Terms and Conditions

Last updated: October 24, 2026

These terms are an agreement between you and Lior Boyango (“we”, “us”), who publishes the Israel National Trail app for Android and iOS (“the app”; in Hebrew the app is called “בשביל ישראל”). By tapping Next on the app's welcome screen, or by using the app in any other way, you accept these terms and the Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with them, do not use the app.

Contents

1. Who may use the app
2. What the app offers
3. Hiking safety
4. Your account
5. Community content
6. Trail Angels and bookings
7. Trail Mates
8. Using the app fairly
9. Intellectual property and third-party content
10. Trademarks and affiliation
11. App stores
12. Changes to these terms
13. No warranty
14. Limitation of liability
15. Your responsibility to us
16. Ending this agreement
17. Governing law and disputes
18. General
19. Contact

1. Who may use the app

1.1 The app is not directed at children under 13. If you are under 13, do not use it.

1.2 If you are under 18, you may use the app only if a parent or guardian has read these terms and agreed to them on your behalf. Trail Mates (section 7) is for adults only.

1.3 You need a compatible Android or iOS device. Most features need an internet connection, and your carrier's data charges may apply.

2. What the app offers

2.1 The app shows the route of the Israel National Trail divided into segments, together with campsites, water points, libraries, Trail Angels, weather forecasts, community chats and ranks, lets you keep private notes such as personal points and the segments you have completed, and, through Trail Mates, helps you find other hikers to walk with.

2.2 The app is free. It contains no advertising, sells nothing and does not process payments.

2.3 Part of the content is provided by other hikers (“community content”). We do not check it before it is shown.

2.4 We may add, change or remove features, content and third-party services, and we may limit or interrupt access to the app for maintenance or other reasons. We try to keep the app working, but we do not promise uninterrupted availability.

3. Hiking safety

3.1 The app is an aid for planning and orientation. It does not replace official maps and guides, current information from the bodies that mark and maintain the trail, weather services, the authorities, or your own judgement.

3.2 Trail data in the app, including routes, distances, difficulty ranks, campsites, water points, Trail Angel details and weather forecasts, may be inaccurate, incomplete or out of date. Water points may be dry, campsites may be closed, and forecasts are estimates.

3.3 Your position on the map, distances and the compass depend on your device's GPS and sensors. They can be wrong, delayed or unavailable, and the offline map can be out of date. Never rely on the app as your only means of navigation.

3.4 Hiking the Israel National Trail carries real hazards. Long stretches, especially in the Negev and the south, cross military firing zones (שטחי אש) that are closed to hikers on many weekdays. Desert wadis and canyons flood suddenly in winter and spring, and summer heat causes dehydration and heatstroke. Before and during a hike, verify trail alerts, weather forecasts, including extreme heat and flash flood warnings, and firing zone closures with the official authorities. You are responsible for complying with nature reserve and national park regulations, including camping only in authorised night camps, for carrying enough water and a physical map, and for letting someone know your plan. You alone are responsible for your decisions and your safety on the trail.

3.5 Do not operate the app while driving.

4. Your account

4.1 When you open the app it creates an anonymous account so that it can load trail data. To use community features you sign in with Google or with Sign in with Apple. The Privacy Policy explains what we store.

4.2 You are responsible for what is done through your account and for keeping your Google or Apple credentials safe.

4.3 You can sign out and delete your account and data from inside the app at any time, or request deletion at israel-national-trail.app/delete-account, as described in the Privacy Policy.

4.4 We may suspend or delete an account that breaks these terms, harms other users or is used for abuse. Where reasonable, we will tell you why.

5. Community content

5.1 Your content. You keep all rights to the messages, ranks, votes, campsites, water points, feedback, translations, Trail Angel profile and any other content you post (“your content”). So that the app can work, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to store, reproduce, display, translate, adapt for display and distribute your content within the app and the services behind it, including to other users. This licence lasts for as long as your content stays in the app. As explained in the Privacy Policy, community contributions are not removed automatically when you delete your account, because other hikers rely on them; you can ask us by email to remove them.

5.2 Rules. You must not post content that:

• is unlawful, defamatory, threatening, harassing, hateful, obscene or sexually explicit;
• infringes someone else's copyright, trademark, privacy or other rights, including phone numbers, photos or other personal details of people who have not agreed to it;
• is knowingly false or misleading, in particular about the location or availability of a campsite or water point, or about a Trail Angel;
• marks a campsite or water point where camping or access is prohibited, or on private land without the owner's permission;
• is advertising, spam or unrelated to the trail;
• impersonates another person or organisation;
• contains malware or links to harmful sites.

