New App Offers Real Guided City Tours, With A Virtual (Celebrity) Guide…

Is there anything better than an “in the know” local, willing to give you a personal tour completely tailored to your interests? Short of having some very generous friends, these kinda perks usually involve spending bucks that are anything but short. One app has developed incredible guided tours, completely based on your interests, using GPS to make it magic.

Detour has partnered with celebrities, innovators and local heroes with deep roots in cool places. The app uses the GPS signal from your phone to guide you along, talking you through every sight and turn without having to take your phone out of your pocket. If you’re worried about using data abroad, you should probably read this post. Simply pop on your headphones, and people like film director Ken Burns will give you a walking tour of Brooklyn, or you can hitch a ride with pro skater Eric Tuma Britton through Venice Beach. There’s even a platform now, where you can make your own guided tour and upload it for others to take. Basically- there are tons of tours in every city, for every interest, with more coming out all the time. And they’re cheap.

So how much are we talking? Unlike a private guided tour, let alone one from a leading local luminary- these do not cost hundreds and some are actually free. Much like buying an album or tv show from the app store, you complete your purchases one a one off basis, allowing you to see as many sites as you wish all for about $5 per tour. Hey, at the very least- it’s a great way to have an incredible, local experience without looking like a tourist on one of those guided walks. We back it and think it’s a really cool way to merge technology advancements with the best way to see a city- walking.