Mapstr Puts Your World at Your Fingertips With Your Own Custom Map

Mapstr lets you create your own custom map of the places you love to frequent, spots you've been to in the past, and the restaurants and other hot spots you still want to check out.

For me, I started out by adding in the places I want to try out, like that Middle Eastern restaurant down the road from me. Then I started adding in some of my favorite restaurants that aren't saved in Facebook or anywhere else.

Mapstr works just about anywhere in the world, letting you find places near and far. You can add your favorite haunts, access their websites, and tag locations based on what sort of venue it is.

Funny, I've got a lot of restaurants to add but not many shopping spots.

The search function is very comprehensive, including not just major franchises but even the little Mom & Pop spots that are unique to where you're at.

Organization is key, for me, and being able to add various tags is really nice. You start off with some default tags, like restaurants, hotels, and more. Mapstr doesn't stop there, though, letting you create your own tags based on the types of locations you're adding to your map.

Once you've put some time into it, Mapstr is your own personal map with all of your favorite hot spots and the places on your bucket list to try out.

Potentially, you could spend hours first setting up Mapstr. Who's got that kind of time? One of the best features of the app is its ability to import your tagged locations from a wide variety of sources.

Once you get linked up with Facebook, Foursquare, Swarm, or others, it's easy to import your favorite spots to your map.

One thing I wish the app could do, though, is identify unique locations. Instead, it provides you with a list of every place you've tagged yourself in on Facebook, duplicates and all.

You can also integrate the app with Foursquare, Swarm, Instagram, and even your Contacts app. If you use more than one, you'll be glad to see Mapstr automatically tags imports based on what service they came from.

I really love the amount of information Mapstr is able to provide about locations. It's easy to see hours for restaurants, so you can plan your visit. You also get access to websites, addresses, and even directions.

If you so choose, you can even set up notifications for yourself. That way, if you pass near one of your favorite locations, Mapstr can ping you and let you know.

Mapstr cares about your privacy, so the app makes it easy to choose whether or not you want to share specific locations with your friends or not. It's so easy to use, and really gives you a map of your favorite food, shopping, and travel places, tagged on a map.

Finally, when you want to share your favorite spots with others, the app has your back. You can invite friends to use Mapstr, and share your entire public map with them. Or, you can pick a spot and use the Share Sheet extensions to tweet about it, post it to Facebook, or more.

If you've ever wanted to make your own map of your favorite spots and the places you still want to visit, Mapstr is one of the best ways to do it. You can tag locations for easier searches later on, and pick and choose who to share with and how much gets shared. It's one of the nicest mapping apps on the App Store.