Groupon founder Andrew Mason's new travel app Detour expands to more cities

Detour has expanded from its home base in San Francisco to offer its custom audio tours in 7 other cities worldwide. The app features well-crafted, location-aware audio guides that adjust the content according to where the user happens to be. The guides are also group-friendly, as the app will sync content across one group taking the same tour.

Detour is the next chapter for Groupon founder Andrew Mason, who has taken some of his learnings about facilitating experiences and taken on this new venture with aplomb. In chatting about the expansion with TechCrunch, Mason pointed out that the fiercest competition comes from companies that are creating virtual worlds that compete with reality:

We see Oculus as the competition. Our job is to make the real world more interesting again.

It’s not just about information and experience. It’s about helping people walk in someone else’s shoes and form a deeper connection to people who identify with a place.

The way that the brand forges this connection is by working exclusively with experienced radio producers and sound engineers. This allows Detour's audio guides to sound more real and realistic — kind of like This American Life but for travel. The tours are interesting and a bit oddball without being blatantly tourist or pedestrian. The same will hold true for the guides that

You can download Detour here and learn more below.