Omnivorous Surfer

Several sites provide downloadable audio driving and walking tours for locations (cities, parks, gardens, museums) all around the world. These come in the form of mp3 files for your iPod or other mp3 player which could be burned to CD if desired. Some, but not all, come with maps. Information concerning the length of the audio is provided as well as a sample of the program and a summary of its contents. Since we like to do a lot of traveling on our own, I think these would be a good addition to the research I do prior to visiting a location. While I haven't tried them yet, having just found them, I plan to do so on our next trip! I expect to search all three sites reviewed for content for our destinations.



The first site, audible, is one that I've used for years for audio books. A keyword search for "tour" produces, at this date, a list of 302 commercial possibilities. Prices for true tours (some results were for books rather than audio tours) range from free (museum-produced) to $15.86. Registration is required. (If you like or want mp3 audio books, this is a great site!)

image used by permission

I learned about tourcaster in "100 Things to Do With Your Grandchildren," a download from grandparents.com (see previous post). Free registration is required for this site, and the terms of use (yes, you should read these) indicate that you can receive points by taking advantage of opportunities provided by tourcaster and third-party sites as well as responding to offers you might receive email, postal mail, or telephone (though indicating a telephone number is not required for registration). The availability of points to offset cost would be a plus, but this would indicate to me that registration would generate email traffic, so you will want to take this into consideration. Doing a general search, I found a nice variety of walking tours available. Most I saw were $10 or under, with one being free; I saw one priced at $16.00.

image used by permission