Shenandoah National Park Self-guided Driving Audio Tour

it was a very informative self guided tour and we enjoyed it a lot

Super enjoyable and educational way to do the Skyline Drive! Had some issues connecting to the car audio so just used my cell phone speaker which worked just fine!

This park has easy, moderate and hard trails. 70 overlooks over 100 miles. Stops for food and gifts. Picnic areas. Very pleasant experience

The app was great. I was concerned about whether or not I would be able to get it to work at an entry location that was not an option in the app. It will work wherever yo decide to start your drive. Just be sure to get the app installed before taking your trip. I connected phone to car radio via Bluetooth and opened app once I arrived at my entry point and everything worked beautifully. GPS found my location and from there all I had to do was drive. The direction ( north or south didn't matter) just select Start Touring in the app, leave it open and begain your drive. The app audio guide will do the rest.

We absolutely loved this guide so much so that we will buy another guide for another destination. One issue we faced was not being able to increase the volume. Even though the phone volume was at max and we tried adjusting the car volume, it was just not getting any louder. It was fine for the most part, but if my kids were a bit older, they might have complained that they couldn't hear the guide in the backseat of the car. The guide itself was very helpful and entertaining and made our trip much more enjoyable.

Very informative and easy to follow. My husband and I enjoyed the tour a lot and plan on using it again in the future.

This was our first visit to Shenandoah National Park, having this guide was great! It gave us fun facts and the incredible history of the park. It kept up with us through our Google maps, even over multiple days. Would highly recommend.

The audio tour is worth it and so easy. The hardest part is just paying attention to which direction you going so that you select the proper tour.

The whole experience was awesome. I have bought self-guided tours for Gettysburg and Valley Forge before and those were amazing so I knew this one was going to be great....and it was! I LOVE that the app uses Google maps to direct you to the entrance and was complete in all the stops, where the best, scenic stops were and all the extra information about the park. I would do it again in a New York second!

Formally opened in 1936, Shenandoah National Park is a national park that encompasses part of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. It is long and narrow with the Shenandoah River and its broad valley to the west and the rolling hills of the Virginia Piedmont to the east. The park is best known for Skyline Drive a 105-mile road that runs the length of the park along the ridge of the mountains, from Front Royal in the northeast to Waynesboro in the southwest. It is famous for cascading waterfalls, wildlife and sweeping vistas over the Blue Ridge Mountains. It features over 75 scenic overlooks and acts as the main artery for the park's attractions. There are over 500 miles of trails in the park, including 101 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Visitors can enjoy camping, biking, horseback riding, fishing, hiking, rock climbing, bird watching, rafting, tubing and kayaking. Also visit the Luray Caverns and the Skyline Caverns. The Skyline Drive is the first National Park Service road east of the Mississippi River listed as a National Historic Landmark on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also designated as a National Scenic Byway. There are five major campgrounds in the park that are open from April to November. But campers must be careful of wildlife such as bears and venomous snakes. For more conventional visitors, there are four major lodges/cabins in the park -- Skyland Resort, Big Meadows, Lewis Mountain Cabins and Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. Visitors centers are located at Big Meadows and Dickey Ridge.

We got rained out and we saw nothing because of the thick fog. So we didn’t get to enjoy our trip 😔 No photos due to thick fog

It was fun listening to fun fact and information about Shenandoah National Park. It made the drive that much more fun

We love these driving tours- do them everywhere. The voice is pleasant and the information is fun and educational.

My son (16) and I enjoyed the narration and well informed content. Appreciated mention of tribal communities and displaced locals to create the National Park. Great tips on which outlooks and hikes to prioritize. Mentions of elevation, natural features, geography, trees and animals helps. Highly recommended for a memorable experience.

The audio guide did a great job of tracking where we were along the drive. We enjoyed the information and history shared along the way. On the day we were there the weather didn’t cooperate- we spent much of our drive in white-out from clouds… so some lookout views were not visible. We still enjoyed the drive and seeing what we could.

Fabulous drive over skyline drive ! In fall, the park shines with fall foliage colors ! Great lookout points spread through our! I particularly liked the ones in northern part of park from Front Royale! Cabins are available to stay ! A bit smaller but all amenities are there.

We used this program to tour the Shanadoah National Park. This app was very easy to use. Once I downloaded it the app did all of the work. The information that we got was very informative. I would highly recommend this touring app.

Stories were interesting and mostly well-timed along the route. I learned some interesting things about the local Indian tribes.

My husband and I really enjoyed this audio tour and definitely thought it was worth the price. It gave a lot of history and told you of good trails and overlooks to stop at. It did glitch several times, but that may be due to the mountains, as cell service is also almost non-existent at times thru the park. The narrator was easy to listen to as well. We would definitely consider one of these tours if we were going another place that they had them available for.

