I tried two of the apps for my region.
The first was UpNorthExplorer. I have a good time looking through the events
listing until I realized that none of them were located anywhere near me (even
though I know of upcoming events and festivals
nearby). So, I moved on to
looking at some of the other categories – dining, lodging, etc. – and found the
same thing. I was left wondering how the
towns that were included in the app were chosen. It kind of felt like something produced
jointly by a number of tourism boards (Grand Rapids, Duluth, and a number of
Wisconsin towns) with only those events included. Or that businesses needed to pay to be
included. Since I live in Ely where
tourism is a huge part of the summer economy, I expected to see – at the very
least – a mention of the Blueberry Arts Festival in July in the events section
… not there. And neither was Land of the
Loon in Virginia in June. Also, none of
the many, many lodges and resorts of the area were listed in the lodging
section. I stopped checking after I went
through the shopping section and found nothing local there as well. So, I guess this app is okay if it includes a
place that you want to visit. However,
for a general guide to the WHOLE region of northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, it
has some big gaps.
The second app that I tried was the Highlights of the
Superior Hiking Trail. This was
okay. I liked the setup, but the
information was not very in-depth, and I couldn’t find a way to zero in on
sections of the trails (which makes it less useful). Having the parking directions listed
separately was a nice touch. If someone
was asking me for a guide to north shore hikes, I would point them towards Hiking
the North Shore by Andrew Slade instead – which is available as an e-book,
so it could travel along on a phone while you are hiking.
Another app that I would recommend for this section is
Minnesota Museums. I originally got it on iTunes, but when I went back to look to see if it was free (pretty sure it was) I couldn't pull it up again. I did find the Android version listed on the Google play store for free. Great for if you want
to plan a little day trip or will be somewhere and want to find a way to spend
an afternoon. And, it's surprising to find how many little museums there are in Minnesota.
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