A travel tracker for trips you'd rather not rush
Put Pebbls in your pocket, start a journey and go. Your phone records the route as you travel, and it turns into a map and a journal that your family can follow on the web. It's free, and there are no adverts.
We made it for slow trips: a long ride across Europe, a walk to Santiago, a season on a boat, a few months in a van. Trips where the line on the map is half the story.
I built the first version of Pebbls in a couple of hours, a few days before Lucy and I got married and cycled to Gibraltar. I wanted a map of our route with the moments pinned to it, so our families could follow along without us answering WhatsApps every evening to say we were still alive. The name comes from Hansel and Gretel, who left a trail of pebbles to remember the way they'd come. I wanted the same for our trip.
How the tracking works
The app records a point roughly every 15 metres you move, in the background, while your phone stays in your pocket or bar bag. When you stop, it saves a small check-in every three minutes so it knows it's still running.
No signal is fine. Pebbls keeps recording and sends the route when you're back in coverage, whether that's an hour later or a week later. Data use is tiny: a whole day of tracking uses less than one photo. A full day on one charge is normal on most phones, though on long days a power bank is still worth carrying.
Pebbls: the bits worth keeping
Whenever something's worth remembering, drop a pebbl: a few photos and a note, pinned to the exact spot on the map. Long trips split into chapters, one per day, stage or country, so a three-month journey stays readable.
Every chapter with a few pebbls and photos also becomes a short flyby film over your route, made for you, at no cost.
Family following along
Send people your journey link. They don't need the app or an account. They see the map, the pebbls and the journal in a browser, and if they leave an email they hear from us when you post something new.
Privacy, because you sleep in odd places
Hide the start and end of a chapter so your home or tonight's camp isn't on the map. Make a single pebbl private. With an Explorer membership you can also keep a whole journey private, put a password on it, or hold back your live position until you've moved on.
What's free and what isn't
Tracking, pebbls, the journal, sharing, family following and flyby films are free. Explorer costs $20 a year and adds live tracking, private and password-protected journeys, tracking privacy, videos in your pebbls, route downloads and more offline maps.
A few real trips
- Simon and Lucy's bike ride from the UK to Georgia, through 11 countries
- Adam's sailing trip around the world
- St John's ride across Japan, Nagasaki to Nemuro
- Jeremy's charity ride across Canada
Questions people ask
Does it work without signal?
Yes. It records offline and uploads later.
Will it flatten my battery?
A full day of tracking is normal on most phones. Standard tracking uses less power than live tracking.
Do the people following me need the app?
No. A web link is all they need.
Can I add trips I've already done?
Yes. Import a route file (GPX) from a GPS watch or planning app, and add your photos afterwards.
Is it really free?
Yes. Tracking, the journal, sharing and films cost nothing. Explorer is optional.
Does it work in my language?
The app and website are in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch.