We’ve added 23 new tracks to Rick Steves Audio Europe™, the free smartphone app that organizes my audio content (radio interviews, audiobook chapters, and self-guided tours) into country- or city-specific playlists. So far, 200,000 travelers have downloaded our app for free access to nearly 300 radio interviews and 37 self-guided audio tours via their iPhones or Android mobile devices.
This free travel information service, with much-improved features in its newest version, will continue to grow. We add batches of Europe-related radio interviews twice a year. And I’ll be producing four new audio tours on Munich and Amsterdam this winter.
This newest batch of interviews from my radio show includes conversations with some well-known folks who share my passion for travel: legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz, NPR host Steve Inskeep, and teen actor-turned-travel writer Andrew McCarthy. I also talk with European travel experts about crafting the perfect Tuscan picnic, appreciating postwar Sarajevo, enjoying Paris after dark, and much more. And if you’re planning a trip to Europe soon, the app has hours of trip-enhancing material of great value for anyone traveling with a mobile device. If you don’t already have the Rick Steves Audio Europe™ app, you can find it here: Rick Steves Audio Europe™
For the benefit of any other linux users wondering how to play these files, I managed to get VLC to handle the .asx filetype you get when you download the files you’re supposed to be able to play on your own computer. No doubt it works seamlessly on a Windows machine!
Anyway, the way to get VLC to handle them is to open your playlist, right click, add the .asx file, wait a while and you’ll see the real track details appear. From then on, just play it as you would the files in any other VLC playlist.
Just downloaded all the Paris appt to our Ipad to take with us on our trip in December. This will be a first for us to use the RS appts.
I so enjoyed the podcasts from this app on my three months knocking around Europe. I stayed in hostels and rode buses through the countryside, listening on my earplugs while winding down in my bunk or absorbing the passing countryside through the window. It really enriched my experience. Thanks, Rick!