I toured midweek and started at Rockfish gap by Waynesboro where I spent the previous night for an early start. There was no waiting in line to enter. Because of the government shutdown, they were not collecting the usual $30 admittance fee. I had researched ahead of time, and I would have been eligible for the senior (65+) yearly pass of $20 that would have allowed me entrance. Do download the map for the entire length of the drive in advance at home. There’s no WiFi in the park and many places no cell signal. One of the things that made my trip most enjoyable was the action tours guide I found thru trip advisor. I paid $16.99 for the “tour guide” which I downloaded in advance of my arrival. It gave me a map AND an audio tour of the entire drive, points of interest, overlooks and info about each of the trails as I approached the entrance. It was marvelous and well worth the money. You can repeatedly access it up to a year after purchase. The drive is 135 miles. It’s beautiful! Speed limit is 35mph. Lots of sharp curves and wildlife. Many of the overlooks are just off these curves so cars will be entering and exiting. I saw deer and a huge variety of birds. Interesting groves of trees that were planted when the park was founded. Traffic wasn’t too bad for midweek save for a few drivers who wanted to speed through at 55mph endangering people and animals alike. Likewise a Sysco trailer pulled by a semi was driving balls to the wall, I suspect making deliveries to the outposts along the way. He was a danger to everyone and everything. By far, the majority of people drive the speed limit because 35mph allows the time to actually see and appreciate the gorgeous scenery as it changes from forest to meadowland. There are several picnic areas and restroom stops with modern facilities along the road: Loft mountain, Louis Mountain, Skyland, Big Meadows, Elk Wallow and Dickey Ridge Visitor Center. I’ll make this drive again and I’ll use the action tours app again.

Beautiful views. Most every overlook had stunning views. Some of the overlooks the weeds needed trimming. It was very cool but still very pleasant

Clean accurate app that syncs perfectly to your vehicle’s location. Advance information about upcoming stops is helpful to decide whether to stop or pass by.

Trip was easy to follow. Unfortunately it was fogged in most of the way. Also it was very hard to access this trip via 2 apps. Took several tries

Really enjoyed this audio tour while exploring the Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park. Great insights, interesting stories, and tips to make the most out of the experience. Just enough learning to keep you interested in the drive and the sights. Loved that it could be paused to get off the path for exploring on my own, then restarted once I returned to the drive. Highly recommend this tour experience.

Great option to get an overview of the park. Would have liked a bit more information at the pull out stops as the park information is greatly lacking.

Will never go to this park again, unless I am with a huge group. I went yesterday, July 30, 2025 with my sister. We drove up skyline drive, coming back we stopped off at one of the pull offs to take selfies on the rocks, a white car, small sporty type very black windows, and very loud muffler, pulled in, stopped in front of the rocks that we were on as if it was looking at us and took off very crazy driving, we just thought what a crazy driver, a lot of people take selfies on these rocks. It’s a pull off kind of like a u shape with trees in the middle, anyways, then a second car came a red shiny car stopped in front of the rocks where we were again as if it was checking us out now we’re thinking this is strange. Why are these cars checking us out we were the only ones on the rocks, actually the whole entire park was very secluded, except for skyline Lodge when we left, we did not realize that the white car was hiding behind the trees actually watching us leave we didn’t figure this out till later. When we pulled out he pulled right up on our back end we drove down skyline Drive then the red car was parked sideways on the road blocking both lanes we could not get through. We were sandwiched in. It was a God sent that another car came up to skyline Drive and the red car had to move. This was totally a godsend because this park was totally secluded. You have no cell phone service. You can’t call for emergencies if that car didn’t come up. God knows what would happen to us. These guys were definitely up to no good. Also, before this happened, we stopped at stony man look out to take pictures of the mountains. There was a truck a pick up truck sitting there didn’t think nothing of it because a lot of people sit there and take pictures had about seven guys in the back of the pick up truck Drinking alcohol. They were using very vulgar language and they kept turning their heads and staring at me. they wanted me to notice, but I pretended like I didn’t notice. Got to my car as quickly as I could told my sister we need to leave now. This park has no cell phone service in. I believe the forest Ranger said 80% of it, there are no forest Rangers patrolling it that you can see the forest. Ranger said they’re there 24 seven you can call the emergency number but you can’t call when you have no phone service Very dangerous park. I would not suggest it to anybody unless you’re with a very large group.

This app has trouble with talking about the part of the drive we were on. It was behind, so it would tell us about something about 3-5 min after we passed it. I turned it off. The trip itself was awesome and I highly recommend going, but this audio thing did not work for me.

