Äppelpajer & Desert Skies: En självguidad körtur

My sister and I went exploring the "behind the well-known sights" and scenery around Escondido and beyond. We discovered restful lakes, winding switchbacks, small general stores, and great vista viewing points. We loved the Hale Observatory, the apple pie in Julian, The old Catholic mission, and the beauty of the day. We were less than pleased that some destinations were not available ( the sculpture parkin Escondido), or that directions were a bit unclear so we ended up backtracking or getting gracious help from locals...although that discovery about people's willingness to help was also a pleasant surprise. We abandoned after 6 hours of driving....and we skipped the desert since even in the Polamar Mountains temps were 90°! Even with the price of gas, it was a good experience, but one that could have been a bit clearer about addresses, or included more landmarks to guide the way.

Overall it was a good app. There were a couple of minor glitches, sometimes the directions were a little unclear especially when we got near the sculptures. We got totally turned around. So we had to stop at the local visitor center and get help. Turns out there are 2 sections where the sculptures are. The app never made that clear. I think it would help if they made it 2 stops instead of one. Each stop was a good point of interest. My family liked the Observatory and the Sculptures the best and is course we had to stop for pie at the end.

The “host” of the trip did not explain that there would be long periods of silence during which he said nothing so we got confused at the beginning especially since there were multiple parking lots at the first stop and his instructions were confusing. Once we got back on the road after the first stop we thought we were going the wrong way because he wasn’t saying anything and we kept turning around and trying to get him to talk again to make sure we were going the right way. Anyway once we realized we could go miles and miles with no comments we realized the app was working but it just didn’t have a lot of details. Our experience with other audio tours is that there are not long gaps in the narrative but rather there is history, facts or jokes or interesting stories used so that the silent periods do not last too long. And when there is a long period of silence, it is explained that there will be silence. That way we know we are still on track and making the right turns. But it was fine and we enjoyed most of the stops selected for the tour. We just think it would’ve been more interesting with more narrative.

Love the tour but the narrator was not good. There is so much history he could have talked about, but 1/2 the time he didn’t talk. So we weren’t sure if the app was working.

The whole idea of this app is genius! We hope to find more in other places we visit. We appreciated the historical information in the narration of the sites visited.

If you go the wrong way you kind of know because talking won't start for audio. I loved that there was audio to tell us some history of each spot. I would totally do this again with others and I'm definitely utilizing the 30 days full access you get. I've lived in San Diego for 34 years and I still saw stuff I've never seen before. Just a heads up, we spent 7 hrs on this adventure and still didn't get to do 1 thing because it was closed and didn't get as much walking around as I would like, I was with my older parents. Definitely plan for a FULL day or break it up over the 30 days you have access.

Traffic instructions could come a little sooner as I had never been to this area but otherwise a very pleasant experience!

Great driving tour! I’ve lived in So Cal my whole life and had never visited Borrego Springs before. It was a great contrast between the mountain, small town atmosphere of Julian to the beautiful desert of Borrego Springs. We went in late fall and it was very pleasant weather wise. I would definitely NOT recommend this as a summer tour unless you like 100+ degree heat. Bring plenty of water any time and be sure to have sun protection if you’re going to do any hiking. Overall, the trip was fun and interesting learning the history behind places only a few hours away from home.

We had never tried a trip like this before. We had a great time. The app worked perfectly. The sculptures at Barrago Springs are amazing and we would not have seen them if not this trip. The app worked well, we loved the history and appreciated the advance warning if the road was windy or not.

We were surprised by the places near us that we wouldn’t usually go to. We didn’t have time to do the whole route since we started later than we should have. When in Escondido again we will visit the places we missed.