How to Build a Custom Interactive Audio Tour for Your Local Area Using Claude and ElevenLabs

Every town has its secrets. Not the grand, sweeping historical events that get listed on Wikipedia, but the small, odd, and slightly ridiculous things that actually make a place tick. Maybe it is the oddly shaped postbox on the corner that was allegedly hit by a runaway milk float in 1974, or the pub that claims to have hosted a minor member of the royal family for a single, disastrous pint.

Building a custom, interactive audio tour for your local area is one of the most satisfying weekend projects you can undertake. It is part local history, part creative writing, and part lightweight development. By combining the narrative flair of Claude with the uncanny realism of modern voice synthesis, you can create a walking tour that feels like a premium BBC production—even if you are just talking about the local chip shop.

Here is how to design, write, voice, and deploy your own hyper-local interactive audio tour.

Step 1: Map Your Route and Collect the Lore

Before touching a single line of prompt text, you need to go for a walk. A good audio tour is highly spatial; it relies on the listener standing in a specific spot and looking at a specific thing.

Pick five to seven points of interest within a comfortable 15-minute walking radius. Avoid the temptation to only choose obvious landmarks. The best stops are the ones people walk past every day without noticing: - An unusual piece of brickwork or architectural anomaly. - A street name with an odd etymology. - A bench with a strangely specific memorial plaque.

Jot down the coordinates, some rough notes about what is physically visible at each spot, and any historical facts (or local myths) you want to include.

Step 2: Scripting with Claude (Finding the Voice)

Writing for the ear is entirely different from writing for the eye. Written sentences can be long and complex; spoken sentences need to be punchy, rhythmic, and easy to digest while walking.

We will use Claude to turn our raw notes into a compelling, conversational script. If you run into prompt issues or need help structuring your inputs, you can refer to our glossary for terms or check Claude Support for API troubleshooting.

Use this system prompt to set the tone:

`text You are an expert audio documentary producer for a high-end public radio station. Your task is to write an engaging, witty, and deeply local audio tour script based on raw notes.

Keep the tone warm, dryly humorous, and conversational. Use British spelling and phrasing.

Rules for writing for audio: 1. Keep sentences short. Avoid complex sub-clauses. 2. Use spatial cues to tell the listener where to look (e.g., "Look up at the second-floor window," "If you turn your back to the postbox..."). 3. Write out numbers as they should be spoken. 4. Include brief sound design cues in brackets, like [Brief pause] or [Sound of distant traffic fades]. `

Feed your raw notes to Claude stop by stop. For example:

"Here are my notes for Stop 3: The Red Lion Pub. Built 1840. Rumoured to have a resident ghost named Barnaby who only knocks over bitter. The sign outside has a misspelling of 'Lion' on the reverse side. The listener should be standing directly opposite the front door, next to the black lamp post."

Claude will output a beautifully paced script that naturally guides the listener’s gaze and keeps them entertained.

Step 3: Voice Synthesis with ElevenLabs

Now, we need to turn that script into high-quality audio. While you could record this yourself, using a synthetic voice allows you to experiment with different personas—a dry, academic British lecturer, a charismatic local storyteller, or even a fictionalised historical figure.

1. Take Claude’s script and strip out the sound design cues.
2. In ElevenLabs, choose a voice that matches your intended vibe. For a classic British tour guide, look for voices with clear, deliberate pacing and a warm, slightly gravelly tone.
3. Adjust the stability and clarity settings. For narration, you want high stability (around 75%) to keep the delivery consistent, but enough expression to prevent it from sounding robotic.
4. Generate the audio files for each stop and save them as clearly labeled MP3s (e.g., stop_01_red_lion.mp3).

Step 4: Building the Interactive Web App

You do not need to build a native mobile app to make this work. A simple, mobile-friendly web page is much easier for your listeners to access—no downloads required.

You can build a clean, single-page app that uses the browser's Geolocation API to detect when the user is near a stop, or keep it beautifully low-tech with QR codes.

Let’s go with the QR code approach. It is reliable, does not suffer from GPS drift in built-up areas, and adds a fun, physical element to the tour.

Create a simple HTML page for each stop, hosted on a platform like GitHub Pages or Vercel. Here is a lightweight template:

`html <!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <title>The Local Lore Tour - Stop 3</title> <style> body { font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif; background: #faf8f5; color: #2c2520; padding: 2rem; max-width: 600px; margin: 0 auto; } h1 { font-size: 1.8rem; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; } .audio-player { margin: 2rem 0; width: 100%; } .instructions { font-style: italic; color: #665; } </style> </head> <body> <p class="instructions">Stop 3 of 5: Stand opposite the pub door.</p> <h1>The Mystery of the Red Lion</h1> <audio class="audio-player" controls src="stop_03_red_lion.mp3"></audio> <p>Look closely at the hanging sign above the door. If you wait long enough, you might spot the deliberate mistake on the reverse side...</p> </body> </html> `

Step 5: Going Live and Planting the Codes

Once your pages are hosted, generate a QR code for each URL using a free generator. Print them out.

Now, how you deploy these depends on your appetite for mild, harmless civic mischief. You could laminate the QR codes and discreetly attach them to lamp posts or benches at your stops (use removable cable ties, not permanent adhesive—we are not vandals). Alternatively, if you want to keep it strictly legal and long-lasting, print them on a physical map that you hand to friends, or host a single launch page with a map and play buttons that unlock as they walk.

Take your headphones, head outside, and test it. There is nothing quite like hearing a professional, cinematic voice in your ears telling you to look at a crack in the wall of your local library—and suddenly seeing your everyday environment in a completely new light.