A caravan with 480mm of ground clearance and a properly sealed underbody can get you through a creek crossing most vans can't touch. None of that matters if you can't find a legal, existing campsite at the end of the day — or worse, find one that turned out to be closed, private, or fully booked when you arrive.
Most "best camping apps" lists online are the same six names shuffled into a different order, with no explanation of which app actually suits which trip. This guide is different: it's built around how Periple owners actually travel, from a weekend chasing a light off-road track in the Fluide 13, to a family lap of the country in a Solid 16 Bunk or Aero 16 Bunk. We tested each app against a simple question — does it get you to a real, usable site, and does it work when you've got no signal.
How We're Rating These
Not every app does the same job, so ranking them against each other misses the point. We split them into four categories based on what problem they actually solve:
Category | What it answers | Works offline? |
|---|---|---|
Core campsite databases | "Where can I park tonight, and is it free or paid?" | Yes, on all three |
Off-road mapping & route planning | "Can I actually get my van down this track?" | Yes |
Private land & unique stays | "Is there a quieter option than a caravan park?" | Partial — needs signal to book |
Official park bookings | "Is this national park site actually reserved for me?" | No — booking requires signal |
None of these apps replaces the other three. The owners who get the most out of touring run two or three of them side by side, not one "do everything" app.
Core Campsite Databases: WikiCamps vs CamperMate vs CAMPS Australia Wide
These three cover the same basic job — a searchable map of campgrounds, caravan parks, free camps, dump points and water fills — but the details of how they get here are different enough to matter.
WikiCamps Australia | CamperMate | CAMPS Australia Wide | |
|---|---|---|---|
Cost | One-off ~$9.99 | Free | Free (app) |
Database | 40,000+ points, strong community reviews | Large AU/NZ database, includes bookable accommodation | 15,500+ verified sites, editorially checked |
Offline maps | Yes | Yes | Yes |
In-app bookings | No | Yes, with select accommodation and tour partners | No |
Best for | Reliability through volume of user reviews | Free camps plus the ability to book a paid site without leaving the app | Sites you can trust without cross-checking, since entries are verified rather than crowd-sourced |
The practical takeaway: WikiCamps and CamperMate both do the job well and most experienced travellers end up with both. CAMPS Australia Wide is worth adding if you'd rather trust a smaller, vetted database over a large crowd-sourced one — particularly useful for first-time or remote travellers who don't yet have the experience to tell a good free camp listing from an outdated one.
Off-Road Mapping & Route Planning: Hema Explorer vs ExplorOz Traveller
This is the category that matters once you're towing something built for a light off-road track rather than a sealed caravan park driveway — which is the whole point of the Fluide 13, and where the Solid 16's 480mm ground clearance actually gets used.
Hema 4X4 Explorer is built around Hema's own topographic mapping — the same maps that have been the paper standard for Australian 4WD touring for decades, now offline and GPS-linked. It covers 100,000+ points of interest including 40,000+ verified campsites, and shows sealed, unsealed and 4WD-only tracks distinctly, which matters when a "road" on a generic map turns out to be a dry-weather-only track.
ExplorOz Traveller goes a step further on trip planning. Alongside a 105,000+ point database of campsites and POIs, it lets you build a "Trek" — a saved route with fuel usage estimates, permit requirements, vehicle recommendations and track photos attached to each leg. For a van at the lighter end of the ATM scale, like the Fluide 13's 2,490kg, knowing a track's actual vehicle recommendation before you can commit to it is worth more than a generic difficulty rating.
The practical takeaway: Hema is the stronger pure map. ExplorOz is the stronger trip planner. If you're taking the Fluide 13 down anything that isn't a maintained gravel road, run one of these alongside your campsite app — not instead of it.
Private Land & Unique Stays: Hipcamp
Hipcamp works differently to the three databases above — it's a booking platform for camping on private land, not a directory of existing public sites. Think farms, vineyards, bushland blocks and coastal acreages that list a patch of their own property, the same way Airbnb works for houses. It launched in Australia in 2019 and now lists over 50,000 sites nationally.
The appeal for a Periple owner is specific: a 2-berth Fluide 13 doesn't need — or particularly want — a powered site wedged between two 40ft motorhomes in a busy caravan park. Hipcamp's private listings tend to be smaller, quieter, and further from the standard touring routes that every free-camp app already lists.
