6 Best Narrated Audio Tour Guide Apps (Fun and Frugal Travel Tip!)
Consider downloading one of these exciting tour guide apps the next time you travel to a popular travel destination.
Turn your smartphone into the ultimate tour guide!
Skip the pricey bus tour on your next road trip and buy a guided audio tour from your phone instead. We have done this a couple of times while traveling with the family, and I have to say it’s a fantastic travel tip. Not only can you go at your own pace, but you’ll learn a ton too. Plus, it’s a fraction of the cost of a crowded bus tour!
GPS app tours are essentially like entertaining podcasts that move with you and tell stories about what you see as you drive through an area. It’s brilliant.
Travel Tip: If you’re traveling to any Hawaiian islands or national parks soon in the US or Canada, check to see what guided tours are available where you are going!
How does a guided app tour work?
Download the tour beforehand so you won’t need Wi-Fi or cell service while driving! It uses GPS coordinates to determine your location and play onlinementary, not cellular or Wi-Fi signal. We just hooked up the audio to our car’s speaker phone connection so everyone could hear it in the car. So easy, and no paper maps or brochures are involved!
Why opt for an audio tour app?
You can explore at your own pace! We first used a guided audio tour while driving the Road to Hana in Maui, Hawaii and it was one of our favorite and least expensive days on the island. The guide let us know the best scenic spots to stop, hikes to consider, all the history of what we were driving by, and even the best places to eat along the way!
It’s as if the guide is with you in the car, adding so much more to the experience. We had a beautiful time exploring this magical area.
Most recently, this summer, we used a guided tour app to explore Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. The app suggested all the best lookouts and gave us a history of the area and facts about the mountains along the way. We even did a short, easy hike it suggested. What a gorgeous national park!
On both these occasions, we used GuideAlong, formerly called Gypsy Guide. The app is free, but the individual tours we took cost $19.99 for Rocky Mountain National Park and $12.99 for Road to Hana as in-app purchases. The price of each location tour can vary.
I honestly think this was so worth the cost as it expanded our experience to include all this valuable info I would not have known. The guide is the same in each tour and has a great personality and voice that is easy and entertaining to listen to. I personally love GuideAlong and highly reonlinemend it.
Here is more info on the Guide Along app along with a few others to consider! Some of these have walking tours, hiking tours, and even haunted tours!
1. GuideAlong
For travelers who prefer to set their own pace and itinerary on vacation, but enjoy a fun, informative and entertaining guided experience. GuideAlong offers 64 various guided tours through the Hawaiian Islands, Australia, and National Parks in the US and Canada.
2. Just Ahead
Just Ahead features hands-free content written by award-winning travel writers from National Geographic, Outside Magazine, and more. They have lots of options for western US national parks, and the price-point on their tours seems to be slightly lower than others.
3. VoiceMap
VoiceMap offers a whopping 1,412 audio tours in 432 destinations in 68 countries! They have a large variety of GPS audio walks, cycles, drives, and even boat rides to encourage exploration. VoiceMap tours are produced by insightful local storytellers, including journalists, filmmakers, novelists, podcasters, and tour guides. If you’re traveling internationally, be sure to check out VoiceMap.
4. Tripvia Tours
If you love ghost tours, Tripvia offers 5 of them, including one in Hollywood that sounds interesting. They have some free walking tours that sound interesting in Ontario, Canada, too! If you’re planning a Pacific Coast Highway trip, be sure to check out that driving tour at just $9.99 as a fun option from Tripvia.
5. SelfTour
SelfTour works a little differently as each tour is its own app to download. They have audio self-guided biking, walking, and driving tours for destinations like Napa, Hollywood, and Philadelphia.
The driving tour through Washington D.C is $19.99 and will take you through Arlington Cemetery, Capitol Hill, Jefferson Memorial, Ford’s Theater, Watergate, White House, and the many memorials and museums along the National Mall learning about each as you go.
6. GPSMyCity
If walking is your preferred method of touring, GPSMyCity features GPS-guided walking tours in over 1,500 cities throughout the world! Some popular tours are the Dublin literary walking pub tour in Ireland, Van Gogh’s walking tour in Nuenen, and the steps of Jesus walking tour in Jeruselum.
Do you have any experience using GPS touring like these apps offer? If not, I’d encourage you to give it a try on your next trip. It’s super convenient and so fun, too!
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