Best Apps to Find a Hiking Partner in 2025

Hiking is one of those activities that can be done perfectly well alone — and yet is fundamentally changed by having the right companion. The right hiking partner makes a ten-kilometre trail feel like a journey. The wrong one makes it feel like a forced march. Choosing wisely matters.

Finding a hiking partner used to mean knowing people in your hiking community, joining a local club, or convincing reluctant friends to join you. Apps have changed this — but not all apps are equally well-suited to the task.

What to Look for in a Hiking Partner App

Before comparing apps, it's worth understanding what the ideal hiking partner app needs to provide:

• Location awareness: you want to hike near where you live, so the app needs to surface people in your area
• Profile information: you want to know a potential partner's fitness level, experience, pace, and preferred terrain before agreeing to a day-long hike
• Event-based matching: the cleanest way to find a hiking partner is to propose a specific hike and invite people to join — not to browse profiles looking for someone who might want to hike sometime
• Flexible group size: sometimes you want a solo partner, sometimes a small group — the app should support both

AmUp

AmUp is a general-purpose social activity app that works especially well for finding hiking partners. You post a specific hike — trail name, distance, elevation, difficulty level, expected pace, meeting point — and other users in your area can request to join. You review their profiles and approve who seems like a good fit.

Strengths: specific event-based matching, profile review before meeting, flexible group size, works for any outdoor activity (so your hiking group can also do runs and rides). Best for: finding partners for a specific upcoming hike, building a recurring hiking group.

AllTrails

AllTrails is primarily a trail discovery and navigation app, not a social matching app. Its social features are limited — you can follow other hikers and see their completed routes, but there's no mechanism for proposing a group hike and finding participants. It's excellent for finding the right trail; less useful for finding the right companion.

Best for: route planning and navigation, not partner finding.

Meetup

Meetup has a large number of hiking groups in most major cities. The platform is well-established and many groups are active. The main limitations are that events tend to be more formal and group sizes can be large (20+ people), which changes the dynamic significantly. Finding a solo partner for a specific trail is harder on Meetup than on AmUp.

Best for: large organised group hikes with established clubs. See our full comparison of AmUp vs Meetup →

Facebook Groups

Local hiking Facebook groups exist in most cities and can be active communities. The main issues are signal-to-noise (a lot of posts, hard to filter for your specific needs) and no structured partner-matching mechanism. Posting "anyone want to hike the Wicklow Way on Saturday?" in a Facebook group can work, but it's unstructured and slow.

The Verdict

For finding a specific hiking partner for a specific hike, AmUp's event-based model is the most efficient. You create the hiking event with all relevant details, qualified people near you can find and request to join, and you meet at the trailhead with a clear shared plan. For large group hikes with established clubs, Meetup has more existing infrastructure. For trail discovery and navigation, AllTrails is the best tool.

Most serious hikers end up using at least two: AmUp or Meetup for finding companions, and AllTrails for route planning.