Photo: Lapplaender (CC BY-SA 3.0 de)
A self-guided audio walking tour of Chania — the Venetian Harbour and the Old Town: 26 narrated stops, each telling why the place is here, who built it and what it was for.
26 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 70 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 13 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Byzantine Wall of Kastelli, Church of San Salvatore, Firkas Fortress, Topanas Quarter, Harbour Mole, Küçük Hasan Pasha Mosque, Megalo Arsenali, Ruined Monastery of Santa Maria dei Miracoli, Venetian Arsenals, Venetian Harbour.
Ahmet Aga Minaret, Chania Lighthouse, Church of the Agioi Anargyroi, Sabbionara Gate and Bastion, Splantzia Square, Army War Museum, Tanais memorial.
Cathedral of the Presentation of the Virgin, Catholic Church of the Assumption, Church of St Francis, Etz Hayyim Synagogue, Kastelli Hill, Ottoman bath on Zambeliou Street, Schiavo Bastion, Church of Agios Nikolaos, Municipal Market Hall.
The Byzantine Wall of Kastelli, built to fortify the Byzantine acropolis and settlement on Kastelli hill, encloses the elevated ground above…
The Church of San Salvatore stands at the northwestern corner of Chania’s Venetian fortifications, beside the San Salvatore bastion.
The Firkas Fortress, at the northwestern end of Chania’s Old Harbour, was built by the Venetians to protect the harbour entrance.
The Topanas quarter occupies the northwestern part of Chania's Old Town, with the Venetian harbour to the east and the old Jewish quarter,…
The broad stone arm of the Harbour Mole extends into the bay, protecting the harbour basin from the open sea.
The domed mosque of Küçük Hasan Pasha, also called the Mosque of the Janissaries, stands on the harbour waterfront.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 26 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 26 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Chania — the Venetian Harbour and the Old Town, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
26 narration points, including Firkas Fortress, Topanas Quarter, Harbour Mole, Küçük Hasan Pasha Mosque and Megalo Arsenali. That is about 38 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Yes, from Chania. There is no start time and no group to keep up with, so you can stop at any point and head back to the ship. Keep your own eye on the all-aboard time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 26 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.