Great tool that provides history and information just as you enter the location, don’t visit/ explore without it

Each of the audio narations was interestung and informative. Our trip through Shenandoah was enhanced by having the audio tour.

It’s a beautiful park, but the visit was tainted when we discovered how harshly and inhumanely the people who lived there, were treated by the state government who wanted to acquire the land. Truly disgraceful! The truth about what happened really does ruin the experience!

This was so much fun. I’ve told so many people about this and can’t wait to do more of them 🩷 my husband has dementia and this was perfect for us.

Tour was great which more hiking trails were pointed out. The ones noted were great. Waterfalls were really nice. Trip cut short though because tree fell across Skyline at about 63 mile mark going south and had to go back to Sperryville and get off! Park itself was ran down and very disappointing. Trees dead throughout park and many had fallen. A couple stops closed or under drastic repair.

Recording was garbled - couldn’t understand large sections. Since I downloaded the recording, I don’t think lack of internet in the park was factor

The audio tour was well produced and gave us a lot more information than we would have known just from driving through and looking at signs. There was history about the park, info on some sites we could hike to, and info on the length and difficulty of each hiking trail. It was very convenient to have the audio automatically turn on and off as we approached each area. The price was very reasonable, especially considering that it's good for a year.

Excellent review of history, ecology and wildlife. Had a lot of fog but still got to see many of the sites and overlooks. Would highly recommend this to anyone traveling to the area.

We enjoyed the Audio tour. I wish it would have given us more info about the area, It was to cold to do any of the trails. But I didn't like the silence.

Very informative and made the trip even more exciting. Let's you know what's coming up ahead. I definitely recommend this app we really enjoyed it!

Although we enjoyed the actual tour part of the experience, there were some technical challenges and uncertainties in the process. The historical and demographic information regarding Skyline Drive was great, however, we agreed that adding more practical information like "great look-out for sunrises or sunsets" would be helpful. There was quite a bit of time when the blue dot did not align with the map route and we wondered if we missed any of the audio information because of this. Overall we were pleased with the purchase and would recommend to others.

This is really excellent – just the right amount of information without over burdening with facts. The technology that it initiates the audio when you approach the next point of interest is excellent.

Easy to use, very educational material covering a vast variety of topics. As a drive thru experience it lets you know what stops are worth your time.

We really were glad we chose to purchase this audio tour for our two-and-a-half day trip down and up Skyline Drive. As long as you drive between about 35-40 mph, the recording did a good job of staying with us. Well done!

Great app. It highlights the best places to stop by saying “pause here” while also providing information about all of the stops along the way. This was a huge time saver for us. The only issue I had was user error pairing the phone with the car every time I shut the car off. Separately, it was an abut weird trusting that the narrative would start automatically once I passed the first gps enabled waypoint, but everything worked perfectly. This app was well worth the cost.

We drove the Skyline drive of Shenandoah National Park for my sister’s birthday on a wonderful fall day. Both our 80+ yr old parents and my sis and I thoroughly enjoyed the entire day. The variety of stories (history, geology, plants, etc) was terrific, the interface was seamless and easy and it really made the experience so much better! The driving programs are great because my mom can’t walk well anymore and this allows her to be able to enjoy driving trips so much more. These are a gift for anyone with mobility challenges. Thank you. Planning to try several others.

The Audio Tour was definitely worth it. We didn't start where it suggested and so we had to pivot a bit to get to that spot. Without starting there the tour is ineffective. Once we did that it was perfect. Tour was informative with great stops along the way. My 11 and 13 year old enjoyed it so much. They didn't even notice the lack of Internet access. We didn't do the whole park but we stopped at Skyland, food was amazing there by the way, and we now have a starting point for the next time.

This was WAY better than I expected. It could not have been better. All ages in our group (11 m, 11y, 20y, 21y, 27y, 53 and 54y). All loved it. This is a must have! The fact that it knew where we were along the way was amazing.

Worked great, lots of information about the lookout stops and interesting stories along the way. Exited the park to visit Luray Caverns (wonderful place) and the narration continued once back in the park. Would definitely recommend.

loved being accompanied by the audio tour's varied, informative narrations. I did get bumped from app a few times but found it easy enough to reboot.

Auto Tour was exceptional! Easy to set-up and provides interesting information as each overlook and hike is explained. Used it multiple days and times throughout a day and voice picked up at point of stoppage.

This is our third tour , all have been very good. On this tour at Shenandoah I had to restart or resume tour at several locations for no apparent reason. The tour would reload and resume with out a problem but it was an issue. Overall we only made it through to marker 72 on day one. Hope we can finish before we leave the area.