On this tour you explore the centre of Cambridge through three of the university's colleges.
You start the tour next to the ticket station for The River Cam boat trips with the option of ending the tour with one of the boat trips.
The tour starts in front of the main entrance and gatehouse of King's College.
You're invited to stop and take photos at this location.
The round, squat building is appropriately named The Round Church. Once you've had a look, turn left and keep walking, leaving the church behind you. The Round Church was built around the year 1130, which makes it the second oldest building in Cambridge. It is one of only 4 surviving medieval round churches in England. The church was too small for Cambridge's growing population, so the congregation have moved to a larger space. This building now hosts exhibitions and concerts.
You stop briefly outside the Great Gate of Trinity College.
King's College Chapel is one of the most famous pieces of Gothic architecture in the world, and probably the most famous building in Cambridge. You'll stop outside the chapel to admire it before continuing the tour.
top here for a moment, and look at the magnificent gateway in front of you. These gates are part of Gonville and Caius College. Look through the gates. Can you see something set into the floor? It's a long strip of marble with a round plaque. This is a memorial to Francis Crick, a member of Caius College and co-discoverer of the structure of DNA. Crick and his colleague James Watson later won the Nobel prize for this discovery. Stephen Hawking, the famous physicist, is also a fellow here. In fact, I have seen Stephen Hawking while eating at Caius dining hall. Caius is notorious for serving the worst food of any Cambridge college, but it's worth it to be able to claim to have had dinner with Stephen Hawking.
It was founded in 1092 by an endowment from Hugolina de Gernon, the wife of Picot of Cambridge, baron of Bourn and county sheriff. According to the 12th-century writings of Alfred of Beverley, Hugolina had been suffering from a long illness. The doctors had been unable to treat her and she had prayed to Saint Giles on her death bed promising to build a church in his honour if she were to recover, which she did. The church was rebuilt in 1875 as part of the Catholic revival and now has a rather plain exterior. The interior, however, is well worth a visit as it contains elements from the original church alongside beautiful panelling, glass and statues from the 19th Century.
The tour takes you passed the grounds of Magdalene College.
This tour takes you passed the Great Gate at St John's College
You'll cross over the bridge on this tour.
I did this tour with my 13 year old daughter and we really enjoyed it. Just enough history to keep her interested and got to see parts of Cambridge we wouldn’t have looked at without it. We really liked the bits of personal information 🥰
A great self guided audio tour that doesn't take long (around 45-50 minutes) and is ideal for solo travellers. The only down side is that the tour gets slightly confusing towards the end where the route was changed because of the Covid pandemic.
The concept is great, however the level of historical info poor & the narrator's voice dour to the point of irritation. The narration should have been, with more research & effort, an opportunity to fill the listener with facts about Cambridge life &history, not just the odd random snippet. Buy a guide book instead.
It was fantastic ! It was like having my own personal very lovemy tour guide. Headphones on phone in pocket and off we go! She has a beautiful voice and it was just perfect
I really enjoyed this tour! It was informative and easy to follow along with the guidance, and it took me to parts of the city I don’t think I would’ve seen otherwise. It was also nice to follow along at my own pace and be able to start and stop the tour when I wanted.
We loved the commentary, which was informative, personal and entertaining. It was great seeing Cambridge through her eyes.
Was perfect for us. We could stop for coffee and chat about what we were seeing and hearing. Being able to reply the tour was also helpful for the member of our party who didn't listen carefully the first time!
We thought the tour was interesting, the duration was good, the directions were clear but slightly too much personal information.
I recently took the Cambridge’s Colleges and Classic Sights self-guided audio tour and had an excellent experience. Anna Granta, the narrator, was quite nice and provided insightful commentary throughout the tour, making the history and architecture of Cambridge come alive. The navigation was smooth and easy to follow, even for someone new to the area. The tour is well-paced, giving you time to appreciate each location without feeling rushed. Highly recommend this for anyone visiting Cambridge and looking to explore at their own pace!
Could not enter ; tickets from Viator were not accepted, furthermore they were about to close at 4 pm while tour did not mentioned it..asked for refund three times..waiting for reply. May be a misunderstanding on the procedure but I cannot recommend it so far
I recommend the Cambridge audio tour. There was some “friction” getting my code to unlock the tour. There’s a small bit of the tour that’s out of sate as it makes a detour to avoid an entrance previously closed due to Covid-19. But overall my experience was positive. It’s a well written tour with factual information rather than the made uo anecdotes and ghost stories aome tour guides offer.
