Tales & Tours 1.3.4
The heart and soul of Tales & Tours is its extensive library of guides curated by experts worldwide and offered up for download (sometimes for a small fee) through the free app.
Cumbersome UI, thick design
Tales & Tours could look better. For all the value in this app, not enough effort has been put into making it as usable as possible. The fonts are a nightmare and the world map doesn’t always display properly.
The images are sometimes pixelated, and the UI records taps by accident when you try to pan and zoom on a map.
400 guides, ready for the taking
Despite requiring more work in the visual department, Tales & Tours really shines when it comes to the content it provides. As of September 2014, the app has guide availability in dozens of major cities across the world.
These include Berlin, Buenos Aires, New York, San Francisco, Cancun, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Brussels, London, Rome, Florence, Venice, Mallorca, Paris, Porto, Lisbon, Madrid, York, Oxford, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bath, Brighton, Manchester, Cheltenham, Stratford upon Avon, Prague, Bratislava, and Budapest. Amsterdam has dozens of guides and maps attributed to it.
Written by curators and storytellers
There are currently around 400 guides that you can download in Tales & Tours, all written by experts. Categories include cycling, walking, boat, indoor (museums & galleries), park, zoo, geocaching, art, nightlife, running, and sports. You can filter your results in any way you want.
The app checks for new content every day, automatically, as long as you launch it at least once.
The tool takes advantage of iOS 8’s notifications area by pushing content in there if you’ll allow it, keeping you updated about new guides that come out or any other type of updates. In order to give you more control over the battery drainage rate, there’s also a function to toggle GPS during guided tours, as well as another feature that will automatically switch off your FPS as soon as the battery levels reach 20 percent.
GPS functionality
Tales and Tours offers GPS functionality and even integrates with Google Maps to give you instant directions to a place you’ve just read about in a guide. The developers warn that this functionality will drain your battery fast, something that should be common knowledge in this day and age.
The app also has TripIt integration and Facebook login, but you can check out its offerings without signing up.
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0/5
Hits & Misses
hits
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misses
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Bottom Line
Design / UI7
Well thought out overall but could use a facelift. The fonts are really obnoxious. |
Function10
Invaluable service offerings guides and stories about the most visited places on earth. And maps and directions too. |
Security8
It’s a pretty “connected” app this one (location services, social integration, sharing). It’s got a privacy policy too that the developer says you should go through. |
Battery8
Normal drainage levels for an app of this caliber. Bonus point for the battery control features. |
Price10
The free-of-charge nature of the app, as well as the free guides that it comes with is enough to earn it max score. While some guides are paid, the service offered by RP Landegent is entirely free. |
Compatibility8
iOS 7, no iPad version. |
Final Grade: 9 Great solution to obtain travel guides, routes and offline maps for your next trip
Specifications
- price:
- 100% Free
- current version:
- 1.3.4
- reviewed version:
- 1.3.3
- developer:
- RP Landegent
- category:
- TRAVEL
- os version req.:
- 7.0
- age rating:
- 12+
- in-app purchases:
- No
- hits:
- 388