Bedford Audio Tour: Journey Through Bedford's Timeless Tapestry

Explore Bedford at your own pace

A cannonball still lies buried in Bedford's heart-a silent witness to battles fought and secrets kept along its winding streets.

This self-guided audio tour leads you through the city's unexpected corners, inviting you to uncover stories that echo far beyond the guidebooks. Wander at your own pace and unlock hidden dramas stitched into Bedford's very fabric.

What panic swept through the Bedford Corn Exchange during wartime broadcasts? Which priceless relic vanished from The Higgins Art Gallery under the cover of night? Why does the stonework at Bedford Castle bear marks that no stonemason claims responsibility for?

Photo: Stephen Davies, Unsplash

Tour details

• Duration: 1 hour 3 minutes, entirely at your own pace
• Distance: around 2.4 km (1.5 miles)
• Stops: 12 landmarks, including St Paul's Church, Bedford, Bedford Civic Theatre, Old Town Hall, Bedford
• Audio: up to 30 minutes of narration
• Starts at: St Paul's Church, Bedford

Map data by Mapbox and OpenStreetMap contributors

How it works

• Book here and a redemption code arrives by email within minutes.
• Download the free AudaTours app on your phone and enter the code.
• Download the tour once and the whole thing works offline.
• Walk to the first stop and press play. The audio for each landmark starts automatically as you approach it, so your phone can stay in your pocket.

There is no fixed date and no start time. The date you pick at checkout does not matter, and the tour stays on your phone permanently, so you can use it whenever you next visit and walk it again as often as you like.

What is included

• Professionally narrated audio that plays automatically at each stop
• An interactive map showing the walking route between landmarks
• Full offline access once downloaded, so you need no data or signal
• Freedom to start, pause and resume whenever you like
• Lifetime access - your code never expires

Where you will stop

• St Paul's Church, Bedford
• Bedford Civic Theatre
• Old Town Hall, Bedford
• Shire Hall, Bedford
• The Higgins Art Gallery & Museum
• Castle, Bedford
• John Bunyan Museum
• Bedford bus station
• St Peter's Church, Bedford
• Statue of John Bunyan, Bedford
• Reflections of Bedford
• Bedford Corn Exchange

Image: AudaTours

What is AudaTours?

AudaTours turns a walk through a city into a story. Our guides bring landmarks to life with the history, the scandals and the detail you would never get from a plaque.

• Immersive: real stories about the places in front of you, not a dry commentary
• Offline: download once and use it with no data, anywhere
• At your own pace: start, pause and resume whenever you want
• Accurate: every story is built from verified historical sources and checked before release

Good to know

• This is a self-guided audio tour on your own phone. There is no in-person guide.
• It does not include entry to any building or site along the route.
• The landmarks on the tour are not affiliated with AudaTours.
• You need a smartphone with Android 7.0 or later, or iOS 16 or later.
• Bring headphones and start with a charged phone.

Who it suits

Solo travellers, couples, families and small groups who would rather explore on their own schedule than follow a guide and a fixed departure time. It suits a first visit, and it suits anyone who has already seen the famous sights and wants to know what actually happened in them.

Image credits

Photos: Stephen Davies (Unsplash); Simon Speed (Wikimedia Commons, public domain); AudaTours.