If you’re tired of AI itineraries and Instagrammable “local tips,” let Sir Stephen Fry and historian Dan Snow take you on a VoiceMap tour this bank holiday weekend.
The VoiceMap travel app has almost 400 self-guided audio tours in the UK, across 96 destinations, and each is created by someone who genuinely knows their corner of the country – from historians and journalists, to podcasters, architects, and licensed guides. Stephen Fry and Dan Snow have now joined their ranks.
Stephen Fry has released two self-guided audio tours in collaboration with the QI Elves – the researchers behind the BBC show QI. History Hit, the award-winning streaming service and home to one of the UK’s biggest history podcast networks, has created four UK tours – including two in London which are narrated by founder Dan Snow. Additional tours include Richard III’s Leicester with History Hit historian Matt Lewis, and The Rise and Fall of Roman London with Tristan Hughes, with more tours launching later this year. Both QI and History Hit’s tours are available on VoiceMap’s iOS and Android apps and can be purchased from £8.99.
Stephen Fry’s Quite Interesting Tour of Westminster begins beside Westminster Bridge, where MPs once raced against Big Ben’s noon chimes, near a pub that’s close enough “to sneak a cheeky pint.” His second tour explores the City and Bankside, around Shakespeare’s old stomping grounds.
“I am thrilled to be working with the QI Elves once again and sharing my favourite London haunts through these charming, witty and informative tours,” said Fry. “You notice things when you walk, and it stirs the imagination. London inspires the curious – and the wonderfully curious minds behind QI have created tours that will keep you wondering at the world around you.”
One of Dan Snow’s VoiceMap tours, The Great Fire of London with Dan Snow, traces the catastrophic 1666 blaze – from its starting point at a baker’s shop on Pudding Lane to where it finally burned out on Pye Corner. “Since founding History Hit, we’ve always been looking for new ways to bring people closer to the past,” said Snow. “Working with the VoiceMap team to create these tours has been an exciting way to let listeners experience extraordinary moments in history while standing in the very places they unfolded – bringing the past to the present.”
Fry and Snow’s tours are six of over 2,100 available on VoiceMap, across more than 800 destinations. The app uses your location to play audio automatically, at exactly the right moment, letting you explore at your own pace.
VoiceMap was founded in 2014 by Iain Manley, whose love of storytelling and travel inspired him to create a new way for people to experience places – without the constraints of in-person tours or group dynamics. The company’s new tagline, “curiously human self-guided tours” is a deliberate response to the flood of AI-generated travel content competing for travellers’ attention.
“Travel is about gaining new and meaningful perspectives on the world,” said Manley. “When you talk to someone with strong feelings about a place, you can borrow their sense of ownership. They say things like ’I remember,’ ’I love,’ ’I hope’ – and those phrases transform information into connection. That’s what AI can’t replicate, and it’s precisely what VoiceMap was built to do.”
Fry and Snow – both passionate Londoners – are joining a community of more than 800 publishers who understand the value of human storytelling. It’s a vote for the fact that, in an age of algorithmic recommendations, the most interesting way to explore a place is still with the guidance of someone who genuinely knows and cares about it.
