AudaTours: Audio Tour Guides

I used this for a tour of Santiago, Chile. The app worked well and had no technical glitches. There aren’t a lot of good tour choices for Santiago so I’d say this was the winner of the ones I tried. I was happy with the map view overlay, which made it very easy to follow the route even if I made some of my own detours. Some improvements could be made: * the pin on the map linked to each point of interest was often not the best place to view it from. Most descriptions started with “directly in front of you, you’ll see..” but I’d be looking at the side of the building. In many cases it was better to stand farther away from a large building or tower, compared to standing at the front door. * the content seemed AI-auto-generated, with the same not very funny metaphors used repeatedly. There were at least four times that the tour said that a particular place contained “more drama than a telenovela”, or likened the city to a teenager. * the selection of points of interest seems a bit obscure. For instance, the plaza de Armas was not part of the tour, but five minutes was spent on the first POI talking about the general history of the educational system. Overall I found the tour a bit bland, but informative and functional. It’s not a replacement for a live tour guide, but very few audio tours would be.

My husband and I really enjoyed the Monterey, California audio tour. It was a bit foggy and rainy that day, which added a coastal atmosphere to the tour. I will take the tour again on a clear day to hike the parts we missed (like the path to the Presidio.) The narrator was very good.

I’m really impressed with this app. You can choose from their tours or create your own, which I love. I tested it in my home city and not only did it work great… it actually made exploring feel fresh and interesting. I’m traveling a lot this summer and can’t wait to use it abroad!