You have to walk to the start of the tour, in order to start the audio. It won't load if your not at the start point. Very inconvenient.
Saw most major sights in Cambridge. Such an insightful audio tour. Worked well using GPS to auto-play the next recording. Seamless experience!
Fantastic value for money. Exceeded our expectations. Easy to use and to follow. Being able to leisurely enjoy at our own pace without crowds of others was very a big plus. A number of interesting places to explore with the addition of insider knowledge rich with history. I would highly recommend this.
Our guide was excellent, friendly and knowledgeable. WeI loved seeing all the sights of Cambridge and He did an outstanding job.
the App is not easy to download and no clear instructions. Consequently did not use it. It is a shame you cannot download the app beforehand so that you can plan in advance and ensure everything is up and running before the day you need it.
This little walking tour was full of interesting facts and history. I found it insightful and was glad I purchased - much more economical than a walking tour with a tour guide.
Loved the aspect of my pausing and playing as needed. The stories and interesting facts about Cambridge were lovely too.
Enjoyed this walk at our own pace. Good audio which was easy to follow and listen to. Would recommend to other users and will check out other cities
First time we’ve tried this concept, and we have to say that it really is brilliant! The tour as such was ok, with some fun and interesting anecdotes and points of interest, but unfortunately the narrator was a bit blah, and sounded like she was going to fall asleep at any moment. That said, this really is a great way to get some background and insight into the places you visit, if you haven’t got the time or money or whatever to do a tour with a live guide. So we really recommend the concept as such. It is really good value for money, and lets you walk around in your own pace.
Lovely to move at our own pace, stop and start when we wanted to. We enjoyed doing the tour on our own rather than a big group.
This is not a comprehensive tour of Cambridge, but it hit many of the obvious highlights and also included some that I didn't know about, like Castle Mound. I enjoyed the narrator's personal notes and found the tour easy to follow. There were a couple occasions when traffic noise drown out her directions, but it was easy to rewind to get back on track. I recommend combining this tour with a punting tour to get another perspective.
Lovely tour with plenty of interesting content I hadn’t heard before. Surprisingly enjoying doing a self-guided tour and being able to take things at my own pace, lingering where I wanted to.
I know this was relatively cheap but not really enjoyable. Limited information given and limited route
We don’t recommend this service without fully researching when you can tour the colleges and where to park. We paid (no refunds allowed) and THEN learned once we got to Cambridge at the exact location provided by the tour that there was a gate to that college stating closed to the public. The three audio tours we bought were useless and all of the colleges closed during the holidays. Had there been a disclaimer we would not have bought the tours. We recommend buying a guided walking tour in person and don’t waste your time on these self guided audio tours that are non refundable.
The tour was fantastic and we didn’t want it to end. It made the trip so interesting and the app was so easy to use and follow. We just wished it was longer, maybe a 2nd longer option would be an idea?
The advantages of a tour guide in person is that the guide can respond to questions and have unique things to say with follow up’s. The advantage of a self-guided audio tour is that one can stop at any landmark or store along the way and proceed on the tour at one’s own pace. Moreover, it’s much easier to hear and walk when one is in a crowded tourist area and also following a guide in a crowd of 10-30 people in a tour. This was our first self-guided tour and we thought it was brilliant. The guide was expert and personal on tape and the app followed one’s movements so it was easy to get back on track if needed. This is definitely our new preferred way of touring
Very straightforward to download and use. I used air pods, with my husband and I plugging one in each, that way we could hear the fabulous commentary but also chat about what we were seeing. The commentary itself was really good to listen to, Alicia’s voice was attractive to listen to, we enjoyed the mix of historical facts and personal anecdotes. The fact that it worked with gps was amazing as it knew exactly where we were and spoke about ‘the gateway on your left’ , ‘the church opposite’ etc Excellent value, I would recommend to anyone and will listen to others when I visit Whitby and Durham. What a great idea!!!
The Guide stopped working after 5 minutes. Had to give up. Couldn’t hear anything at all. Map itself looked ok.
