Tag: podcasts

Categories
Philosophy

Your savior on long car trips

Yes, we buckled under and got a backseat DVD player in our minivan….so shoot me for not playing the License Plate Game and other more creative car games, but boy does a movie keep the squabbling siblings quiet!

The only problem is that too many hours of looking at a small moving screen in a gently moving vehicle gets at least one of my kids mildly carsick.

Here’s another idea that I found on the tech site Mashable to keep your little darlings occupied — downloadable audio books from AudibleKids.

From the Mashable post:

“The new site, called AudibleKids, has about 4,000 titles from 75+ publishers available at the time of the launch, with exclusive stories from the likes of R.L. Stine (who didn’t love Goosebumps?)”

If your kids are part of the iPod army, you’re all set.

If not, no worries; other mp3 players are compatible and you can also burn to a CD through iTunes or stream from a computer.

Ease on down the road….

Categories
Blog Tips

iPod and audio tours: The death of tourguides?

Podtours company logo

Right now, I’m wearing a T-shirt that says, “Your Podcast is Lame.”

No, I’m not doing podcasts and I rarely even have much time to listen to them myself, but I went to a speaker panel at SXSW Interactive called “5 Tips to Make Your Lame Podcast Listenable” and thanks to a few really dorky questions from me about travel podcasts, they tossed me a T-shirt. 

I wanted to know more about this communication tool, and panel members Steve Mack from Lux Media and Jose Castillo of thinkjose did a great job of highlighting some podcasting do’s and don’ts.

I’ve written about using travel/tour podcasts before (just think, your kids are plugged in but they only look like they’re not learning anything as you walk the streets of New York or Paris.) There are language podcasts, a whole list of travel podcasts on the UK’s Guardian site, podcasts from Europe expert Rick Steves, plus a bunch more tips here on iPods and family travel.

Just yesterday, though, Andrea left a comment on one of those posts, with a link to her UK company Podtours.  They have a good selection for European destinations; pretty heavy on the cathedrals but if you’re going to drag your kids to, say, Chartres in France anyway, she has an audio tour to keep them occupied.  She blogs as well, including posts for those looking for good beer in Europe (bonus!)

She also wrote:  “I suspect the days of the ‘guy with the umbrella’ could be numbered. I’ll never take a guided tour again because at only 5 foot 4, there’s always someone taller in front of me!”

Do you agree? Have you used audio/mp3 tours with your kids?

Tell us about it….

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Categories
Tips

Where is the Toilet? Language Lesson Podcasts.

Just saw this article on the UK’s Guardian Unlimited site — free downloadable Spanish language podcasts for travelers.

Yes, it’s great that you learned how to order a cerveza during your Spring Break to Cancun, but with kids you mostly need to know how to find the bathroom in multiple languages.