Smart Audio Tours

November 18, 2013 by Javi the Frog

Smart Audio Tour Ipod devices

Old Costa Rican Ten pesos bill at Gold Museum

Javi the Frog next to old pottery made by indigenous

With Smart Audio Tours, you can discover the secrets of Costa Rica that only locals and frogs like me know. Smart Audio Tours offers a cool new application that provides visitors with the opportunity to experience main tourist hotspots and cultural attractions through individually guided tours. Pull out your own smartphone (if I had one I would too), or rent one through to museum to listen to insightful descriptions of exhibits and look at photos and videos, all in your language of choice. In Costa Rica, Smart Audio Tours walk or hop you through the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum and Numismatic Museum, which are both located in downtown San Jose.

It will allow visitors to tour the museums at their own pace, without interruptions and without a tour guide, Virginia Vargas, the museums director, told the Tico Times.

Smart Audio Tours is a great way to learn about the exhibits you are interested in!

Pre-Columbian Gold Museum

The Pre-Columbian Gold Museum has one of the largest collections of golden jewelry in Central America. It's so shiny I sometimes have to look away. It sits under the Plaza de Cultura in Costa Rica's Central Bank. With Smart Audio Tours, you can explore all 1600 gorgeous artifacts that trace back to 500 A.D. while learning about the artisans who constructed them and the pieces symbolic meaning. Experience the full story all through the touch of a smartphone. From jaguars to necklaces to chest plates, the gold - and the history behind it - will blow you away.

Guanacaste Escape Adventure Tour

7 Days / 6 Nights

Starting at $779 per person

See Itinerary

The tour will take you through two levels of the building, starting with an introduction and orientation area that highlights the social evolution of pre-Columbian cultures. It also covers the development of metallurgy, or the science of engineering metals. That stuff is a little too complex for me, personally, but you'll probably enjoy it.

Make your way up to the third floor where you'll find numerous exhibits of gold pieces. Learn about their day-to-day use, spiritual importance and ties to the structure of early Costa Rican societies. Have a question about a specific piece of gold? Smart Audio will fill you in with all you need to know.

In a place steeped in history and gold, it doesn't hurt to be rich in knowledge - the Gold Museum is a perfect day trip.

Numismatic Museum

Located in the same building as the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum, the Numismatic Museum (numismatics is the collection of currency) packs a permanent exhibition of the different modes of money from 1502 to present day. Smart Audio Tours will take you through the different aspects of currency, the methods of bartering and the use of coins, which began during the colonial period. I always wonder what frog life was like back then. Curious what certain symbols on a dollar mean? On Smart Audio's device, you can pull up the nuances of the beautiful and valuable coins. The museum also features a fascinating video called Paper Passions and Silver.

Prices

Smart Audio Tours costs $7 for adults and $3 for seniors and kids under 18. If you don't have a smartphone, no worries, you can rent one at the museums.

The Perks

With no previous reservations, you can use the latest technology to learn about fascinating exhibits at the Pre-Columbian Gold and Numismatic Museums.

You get to use iPhones, Ipods or smart phones from Smart Audio Tours.

You can save money on guided tours. Oftentimes, there are certain displays at the museum that catch your eye more than others. Get to the good stuff that you want to learn about with Smart Audio Tours.

Have fun answering trivia questions for the opportunity to win prizes.

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