Gowalla is an iPhone app that is completely addicting. It’s basically a virtual geocaching treasure hunt sort of game that you use to check-in at locations and potentially pick up cool virtual-items.
When I was in Boston recently, I used Gowalla as a tour guide of sorts. It was a great aide in my walking tour of Boston. I was able to see points of interest that other people had entered into the system and I walked around, using my iPhone as a map, going from place to place. When you arrive at a spot that’s on the system, you press the “Check In” button and sometimes you will receive an “item” for no reason .. sometimes you’ll see that there are already items there and you have to drop one of the items in your phone to exchange it for one you want to pick up.
It didn’t take me long at all to get addicted to looking for stuff. I mean, I don’t need 3 bottles of water, let me drop one here at the Frog Pond in Boston Common and pick up a Frisbee! Woo Hoo! You are also able to create points of interest yourself (called “spots” on Gowalla). There were a few things I came across during my walks that I wanted to put into the game, so I entered them and now I can go back and check and see who has checked in to the spots I’ve created.
When I got to Detroit, it was more of the same. What spots have already been created? What spots do I want to create? Where can I go next? For someone that travels alone (which I do quite a bit for work) this is a really nice way to motivate me to see the cities I go to.
Now that I’m home, I’m even more addicted. How could someone NOT have already put the local Dive Bar on Gowalla? Well, I’ll fix that! Burger King for lunch? Well, let me add that as well. Since the battery in my car was dead after sitting for almost a month, I got a jump start from AAA and set about driving around to charge it up a bit. Hell, yeah, I drove around with my Gowalla app up and checked in at spots that were active and set a couple up that I thought were needed.
If you have an iPhone, you gotta download this app. It’s free, and even if you don’t travel a lot like me, it’s fun to put your every day local spots into the system and see who else stops by.
Just don’t swipe that Turquoise Mask before I have a chance to get there and get it.
Hey there! Thanks so much for the shout-out. We really appreciate you using our little app/service, and for sharing your blog to tell others. You rock!
Keep having fun with Gowalla and do hesitate to holler at us if you ever have any questions or suggestions.