Take Me There

Take Me There is an interactive maps based app that gives travelers the opportunity to explore an area via the vocal touring of the city’s inhabitants. When you open up Take Me There you’re presented with a map of your location dotted with links to tap. Each pin opens to reveal the address of the starting point, the name and category of the destination, and a coinciding sound clip. The user then heads to the origin location, plays the recording, and is verbally guided through the city to the end-point.

Those that act as tour guides would be selected via a short in-app application. Once approved the user would gain access to the guide login screen and through that they would have the ability to record their journey right in the app. The only requirement is that they must live record the directions as they are taking the walk/bike ride themselves. One of my friends in Germany tried this concept out for me and the directions that he recorded were clear and easy to understand. The real treasure though was hearing the sounds of the city and the anecdotes he added about his surroundings along the way. When you remove the traditional means of guiding someone from place to place via written directions, by map, or GPS you’re left with this stunning attention to detail that makes the journey deeply intimate — allowing the traveler to truly see the city as they look for the next landmark the guide is instructing them to find.

This app isn’t for the fast-paced traveler, but rather for those that want to lose themselves in a new city for a bit. The true highlights of a city aren’t usually the spots that are talked about in travel books but the ones the people in that area have unearthed. Take Me There gives the slow traveler the chance to breathe in the soul of a city through those that have already befriended it. Talk soon.