iTravel – Travel guides on the go
By on Sunday, January 7th, 2007

These days it seems everybody has a personal mp3 player of some description, even if they don’t realise it (check your phone, it probably has one). The opportunities for using these devices for downloadable travel guides has intrigued me for a while, and I am glad that some sites are starting make it possible.

iTravel Travel guides on the go

Googling around I found a few sites with free downloadable audio (and sometimes video) travel guides: iaudioguide.com, ijourneys.com podguides.net was particularly interesting as it also embraces the web 2.0 ethos and allows you to upload your own audio travel guides.

I think this is great, although I am not sure how many people will take the time to bother. Also worth a mention was Soundtrek.org which scored bonus points for displaying the sound files and walking directions on a Google map, although currently it is just for Bangkok.

The major problem I had with these sites is that they would often group all the guides for a city into a single file. This means that you either have to visit the attractions in the same order as the guide or waste time fast-forwarding or rewinding to find the place you want to know about. What we need is either a menu system, or each guide as a separate song, grouped together by the city. I am sure someone will get this right soon.

Another interesting site is iPod Directions which allows you to download driving directions as a set of static yahoo maps to your video ipod. This is not really focused on travel, but I think the technology could be useful to travelers. Download city maps and guides to your iPod anyone?


Related posts

Please enter your email address to receive my free newsletter

 



15 responses to “iTravel – Travel guides on the go”

garri | 7 January, 2007 at 6:10 pm

Has anyone ever thought about writing down a bunch of places on separate bits of paper (with a pen), folding them up, putting them in a hat, then pulling one out?

Then, when you’ve done that, just buy a plane ticket. Go there, without making any plans, and just figuring it all out for yourself?

That’s what we used to do in the old days and it was fun!

Report this comment

Kevin May | 7 January, 2007 at 6:45 pm

may i add the excellent podzinger.com to the list – an excellent site.

Report this comment

Kevin May | 8 January, 2007 at 10:22 am

garri: absolutely!!!

i remember when i first went travelling in the mid-1990s the only contact i had with home was when i sent a hastily scrawled postcard about a week before i was due home. email??!?!?! PAH!!!!

klm, ed, travo

Report this comment

Darren Cronian | 8 January, 2007 at 11:22 am

Aye when I was a lad ;)

I jumped on a National Express coach and ended up in France, Belgium and Holland. I had a week off work and just wanted to ‘get away’ – my family hadn’t realised I had gone until I called them in Calais.

What fun that was! :D

Report this comment

garri | 8 January, 2007 at 11:38 am

@Kevin: same here. My girlfiend and I ventured to Morocco in mid 80′s. Flew into Agadir, flew out from Casablanca. We just bought tickets, didn’t organise any accomm until we got there.

I’ll never forget when we arrived by coach in Marrakech, middle of the night and found an old hotel, which was full of splendour in its better days. The owners were brilliant! Organised guides for us.

The night we arrived the owner wouldn’t let us venture out to eat on our own and from nowhere appeared our bodyguard, who didn’t say a word to us but lead us safely to a place to eat and arrived when we finished to escort us safely back to the hotel.

@Darren: presumably you didn’t arrive in France, Belgium and Holland at the same time? ;-) Well, not with National Express at least ;-)

I was reading a couple of years ago about a travel movement (if there’s such a thing) they’re calling random travel. You just turn up somewhere and get on with it! Sorta much like we did in our day but it didn’t have a fancy name.

Report this comment

Kevin May | 8 January, 2007 at 12:48 pm

Random Travel was Interrailing to a tee in its day…!!

Report this comment

Lee Harrison (owner Select World Travel) | 8 January, 2007 at 1:34 pm

I’ve recently Had a Booking whereby the Family promised their Children that in 2007 they would base there holiday on Whoever won the World Cup.

So it’s Italy for them. They Mentioned Thank God England didn’t win although they were secretly hoping that Brazil would be the winning destination.

Report this comment

Darren Cronian | 9 January, 2007 at 5:57 pm

I like the idea of Random travel! Problems nowadays is that flights are expensive, if your not booking well in advance. Coach travel is slow, but once you get out into the continent I love watching the different views as you whizz past country to country.

Report this comment

Rohan | 12 January, 2007 at 10:57 pm

I love the idea of travelling around with an iguide or audio guide. Im going to download one before I travel to Prague next month.

Report this comment

Alastair James | 12 January, 2007 at 11:15 pm

I just found out about a new site in this category: http://www.mp3travel.com/

Its probably got the most extensive collection I have found so far, but the audio is read by a computer voice. Quite annoying!

Report this comment

Darren Cronian | 13 January, 2007 at 1:50 am

Yes, its a bit like the podcast feature I added on the blog, it was a computer voice and was annoying me nevermind the readers. Watch out for a travel rants podcast coming to a blog near you soon ;)

Report this comment

Debbie | 15 January, 2007 at 2:18 am

What is the best ipod to buy?

My nephew wants one for his birthday and I have no idea what to get him.

Report this comment

Rod Cambridge | 5 February, 2007 at 6:54 pm

For a slightly different take on this, check out http://www.expodition.com – it’s a site I set up a few months ago which allows you to download personalised travel guides that you store and view on your iPod when you’re out and about.

In response to Debbie’s question – there’s no straightforward answer. iPod’s range from the ‘shuffle’ which has no screen, to the nano which is small (small screen, small memory and small physical size), to the standard iPod which is bigger in all respects. Plus it can play video.

The nano is more robust than the standard iPod because the nano uses a ‘flash memory’ chip as opposed to the more fragile ‘hard disk’ in the standard iPod. If your nephew is a youngster, I would guess the nano would be the best bet.

Cheers!

Rod.

Report this comment

Sarah Reimer | 30 March, 2007 at 9:24 pm

These are good suggestions! I’m just now testing downloadable travel guides; I’ve been using the free Frommer’s printable ones from Sidestep.com (click on Travel Guides.) They’re great if you aren’t fully up to speed on the downloading thing yet but amazingly portable and non-touristy looking when you reference them on the street. I’d recommend them for anyone not so tech-inclined. I also love the Lonely Planet books, although I’ve been known to rip out relevant pages to keep from carrying an entire book.

Report this comment

Greg | 18 March, 2009 at 8:58 pm

There seems to be an overlap between audio tours and audio guides, kind of blurring at edges. In the audio tours sphere most divide into chapters, seperate MP3 tracks, skip, do in the order you choose etc.

A guide is, well a guide. Sometimes mixed media of text,audio and even video. I personally have no use for video on the go, hey aren’t we travelling for the experience?

When I started travelling in late 80s it was all posts restrante at some dodgy post office racking through baskets of miss filed letters. Guide books were almost non existent and it was who you met on the way that guided, warned and generally helped you select the next stop on a vague map plan. Still happens, spontinaity, however, info available ore trip and on the go is fantastic, just allow room for the spontaneous.

Report this comment