They became a quick backup to other ‘traditional’ navigation tools. Indeed, digital mapping and navigation walking apps can be a lifesaver. However, like everything, they have their own limits. They won’t replace any preparation, good maps reading skills or a good leader in tougher mountains conditions or remotes area.

Nowadays, a collection of participative-based walking GPS apps and platforms flourished. Those are easily accessible from a smartphone, offering opportunities to find, prepare and share walks with like-minded people. 

Visorando is one of them. Its community has been created by walkers for walkers in 2010 from a joint effort. With more than 25 million visits on the French website, and more than 1 million in the UK , Visorando is considered as the leading walking app in France. Since 2018, the community now extending to the UK and other countries too!

Based on the idea of sharing, the basic tools are FREE to use. However, to be able to offer detailed licensed maps such as OS Explorer and IGN maps and up-to-date tools, a membership is available.

★ Visorando offers a library of moderated walks. 

Thanks to all the contributors, individuals and professionals, Visorando is on the way to creating a huge library of moderated walks. The site covers a wide range: from Sunday strolls to strenuous mountain hikes, long-distance trails and urban walks. They have chosen to donate of some of their time, a direct action as valuable as making donation. We all get rewarded for it in so many ways! Today it is possible to find a library of more than 3,000 moderated walks in English including more than 2,500 in the UK!

Visorando offers a selection of worldwide tracks, as well as the option to safely explore on your own – even off grid.

1. The quality of the tracks we offer is more important than everything else for us! For more accuracy, each walk sheet is precisely described step by step and accompanied by a topographic map. Each track shared by walkers is double-checked by a team of moderators before being put online.
   
2. Walkers are also invited to give their opinion on the routes they have followed. This is how we are able to keep the tracks up to date and to build a collection of routes whose quality is currently unrivalled on the free web.
   
3. Keep worldwide offline maps layers to find the way using a precise GPS location. Topographic maps are included.
   
4. Closely work with walking leaders and professionals from the tourism industry offering them access to data, easy and simple tools to lead walks or digital navigation courses. » Fabien says, co-founder and former mountain guide.

★ Visorando created a checking process curating the route publicly shared with the community.

A dynamic system has been co-developed with a team of volunteers where each walk goes through a quality process making sure a step by-step description has accurate combination with topographical mapping :

● Step 1: A walker submit his route with precise step-by-step description

● Step 2: A team of moderators volunteers to read and edit the walk following quality guidelines. As copyright is important, back and forth exchanges with the author are made.

● Step 3: The walk is then publicly selected, published and shared with the community and accessible to everyone.

● Step 4: Regular walker’s feedback who followed the walk helps to improve the description hand in hand with the author. If needed, a community manager can contact local authorities about any issues encountered.

★ Visorando is a whole Human experience

People join Visorando because they share the same passion, values, and vision with the founders: Fabien Biver (walking guide) and Arnaud Lecus (his tech-savvy cousin) are human-focused. Quality, innovation, collaboration, and transparency are at the heart of our dynamics. At Visorando, we believe that helping each other is a powerful key to evolve towards the same goals. After 12 years of existence, the aim is still the same: make it easy for everyone to share their love of walking, making sure this great activity stays accessible for everyone wanting to find, create and share walks safely.

We invite anyone to join our growing network of contributors in the UK by sharing some of their walks. If you wonder why, here are eight interests of publishing walks on Visorando.

1. Share a common passion(s) : Inspire people to gain confidence and start walking. Share your love for walking. A passion shared generates a powerful energy that inspires others in many ways. Through your words and pictures, other’s can be immersed in your walks and find the impulse to walk along.
   
2. Be active, be outdoors, stay healthy : Walking is the most underrated form of exercise and writing is one of the best ways to keep your memory alive. Help change the image of the outdoors, IT IS for everyone! Walking is a driver to connect generations and thanks to you, people get healthy, so keep walking. When moving, being immersed in nature, energises the body and clears the mind, writing helps creativity, recalling the moment to create a library of memories for others to live.
   
3. Challenge yourself : Push your limits, set your own goals & design your own walk. From finding and walking undiscovered places to pushing yourself into some intellectual exercise; create your own challenge and give a purpose to each one of your steps! Visorando is your chance to become a writer and transform your love for your walks into miles of words.
   
4. Highlight how interesting your area is and why. Offer to your neighbours the chance to know more about your local area, how it is important to explore locally, take care of it and do not forget to highlight and support your favorite pub. As walkers follow your steps, they can give some feedback and you both can share memories from the same place.
   
5. Raise awareness : As Humans, we are part of Nature. Through a collection of walks and active implications in the community, we all try to raise awareness of how essential it is to be prepared and respectful of the environment and people who surround us. We invite people to be mindful of how important is our home by describing and sharing our love for it.
   
6. Safety first : You don't only become a writer, you contribute to the safety of the practice. Safety and quality are our main concerns. Detailed route maps and descriptions ensure that no one gets lost in the wilderness – unless they want to, of course. A team of volunteers dedicates their time to helping you write content following co-created quality guidelines. The walks are curated before being published. This process is a whole experience with back-and-forth exchanges. Regular feedback comments help to keep up-to-date and qualitative content.
   
7. Accessibility : Share your experience, and help beginners to feel ready. The fear of being lost can limit some of us to go on a walk. By offering some of your precious time to write precise descriptions, you allow others to walk with some peace of mind and acknowledge on their own level.
   
8. Support a charity. Until the 31rst March 2023, 1 walk shared on Visorando = £1 to support Blackdog Outdoors charity.

With a people and nature-oriented vision, Visorando is aligned to a wide range of values that each of us might identify to. So next time you feel like exploring the great outdoors, remember that we are more than a walking app. So go ahead and find your next adventure on www.visorando.co.uk/ !