Enjoying England with the Help of a Great App

I’ve worked long and hard and spent piles of money on a pet project of mine: our free Rick Steves Audio Europe™ app. I’m most enthusiastic about the more than 40 self-guided audio tours it offers. But I’m also very keen on the radio interviews we’ve collected for our app — conversations with our very best guests, organized in country-specific playlists so you can just download topics that matter to your trip.

For years, I’ve bragged of my radio interviews, “These are great for filling time productively during long flights and long drives on your trip.” Then, yesterday, faced with a five-hour drive from Penzance to Portsmouth, I decided to practice exactly what I’ve been preaching. On my Rick Steves Audio Europe™ app, I downloaded a playlist of our England-related interviews. Listening to three solid hours of interviews made the drive a complete joy. (And by plugging my phone directly into the USB port of my rental car, I was able to take advantage of the car’s fine speakers and keep my iPhone charged up.)

Rick Steves Audio Europe app open on iPhone

In this photo, you can see some of the great topics I enjoyed: ancient stones, Bill Bryson, British banter, Madhur Jaffrey’s Curry Nation, Doc Martin’s Cornwall, the ins and outs of high tea, and so on. This really is a boon for anyone faced with a long drive, train ride, or flight wanting a special insight to the region they’re exploring. I hope you can download and use the Rick Steves Audio Europe™ app in your travels.

Have you tried this? What are some other ways to pass a long drive in an entertaining and educational-for-your-travels way?

Comments

7 Replies to “Enjoying England with the Help of a Great App”

  1. I’m a rep on the road and I regularly listen you while I’m on the road
    I which there would be even more downloads than what’s already there.
    I spent the day yesterday with you in Rome, Greece and Prague. :-)

  2. Rick, we have used your ap and followed along on the tours in several cities (Rome, Athens, etc.). When we go somewhere there is no tour it’s a bit of a letdown!

    And fear not, we always have the printed guidebook as well (all cut up, of course!)

    Regretfully my wife is not as mobile as she once was due to some health issues. It would be great as us “Boomers” are getting up there if there was more information on accessibility at some sites.

  3. My husband rely heavily on the guided tours and interviews available on the App. I use them to familiarize myself with sites weeks and months before I visit. Then I use the audio tours while at the site. An I often listen to them again after I have visited the site to reinforce the memory. I wish there were more audio tours. In particular, I wish I had one for Budapest when there this spring!

  4. I regularly use the radio shows for good long distance driving entertainment, and sometimes learn something, too!

    I’m old school, using an old iPod through a Dice into the CD player. What do you want from a 10 year old car? I wish I could just plug in my phone like you.

  5. Hi Rick,

    I’m leaving for France in two weeks! It’s my first trip and I have already downloaded your audio guides and radio interviews for Paris and Beyond Paris. I’ve been listening to the radio interviews and have found them uber entertaining as well as informative. I especially love the interview called Stuff Parisians Like with Olivier Magny. It is light hearted and very funny. I find myself chuckling out loud while listening on my walks to the neighbourhood grocery store.

    The app works very well. There are so many interesting subjects and helpful tips organized in an easy to use fashion. They are quick to download with good sound quality. I am so glad the technology exists to enable this to happen. Thank you for working so hard on them.

    Happy travels!

  6. The audio app was great when we rented a car in France a couple of years ago. I can read French but have a hard time understanding spoken French, so listening to the radio was out. The car had Bluetooth, so I paired the phone with the radio and listened over the car speakers.

  7. To pass the time, I enjoy listening to audio books with settings in the areas I am visiting.
    Famous examples
    “Under the Tuscan Sun” – Frances Mayes
    “A Year in Provence” – Peter Mayle
    Jane Austen novels

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