Every AudiGuide route is written and recorded by people who live in the cities they narrate. They are historians, architects, and local guides who walk the streets regularly and notice what changes.
Historian, Lisbon and Sintra routes
Inês spent six years researching the royal estates of Sintra for her doctoral thesis. Her scripts for the Moorish Castle and the National Palace include details most visitors miss, such as the original 15th-century kitchen layout and the restoration debates around the azulejo panels.
Architect, Porto and riverfront routes
Miguel worked on the rehabilitation of Ribeira's old warehouses before joining AudiGuide. His commentary on the Porto riverside explains the granite construction methods and the iron bridges from an engineer's perspective, without losing the human stories behind each structure.
Accessibility consultant, Évora and Alentejo routes
Rita tests every route herself before publication, using a wheelchair. She marks which cobblestone streets are manageable, where the ramps are steep, and which monuments have alternative entrances. Her notes appear as practical flags in the audio scripts, so families and visitors with limited mobility can plan ahead.
Each guide is reviewed twice a year, and routes are updated when a museum changes its opening hours or a street closes for works.
AudiGuide started in 2016 with a simple frustration: standing in front of a 16th-century altarpiece in Lisbon with nothing but a thin museum leaflet. We wanted the kind of context a local historian would give you, without the fixed schedule of a group tour.
We began by recording three routes in Alfama and the Sé district, testing them with friends and their families. The first versions were rough, but the feedback was consistent: people wanted more stories, fewer dates, and honest advice about which stairs were steep and which ticket queues were worth skipping. Over the following years we expanded to Porto, Sintra and Évora, always working with the same small team of narrators and researchers. Today the catalogue covers more than forty museums, monuments and urban walks, all of them available offline and narrated in European Portuguese.
AudiGuide Portugal is a small team of historians, architects, and local writers based in Santarém. We produce narrated walking routes for people who want more than a list of opening hours — for travellers who pause at a facade, wonder about a street name, or want to understand why a palace was built the way it was. Our guides are written in Portuguese, recorded by local voices, and tested on the ground before they go live.
We work for independent travellers, families with children, and school groups who prefer to move at their own pace. No heavy apps, no group schedules. You buy a route, download it, and listen offline while you walk through Lisbon, Porto, Sintra, or Évora. Each narration includes historical context, architectural details, and practical notes about accessibility and the quieter hours at each site.
If you have ever stood in front of a monument and wished someone could explain it properly — that is the gap we fill.
A field note from our editors
When we research a route, we walk it twice. Once to check the facts, and once to check the pace. The best audio guide is the one that lets you stop for coffee, miss a turn, and still find your way back to the story.
Since the first recordings in Lisbon's museums, we have expanded route by route, always with the same editorial standard: narratives written and voiced by local specialists, checked against archival sources and tested on site.
Lisbon, March 2019
We launched with audio guides for the National Museum of Ancient Art, the Jerónimos Monastery, and eight walking routes through Alfama and the Baixa. Each one was recorded in a single take, with background noise kept to a minimum.
Porto, June 2021
After requests from school groups and families, we rebuilt the playback system to work without a signal. We also added a slower narration option and shorter versions of each route for younger listeners.
Sintra, April 2023
The collection now covers the romantic palaces of Sintra and the medieval core of Évora, including the Chapel of Bones and the Roman temple. We also introduced accessibility notes for each stop, based on visits with wheelchair users.
Santarém, January 2025
With the addition of the Azulejo Trail and the riverside routes in Porto, AudiGuide now covers more than forty monuments and urban paths across Portugal. Every route is reviewed twice a year to keep opening hours and entrance details accurate.