge, IGN cards are available by subscription, OpenStreetMap cards are open-source and free. For smartphones and tablets under iOS and Android, Visorando.com is accessible via dedicated applications and from any internet browser.

I tested Visorando, a site to plan or find hikes

Visorando is a community site to calculate a route, draw a Mas circuit also discover existing hikes: it evolves according to its members ! For several years now, I have been using Visorando and I tell myself that it could be interesting to offer you a tutorial to create a hike, import a GPX trace, look for traces next to you or simply use the IGN in line !

The Visorando site

Visorando is therefore a community site on which you can create a profile, develop your hikes and save your circuits. My public profile is jvaucher on this page

On this site there is a hiking forum to discuss with other members of the community but above all a huge hiking directory, classified by region. Click on “hikes” to access it

Search a hike on Visorando

To find a hike on Visorando, either:

• You are looking for by region
• You type a locality directly to search for xx kilometer around
• You use advanced filters, as on the application that I present to you below

Draw a circuit on Visorando

Click Tool> Draw a circuit. You will be able to trace a route by choosing a card background (IGN, Open Street Map, Satellite etc …)

Place the starting point then move the mouse and click to place a new point

By double clicking, you finish the circuit and get the topo, with the elevation, the distance etc ..

You can save your circuit, recover the GPX trace and even print everything (with Visorando advice to go hiking).

The itinerary calculation tool is not necessarily very intuitive, it is not Visorando’s strength !

What is really interesting on Visorando is to have access to the hiking library Available and put online by the community.

If you want to contribute and enrich Visorando, I advise you to send your hike in GPX form, it’s much simpler. But for that you have to hike or run with a GPS watch or a hiking GPS ! Although we all have a smartphone and I will explain to you how to easily record your GPS trace with its smartphone !

Visorando’s real force is also to act as hiking GPS, via its smartphone application, that’s what I’m going to present to you now !

Creation of circuits, hiking consultation, use of the forum is free. But if you are a relentless of the hike (and you want to contribute financially to the maintenance of the service), there is a subscription at 12 € per year to have printing and advanced options but also delete advertisements (or 5 € for 3 months, during the summer holidays for example)

The Visorando application to hike

Visorando is not just a website, it is also a smartphone application, that works with the GPS of your phone. If you are on weekends in Normandy as was my case for the Visorando test, you can easily find a hike around you: these are the hikes put online by the community of hikers registered on Visorando. You have understood: the more people registered, the more circuits there are, this is the principle of the contribution

On the application, start by choosing your hiking location, GPS is automatically located but you can also freely type a place: Honfleur example for demo. Choose your movement mode, the difficulty and the average time you want to devote to hiking

In the list, I find one that suits me, the second: Honfleur and the Notre Dame de Grâce chapel. By clicking on it, I access:

• A topo of the hike: mileage, elevation positive and negative, estimated time, difficulty
• A summary written in the Description tab
• Photos of the route
• An option to join the start, really interesting because once parked in Honfleur, you still have to find the start of the path (the other solution would be to zoom in on the map but it is not given everyone to orient themselves on an IGN map)

Then there is only to let yourself be guided by the application: your blue point moves on the bottom of the card, you cannot get lost, it’s like the GPS of your car ! So you know if you move away from the trace or if you are on it. As a contributor, you can add waypoints and photos

Other interesting options of the application

• Get your location contact details: by clicking on the context menu then on a card position, you will have the GPS coordinates, your altitude, your speed and even a compass (even if I am not a big fan of compasses on smartphone, it can you avoid adding a new application again)
• Your point on the bottom of the card: you need the premium version to have the IGN background

Please note, even if the application is not greedy, the GPS will consume your battery faster than usual, if you go for a big hike you must therefore plan an external battery.

The application is free for 3 months with the full IGN, then you will have to go to the paid offer: € 19 per year . This allows you to access all the hikes with the IGN background, and above all be able to put the cards to use your smartphone without connection during your hikes ! You can also continue to use the Visorando application in free version in an unlimited way but you will have the open street map card funds.