SF in Your Ear -- Touring San Francisco with Your iPod

If seeing is believing, what is listening?

I thought it would be interesting to search out aural resources. Here’s some downloads for your iPods, MP3 players or just your computer to help you enjoy your trip to San Francisco.

This link is for Metroblogging San Francisco and has a good list of resources on how to “San Francisco-ize” your iPod, including tours, maps and music.

Another site with a good list of resources is the San Francisco Convention Center. It lists members' iPod and MP3 resources, many of them free. Among the offerings, free podcasts from Geogad for tours of several of the city’s attractions, including Fisherman’s Wharf, the Ferry Building and Union Square.

Sparkletack has an interesting list of podcasts, history or travel related. The S.F. history site also has its own quirky set of podcasts.

Pod City Guides are free (although you must register) and seem to be like a guide book in your ear. The guides are meant to function as a “travel book” with information on events, restaurants, hotels, sites and shopping.

AIA San Francisco has a series of what it calls ARCHCASTS highlighting significant San Francisco buildings. The free service has podcasts on the Federal Building, the JP Morgan Chase building as well as a tour of San Francisco’s common spaces and more.

Stroll San Francisco will give you a taste of its 33 walking tours for free. You can download one to sample, but the rest will cost you (but not all that much.) Chose from the 1906 earthquake, Carol Doda and San Francisco’s topless past, Chinatown, the Haight Ashbury, the cable cars or the Wells Fargo Museum.

City Story Walks offers a San Francisco “overview” for $9.99 and a comprehensive walking tour for ($19.99, or buy both for $24.99). You can check out a list of the 14 sites and check out a sample on the website. Also on the site is a sample of the overview with links to some of what City Story Walks considers insider information on where to shop, what to do with kids and more.

The San Francisco Chronicle invites users to “get behind the headlines” with its free podcasts and tours of the 1906 earthquake, North Beach and more.

If you plan on traveling with your cell phone instead of your iPod, this company offers downloadable walking tours for your mobile.

I guess I’ll make this Part One, still to come, more on food, art, culture, and well, just more.

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About the photo illustration (my first): It uses two free images from MS Clip Art.