Shaka Guide | GPS Audio Tours User Reviews

Shaka Guide | GPS Audio Tours

Shaka Guide LLC

Travel

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Reviews Summary

Positive highlights

🗺️

This app has- GPS-enabled navigation and directions

🎧

This app has- Engaging and informative audio narration with local history and stories

🎶

This app has- Enjoyable Hawaiian music played during driving segments

🤩

This app has- Helps discover hidden gems and lesser-known spots

🕰️

This app has- Provides helpful tips on timing and prioritizing stops

🚗

This app has- Works offline, no cell service required

🤓

This app has- Enhances cultural appreciation and understanding of Hawaii

🤙

This app has- Personalized and customizable experience at your own pace

💰

This app has- Excellent value compared to guided tours

Negative highlights

🚧

This app has- Some trail/road conditions may be more challenging than described

🕰️

This app has- Trying to fit in all the recommended stops can be time-consuming

🔇

This app has- Limited ability to play your own music/podcasts during driving

🧭

This app has- Navigation to starting points could be improved in some cases

🐛

This app has- Occasional technical issues like app freezing or GPS disconnections

Top reviews

Most RecentHighest RatedLowest Rated

Great app and great service. Definitely recommend.

Just go to the starting point and the app does the rest :-)

Ck2971

a year ago

Response from developer

Thank you for your positive review! We're glad that you're finding our app useful and easy to navigate, and we appreciate your support.

Must download!

Today, took the reverse Road to Hana. It had a great mix of history, current events, and cultural information. The tour had amazing stops built in that included instructions on parking, where to eat, where to look, and even bathroom breaks. It felt like we had a local guide in the car with us. The app itself offers you the opportunity to download the tour and use GPS location to trigger audio which was super helpful since we didn’t have much service during the day. It was easy to use and I can’t wait to check out the other tours! If you're on the fence about downloading the app and paying the tour fee, I hope this helps you invest. It’s truly worth it and provided us an incredible experience we won’t soon forget!

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Caskeye123

a year ago

Response from developer

Thank you for your kind words! We're thrilled to have you as a satisfied user of our app, and we look forward to continuing to serve you in the future.

Soooo many bugs—not worth the price

We did the Kauai driving tour bundle. Throughout the experience, we would have every audio clip start, go for about 4-5 seconds, and then restart from the beginning of the clip. This was incredibly annoying, and caused us to miss many turns. We reached out to customer service, who said this happens with some phone models, which sounds nuts to me. I also have an iPhone 14 pro, which I feel is a common enough phone.

Also during our north shore tour, the download randomly vanished at the end of the road. There’s no cell service there and we couldn’t redownload the tour until we were back in town. We missed many points and clips on our drive back because of this. The north shore tour also sounded like it was buffering often even though it’s a downloaded file.

Overall, very disappointed with our experience especially considering all the hype around the app. Would not recommend at its current price point considering the experience.

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And Here We Go

a year ago

Response from developer

Thanks for your feedback. We’d like to know the details of the problem you mentioned so we can pass it along to our development team and see if there is any way we can improve it. Please send the details to aloha@shakaguide.com and include a copy of your receipt so we can help you get a refund on your purchase.

Hawaii

First timers in the USA, driving on the “wrong” side of the road and we had no internet connectivity. Despite this felt well supported with the Shaka app.
We downloaded the app and purchases beforehand.
We enjoyed special spots, and felt our experience were as good, but cheaper, than exploring with bigger groups. A good tool if you want independence as a tourist. Best to enjoy with a vehicle that has Bluetooth or “car play”.

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RenEdSyl

a year ago

Response from developer

Thank you for your kind words! We're thrilled to have you as a satisfied user of our app, and we look forward to continuing to serve you in the future.

Shaka Guide tours for Oahu, Big Island and Maui

My family and I took a bucket list trip to Hawaii and had an absolute blast with Shaka Guide. We discovered this App after taking a circle Island Bus tour on Oahu. After spending so much money on a tour where we stayed too long at some places and not enough at others (for our tastes anyway), we searched self guided tours. (Obviously this would only apply if you have access to a vehicle). Shaka guide was highly rated so we thought we’d give a tour a try. We loved it so much that we messaged Shaka Guide and asked if we could exchange our single tour and pay the difference for a bundle for all four islands. This was done for us no problem. Customer service was amazing. These fine folks kept us busy, entertained and educated on Oahu, Big Island and Maui for a month! In the future, we will literally make a point to travel wherever they do tours because we will be confident that we will see the highlights and then some, while learning as we go without having to do any of the planning. My 18 year old son was sad when we were about to fly home because he was going to miss “the guy from Shaka Guide”! Excellent job!!!! I can not say enough great things about your tours.

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Ethtatack

a year ago

Response from developer

Thank you for your kind words! We're thrilled to have you as a satisfied user of our app, and we look forward to continuing to serve you in the future.

Hawaii Volcano National Park

This app was amazing! First time I used it and it was even better than expected. I will definitely use for all my future holidays… especially cruise vacations!

Canadian Grandma Susan

a year ago

Response from developer

Thank you for your kind words! We're thrilled to have you as a satisfied user of our app, and we look forward to continuing to serve you in the future.

Fantastic tour and app

Completed the Road to Hana and Haleakala sunset/ stargaze audio tours. Both tours were fantastic - lots of great and interesting information, with awesome suggestions for where to go and what to do.

The app itself is great - easy to use and good features!

Ehelfgreen

a year ago

Response from developer

Thank you for your positive review! We're glad that you're finding our app useful and easy to navigate, and we appreciate your support.

Wailua Valley and Waterfalls Tour in Kauai

Beware! We took this tour today and to say we were disappointed with the Hoopii Waterfalls Hike is an understatement. First of all, the trail is not marked and is in a residential area. The Shaka guide highly recommends the 2 mile hike and calls it the most accessible and easiest hike on the tour. How can that be true? The trail was muddy with hundreds of tree roots sticking up and many downed trees to navigate. It’s very easy to get lost and take the wrong trail because NOTHING is marked. We took a wrong trail and ended up in someone’s backyard. The man was scary to say the least and his dog charged us. We felt lucky to get out of there with our lives. Then we ran into a local woman who says the apps like Shaka are ruining the trail and people are constantly getting lost. PLEASE take this stop OFF your tour before someone loses their life either hiking or by one of the residential neighbors. They seem to hate the tourists. It was a scary experience for us and we don’t want anyone else to experience it.

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Real Jazz Man

a year ago

Response from developer

Mahalo for providing your valuable feedback. We're sorry to hear you seem to have not enjoyed your Shaka Guide tour. Please reach out to us at aloha@shakaguide.com to provide us a more detailed briefing of your experience and email us a copy of your receipt so we can help you get a refund on your purchase.

Made our trip so much better

We used the Oahu bundle and tried out all of the driving tours and parts of the walking tours. We enjoyed all the stories and historical info, as well as the tips about things to check out along the way that we could have missed. The music added a lot to our drives as well. Very easy to use without data/wifi. Well worth it!

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mmmmmmatttty

a year ago

Response from developer

Thank you for your positive review! We're glad that you're finding our app useful and easy to navigate, and we appreciate your support.

Excellent

Was given a card for this app at the car hire desk and was dubious at first but gave it a go and it was so much better than I expected. Excellent value for people who like self drive tours and the GPS accuracy is amazing!

Blueboy75

a year ago

Response from developer

Thank you for your kind words! We're thrilled to have you as a satisfied user of our app, and we look forward to continuing to serve you in the future.