Two things worth knowing before you rely on it. First, you pay the nightly rate plus a service fee, typically 10–15% on top — this isn't a free-camp app, it's a booking marketplace. Second, as with any host-run marketplace, individual listings vary in quality and communication from host to host, so it's worth double-checking booking and cancellation details directly with the host before you commit a travel day to it.
The practical takeaway: Add Hipcamp for the trips where the destination is the point — a couple's weekend in the Fluide 13, or a family escape in the Aero 16 Bunk where "somewhere different" matters more than proximity to the next town.
The Other End of the Spectrum: BIG4 Holiday Parks
If Hipcamp is the quiet, private-land option, BIG4 is the opposite end of the same decision. It's not a discovery app in the WikiCamps sense — it's the official booking network and membership app for BIG4-branded and partner holiday parks, now at 300 locations across Australia (105 in NSW, 72 in Victoria, 57 in Queensland, and the rest spread across WA, SA, Tasmania and the NT).
The BIG4 Holiday Guide app centres on guaranteed powered sites and resort-style amenities — pools, jumping pillows, camp kitchens, playgrounds — plus a loyalty program (Perks+ and VIPerks) that gives members an uncapped 10% off bookings made directly through the app or big4.com.au. It won't help you find a free camp on a back track, and that's not what it's for.
The practical takeaway: This is the app to reach for when the trip is about the kids having a good time as much as it's about the destination — a family lap in the Solid 16 Bunk or Aero 16 Bunk, where a guaranteed powered site and a pool at the end of a long driving day matters more than solitude. It's a poor fit for the Fluide 13's light off-road use case, where the whole point is getting away from resort-style parks.
Official Park Bookings: NSW National Parks App & Queensland Parks Booking Service
This is the category the free-camp apps genuinely don't solve, and it's the one that catches people out. WikiCamps or CamperMate will show you that a national park campground exists. Neither can confirm you actually have a reserved, paid site when you get there.
NSW requires online booking for all national park campgrounds, and the NSW National Parks app lets you search and book campgrounds, cabins and homesteads directly. Queensland runs its own Queensland National Parks Booking Service for camping and vehicle access permits — a permit that's compulsory, not optional, at almost every QPWS site. Victoria is looser, with many first-come-first-served sites, but it's still worth checking the specific park before you commit a travel day to it.
The practical takeaway: This matters most for the trips where the itinerary is planned in advance — a family lap in the Solid 16 Bunk or Aero 16 Bunk during school holidays, when popular parks book out weeks ahead. Skipping this step doesn't mean a free night; it usually means arriving to a full campground with nowhere else booked.
The Small One Worth Having: National Public Toilet Map
It's not glamorous, but the National Public Toilet Map — a free government app covering 25,000+ public facilities across Australia, including accessibility details and opening hours — earns its place on the phone of anyone doing long driving days between stops, well before or well after the day's campsite is decided.
The Bottom Line: Matching the Stack to Your Periple
There's no single app that replaces the other three categories, and there's no single stack that suits every trip. What changes is the mix, depending on which Periple you're driving and how you're using it.
Model | Typical trip | Recommended stack |
|---|---|---|
Fluide 13 (2 berth) | Weekend light off-road trips, couples | WikiCamps or CamperMate + Hema Explorer or ExplorOz Traveller + Hipcamp |
Solid 16 Duo (2 berth) | Long-distance touring, remote camp access | CamperMate + Hema Explorer + National Parks apps for planned legs |
Solid 16 Bunk / Aero 16 Bunk (4 berth) | Family travel, school holiday touring | CamperMate + NSW National Parks App / QLD Parks Booking Service + BIG4 for guaranteed powered sites with kids' facilities |
Solid 19 Bunk (coming soon) | Extended, larger-group touring | Same core stack as the Solid 16 range, scaled for longer stays and bigger campgrounds |
None of these apps are made by us, and we don't get anything for recommending them — this is simply the combination that gets Periple owners to a real, bookable, appropriately-sized site for the van they're driving, whether that's a Fluide 13 on a dirt track or a Solid 16 Bunk pulling into a national park in peak season.
See What Each Model Is Actually Built For
Knowing where you can go is only half the equation — the other half is what the van underneath you can handle once you're there. Come and see the Fluide 13, Solid 16 range and Aero 16 Bunk in person at our Pakenham showroom, and we'll walk you through which build actually matches how you travel.