5.3 Moderation. We may edit, translate, hide or remove any content, and suspend or delete the account that posted it, at our discretion and without prior notice. We review reports from users promptly and remove content that breaks these rules.

5.4 Other users' content. Community content reflects the views and experience of the hikers who posted it, not ours. We do not endorse it and do not guarantee its accuracy. If you find content that breaks these rules, report it in the app (campsites, water points, libraries and Trail Angel profiles have a Report link, and every Trail Mates profile, group and chat message has Block and Report) or email us. Trail Angels can decline a booking request and block that hiker from sending them further requests.

6. Trail Angels and bookings

6.1 Trail Angels are hikers and residents who offer to host other hikers. They are independent from us. We do not vet, screen or supervise Angels or hikers: we do not run background or criminal record checks, and we do not inspect anyone's home. We are not a hospitality broker, travel agent or tour operator, and we are not a party to any arrangement between an Angel and a hiker. You arrange and accept any stay at your own discretion.

6.2 The app only passes booking requests and messages between a hiker and an Angel. Any hospitality, ride or other service, and any payment an Angel asks for, is arranged directly between the hiker and the Angel. The app does not process payments.

6.3 Hikers: send booking requests only for dates you intend to keep, cancel in the app if your plans change, and respect the Angel's home, family and instructions.

6.4 Angels: keep your profile accurate and up to date, respond to requests, and make sure that hosting, and anything you charge for, complies with the laws that apply to you. Your profile is visible to all users, except your phone numbers, which are shown only to hikers whose request you approved.

6.5 We are not responsible for the conduct of any hiker or Angel, or for anything that happens before, during or after a stay. Use your judgement, and contact the authorities in an emergency.

7. Trail Mates

7.1 What it is. Trail Mates is an optional part of the app that helps you find other hikers or a small group walking the same segments on overlapping dates, chat with them, plan nights and gear together and, if you choose, share your live location with your group. The other hikers are independent people, not our staff or partners. We do not vet, screen or supervise them: we do not run background or criminal record checks and we do not verify anyone's identity beyond a phone number. Any meeting, hike or arrangement is between you and them.

7.2 Adults only. You must be 18 or older to create a Trail Mates profile or to use any part of Trail Mates. You confirm your age when you create the profile. We may remove a profile that we have reason to believe belongs to a minor.

7.3 Phone verification. Before you can send a request to another hiker you must verify a phone number by SMS. A phone number can be linked to one account only. The number is never shown to other hikers; see the Privacy Policy. Codes can currently be sent to numbers from a limited list of countries, shown in the app.

7.4 Community rules. In addition to section 5.2, in Trail Mates you must not:

• harass, threaten, pressure or discriminate against anyone, or keep contacting someone who asked you to stop or who declined your request;
• use Trail Mates for dating or sexual solicitation, for advertising, guided tours or any other commercial purpose, or for anything other than finding hiking company;
• give false information in your profile, in particular about your age, sex, plan or identity, or hold more than one profile;
• share another member's name, phone number, position or messages outside the group without their consent;
• send requests to many hikers without intending to hike with them, or create groups you do not intend to join.

7.5 Meeting safely. Use your judgement before meeting anyone from the app. Meet first at a trailhead, a night camp or a Trail Angel rather than at a private address; tell someone you trust who you are meeting, where and when; keep your own navigation, water and plans so that you can continue alone; and leave a group or a meeting whenever you feel uncomfortable. In an emergency call the local emergency services first. We are not responsible for the conduct of any hiker, in the app or on the trail, or for anything that happens before, during or after a hike arranged through Trail Mates.

7.6 Live location sharing. Sharing your position with a group is your choice and is off unless you turn it on. It is meant to help mates find each other on the trail, not as a safety or rescue service: positions can be delayed, inaccurate or missing where there is no reception, and nobody monitors them. Do not rely on it in an emergency. Members may see your position only while you share it and must not record it or pass it on.

7.7 Groups. A group's creator decides who joins, sets the group's plan, rules and size, and can hand the group over to another member. Members can leave at any time. After the trip the group's chat becomes read-only, location sharing ends and the group no longer accepts requests. Bookings a group makes with a Trail Angel are subject to section 6.

