A hiking tracker should track your route, distance and time at a minimum. Useful extras are elevation gain, moving time versus total time, and the ability to save and revisit routes. Everything else is optional.
The essentials
- Route on a map, so you can see where you went.
- Distance covered.
- Time, both total and moving.
Useful extras
- Elevation gain and loss, where available.
- Pace or speed over varied terrain.
- Pause handling for rests.
- Route history to compare repeat trails.
Reliability features
- Background tracking with the screen off.
- Battery-efficient recording.
- Works without mobile signal.
Privacy considerations
Hike routes can show where you are and when you are away from home. Choose a tracker with private defaults.
Match the data to the type of hike
| Type of hike | Most useful data |
|---|---|
| Short nature walk | Route, distance, time. |
| Hilly day hike | Add elevation gain and moving time. |
| Long or remote hike | Add battery behaviour and offline route recording. |
| Repeated local trail | History, to compare times across seasons. |
Moving time, rest time and why it matters
Hikers rest, eat and take photos. A tracker that separates moving time from total time gives a truer sense of how fast you walk, while total time tells you how long the outing really took, which matters for planning daylight.
Data that is nice but rarely essential
- Detailed pace graphs.
- Heart rate zones.
- Weather overlays.
Start simple. You can add detail later if you find yourself wanting it.
Where HALEBIT fits
For hikes HALEBIT records route, distance, moving time, elevation and energy, and shows them in a summary you can come back to. Pace appears as average and best pace, with a grade-adjusted pace figure (GAP) that accounts for hills. Available detail depends on your phone.
See the hiking tracker page or explore HALEBIT →
Keep reading
- How to track a hike on Android
- How to track hiking distance and route
- GPS hiking tracker: how it works
Quick questions
Do I need elevation data for hiking?
It is useful on hilly routes but not essential.
Is a heart-rate monitor necessary?
No. It is an optional extra.