Welcome to the World of Walking Apps
These Apps are made for walkin’
And that’s just what they’ll do
One of these days these Apps are gonna walk all over…
Oxford, Liverpool, Edinburgh, London.
And happily for strangers to these cities there’s little chance of getting lost.
A trusty guide will take you by the hand, virtually or in person.
We’re emerging from Covid Lockdown fatter and less fit, starved of culture and city dates with friends.
Welcome to the world of Hop On Hop Off walking tours, which tick all the boxes to make us leaner, fitter, more cultured and chummy. It’s similar to what tourist buses offer, but more environmentally friendly.
Claimed as a global-first this clever hi-tech concept just launched in the UK, allows you to use an App to join and leave tours, hosted by experts, whenever you feel like a meal break or to pop into a gallery or to flop on a deckchair in the sun. We can always dream.
London was first UK city to go live. Up next are Liverpool (July 30) and Oxford, with Edinburgh in the pipeline. The App is already live in many European cities, in the language of your choice. Next stop: the world with VCW planning to be in 60 cities globally by the end of 2021.
We started our London trip by the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square with its ice cream sculpture. Crafty tech worked out how many steps were logged and how many calories burned.
For our 99 minute night tour you can reckon on 7,500 steps covering 4.8 km or 3 miles and 415 calories.
Enough, I reckon, to indulge in a small glass of wine and an ice cream.
You need to be reasonably tech-savvy but not a geek to navigate the App. And make sure your phone is fully charged and you have headphones.
A dozen of us plugged in under the guidance of Rob. Even if we strayed off route we could clock his position as if locating an Uber. We could hear him clearly assailing us with tales of public executions, gruesome stories of Charles II’s sticky end (his body exhumed to be hanged, drawn and quartered and his head displayed on a spike), with fascinating facts and figures.
The red road of The Mall is that colour to replicate a red carpet. Excavations beneath Trafalgar Square unearthed hippo tusks as stables once housed exotic animals.
The six pelicans living by Birdcage Walk are descended from a four gifted to James I.
Had Hitler won the Second World War he wanted Nelson’s Column to adorn Berlin’s square, Potsdamer Platz.
Just before war broke out the German Ambassador to London, Herr von Hersch, died and his coffin received a gun salute. The grave of his German Shepherd dog, which died chewing through an electric cable, is honoured with a plaque.
My favourite: the swish RAC Club in Pall Mall, where spies Donald Maclean and Anthony Burgess lunched before defecting, is above the Jubilee Line. When it opened in 1979 one stuffy member complained to The Times: ‘Diving into the pool and ending up in Neasden does not fill me with pleasure.’
Rob is a Londoner down to his walking boots. Born and bred in the city he spread his wings in the airline industry before running a guest house in Cape Town.
He started his guiding career 17 years ago, working all over Europe, the U.K. and Ireland. As a passionate Londoner he’s happy to be home and sharing his extensive knowledge of the city with staycationers rather than international tourists.
Londoner Sally thought she knew the city, but admitted: ‘There was so much I didn’t know _ why Birdcage Walk is so named, that there are 500,000 mice living in the Underground.
‘The guide was fab, really passionate and knowledgeable. The tour works as long as he’s not let down by the technology and once any kinks are ironed out.
‘I’m not sure I like being given the tour via headphones, and I didn’t find it simple to use. But I can see how it works if you weren’t in the same location as the guide. And it’s good that you have the option to just listen to the guide when you are in the same location.’
I certainly found it a friendly experience and better than having to keep your eyes in a guide book.
Booking details: Go online at www.voxcitywalks.com (then download a QR code to scan when you join the tour). After buying a ticket for 24, 48 or 72 hours, you receive an email with a link to download the VCW app. It’s geo-tagged to show locations of the local experts on a map, so you just make your way to the nearest joining point.
Vox City Walks launches London with three different circuits: London Landmarks, West End & Royalty and London By Night. There are also seven self-guided tours included in the price (that work offline): Parks & Palaces, Tower & Thames, Jack The Ripper, The Notting Hill Walk, The Bloomsbury Walk, The Kensington Walk, The City Walk
Pricing is based on either 24/48/72 hours’ access = £25/£29/£32 per adult and £9/£10/£11 per child. Available in English, Italian, French, Spanish, German & Chinese. London walks operate daily. International cities: Rome, Toronto and Venice are on sale now. Others coming soon: Malaga, Istanbul and Porto. See full list at https://voxcitywalks.com/all-destinations/
