Nara
Every road has a story.
We help you hear it.
Nara is a GPS audio tour app that plays narrated stories as you drive or walk past points of interest. No screens to watch. No buttons to press. Just listen.
Why we built Nara
Every year, millions of people drive past historical landmarks, hidden stories, and local secrets without ever knowing they're there. Guidebooks sit unread in glove compartments. Audio tours require you to stare at a screen. And the best local knowledge stays locked inside the heads of people who live there.
We built Nara to fix that. When you're driving through the Appalachian Mountains, Nara tells you about the moonshine runners who carved those roads. When you're walking through Rome, it tells you what happened in that piazza 2,000 years ago. When you pass a local bakery on a side street in Lisbon, it tells you why the locals have lined up there every morning since 1837.
Your phone's GPS does all the work. Stories play automatically when you're near something worth knowing about. Your eyes stay on the road. Your hands stay on the wheel. The world just gets more interesting.
Come Funziona
Sfoglia 416 tour audio in 29 paesi. Tour a piedi, itinerari panoramici, esplorazioni urbane — oppure importa qualsiasi itinerario di viaggio.
Apri la tua app di navigazione preferita e parti. Nara funziona in background. Quando raggiungi un punto di interesse, la narrazione parte automaticamente.
Stories, history, and local secrets play through your speakers. No screen needed. Voice commands for hands-free control.
Cosa Ci Rende Diversi
GPS-triggered, not screen-dependent
Other audio tour apps make you tap "play" at each stop. Nara uses your GPS location to trigger stories automatically. You never touch your phone while driving.
La Sicurezza È un Vincolo Assoluto
Speed-lock mode dims the screen above 5 mph. Voice commands ("Hey Nara") control playback hands-free. We never give driving directions. Your navigation app handles routing.
Works offline
Tours download before you start. No signal? No problem. Narration keeps playing through tunnels, national parks, and remote highways.
Actually free
All tours are free with brief mentions from local businesses along the route. Want uninterrupted narration? Ad-free upgrades start at $3.99.
By the numbers
From the Pacific Coast Highway to the Amalfi Coast. From the Scottish Highlands to the trails of Patagonia. Nara covers driving tours, walking tours, and scenic hikes on six continents.
Why "Nara"?
In June 2023, my wife and I visited Nara, Japan on our way to the Women's World Cup. We'd read about the famous bowing deer and thought it'd be fun. It was — though "fun" might be generous. The deer were more like geese chasing a kid with bread than the peaceful companions you see in photos. Some of them literally jumped on us.
But here's the thing: we went to Nara and all we really experienced were the deer. I'm sure there was so much more to that place, and we left without knowing any of it. That's the feeling we kept having — driving past incredible things without understanding what we were looking at, cobbling together DIY tours when free walking tours weren't available.
My wife suggested we name the app Nara, short for Narrative Guides. It stuck immediately. The logo came from a deer on a toothbrush holder I brought home as a souvenir.
Nara is an app we built for ourselves first. Every time we travel, we wish we'd had it sooner — especially for the North Coast 500 in Scotland. We just want people to actually understand the places they're visiting.
Start exploring
Pick a destination. Download a tour. And let the road tell its story.