Old Sacramento: A Self-Guided Audio Tour
Description
Are you looking for a way to discover Old Sacramento's Historic District and Waterfront without joining a tour group? Explore at your own pace with this self-guided walking tour. • Find out how Sacramento was finally saved from yearly floods by raising the town 22 feet in the 1860s • Hear from producer Lynn Momboisse a local who's created over 20 VoiceMap tours under her belt • Do it all in 90 minutes or linger at stops along the way with complete control over when you start and finish • Get unlimited use before your booking date and after it • Use the virtual tour option at home Once you’ve booked, you’ll receive a ticket with instructions and a unique code listed under “Before You Go”. Then simply install the Voice Map app and enter your code. The app displays directions to the starting point, and when you’re in the right place, pop in your headphones, and just tap start. Voice Map has automatic GPS playback, with turn-by-turn directions. It also works offline.
Tour Options
Itinerary
On this leisurely walking tour through Old Sacramento’s Historic District and Waterfront, I’ll paint a picture of what it was like for those early pioneers who were drawn to the city during the Gold Rush era.
Our tour starts at Tower Bridge. As you stroll along the cobblestone streets and wooden boardwalks, I’ll share stories about the buildings you pass.
On this tour, you'll take in Pioneer Square, the Pony Express Statue and the monument to Theodore Judah, the Central Pacific Railroad’s first Chief Engineer.
Named a California Historical Landmark in 1965, the suburb features over 50 restored historical buildings dating to the second half of the 1850s. Our tour starts at Tower Bridge. As you stroll along the cobblestone streets and wooden boardwalks, I’ll share stories about the buildings you pass, including the Firehouse Restaurant, Orleans Hotel, and What Cheer House, a former hotel and historical landmark.
Pass by the Lady Adams Building and learn its history while you walk.
Named a California Historical Landmark in 1965, the suburb features over 50 restored historical buildings dating to the second half of the 1850s. As you stroll along the cobblestone streets and wooden boardwalks, I’ll share stories about the buildings you pass, including What Cheer House, a former hotel and historical landmark.
You’ll also hear about California’s early history, and how it took 25 days via steamboat to get mail from the East Coast to California on the West Coast before the Pony Express was established in 1860.
Take in Pioneer Square, the Pony Express Statue and the monument to Theodore Judah, the Central Pacific Railroad’s first Chief Engineer.
On this tour, you'll have an opportunity to visit the California State Railroad Museum and Sacramento History Museum after learning about them.
You'll stroll down I Street and past the Big Four Building as well as down Front Street where you can sample the menu at any one of the charming bars or restaurants along the Old Sacramento Waterfront
On this tour, you'll have an opportunity to visit the California State Railroad Museum and Sacramento History Museum after learning about them.
You'll hear about Chinese migrants’ courage during the building of the Central Pacific Railroad.
The tour ends by the Delta King paddlewheeler where you'll learn its fascinating history.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- Please Note:
Reviews(11)
Easy to download app and audio tour. The starting point is across the street from the yellow bridge.
This was a great way to tour the original city of Sacramento at a leisure pace. We found it very interesting to hear about the history & the people who made it during a very important part of California’s development during the Gold Rush. Highly recommend!
We were entertained by this tour, a fair amount of walking in a small space as you go up and down through the neighborhood. It was a tad long for our taste, and needs a little updating ( there was one reference to a Ferris wheel that clearly is no longer there).
I read all the reviews. Technically, this is not a scam however, it can feel like it for a little while. To sign up for any tour, you fill out a form with your information and set up an account. This can be done with a combination of computer and phone. Okay. Next, they send the confirmation code via email, which you have to figure out among a long list of other numbers, like tour operator number, booking reference, etc. Then enter the code and it may or may not work. IF you booked the tour on some partner website, like TripAdvisor or the Marriott website, or perhaps something else, then you have to keep going on your phone, to get to another screen, where you enter one of the other numbers, such as the “BR” booking reference code. It took way too long for us to figure this out, late at night. We would have given up if we were only on our phone sitting in the park. Decreasing the barriers to participation would be great. The tour itself was excellent. The narrator knew her material, picked interesting stories, spoke clearly, and paced just right with our walking speed. We did fail to follow directions once, and the voice telling us we were lost, immediately helped us out. I would give this at least four stars if we would not have felt frustrated with the set up.
Hi there, I'm sorry to hear that the experience of getting the tour was frustrating. When you were having technical difficulties, did you contact VoiceMap support via email or telephone? We are contactable by both telephone and email, so if you have technical difficulties, please reach out to us so we can identify what is going wrong. I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed the tour content and hope this will encourage you to do more of our tours! Best, Helene
Great experience! The tech worked flawlessly. Learned a lot about Old Sac. Informative narrative. So glad we came across this!
The downloaded app of tour of Old Sacramento is a scam.. the multiple confusing steps to download never worked. Their “Help” was an email & their help response was a snarky comment to just follow their confusing directions since no one else was having a problem.
Hi there, I'm sorry that you were unhappy with your experience. Please make sure to follow up with our support team. This way, we can identify exactly what went wrong and process a refund if there was a technical issue. I'm sorry for your frustrating experience. Regards, Helene
I had a few hiccups at first with the Voicemap ap. As recommended, I had downloaded the tour prior to the trip. However, the ap prompted me to download it again when I got to the starting point. The download froze twice so my start of the tour was delayed. However, once I got started I really enjoyed the tour. It was similar to a scavenger hunt -- just follow the prompts, walk in the right direction and see the landmarks. I thought it was amazing that all the sights were there just as the narrator pointed out, Admittedly, I got a little lost a couple times but I found it helpful to stop and read the written narrative to get back on track. The tour was very enjoyable and I was able to pause it and check out a couple of the shops along the way. I was reminded about the California history I had learned about in school (and long forgotten) regarding the gold rush and railroad history. I would advise to be sure your phone is fully charged. Voicemap used a lot of battery power on my Android phone. Toward the end of the tour I was afraid my battery was going to die before I finished the tour. All in all I was happy and felt that taking this self-guided tour was a good way to see Old Sacramento on my own schedule.
This is the first time we had used this app for self guided audio tour. I will try it in any other circumstances, as we travel, as well. Really really liked using it. The information was good, the tour guide was great, and the app was Really excellent
Very informative and extremely clear directions. Audio and voice were excellent, great stories and fun facts. Highly recommend this tour!
This is an ideal way to visit Old Sacramento and do it at your own pace. Very knowledgeable, easy to listen to and interesting. Highly recommended.
