offbeat ipod walking tours

April 4, 2007 7:34 PM

I know there's "walking tour" audio you can buy for your ipod for major cities, but there must be quirky audio tourguides for offbeat neighborhood tours (that are free). I'm thinking, like in NYC, a guide to scenes from Woody Allen movies. What's the word for these walking guide audios, and where are some good ones for NYC, Philly, and Baltimore/DC?
posted by luser to travel & transportation (9 comments total)

I think you have to have a video ipod for this one or get it texted to your cell phone, but here's a walking tour of punk D.C.
posted by craichead at 8:14 PM on April 4, 2007

Can I piggy-back? If so, then please showm me one for Boston. kthxbye.
posted by mds35 at 8:57 PM on April 4, 2007

Me and some friends are working on ghostbustour, a downloadable multimedia guide to Manhattan based on sites from the Ghostbusters movies!
posted by lia at 9:38 PM on April 4, 2007

I don't know about downloadable audio but you don't get any more off the beaten path than the Kensington Welfare Rights Union Drug War Reality Tour through North Philadelphia. Call ahead though, I'm not sure they're still running it.
posted by The Straightener at 4:38 AM on April 5, 2007

You will find all kinds of quality walking tours for NYC at Big Onion. There are a couple of books called Manhattan on Film that have great walking tours for relevant NYC landmarks that have appeared on film (Ghostbusters, Woody Allen, etc.).
posted by mattbucher at 10:19 AM on April 5, 2007

Uh, nevermind, none of mine are audio. Apologies for the non-help.
posted by mattbucher at 10:32 AM on April 5, 2007

The Big Onion tours are terrific, but I don't think they have iPod tours yet. I've done the East Harlem one and one on the immigrant LES, and they were both great. Their tour guides are mostly history grad students, and they tend to know their stuff.

Back when I lived in New York and the world was young, there was a guy who did well-regarded radical tours of the Village. They covered all sorts of radical movements and were supposed to be great. I don't know whether he's still at it, though, and again, not iPod-related.
posted by craichead at 10:36 AM on April 5, 2007

I've just written a user-friendly e-book about visiting niche perfumeries in Paris that is available for downloading. It's called:

The Perfume-Lover's Guide to Paris: A 3-Day Walking Tour.

While it's not yet audio, and it's not free (cost: $9.95) it does fulfilll the criteria of being different and interesting.
posted by christinebee at 9:39 PM on April 5, 2007

How are the walking tours triggered? For example, in the ipod tours or the ghostbustour (great name, by the way) how are the individuals sights triggered on the commentary? Thanks...rhmark
posted by rhmark at 7:51 AM on April 11, 2007