On a tight budget but eager to explore the beauty of the Philippines? Your new travel BFF Raizel Pauline Albano’s gotchu covered with 44 self-guided audio walking tours for various cities and municipalities.
With these audio masterpieces, you won’t need a pricey guided tour to have the ultimate local experience.
Albano’s tours not only showcase the country’s famous spots but also champion environmental preservation by encouraging travelers to walk to minimize vehicle use, according to Ph!lstar Life.
“Traveling doesn’t have to harm the environment. Through our self-paced walking tours, we contribute to reducing our carbon footprint—one step at a time,” Albano described her audio tours.
The best part is that each tour, loaded with six commentaries on the city’s top attractions, comes at a wallet-friendly price of just Php65.
To access these tours, download the izi.TRAVEL app, search for “Philippines,” and voila—all available tours at your fingertips. The app even serves up free self-paced audio walking and museum tours for global hotspots like Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, the US, and Europe.
https://www.instagram.com/rtw.in.3.meals/?hl=en
Albano’s brainchild was born from her love for self-paced walking tours abroad. “I had the chance to try these free walking tours overseas and I thoroughly enjoyed them, so I thought of starting one in the Philippines,” she shared.
Despite some bumps in the road, including balancing mom duties for her six-month-old daughter, she powered through to start the project in 2020.
She initially managed the project alone but eventually expanded her team, hiring a research assistant, an editorial assistant, and her brother as a publishing assistant. She also hired a voice talent for the first tour but opted for a DIY approach later on after facing some challenges.
Her ambitious project nearly hit a pause until she received a grant from the UNESCO Silk Roads Youth Research, enabling her to complete it.
With nearly 50 audio tours available, Albano suggested starting with your hometown to appreciate the value of reflecting on your roots. Now, after four years, she achieved her goal of creating audio tours for 44 cities and municipalities on January 9, 2024.
