Software Alternatives & Reviews

Recreation.gov VS Cairn

Compare Recreation.gov VS Cairn and see what are their differences

Recreation.gov logo Recreation.gov

We're here to help you dream up your next trip, figure out the details, and reserve experiences at over 3,600 facilities and 103,000 individual sites across the country.

Cairn logo Cairn

Easily share outdoor trip plans and find cell coverage in the wilderness with the Cairn app.
  • Recreation.gov Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-27
  • Cairn Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-23

Recreation.gov videos

Camping Reservation Tips💡- Find The Perfect Campsite With Recreation.Gov

More videos:

  • Review - The new Recreation.gov

Cairn videos

Cairn Review - with Tom Vasel

More videos:

  • Review - Cairn Review - Tactical Druid Rugby Chess

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Recreation.gov and Cairn)
Outdoors
75 75%
25% 25
Travel & Location
56 56%
44% 44
Maps
0 0%
100% 100
Travel
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Recreation.gov and Cairn

Recreation.gov Reviews

12 Best Hiking Apps You Must Have in 2022
If you’re an avid national park camper, you’re probably already familiar with this app. But Recreation.Gov can be used for a lot more than booking campsites. This app is also a platform to book tours, tickets, and permits.

Cairn Reviews

8 Best & FREE Hiking Apps You Need to Download in 2022 + Honorable Mentions!
Cairn helps you plan routes by offering helpful estimates of how long you will take to complete a particular trail based on personalized data and points out areas with weak cell reception.
12 Best Hiking Apps You Must Have in 2022
Cairn is the ultimate hiking safety app! All the app’s features are designed to keep you safe on the hiking trail.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Recreation.gov seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 207 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Recreation.gov mentions (207)

  • National Park Camping Reservation Timing
    If you check recreation.gov, there's an "availability alert" at the bottom of the page for each campground? Source: 5 months ago
  • Guide Book Recs
    In the days before smart phones we used the wilderness press guide books and the PCT data book and also the pct water report, which is still out there at https://pctwater.com/. I've gotten local permits for section hikes in So Cal. It's not really very difficult to do. You can get the ones for San Jacinto by mail or in person or both (get the wilderness one in advance, get the state park one from the ranger... Source: 5 months ago
  • Need help with local campsite on Recreation.gov
    I have booked a lot of campgrounds through recreation.gov, and have never seen any canvas tents to rent. The only time I have seen something even similar is the teepee rentals at KOA in Flagstaff. Campgrounds in National Forest sites, which you generally book through recreation.gov, are not going to have anything like that. Source: 6 months ago
  • Question about how timed-entry permits work
    Hi there, heading to Rocky Mountain NP & Arches in a few weeks and both have only a few slots left that are later in the day. I want to book those as a last resort, but also want to try my hand to get a better time the night before. Is this possible to do on one recreation.gov account (I'm traveling alone)? Or, because of the 1 reservation max, do they not allow you to try a separate purchase process? I obviously... Source: 7 months ago
  • Planning to backpack Grand Canyon rim-to-rim mid June and looking for advice
    The friend I'm going with is a teacher and her school year ends early June, thus the plan for mid-June. Curious about temps and what to expect. Also, I know this is the first year they're doing permits through recreation.gov, so I'm not expecting solid answers on this, but any guesses as to how difficult it'll be to get permits? We're planning on entering the lottery (Jan 16 is the start date for the June lottery... Source: 8 months ago
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Cairn mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Cairn yet. Tracking of Cairn recommendations started around Oct 2022.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Recreation.gov and Cairn, you can also consider the following products

Reserve America - ReserveAmerica is the largest provider of campsite reservations in North America facilitating...

National Park Service App - One app, every park at your fingertips.

freecampsites.net - Free camping near you. Go camping for free!

AllTrails - Explore over 50,000 trails, reviews, and photos. Share them…

Campflare - Get notified when there are campsites open at your favorite campground. Its free.

Gaia GPS - Trail maps for all your adventures