The world’s first free virtual tour app – which allows you to stroll around cities and attractions guided by your smartphone – is showcasing York.
Forget about old fashioned crowded tours, not having information about guides beforehand or waiting for a tour to start.
Pandemic Tours offers walking tours, made by experienced and knowledgeable veteran guides, so people can stroll around cities and attractions for free at their own pace.
The travel start up is launching its app with a free two-hour walking tour around two Northern cities – Manchester and York – but has plans to cover the rest of the UK.
The tour lets you stroll around York with nine different stops at places like York Minster, the city walls and Clifford’s Tower.
Whether you are fascinated by history, architecture, pub crawling, music, football or other stuff; the Pandemic Tours platform will gather all interests under the same roof so when you are looking for a unique experience you just go to the same app.
With Pandemic Tours, just choose the city or attraction, select the tour that suits you best and then you are ready to start discovering the world at your leisure.
Every tour comes with an interactive map marked with the stops where you can listen to or read stories about that building, landmark or historical figure with photos and video to bring it alive for walkers.
Also provided are handpicked insider recommendations for places to eat and drink, seasonal events and perfect selfie spots close by.
Pandemic Tours is the brainchild of start up entrepreneur Joaquin Contreras who saw a gap in the tourism market.
He said: “Pandemic Tours was born out of the limitations and restrictions put on all of our lives by Covid 19. With travel bans and limits to household mixing the traditional walking tour is almost dead so we’ve come up with an app which allows you to stroll around places and learn about them as if you were on a tour with a conventional guide.
“When I was looking for places to pilot the app I just knew that I had to include York because of its rich history. First time visitors will learn lots about this fantastic city by using the app but I also think York residents might learn a thing or two also!
“We’re really looking forward to showing off York’s amazing architecture, sharing its stories and bringing the city alive for people.”
To download the Pandemic Tours app visit go directly to Google Play or the App Store on your smartphone.
