So I’ve been planning a motorcycle tour recently and I’ve narrowed down where I want to go to four
different locations, Ring of Kerry, Glen Coe, Cornish coast line or Wales. I’ve never been to most of
these areas and so I needed to find out what I wanted to see whilst riding around but not get sucked in by
all the major tourist sites and start pre-visualising what views I wanted to add to my portfolio. So
whenever I need inspiration on where to go in a new destination I always pull out my phone and open up
the Trover app.
Trover is a free travel website and app set up in 2011 which allows its travelling community to share their
stories of where they’ve visited, what restaurants to eat in and where to find hidden landmarks. It not only
is a great way to explore future destinations and plan your visit but also when you open up the app it will
automatically detect your location and bring up a list of “Discoveries” nearby that other users have
shared. Discoveries are ranked in their proximity to you and can range from anything from stunning
landscapes, mouth watering food or hidden details in a busy city.
For example, if you’re looking for somewhere to eat in a new town just open the app, select the “food”
category and it will bring up photos users have posted with descriptions of where it was taken. This is a
great way to get firsthand knowledge of where to eat and can save you a ton of time wandering around
trying to pick a restaurant. But at the same time it doesn’t take over your travel experience like some
apps, you can just choose a location based on a simple photo and description put your phone back in
your pocket so you can concentrate on the journey to your destination.
You can of course share your own discoveries whilst on your travels so others can benefit from what you
have found by taking a photo with your Smartphone with the Trover app which will automatically tag your
location to the photo, then add a short description of your discovery and that’s it. You can also add
photos through the website so if you want to upload images after some post processing you just need to
go to the website and do the same as above.
This easy interface means users’ are able to post the location of more hidden sights that are more off the
beaten track and allow you to have a more personal experience of your new location.
Another great feature is you can add users’ discoveries to different “Lists” for separate locations, allowing
you to visualise where you want to go before your visit. It’s basically like a visual brain dump of what you
want to see as it plots all the locations of the photos on your list on a map so you can plan what sites are
near each other. This is a great feature as it allows you to develop your own personal travel guide. For
example I created my “Photography Bucket list” list which I add users discoveries to and when I see I
have a concentration of discoveries in one area that is the place I’m likely to visit next. You also get
notification when other users add your discovery to their list which is great as you know that people are
discovering new parts of the world thanks to your image and that is why I love travel photography!
You can of course follow other users which will create a daily feed of new discoveries to keep your
creative juices flowing.
So that is Trover in a nut shell, a relatively unknown travel app that has a growing online community and
one you should definitely take advantage off for your next adventure! Go and sign up for free and let
Trover be your new travel companion I’d love to see more of you saying hello.