Photo: Kevin Gabbert - User: (WT-shared) Kevin James at wts wikivoyage (Public domain)
A self-guided audio walk around Gustavia, the harbour town of Saint-Barthélemy, which France transferred to Sweden in 1784 and which was named for King Gustav III and made a free port in 1785. It starts on the harbour, telling the trade that passed through it, including the trade in enslaved Africans, and goes on to the Governors' House, customs house and later town hall, and the Town Major House, where the deed returning the island to France was signed on March 16, 1878. Then come the Anglican church of 1855, the Swedish Bell Tower of 1799 with its Stockholm-cast bell, the Catholic church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption, the climb to Fort Karl above Shell Beach, and Dinzey House, a stone-and-timber merchant house that survived the fire of 1852, with two reconstructed houses of the enslaved behind it. Round the harbour are the Wall House, now the island's museum and library, Fort Oscar, now the Gendarmerie, Fort Gustave beside the lighthouse, and the Swedish Cemetery at Public. Ships anchor off Gustavia and bring passengers to the quay by tender.
12 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 · 37 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 5 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.
Gustavia Harbour, Governors' House, Town Major House.
Saint Bartholomew's Anglican Church, Swedish Bell Tower, Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption Church, Fort Karl, Dinzey House.
Wall House, Fort Oscar, Fort Gustave, Swedish Cemetery.
A stone and lava base with a timber floor above, the free port's customs house from 1816 and the town hall until 2001.
A 2006 rebuilding on the spot where the deed returning Saint-Barthélemy from Sweden to France was signed on March 16, 1878.
Built in 1799 of volcanic stone and wood, its bell cast in Stockholm and rung morning and evening and for public events.
A merchant house of the early 1820s that survived the fire of 1852, with two reconstructed houses of the enslaved behind it.
Thick stone walls of uncertain original purpose, given a new frame inside in the 1990s and opened in 1995 as the island's museum.
The French battery of 1769 rebuilt by the Swedes, with a powder house, a vaulted cistern and old cannons beside the lighthouse.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 12 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. 12 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 Gustavia, St Barts — the Swedish Port, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
12 narration points, including Gustavia Harbour, Fort Karl, Dinzey House, Fort Gustave and Governors' House. That is about 13 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.
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. 12 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.