Compare
The best audio guide apps, and how Curio compares
The best audio guide app depends on how you travel: VoiceMap for crafted walks by local storytellers, Rick Steves Audio Europe for free tours of Europe's great sights, izi.TRAVEL for the tours museums and cities publish, and Curio, the app we make, for the story of any place around you, in your language.
We make Curio, so we're not neutral. Every fact about another app comes from its own site and store pages, checked on November 14, 2026, and each comparison says when the other app is the better pick.
At a glance
| App | What it is | Places | Offline | Languages | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Curio | An AI tour guide for any place | Any monument, museum, church, ruin or public artwork on the map, worldwide | Downloaded guides, with their photos and audio | 13 | Free to explore; guides with a 48-hour, 7-day or 30-day pass, never renewed |
| VoiceMap | GPS audio tours along set routes | 2,000+ tours in 80+ countries, where a tour exists | Downloaded tours, with audio, map and directions | App in 17 languages; most tours in English only | Pay per tour, most $5–20, about 1 in 10 free; city passes; no subscription |
| Rick Steves Audio Europe | A free library of audio tours and radio interviews | Europe: about 60 walking and museum tours | Downloaded tracks and PDF maps | English | Free, no in-app purchases |
| SmartGuide | GPS audio tours from tourism partners and local guides | 1,600+ destinations, 100,000+ places (its own figures) | Downloaded tours; its store text ties offline use to Premium | App in 13 languages; guides in 30+, depending on the place | Free app, most guides free; Premium about €7.49 a month or €19.99 a year |
| GPSmyCity | Self-guided walks and travel articles | Walks and articles in 1,800+ cities | Maps, walks and articles | English | Free with ads; $4.99 a city or $14.99–20.99 a year, renewed automatically (US App Store) |
| izi.TRAVEL | An open platform of audio tours by museums and storytellers | 25,000+ tours in 2,500+ cities, 3,000+ museums (its own figures) | Up to 10 downloaded tours at a time | Tours in 50+ languages, each in its author's choice; app in English | Free app with ads; free and paid tours; Premium from $1.49 a month (US) |
| Audiala | AI audio guides from a ready-made catalogue | 150,000+ places in 1,900+ cities (its own figures) | Downloaded audio guides; chat, maps and planning need a connection | 11 | Free on day one; then $9.99 for 7 days, or $14.99 a month or $59.99 a year, renewed (US) |
| Around Us | A map of places with one-minute audio guides | Millions of places, 500,000+ with an audio guide (its own figures) | No offline mode documented | 20 | Free with ads; Around Us+ $3.99 a month, $49.99 a year, $69.99 once or $1.99 a day (US) |
| Atlas Obscura | A community atlas of unusual places | 31,000+ curious and hidden places | No offline mode mentioned | English | Free app (ads on Android); a separate membership on its website |
| Autio | Audio stories for road trips | 20,000+ stories, mostly in the United States | Downloaded stories | English | 5 free stories, then a 30-day, 1-year or 3-year plan; yearly ones renew automatically |
| ChatGPT | A general AI assistant | Anything you ask about; no standing map of what's around you | No | 60 | Free with limits; Go $8 a month, Plus $20 a month (US) |
How to choose an audio guide app
- Any place, or a tour made in advance?Tour apps are built from routes and recordings: rich where a tour exists, silent elsewhere. An AI guide like Curio talks about whatever is in front of you, wherever you are.
- Who writes it, and can you check?Storytellers bring a voice and a point of view; AI brings coverage and answers. Either way, look for sources and a date: they tell you how far to trust a fact.
- Can you ask questions?A recording can't hear you. If you wonder about every detail, pick an app that answers, even from a photo of what you're looking at.
- What works offline?Abroad, signal and roaming fail when you need them most. Check what really works offline: the map, the text, the audio.
- How do you pay?Per tour, per city, a subscription that renews, or a pass for the length of your trip: count what your trip will cost, and what keeps charging once you're home.