7.8 Blocking, reporting and moderation. Every Trail Mates profile, group and chat message has Block and Report. Blocking hides that hiker's messages from you and keeps the two of you out of each other's matches. Reports reach us with the content they concern and we review every report within two days. We may hide or remove profiles, messages and groups, remove members from groups, and suspend or delete accounts that break these rules or put others at risk, at our discretion and without prior notice. If you are reported we may contact you at the email address of your account. Moderation contact: intshvilisrael@gmail.com.

8. Using the app fairly

You must not:

• copy, extract or scrape trail data or community content in bulk, or use it to build another product or service;
• reverse engineer, decompile or modify the app, or bypass App Check or any other security or access control;
• use bots, scripts or other automated means to access the app or its servers;
• interfere with the app, its servers or other users, or send excessive requests;
• use the app for a commercial purpose, such as organised tours, without our written permission;
• use the app in a way that breaks the law or these terms.

9. Intellectual property and third-party content

9.1 The app, including its design, code, texts, icons and the trail data we compiled, belongs to us or to our licensors and is protected by copyright and other laws. We grant you a personal, non-transferable, revocable licence to install and use the app on devices you own or control, for your own non-commercial use, in accordance with these terms and the rules of the app store you got it from.

9.2 The app includes Google Maps features and content. Your use of them is subject to the then-current Google Maps End User Additional Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy.

9.3 Some map tiles come from OpenStreetMap. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence.

9.4 Weather forecasts are based on data from OpenWeather.

9.5 The app contains open-source software, used under its respective licences.

10. Trademarks and affiliation

10.1 “Israel National Trail” and “שביל ישראל” are trademarks of their respective owner. The app and this website use these names only to describe the trail the app is made for. In Hebrew the app is called “בשביל ישראל”.

10.2 The app and this website are an independent project by Lior Boyango. They are not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the trademark owner or by the organisations that plan, mark and maintain the trail. Trail information in the app is provided by us and by the hiker community, and may differ from official sources.

11. App stores

11.1 If you downloaded the app from Google Play, the Google Play Terms of Service also apply.

11.2 If you downloaded the app from the Apple App Store, Apple's Licensed Application End User License Agreement also applies. These terms are between you and us only; Apple is not a party to them. Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the app, and is not responsible for any claim about the app or your use of it, including product liability, legal or regulatory compliance and intellectual property claims. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms, for example when the app gains features or the law changes. The new version will be published on this page and in the app, and the date at the top will change. If a change is significant, we will tell you in the app before it applies. If you keep using the app after a change takes effect, you accept the updated terms. If you do not, stop using the app and delete your account.

13. No warranty

The app and its content are provided “as is” and “as available”. To the extent permitted by law, we make no promises about the accuracy, completeness or reliability of the app, its content or the community content, or that the app will be error-free, secure or always available.

14. Limitation of liability

14.1 The app is free and you use it at your own risk. To the extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any indirect or consequential loss, or for any loss or injury resulting from reliance on information in the app, from hiking decisions, from your dealings with other users or Trail Angels, from loss of data, or from the app being unavailable.

14.2 Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited under the law that applies to you, including, where applicable, liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for wilful misconduct.

15. Your responsibility to us

If a third party brings a claim against us because of your content, your dealings with an Angel or hiker, or your breach of these terms or of the law, you will compensate us for the resulting loss and reasonable costs, to the extent permitted by law.

16. Ending this agreement

You can stop using the app at any time and delete your account from inside it. We can end this agreement and your access if you breach these terms. Sections 5.1, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15 and 17 continue to apply after it ends.

17. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Israel. Any dispute will be brought before the competent court in the Jerusalem District or the Central District of Israel. If you live in a country whose consumer-protection or data-protection laws give you rights that cannot be waived, this section does not take them away.

18. General

• If any part of these terms is found invalid, the rest continues to apply.
• If we do not enforce a provision right away, we can still enforce it later.
• You may not transfer this agreement to anyone else. We may transfer it to someone who takes over the app, and we will tell you in the app if that happens.
• These terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about the app.
• These terms are written in English. If they are translated, the English version prevails.

19. Contact

Lior Boyango
Email: intshvilisrael@gmail.com
Website: israel-national-trail.app