First of all Shout out Jamie I think he was majoring history philosophy and doing his masters rn. very detailed tour made it very entertaining. Taught us in many different aspects in terms of how the school operates and what life is like in the colleges.
I enjoyed hearing the very human stories behind buildings & places I was looking at. Cambridge is an epitome of man’s long story of striving in academia to improve both in scientific advancement & creative art.
Whilst this tour was informative it was extremely limited, focussing on only a couple of colleges. I think that it should have been made clearer in the description of the tour. I ended up having to buy a map to look at the rest of the colleges (of which there are many). Caveat emptor.
We were really impressed with Anna Granta's tour of Cambridge which we recently did using our phone. The tour was very informative without giving us information overload and lasted about an hour which was just right in terms of time. It also gave us information on certain of the colleges which made us want to find out more eg. Kings College Chapel which we later went to visit. The other advantage of the tour was that it was very good value for money and we were able to do it at our own pace.
Thank you for a wonderful experience around the beautiful Cambridge centre. Loved the facts, the information was clear and interesting with a personal touch from the author. The GPS position comments worked perfectly and were very helpful! Thanks a lot! A very good option for those who love walking tours and are limited in time.
The tour is really superficial and frustrating. I heard more about her wedding than I did about history. At least it showed us where to walk to see things, which was helpful.
Cambridge is a beautiful city and we took the tour to find out more about its history and the original use of building etc. The tour gave very little information, a few dates anc there was lots of silence between the stops. I have done tours in other cities with far more detail. This tour was lacking and I’ve come away not much clearer. The working tour does offer a route for seeing the city, but only a sentence or two on each item. Also anecdotes from her own life which is not what I’d paid to hear. Disappointing.
It was a great way to be guided around the 'must see' attractions of central Cambridge and learn about the buildings and people etc. Went at our own pace at a time that suited us, rather than having to fit in with someone else's timetable. Particularly liked the personal account from our narrator - describing her connection to the city and some of her special memories such as her wedding. The technical aspect was a little challenging - I'd somehow disabled the gps signal so kept having to pause the narration until I reached the correct location, but that said, it didn't spoil the experience.
Seeing around Cambridge, as we've never been before, and being told interesting facts and info by a local.
We couldn’t download the app and were therefore unable to access the tour. I asked for help but nothing was explained. I would suggest that people are told to download the voice app before they pay. We would have loved to learn about Cambridge while we were there.
We enjoyed all parts of the experience. It was especially good to be able to go at your own pace. We stopped to watch the punts on Magdalene Bridge for ages and carried on when we were ready and no need to keep stopping and starting the audio.
We were able to go at our own pace as the GPS knew exactly where we were at all times. We really enjoyed our tour.
Very easy to follow , pleasant enthusiastic voice “Town &Gown” felt like I had someone with me on my adventure around Cambridge
The tour was good with lots of interesting points around Cambridge. There were quite a few dead spots towards the end, with big gaps where we were just walking. The narrator was making an effort to speak softly, but the result was that it was slightly like an ASMR soundtrack. But overall it was very good, extremely good use of technology around this old city. Well worth the money.
Enjoyed the experience it was easy and flexible as we walked around Cambridge and we learnt a few things on the way
Could not get the app to open. Tried for approximately 30 minutes and it continued to loop me back around each time.
Pretty good for a self guided tour, easy to use and download. It really covers only the main colleges. Handy to have if you don’t want to rely on a guide and want to keep things flexible
I liked the clearly provided information and the accuracy of the GPS location commentary. Will definitely use again.
It was a great tour with a personal touch from recorder, who clearly loves Cambridge. It was so easy to use filled with some great facts. Overall very pleased
Some interesting snippets of information, but not anywhere near enough. If all the speech on the trip was put together, I doubt whether it amounted to much more than half an hour - needs to be beefed up!!
We booked this audio tour (by VoiceMap) partly because all of the other tours were booked during the one day we would be in Cambridge. It turned out to be just right for us. We could take the tour on our own schedule, replay parts we wanted to hear again, and meander around the campus at a leisurely pace. The guide seems to have touched on most of the interesting spots. What would have given it 5 stars is if, rather than silence in between walking from 'point A to point B,' that a bit more history or folklore could be given. Other than that, it was a very good, clear description of what we wanted to see. During our stay the Trinity library was not open, so we could not go inside.
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