A few months ago, I received an email from the good folks at GPSMyCity, an app that features self-guided walking tours in over 1,000 cities. They had taken notice of my travel posts on this very photography site and offered me a free pass to the app for the next three years.
Me? “Sure, no problem. Oh, and thanks. Now, what’s the catch?” (I mean, there’s always a catch with these sort of offers, yes?)
Apparently, there was no catch. They just wanted travel bloggers like myself to try the app while we were out there, you know, traveling. Funny thing is I’ve had the app on my phone since I first downloaded it back in 2019 while visiting the lovely city of Guanajuato, Mexico with my daughter.
Guanajuato, Mexico
The app is free (but limited) so I paid a few dollars to download a walking tour of the city that not only featured the top attractions but outlined a sensible walking tour (using GPS) on how to get there. It proved very helpful – especially in locating the city’s popular Callejon de Besos, which is a bit tricky to find.
With the full app now at my disposal, I put it to use during my visit to Santiago de Compostela this past August. Now, you would think that me having visited that historic city several times, I really wouldn’t need any help finding the best locations, right? You would be wrong. I usually just wander around (looking up for the cathedral’s spires) to figure out where I am (or just ask somebody how to get to a certain place).
Santiago de Compostela
The app proved very helpful in allowing me to show my ladyfriend Serena the best of the historic quarter (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) without aimlessly wandering around (which, I will admit, can sometimes also be fun). Especially with just one full day to do it. More on this in an upcoming post.
There are over 6000 guided walking tours on the app (available in iOS and Android), which turns your mobile device into a personal tour guide featuring travel articles and a detailed travel route plotted on an offline map, so you can explore the local highlights and hard-to-find attractions on your own.
Belém Tower, Lisbon
So, here’s what has happened since: They have requested several of my posts from several of the cities I’ve visited to be featured on their app and they’ve equipped them with travel routes on how to get to each one of the attractions I’ve photographed (and as most of you know, my photographs are considerably better than most of what is shown on other travel blogs). So not only are you getting remarkable photographs (if I dare say so myself) of main attractions, you’re getting an online map on how to get to each one of those attractions.
So what are they asking me to do in return? Well, to let you all know about it. And you know I wouldn’t promote something I wouldn’t use myself, right? Right.
Querétaro, Mexico
So, I’ll just let you all know right off the bat that the free version of the app is very limited. What I was offered was a full version of the app but annual subscription fees typically costs around $13-$21 per year. That’s PER YEAR, people. Less than the cost of most walking tours you’d take with a group of strangers at any city you’d visit. And you can do the walk at your own pace and time.
They’re also giving away full versions of some of my newly published apps on their site. Yes, free of charge for a period of two weeks. After that, you can decide if this app is worth the very reasonable investment (none of which, alas, I will see any percentage of).
Cluj-Napoca, Romania
That’s right, I won’t be getting rich by your subscriptions nor by them featuring my articles on their app (might just make some dinner or lunch money when the year is over) but what will make me happy is that a few more people will be able to see my photography work in the many places I’ve been fortunate enough to visit these past 10 years and hopefully benefit from the many hours/days I spend trying to create as visually appealing and informative a post as I am capable of generating.
That’s good enough for me.
GPSMyCity Giveaways:
So, which posts of mine are they offering for free? These here:
“One of Mexico’s Best-Kept Secrets: The City of Queretaro”
“The Colorful City of Cluj-Napoca, Romania”
“The Historic City of Antigua, Guatemala (In Pictures)”
“The Ancient University City of Salamanca, Spain”
“The Zocalo: Mexico City’s Historic Center (In Pictures)”
“The Beautiful City of Guanajuato, Mexico”
“Father-Daughter Trip to the Belem District in Lisbon”
“An Unforgettable Father-Daughter Trip to Guimaraes”
Antigua, Guatemala
That’s a pretty good mix of places to explore. Should you find the posts helpful (and you find yourself in a new city pretty regularly), consider adding a full version of GPSMyCity to your phone (I’ll be giving it a full run and review when I’m back in Ecuador this December). Oh, and it works equally well right here in the USA.
The posts will be available for download Monday, November 10 (TODAY!) so get the app, enjoy the posts (they have a total of 24 of my posts as walking tours so there’s more to see as a subscriber) and determine if the GPSMyCity app is a good fit for you. I think you’ll find it pretty useful on your travels. And for about the price of a grilled chicken sandwich with provolone, a Coke and a bag of chips, it’s a pretty good deal.
Feel free to leave a comment with any questions…
