Five Years of Wandering: Why Self‑Guided Audio Tours Still Win

It’s a strange thing to realise, but it’s now been five years since I published my very first self‑guided audio tour. Five years of wandering streets, poking around corners, chasing down odd bits of local history, and trying to capture that quiet thrill of discovering something most people walk straight past. When I released that first walking tour, I had no idea whether anyone would actually want to follow me around with a pair of headphones. But here we are — the routes have grown, there’s twenty now with four on the drawing board. So the stories have multiplied, and the appetite for exploring at your own pace seems stronger than ever.

What’s kept me going is the simple pleasure of discovering a place without being rushed. I’ve been on enough traditional guided tours to know the routine: the group gathers, the guide raises their voice, someone blocks the view, and before you’ve had a chance to take in the thing you came to see, you’re being shepherded on to the next stop. There’s a place for that, of course, but it’s never been how I like to explore a city. I want time to linger. To double back. To stand in a doorway because the light looks interesting. To follow a hunch down a side street. And I suspect I’m not alone.

That’s really why these self‑guided walking routes exist. They’re made for people who prefer wandering to waiting. People who enjoy the quiet satisfaction of discovering something at exactly the moment they’re ready for it. People who don’t want to be hurried past a detail that deserves a second look. With an audio tour, you can stop for a coffee, take a detour, or simply stand still for as long as you like without feeling you’re holding up a group of strangers. The story waits for you. The city waits for you. There’s something wonderfully human about that.

Over the years, the tours have taken on their own personalities. Some are gentle strolls through familiar streets, pointing out the oddities you’ve probably passed a hundred times. Others dig into the stranger corners of London’s hidden history — the sort of stories that don’t make it onto plaques but absolutely deserve to be told. And there are more on the way. The joy of this format is that it grows with curiosity: every time I stumble across a carved mouse, a forgotten alley, or a building with a suspiciously dramatic past, I start thinking about how it might fit into a route.

Five years in, I’m still convinced that self‑guided audio tours are the best way to explore a place. Not because they’re clever or modern, but because they give you the freedom to experience a city on your own terms. No crowds. No rushing. No pressure. Just you, the route, and the quiet pleasure of noticing something new.

If you’ve walked one of my tours already, thank you. And if you haven’t yet, there’s a whole little world waiting for you. You can find the full range of audio tours on the site, and if you enjoy these sorts of stories, you can sign up to this blog to get new posts and updates as they appear. There’s also an accompanying website which gives you more detail about the individual tours. If you sign up you’ll receive a monthly newsletter, offers and get the heads up on new and forthcoming tours.

Here’s to the next five years of wandering.