GPS my City – Your own Walking Tour Guide

What about if our Smartphone could take us on on a guided walk?

When people stay in my Auckland apartment, I love to leave a list of local places to get a good coffee, or a meal, a hidden park or a great place to walk.  Sharing local information is hot on Airbnb where hosts are encouraged to map their favourite things in their neighbourhood.

I love cities – they are so full of life and energy, but they are also BIG and diverse, it is not easy to find the right place to base yourself, or to find those out of the way spots away from the tourist traps, which make a city special. 

• Yes you can get a guide – Women Travel has a directory of some great women guides in cities around the world, but that costs more money than some of us have.
• Yes you can get on a City Tour Bus – but that will only take you to the tourist hotspots.
• Or you can use GPSMYCITY – lose yourself without getting lost…

I first used my iphone to get around in Hanoi’s back streets in Vietnam.  It was fantastic – as long as I remembered to put the address of the hotel I was staying in, into the phone.  You only make that mistake once!

GPSMYCITY have self guided walks in 470+ cities worldwide.  

I know Auckland well, and checked out the Auckland ones – there are 15 of them, perhaps a little too much about souvenir shopping for my liking, but some great walks there.  And room for more – they are intending to grow the app, and at some stage provide options for suggestions from locals to add to the apps.

How do I use GPSMYCITY

1. Download the app (free)
2. Download a City Map a Lite version is free and does not include navigation features.  The Website also shows these lite versions, so you can see online what is available.
3. Buy particular full featured city apps for $4.99 each – very good value when you think how much you can pay for a guided city tour or bus trip.

What Cities?  There are 470 cities on the guide – check to see if your favourite is there

What about Roaming Charges? The great thing is you can download all this information (as long as you have enough memory on your phone I guess), then the app works completely offline – no 3G connection or data plan needed 🙂

IOS or Android?   The App works on both 🙂

Women Travel is off to South America and is going to trial some of these walks – we will report back on how we find them in cities we have never been to before.

Which city would you like a GPSmycity Guide to?

Let us know in the comments – we have 20 to give away.