wanderaudio makes audio walking guides for people who would rather not be in a group. You put one earbud in, walk, and something tells you what you are looking at and why it is there — at your pace, starting whenever you arrive, with nobody to keep up with.
It started in Japan because that is where the gap is widest between how much there is to know about a place and how little you are told standing in front of it.
Research comes from public sources, and every line is then rewritten by a person, because writing for a reader and writing to be heard while walking are different jobs. The rules are strict and they are the same for all 357 guides — open with something you can see from where you are standing, use concrete dates and weights and distances instead of tourism adjectives, and put one genuinely surprising thing in every stop.
The rule that matters most is about uncertainty. Where a fact is not solid it is written as approximate rather than invented. A confident wrong date is worse than an honest vague one, and it is the easiest mistake of all to make.
The audio for every stop is ready before you get there, so a guide starts the moment you press play, and one voice carries a walk from the first stop to the last. It reads at walking pace rather than broadcast pace, because you are listening while you look at something rather than sitting still.
About 3,250 of them, all from Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licences, each credited to its photographer with a link back to the original. None are stock and none are generated. Where a guide tells you to look at a specific carving or a specific stone, there is usually a photograph of that exact thing beside it.
The first guide is free. You make a free account before it plays — an email address or a Google login, and no card. After that a single guide is $4.99, a 30-guide pass is $29.99, and every guide in Japan is $59.99. It is paid once, not monthly. Nothing renews and nothing expires. What each one includes.
It does not work offline yet. The guides load over the web, so you need a connection while you walk — that is the most common reason someone is disappointed, so it is worth saying plainly. It is English only. It does not sell admission tickets, and it is not affiliated with any temple, shrine or museum on any of the walks.
Write to support@wanderaudio.org. That reaches a person. Questions about a purchase go to the same address, and so does anything you think is factually wrong in a guide — that last one is genuinely welcome.
They are researched from public sources and then rewritten line by line by a person, for the ear rather than the page. The house style is strict: open with something you can actually see from where you are standing, use concrete dates and weights and distances rather than tourism adjectives, and put one genuinely surprising thing in every stop. Where a fact is uncertain it is described as approximate rather than invented, which is the single rule that matters most.
A calm British male voice, reading at walking pace rather than broadcast pace. Every line it reads has been rewritten by a person for the ear rather than the page: short sentences, concrete numbers, nothing you would need to see written down to follow. It is meant to sound like someone walking beside you rather than an announcement.
Wikimedia Commons, under Creative Commons licences, and every one is credited to its photographer with a link back to the original file. There are about 3,250 of them. None are stock and none are generated.
Sourced from public references and rewritten rather than copied. The rule that does the work is the one about uncertainty: an approximate date is written as approximate. If you find something wrong, say so and it will be fixed — that is worth more to this than being right by default.
The first guide is free. You make a free account before it plays — an email address or a Google login, no card. After that a single guide is $4.99, a 30-guide pass is $29.99, and every guide in Japan is $59.99. Paid once, not monthly, and nothing expires or renews.
It does not work offline yet — the guides load over the web, so you need a connection while you walk. It is English only. It does not sell admission tickets to anything, and it is not affiliated with any of the temples, shrines or museums the walks visit.
support@wanderaudio.org. That address reaches a person, and questions about a purchase go to the same place.