Walk This Way

There’s the Duck Tour, the Trolley Tour (we’re not talking Green Line), Park Service Docents, the Freedom Trail, and dozens of biking and walking tours of the city. Steven Tyler may be local, but Bostonist has already seen the Old State House and we can’t be wasting our precious cell phone minutes to listen to him talk about it. With our attempt to find out some of those local hidden historical markers, we were very happy to find this “Hidden Historical Mania-in-a-can.” When Bostonist once again welcomes the parents to town for the Holidays this year, we’re sending them out, bundled up, for our new favorite tour of Boston. AudisseyGuides, produced by Robert Pyles. An intrepid, Boston-native, twenty-something entrepreneur, Pyles has pulled together a 27-stop tour of historic downtown Boston for sites we’ve passed by a thousand times and, now, will never think of the same way again.

The audio tour is available in MP3 format for download and the website has a printable map. The tour can also be purchased on CD (which you can, of course, upload to your portable audio player of choice). The CD, though a tad pricier, comes with a glossy color map and, if you order soon, would make a great holiday gift. Bostonist was happy to hear a whole host of voices as we walked the tour, from Paddy Grace, proprietor of the Littlest Bar – whose suggestion of a pint we took – to ‘Big Lou’ Demarco of Caffe Graffiti. Rob promises an update after Paddy closes up shop. Pyles as narrator guides you on a tour of sites you’re probably familiar with and some you’ve never given a second look. While most tours bring you to visible landmarks, AudisseyGuides took Bostonist down at least one alleyway we’d yet to traverse.

“It’s not all tri-corner hats and tea parties” is the impression that we get from Dicky Barrett. His entry on the tour is one of many that includes sounds of the scene rather than just the straight narration (and quacking) you get on other tours. Bostonist walked this two-hour tour in the gleaming sunshine of daylight. Next time we’re down for dusk tour, we think it might be a little different experience.

Audissey Guides is Boston-based enterprise conceived by one of many local young professionals, Rob Pyles. He's looking to get the project up and running in other cities across the nation. Watch out, Seattlest, he's coming for you next.