One app at a time
- GPS audio walking tours
VoiceMap
Walking, driving and museum tours recorded by local storytellers along set routes, paid per tour. Best where a good tour exists.
Curio vs VoiceMap - Free audio tours of Europe
Rick Steves Audio Europe
Rick Steves' walking and museum tours of Europe's great sights, plus radio interviews: free, in English. Hard to beat inside the Louvre or the Colosseum.
Curio vs Rick Steves Audio Europe - Audio tours from tourism partners
SmartGuide
GPS audio tours from tourist boards, museums and local guides in 1,600+ destinations, mostly free, with a Premium plan. Strong in Europe.
Curio vs SmartGuide - Self-guided city walks
GPSmyCity
Ready-made walks and travel articles with offline maps, in English, free with ads or by subscription. Best for following a set walk.
Curio vs GPSmyCity - Open audio tour platform
izi.TRAVEL
Tens of thousands of audio tours published by museums, cities and storytellers, many free, in the languages their authors chose.
Curio vs izi.TRAVEL - AI audio guide catalogue
Audiala
AI-written audio guides to about 150,000 places, the same for every traveller, with a trip planner. Free on day one, then a pass or a subscription.
Curio vs Audiala - Map with short audio guides
Around Us
A map of millions of places with one-minute audio guides, an AI assistant and AR, free with ads or with Around Us+. Very popular in France.
Curio vs Around Us - Atlas of hidden wonders
Atlas Obscura
A community-made atlas of 31,000+ curious and unexpected places, free, in English, to read. Wonderful for finding the strange and the overlooked.
Curio vs Atlas Obscura - Road trip audio stories
Autio
Short stories told by human narrators that play as you drive, mostly in the United States, by subscription. Best for American road trips.
Curio vs Autio - General AI assistant
ChatGPT
Talks about anything, by voice, text or photo, in 60 languages. Great for questions; it doesn't show what's around you or work offline.
Curio vs ChatGPT
Questions
Choosing an audio guide app
What is the best audio guide app?
It depends on how you travel. For crafted walks told by local storytellers, VoiceMap. For free tours of Europe's great sights in English, Rick Steves Audio Europe. For the tours museums and cities publish themselves, izi.TRAVEL. For the story of any place around you, in your language, with your questions answered and your day planned, Curio, the app we make.
Is there a free audio guide app?
Yes. Rick Steves Audio Europe is free, without in-app purchases, for Europe, in English. On SmartGuide and izi.TRAVEL, many tours are free. VoiceMap has some free tours among its paid ones. Curio is free to explore: the map, the places around you and search; its guides, audio and chat come with a Curio Pass, never a subscription.
What is an AI tour guide?
An app that tells you about a place by writing about it with AI, instead of playing a recording made in advance. It can cover any place and answer your questions. The ones worth trusting show where their facts come from and when they were written: Curio lists the sources and the date under every guide.
Which audio guide apps work offline?
Most of them, once you've downloaded what you need: VoiceMap's tours, Rick Steves' tracks, GPSmyCity's walks, SmartGuide's and izi.TRAVEL's tours (up to 10 at a time on izi.TRAVEL), Audiala's audio guides and Curio's guides. Around Us and Atlas Obscura document no offline mode, and assistants such as ChatGPT need a connection.
Which audio guide app speaks my language?
It varies: VoiceMap's app comes in 17 languages but most of its tours are in English; SmartGuide's guides exist in 30+ languages and izi.TRAVEL's tours in 50+, depending on the place; Audiala speaks 11 languages; Rick Steves Audio Europe, GPSmyCity, Atlas Obscura and Autio are in English. Curio writes every guide, for any place, in 13: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese of Portugal and of Brazil, Japanese, Korean, simplified and traditional Chinese, and Arabic.
Your next walk will never look the same.
Curio is now on iPhone and Android.
