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There are more ways to walk and discover this city than just following the city’s Discovery Walk maps. There are an increasing number of guided audio tours that you can download from the Internet and pack into your digital music player before heading out on your expedition. One audio tour company, City Surf, has several neighbourhood tours available for about $10 each. Recently, City Surf teamed up with Waterfront Toronto to offer a free audio tour of the central waterfront area.
You can borrow an MP3 player from City Surf’s booth near Queen’s Quay Terminal, or you can download it as a zip file here. The file includes all of the audio tracks for this walking tour, as well as a PDF map you can print off and take with you on your journey.
The tour begins with a brief primer on the waterfront’s industrial and shipping history. An overview of the Port Lands, the story of the now-posh Queen’s Quay Terminal building, and the origins of the Power Plant Gallery are a few of the subjects covered at the beginning of the tour. This narrative helps to give the listener a grounding in the waterfront’s origins and a taste of what the area could be like in the future if Waterfront Toronto’s plans see fruition.
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City Surf, the Toronto company that creates audio walking tours for different neighbourhoods in the city, has recently partnered with Waterfront Toronto to create an audio tour for our city's waterfront.
I stopped by their booth (behind the Queen's Quay Terminal next to the boardwalk) to see what they were up to. The tours are completely free (all you need to do is leave a piece of ID as deposit) and include an MP3 player, new headphones and a map. And better still, the tour is narrated by blogTO's very own Matt Brown and a significant amount was researched and written by Ian Malczewski.
Want to test it out? The complete tour is available here.
Brianna Goldberg takes two podcast tours of Toronto on their paces and gives her verdict. From the Toronto Magazine:
Nobody likes to look like a tourist, especially in their hometown. But it's such a shame to walk through a city every day without really knowing its stories.
Thank goodness for iTours (a.k.a. iPod tours, tour podcasts or "sound-seeing"), which whisper secrets of the city via an MP3 player that substitutes for a tour guide. Toronto now boasts iTours from two companies: the Toronto-based City Surf, and Tourcaster, whose iTours span the globe. A download costs about $10 per destination from either.
City Surf 's 37-minute iTour of Kensington is a good overview of what can be an overwhelming neighbourhood. It plucks a few true gems from the busy market streets and invites the listener to witness the different attitudes at work in the community.
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NEWS RELEASE - August 10, 2007
Explore Toronto's central waterfront in a whole new way!
Waterfront Toronto is teaming up with City Surf to offer free audio walking tours of Toronto's central waterfront. Hear more about the exciting amenities that already exist on Toronto's central waterfront and learn more about the exciting things to come!
The program will launch on August 11th at Toronto's Waterfront. MP3 players with the Waterfront audio tour will be available at the Waterfront Toronto station near Queens Quay Terminal, for daily use at no charge. Consumers can take the audio tour for free and learn about the Waterfront's past, present and future plans.
The audio tour kiosk is located by the Waterfront Toronto at the South West corner of Queens Quay Terminal (207 Queens Quay West). Operating hours: daily 11am - 7pm.
Click here to download the free audio and walking tour and map.
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