Rick Steves Audio Europe™

At the time of the world pandemic listening to these beautiful audio guides replaces actual travel and provides oh-so-necessary distractions to the mind dulled in the lockdown. One should also be grateful to Rick Steves who continues to pay his 100+ staff members despite the utter collapse of the travel industry.

Listening to this audio guide during my trips to Europe was a truly knowledgeable and immersive experience

In contrast with many other guides, Rick Steves is truly knowledgeable about art and history. He gives in depth explanations about details in architecture and art.

We tried this app during our visit in Rome, Italy. Its content is free and offers great audio guides for the most common attractions. And it’s simple to use. However there doesn’t seem to be a search function, so you have to browse the chapters manually when adding guides to your playlist. We didn’t discover the app until our third day in Rome, but at least it helped us create our own great experience of the Colosseum and Forum.

We tried to use the audio guides for the colosseum and roman forum etc. after seeing them recommended on several sites as good overview tours. I was very disappointed! The tours felt like they were more about making cheesy jokes than actually telling the history and significance of the structures and their details. It felt kind of disrespectful in a way. I learned more by listening to guides talking to their tour groups for about 20 seconds while they stood around us than during nearly the whole audio tour. Would not recommend. There is an official audio guide tour for the colosseum and possibly forum as well that comes with your ticket so that might be better—pay attention for info when you buy tickets. Unfortunately we couldn’t download the app on site due to connection issues so we couldn’t use the official tour and were left with Steve.

Rick and his guest try to be funny and entertain in some episodes and it comes off as pretty awkward and weird. In the Vatican tour episode they force you to skip a big portion of the museum for no reason. So you need to ignore some of their suggestions and/or lame jokes.

We travelled to Rome and Vatican City, and visited all major tourist attractions including Pantheon, Colosseum, Roman Forum, Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, and St Marks Basilica. This app is like a private tour at no expense. We used it at all sites. For Vatican sites, we did not book in advance so had to take an in person group tour. 10 minutes into the tour, we ended up asking our tour guide that we would leave and do the tour ourselves as this tour is far more engaging. The tour guides you right from the entrance through the finish gates. The bonus is that you are not stuck with a tour group and have the flexibility to tour at your own pace with breaks especially if you have kids like us. As per the kids, this app brings every site to life. Thanks Rick! Tip: share wireless earbuds with the family while touring to get a complete private tour experience

Probably should not complain for a free app, but some improvements are definitely needed to make it useful. I had such a great expectation, because everywhere I read on the internet, people says great things about the guide, esp that it is way better than the one cost 8 euro at pompei park entrance. Even that is debatable, since I did get the official audio guide for a family member, they both have plus and minus’s. We decided to use the pompei guide from this app after a few mixed experiences with a few Roman tours. The only usefulness of Rick’s pompei guide is the route, but it did not mention it anywhere in the app. Being frustrated with directions after 45 minutes, I started to play with the app, found the book shaped button, that leads me to the tour route. After that, it became a bit easier to follow. The best audio guide I have used in the past is Gypsy. It is gps guided that made it so easy to use. I wish they have similar guides for European destinations.

I’ve used this audio guide in Berlin, Amsterdam, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Athens, Naples, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona, and probably some other cities I’m forgetting. I only wish it existed for the rest of the world!

The app crashed when opening so I deleted and reinstalled it. Now it opens and I can download audio tours, but nothing plays. It stays paused and even when I hit play the timer doesn’t update and there’s no sound.