Track your van trip on a map
Pebbls draws the road behind you as you drive and keeps the whole trip on one map. Add a photo and a few words wherever you park up, and the people at home can see where you've got to without you messaging everyone. It won't find you somewhere to sleep, so keep your campsite app for that.
It keeps recording with no signal
The route is saved on your phone first. On a mountain pass or a coast road with no signal it carries on, and sends everything when you're back in range. Set uploads to wait for wifi and they stay off your mobile data until the next campsite or café.
It sleeps while you're parked
Turn on Battery saver and tracking pauses while the van is parked, for a lunch stop or three nights by a lake, and picks up again when you drive off. You don't have to remember to stop and start it every day.
Family follow from one link
Send the link before you go. Anyone can open it in a browser and see where you've got to, with your photos and notes, without an app or an account. If they make a free account they get a note when you post, which saves you writing the same update to everyone.
A short film for each chapter
A chapter with a few photos gets a flyby film over its route, with your photos along the way. Pebbls makes it for you and it's free. Nick and Vikki's three weeks on New Zealand's North Island came out at under a minute.
Their routes
Each line is what a phone recorded on the road, with photos from the trip along the way.
How members track a van trip
A note on every night's spot
Eike drove a van from León in Spain to the Rhine in spring 2026 and left a pebbl at most of the places the van stopped for the night, each with a word or two: very crowded, bleak, nice, beautiful walks round the lake. Now there's a map of which spots were worth it. The first weeks went by near León, waiting to see how Eike's dog Luzi got on with the medication.
Christmas in a rented campervan
Nick and Vikki picked up a rented campervan on New Zealand's North Island in December 2025. Over three weeks they soaked in hot streams near Rotorua, parked overnight by Lake Taupō, spent Christmas Eve with family in Wellington and ended with three nights on Waiheke Island. Gales in Tongariro called off their alpine crossing, so they went alpaca walking instead.
A whole summer in one chapter
Samuel's converted truck spent the summer of 2025 in one long chapter: the Albanian coast, Meteora and Mount Olympus, beaches in Chalkidiki and on Thassos, the Rila mountains in Bulgaria, then north through Serbia and Hungary and back into Italy. The journal is almost all photos, over a hundred of them.
Twelve weeks with a camper trailer
The Newluks left Stockton, New South Wales, in April 2023 with their camper trailer, Cubby, crossed the Nullarbor into Western Australia and drove up the coast as far as Exmouth and Karijini before heading home in July. The kids wrote most of the journal, a pebbl most days, between schoolwork.
Van trips on Pebbls
Nick and Vikki rented a campervan for New Zealand's North Island, and Samuel took his converted truck from Greece up through the Balkans. Eike drove a van from León to the Rhine. The Newluks crossed Australia and back towing a camper trailer.
- North Island in a rented campervan · Nick · 1 country · 18 days · by camper and car
- Greece and the Balkans by truck camper · Samuel · 7 countries · 58 days · by camper
- León to the Rhine by van · Eike · 3 countries · 17 days · by camper and bus
- Across Australia with a camper trailer · Newluks · 1 country · 85 days · by camper and car
Films made from these routes
Pebbls made each film from one chapter's route and photos. Tap one to watch it with sound.
What it costs
Tracking, photos and notes, your map and journal, flyby films and sharing are free for as long as the trip lasts, with no adverts. Explorer is £20, €20 or $20 a year if you want more: your map keeps up with you faster, journeys can be private, and you get offline maps for four areas at a time, which helps in the mountains or anywhere you have no data.
Questions
Does it find campsites or places to park for the night?
No. Pebbls keeps a record of where you've been, it doesn't search for places to stay. Keep your usual app for campsites and aires. When you've found a good spot, drop a pebbl there with a photo and a note on what it was like, and it stays on your map.
Can I keep where I'm parked private?
With Explorer you can hold back your position until you've moved on, which is worth having if you sleep in the van on your own. On the free plan journeys are public and you share them by link.
Will it use my mobile data?
Set uploads to Wi-Fi only and the app waits for the next wifi to send your route and photos. Nothing is lost while it waits.
Can one journey cover months on the road?
Yes. Make one journey for the trip and start a new chapter for each country or each part of it. The Newluks' twelve weeks in Australia are three chapters in one journey.
What about battery?
Tracking uses GPS like any map app. Battery saver pauses it while you're parked, and if the van has a USB socket the phone can charge while you drive.
Does my family need to sign up to follow?
No. Your link opens in any browser. A free account only matters if they want a note each time you post.
Is it free?
Yes. Tracking, photos, the map, the journal and flyby films are free with no time limit. Explorer is optional.