Melbourne

Melbourne takes its coffee very seriously and its football tribally. Itself, rather less so – and that's the most Melburnian thing about it. Melburnians will tell you, with genuine sincerity and only mild smugness, that their city is the best in Australia. And the best in the world, actually, if you push them.

The thing is, most visitors never quite find the Melbourne locals mean. They tick off the obvious landmarks and head for the airport, having seen a very pleasant city and missed the actual one. The real Melbourne lives in its laneways – those tight, graffiti-covered corridors threading between the main streets, hiding espresso bars and record shops and galleries that have no signage and no reason to advertise.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours follow you down those corridors and along the Birrarung – the Yarra River, as the Wurundjeri people have always known it – past Federation Square and through the Block Arcade, where the 1890s Gold Rush money still gleams in the tilework. Put your earbuds in and let the locals show you the way.