Why the ExploreHere App is What Your Road Trip Needs
If you’re looking for a way to make your road trip more educational, you need the ExploreHere app!
This easy-to-use app contains information on nearby historical markers, local lore, and more. You can search near your current location, or explore beyond on the in-app map.
We’ve used it constantly on our recent multi-week New England road trip, and we have learned so much just by using the app to learn about what’s nearby.
In the review below, you’ll see what the ExploreHere app has to offer road trippers and families like mine who are always looking to learn more. I’m breaking down the differences between the free and paid versions, sharing our experiences using the app, and what you can do to make the most of the app.
Plus, there’s an exclusive affiliate code below to help you save money when you purchase the app’s pro membership!
Using the ExploreHere app as we make our way along the East Coast!
This post contains affiliates. If you purchase through the links below, I will receive a commission with no charge to you. Also, the ExploreHere app was provided to me for purposes of this review. As always, all opinions are my own.
What is the ExploreHere app?
As you’ve traveled along the byways and back roads of America, you’ve probably seen multiple historical markers on the side of the road.
If you’re anything like me, you probably try to catch a few words of what’s written on the marker but, ultimately, aren’t able to read it all. In that case, you probably keep driving as there’s no good place to turn around or time to stop.
And whatever interesting historic home, battle, conflict, or farm that the marker was describing is left in your rear view mirror.
But not any more!
This screenshot shows just some of the places that we looked up on the ExploreHere app
The ExploreHere app has catalogued all of these markers in one handy spot on your phone that’s easily searchable as you travel along.
You can watch the GPS within the app to see which markers are coming up or might be worth a slight detour.
Or, you can search by city, town, or state to see what is nearby.
If you’d like to only see a specific kind of marker, there are options for historical markers, interpretive signs, NPS sites, native lands, war memorials, hot springs, and even volcanoes.
If you don’t want to stop at the marker to read it, the app has the marker’s text at your finger tips, which is a great way to spend your time on a long road trip.
Link some of the related markers together by clicking on the “tours” option, you’ve suddenly gotten an excellent day trip planned out.
While we were in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for example, we used the app’s Seminary Ridge Historic Walking Tour to learn about this specific area within the context of the Civil War conflicts that took place here.
Each stop on the tour has associated audio with it, so it’s like having a free tour guide built into this already packed history app!
Additionally, there are stories that you can listen to—which are also grouped geographically—that share broader overviews of areas. These stories provide context to the markers in a specific town, region, or state and further the learning experience.
Ready to road trip? Here are some great itineraries!
Should I get the free or paid version?
There are three tiers of the app:
the free version,
the yearly pro version, and
the lifetime pro version.
The free version is honestly excellent, and you’ll get the ability to view all historical markers and listen to the audio stories completely ad free.
With the yearly and lifetime pro versions, you’ll have the opportunity to save markers offline (which is great when you’re not able to get cell service on those back roads!), view the markers in drive mode, get background notifications as you approach markers, and do the self-guided tours.
The yearly pro version is only $20, which is a bargain for all of the ways that you can use the app to entertain and educate yourself on a road trip—or even driving around town.
The lifetime pro version is $60, so if you know you’ve got a couple of road trips or journeys over the next few years, you’ll want to opt for that version.
I have the lifetime pro version, and it truly has changed the way that we have, and will, road trip.
I think that the small upgrade to the pro version is well worth the expense as you’ll get those excellent self-guided tours, which are awesome for families who’d like to go at their own pace. We’ve essentially kept the app on in drive mode throughout our road trip so that we don’t miss a marker, and that feature alone is worth the upgrade for us.
Use code CAMPINGKIDDOS to save 20% on the ExploreHere app’s yearly membership!
Our experience with the ExploreHere app
I currently homeschool my kids, but before that, I worked as an English professor for over a decade.
Education and curiosity are two things that my family holds dear, and we are always looking for new ways to learn.
We are also always looking for new travel experiences, so I knew that the ExploreHere app might be the perfect fit for our 6 week road trip up the Eastern Seaboard and through New England.
When we were traveling through the backroads of Virginia on the first day of our road trip, my husband saw a historical marker on the side of the road and said, “I wonder what happened there.”
Being the person I am, I immediately pulled out my ExploreHere app and discovered that we’d just passed the Garrett Farm where John Wilkes Booth was shot after assassinating Abraham Lincoln.
My kids and I just finished up an 18-month long study of American history, so you know I was excited to dive into the history that we’d stumbled upon!
We ended up taking a slightly longer route through Virginia and then Maryland on the way to D.C. because of the historical markers and tours on the app, and the kids, my husband, and I got to see so many places that we’d learned about.
That was just our first excellent experience with the ExploreHere app on the trip.
We’ve also done a deep dive into the many historic areas in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, learned about the history of Bar Harbor on a self-guided walking tour, and took on the wild weather of Mt. Washington after reading about the summit and nearby presidential range on the app.
If you’ve ever used the GuideAlong tours, which I recommend in all of my national parks posts, you’ll love ExploreHere.
ExploreHere’s audio tours provide excellent information for context on the places you’re visiting like the GuideAlong app, and the ExploreHere app has the added benefit of learning about those historical markers on the go.
While GuideAlong focuses mainly on national parks and scenic highways, the ExploreHere app is great for discovering hidden history gems on the backroads and in tiny towns.
We used both on this trip for different things, and I feel that this trip has been the most robust and well informed one we’ve ever taken!
Final Thoughts on the ExploreHere App
History buffs, homeschool families, and anyone who is curious about the places they’re driving by all need this app.
I love finding something inexpensive that truly changes my travel experience for the better, and the ExploreHere app puts all of America’s history at my fingertips, even when I’m busy driving on a cross country drive.
The free version is a great way to enrich your trip to the family reunion or to the next state over as you’re getting the essential access to the historical markers and audio stories.
Upgrade to one of the pro versions for an even more robust experience that’s sure to teach you all of the things that you never learned in history class!
Hands down, this app has quickly become one of my family’s favorites, and we can’t wait to see what other fun places we’ll learn about on future excursions.
