Harrogate Audio Tour: Taking the Waters

Explore Harrogate at your own pace

Harrogate's mineral springs made it the most fashionable resort in England. But every glass of sulphur water dispensed, every hot room maintained at the right temperature, every bath chair pushed up Montpellier Hill was the daily labour of working people whose names are rarely on the plaques. This tour follows the dipper elected Queen of the Wells, the Swiss pastry cook who arrived at King's Cross not knowing which city he was headed to, the engineer who became the town's greatest benefactor, the first park superintendent who shaped the valley for the public gaze, and the banjo player who recognised a famous novelist sitting quietly under a borrowed name. From the first spring discovered in the late sixteenth century to the great hydrotherapy palace opened at the end of the nineteenth, this is the story of the workforce that sold health to Victorian Britain.

Photo: Diane Pilkington, Unsplash

Tour details

• Duration: 1 hour 22 minutes, entirely at your own pace
• Distance: around 3.9 km (2.4 miles)
• Stops: 11 landmarks, including Harrogate railway station, Royal Hall, Ripon Road, Harrogate, Crescent Gardens, Harrogate
• Audio: up to 28 minutes of narration
• Starts at: Harrogate railway station

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

• Harrogate railway station
• Royal Hall, Ripon Road, Harrogate
• Crescent Gardens, Harrogate
• Old Swan Hotel, Swan Road, Harrogate
• Royal Pump Room Museum, Harrogate
• Old Magnesia Well Pump Room, Valley Gardens, Harrogate
• Bogs Field, Valley Gardens, Harrogate
• Crown Hotel, Crown Place, Harrogate
• Royal Baths and Turkish Baths, Parliament Street, Harrogate
• Bettys Cafe Tea Rooms, 9 Cambridge Crescent, Harrogate
• Tewit Well, The Stray, Harrogate

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: Ebun Oluwole, Diane Pilkington (Unsplash).