Good App!
The app worked pretty well, I just wish the street names were labelled on the map and the list had the corresponding numbers beside it. You will definitely want to use your vehicles navigation system during the tour to help identify roads as you approach them
Repeats itself
The directions don’t give you enough information until it’s too late, especially if you aren’t used to driving in a city. We also found that it repeated itself for each stop. There are so many roads that shouldn’t be used by tourists that are part of this tour. We literally drove in circles for 3 hours before we got halfway through the tour and gave up.
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Had a great tour
We have two young kids, and this tour was great because we could do it in our car at our own pace with the kids comfortable and entertained in the back. They found some of it fascinating but for other bits they did their colouring, or read a book. The music and commentary kept it interesting.
I do wish there were route choices as we didn’t have time to do all of it. It would have been great to choose a one hour or two hour highlights tour. We were able to just make it to the spots that we wanted and then trigger the commentary for each site on the tour, but enjoyed how following the tour gave tips on which lane to be in and how best to make your way from one place to another.
I do wish there were route choices as we didn’t have time to do all of it. It would have been great to choose a one hour or two hour highlights tour. We were able to just make it to the spots that we wanted and then trigger the commentary for each site on the tour, but enjoyed how following the tour gave tips on which lane to be in and how best to make your way from one place to another.
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Horrible
While it is somewhat informative but slightest bit of slow or fast moving traffic you will be completely off course and the narration of directions are spotty at best.
Washington DC tour
The tour takes you to and tells about lots of significant locations; no problems with the content. However, if and when you get off the rigidly designed route, there is no automatic provision in the tour for getting you back on track. You have to either stumble around until you intersect the track again or guide yourself to one of the tour locations. And then, when you find the tour route again, you have to be going in the right direction on the street - otherwise the audio tour’s directions will send you astray again. Very frustrating! - and it’s very easy to get off track in the labyrinth and confusion of DC streets, lanes, auto, scooter , bicycle and pedestrian traffic. An automatic GPS-based process is needed to get the tour driver back on the tour track when they get off track (which inevitably they will!).
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Unsafe, unusable
The app cannot orient to your direction, making it very difficult to know where or when to turn. In between wonderful information it would give directions mere seconds before you were expected to make a turn. You also cannot easily move around on the map to see what turns are coming ahead! With the number of stop lights and pedestrians we had to stop using it because it wasn’t safe. Great concept and information, total fail on navigation and usability.
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Response from developer
For safety, our app actually first verbally warns you that a turn is coming up, then later tells you when and in which direction to turn. Sometimes the verbal warnings are more than once depending on the location. Each of these commands are separate automatic activations. However, we can't do anything about traffic conditions, similar to every GPS system. That is why we recommend that you have another person in the car following the route map to help anticipate turning situations. As for the map not turning, that may be a function of settings on your phone. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Amazing tour
This app was the highlight of our trip to DC! We loved all the interesting tidbits and sites we saw. As far as navigating goes, it is not Google Maps quality, but does a great job of visual and audio instructions. It worked best with me holding the phone and navigating, and my husband driving. Do yourself a favor and do not try to navigate DC streets and manage the app at the same time.
We were able to do segments of the tour whenever we wanted. Want to skip a part? That’s easy to do. Just look for the number where you want to pick up again and the app will start the tour there.
We started at DuPont Circle and ended at Arlington. The next day, we did the Smithsonian through DuPont Circle! The third day, we went from after the bridge to Arlington all the way through where we started. Easy Peasy.
No bus tour is going to give you the flexibility like this!!!! So much cheaper this way too.
We were able to do segments of the tour whenever we wanted. Want to skip a part? That’s easy to do. Just look for the number where you want to pick up again and the app will start the tour there.
We started at DuPont Circle and ended at Arlington. The next day, we did the Smithsonian through DuPont Circle! The third day, we went from after the bridge to Arlington all the way through where we started. Easy Peasy.
No bus tour is going to give you the flexibility like this!!!! So much cheaper this way too.
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Not for me
I loved the information about the stops, but there are no actual directions. You just have a blue line that you have to guess at. This would be absolutely perfect if it was more like an ordinary GPS that gave you better direction. In DC, there is so much traffic that it’s almost impossible to have the time to read street signs while looking at the map on the phone. :(
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Response from developer
Our team is trying to understand why you were not able to hear the verbal directions, and yet you heard the site description information along the way. All of the verbal directions and narrations are activated by the same system, so you should be able to hear both. We are sorry you had a problem and hope you will be able to try again. The tour stays on your phone.
Waste of money
The recordings sounded good, but I couldn't figure out how to work it to coordinate the driving path. A waste of my money.
Nice concept, frustrating execution
While the app functioned as advertised, there were a number of issues that made it frustrating to use:
1. As the driver, every time the map was hidden/replaced because the building image was displayed instead caused me to miss a number of turns. It’s also disconcerting when it happens and I’m coming up to an intersection then lose the map.
2. There really should be an option to turn off/select satellite imagery versus the vector street map. The photo map being overlaid by a dark blue/purple 2px thick line that blends easily into the image makes following it frustrating.
3. I’m very used to driving with Apple Maps app showing the turns in an isometric view and not top down. Additionally the map does not reorient based on the direction I’m facing, so it was difficult to try and navigate off of that if I got off the planned course.
4. The app really needs a filter to allow the user to select what they want to see. Being forced to go through 171 POIs where many were not the focus of our interest/trip, nor what we had allocated time for, was frustrating. It would be great if there were multiple pre-mapped tour routes based on interests, or level of fame that the user could filter the list to. The most desirable option would be being able to choose multiple POIs you’re interested in, and have a tour route generated from the selection. Being able to focus on only 30-40 POIs instead of 171 is way more digestible.
Overall it’s decent, while my family got more out of the app, as the driver it wasn’t great to use.
1. As the driver, every time the map was hidden/replaced because the building image was displayed instead caused me to miss a number of turns. It’s also disconcerting when it happens and I’m coming up to an intersection then lose the map.
2. There really should be an option to turn off/select satellite imagery versus the vector street map. The photo map being overlaid by a dark blue/purple 2px thick line that blends easily into the image makes following it frustrating.
3. I’m very used to driving with Apple Maps app showing the turns in an isometric view and not top down. Additionally the map does not reorient based on the direction I’m facing, so it was difficult to try and navigate off of that if I got off the planned course.
4. The app really needs a filter to allow the user to select what they want to see. Being forced to go through 171 POIs where many were not the focus of our interest/trip, nor what we had allocated time for, was frustrating. It would be great if there were multiple pre-mapped tour routes based on interests, or level of fame that the user could filter the list to. The most desirable option would be being able to choose multiple POIs you’re interested in, and have a tour route generated from the selection. Being able to focus on only 30-40 POIs instead of 171 is way more digestible.
Overall it’s decent, while my family got more out of the app, as the driver it wasn’t great to use.
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