At the beginning of the season we knew that things would change while working on the process. But that it would happen so fast, we couldn’t have imagined. Routaki 2.1 is, kind of, on its way.

After driving the Cultural route the way it was built in 2007 we realised again, that a full day in a rental car is probably not what you as a tourist prefer to do, during your holiday. It took a bit of consideration, but after the well meant advice of Angela, the CEO of the new start up FlextoursKreta , we made the decision to build a new concept.

This new business model is already worked out for the Dutch friends among you, as you can read on our homepage.

What’s the new business model:

• the routes will be downloadable in PDF form for free !!
• in the routes it is indicated where the RAGiF (Routaki’s Audio Guide info Files) will start automatically.
• to listen to these RAGiF you as a guest have to install the APP of itourmobile for free and buy the mentioned route within this APP (at the moment we are in betá, so everything is still for free).
• by the use of GPS coordinates the APP makes sure that the audio files will start automatically and will give this unique feeling –> your personal tour guide  is with you all the time.
• small pieces of routes all ending at a POINT OF INTEREST e.g.  a Cretan city, a deserted beach, a special cave or a local winery.
• everywhere on Crete e.g. from Chania to Elafounisi, from Agia Pelagia to Knossos or from Kato Gouves to Agios Nicolaos. And as we think big; in the rest of the world!

Google Earth improved a lot, so working ‘in the office’ makes it possible to use bits and pieces of the existing Routaki 1.0 routes and interact them in the new model.  The decision to use PDF as a way to inform you about the route description comes from the remarks that an average tourist likes to have something in his/her hand, where he/she can rely on. Google Maps still asks an huge amount of money to use their services within a commercial product, so we thought it’s wise to do it in this form. Everybody can download a PDF reader for free and all mobile phones and tablets can install and save them.

The guys behind the start-up of ITOURMOBILE  are working hard to provide the best service possible, so that you as a traveller will experience no problems while driving.

The first two routes (Malia – Agios Nicolaos) and (Kato Gouves – Agios Nicolaos) are ready in the Dutch language. So now it’s time to start translating into English and German. If you think you can help us with this, please let us know. We’re still looking for freelancers, who like to offer their services for our process.