If you're the sort of traveler who avoids group walking tours because they're not to your liking or not in your budget, it doesn't mean you have to wander the ruins of Pompeii without hearing how the city perished, or visit London Bridge without being told of its roots in Roman times. You don't need a group tour; you just need a smartphone.
Many local government Web sites offer free audio walking tours that you can download. In Bath, England, there's the Jane Austen tour created by Bath Tourism Plus. (Austen lived in Bath and two of her novels, "Northanger Abbey" and "Persuasion," are set there.) Failte Ireland, which promotes tourism, offers free audio tours of Dublin's castles, cultural institutions, Croke Park Stadium (home of the Gaelic Games) and, of course, the Guinness Storehouse. And if you're going to Amsterdam, the city's tourism Web site, I Amsterdam, has free audio tours that will take you to neighborhoods beyond the city's center.
Heading to London? Check out the free maps and audio tours from The Guardian newspaper. There are podcast walks of Kensington Gardens, the Thames and Oxford Circus, as well as ghostly haunts. To celebrate the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens last year, themed tours were added, including the city of London as it appeared to Dickens; sites from the London of David Copperfield; and a stroll that retraces Oliver Twist's walking route from Angel Islington to the courthouse of Mr. Fang.
Some London attractions also have free tours, like the London Bridge Audio Tour, which includes the bridge, Southwark Cathedral, Borough Market, the London Dungeons, HMS Belfast, City Hall, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.
Searching for podcasts on iTunes will turn up several itineraries, like Frommer's Day by Day Audio Walking Tours, self-guided strolls from the travel guide company, which are about $5, though the 15-minute Da Vinci's Paris tour is free. Beginning in the Louvre, it leads listeners through a few of the spots mentioned in "The Da Vinci Code."
Speaking of the Louvre, museum lovers should check the Web sites of the museums they plan to visit because many of them — including the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and the Museu Picasso in Barcelona — have their own apps with art and explanations that you can download free to your phone.
And then there are the free apps (some use sound; others use text):
City Walk. The "lite" version of this app from GPSmycity.com is free and includes a city map, photos and attraction details that you can read, yet no tour map or turn-by-turn navigation (for that you'll have to spend a few dollars to upgrade). The series is available for major cities including Paris, Florence, Rome, London, Barcelona, Dublin and Prague. Information: search the iTunes store for "city walk."
HearPlanet (Lite): Audio Guide to the World. This app is not a traditional audio walking tour. Rather, it uses your phone's GPS system to identify nearby landmarks; then the app tells you all about them — just as a flesh-and-blood guide would. Information: Hearplanet.com/app.
Rick Steves' Audio Europe. The veteran travel show host leaps off the television and into your ear, leading you through museums and historic streets in cities in Austria, Germany, Greece, England, France, Turkey and Italy, among others. He'll even escort you on a stroll through Amsterdam's red light district. Information: Ricksteves.com/news/audio-tours.htm
TripAdvisor Offline City Guides. The hotel review site's travel app includes self-guided tours (under "suggested itineraries") through beloved neighborhoods in more than a dozen European cities using your phone's GPS system. Information: Tripadvisor.com/apps-icityguides.
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