We have renewed our free “Slapta meilė” audio guide – a walk through the Old Town of Vilnius in the footsteps of the love story of Barbara Radziwiłł and Sigismund Augustus, told as if by Barbara herself. The guide used to run on a separate map tool that was awkward on a phone. Now everything works right on our website: nothing to download, no sign-up and no payment.
What makes the new audio guide special
- It guides you step by step. The map shows where you are and the walking route to the next stop, and the card shows the next turn and how far there is still to go.
- It knows when you have arrived. At the stop your phone vibrates and says: “You have arrived. Let’s listen.”
- You can listen at home, too. The recordings play one after another, and the map shows where each place is.
- Three languages. Texts and recordings in Lithuanian, English and Polish. The guide speaks the language of the page, and you can switch the audio language with one tap.
- It saves your data. The recordings are now almost three times lighter – about 15 MB for the whole route. Audio keeps playing when the phone is locked, and the screen stays on while you walk.
- It remembers where you stopped. Next time you can continue from the same stop.
- Every stop has its own picture. They are details of Miglė Kosinskaitė’s painting “Augustas ir Barbora”.
The route has 21 stops: about 3.8 km, about 50 minutes of walking and 31 minutes of audio. It starts in the square on Šventaragio Street, where the old bed of the Vilnelė once flowed, and ends at the Necropolis.
How to use it: 5 steps
1. Choose how you will listen
Open slaptameile.lt/en/audiogidas. If you are in Vilnius, tap “Start at stop 1”. If you want to listen at home, tap “Listen from stop 1”. Already somewhere on the route? “Nearest stop” takes you to the closest one.
2. Follow the directions
When the browser asks, let it see your location. The blue dot is you, the line is the way to the stop, and below you see the next turn and how far there is to go. If you take a wrong turn, the route is recalculated.
3. Listen when you arrive
At the stop the guide says “You have arrived. Let’s listen.” Tap “Listen”; you can skip 15 seconds back or forward or speed it up. When you are done, tap “Next step” and the guide takes you to the next stop.
4. Or listen at home
With “Listen at home” there is no need to walk: when a recording ends, the next one starts a few seconds later, and the map shows each place. At the top you always have “Start”, the switch between listening at home and being guided, and “Stops”.
5. All stops in one place
Below the map you will find all 21 stops with descriptions and recordings. Tap “Show on the map” to see where a stop is. Stops you have listened to are ticked.
Enjoyed it?
The audio guide was made by the small “Slapta meilė” team. If you enjoyed the walk, you can write a review at the bottom of the audio guide page and, if you like, thank us with any amount you choose. And one tip: bring headphones.
