Think of the last time you arrived somewhere new.
The first evening. The phone in your hand, a dozen tabs open – a map, a review site, a blog from three summers ago, the tourist office's calendar, a friend's half-remembered tip. You found something. You never knew if it was the right thing.
Now think of the street you have lived on for years. The door you have walked past a thousand times without knowing what is behind it. The courtyard, the workshop, the little bar that everyone else seems to know about.
Metro Mode City Guides were made for both of those moments.
Chapter I
A city in pieces
We kept running into the same wall. A city's knowledge lived in fragments.
Everyone held a piece. And nobody held what a local and a visitor want at the same time. The visitor is looking for the best table tonight and the view at sunset. The resident is looking for Saturday's market, the new shop on their own street, the pharmacy open on a Sunday.
It is the same city. It should be the same guide.
- The tourist officeknew the festivals.
- The mapknew the streets.
- The guidebookknew twenty restaurants.
- The review sitesknew a thousand opinions.
- Your neighbourknew the baker who sells out by nine.
- Nobodyknew the whole city.
The information was never missing. It was scattered.
Chapter II
The idea
What if a city guide knew everything – and still had taste?
Metro Mode has always been about the life of a city: where to eat, where to stay, what to see, where to go next. So we set out to build not another list of the ten best restaurants, but the whole city – every street, every shop, every table, every sight, every evening – with the judgement to tell you what is worth your time.
For a weekend.
Forty-eight hours, and not one of them wasted.
- What is open right now, and what is on tonight
- The tables our editors would book
- The walks worth the shoes
- The view at sunset – and how to get there
For a lifetime.
Twenty years in the same city – and still surprised.
- The shop that just opened on your own street
- Saturday's market and the pharmacy open on Sunday
- The garden you have walked past a thousand times
- The story behind the façade across the square
Not a list of the usual suspects – the essential hub for everyone who touches the place.
Chapter III
Two companies, one guide
Knowing everything is a technology problem. Knowing what matters is an editorial one. So we brought the two together.
VERA PI
Holds the data.
VERA PI, the technology company behind the guides, reads the open registers a city keeps about itself – its streets and buildings, its shops and tables, its sights and its calendar – brings them together and keeps them current. In Antibes alone, that is more than two thousand places.
Metro Mode
Makes it worth reading.
Our editors choose, visit, write and recommend – and then present it: the right piece of information, shown to the right person, at the right moment. What is open near you now, what is on tonight, the tables we would book, the story of the building in front of you.
The data makes it complete.
The presentation makes it impossible to live without.
The world does not lack information. It lacks the right piece, at the right moment. That is how we mean to earn a place on your Home Screen – not with the most data, but with the best presentation of it.
Chapter IV
People are lazy. People are curious.
Nobody wants to search, type and read ten websites. But everyone wonders.
What is that building? Who designed it? What does it cost to live there? Where is the sun this afternoon? What is on here tonight?
So the heart of Metro Mode is a camera.
- 1PointHold up your phone. No typing, no searching.
- 2LockThe camera knows where you stand and which way you look, and locks onto the building or sight in front of you.
- 3DiscoverIts story, from VERA PI's databases, in a second.
Save what you see. Send it to a friend as a card. Once you have tried it, you will point it at everything – every walk becomes a discovery, even on the street you have lived on for twenty years.
What the camera shows you
- The storyYear built, architect and what lies behind the façade. Read it, or let it read itself to you.
- What it costs to live thereThe building's facts and the prices around it – straight from VERA PI.
- The sunHow many hours of direct sun the façade gets on a clear day.
- What is around youTap I'm here: the restaurants, cafés, shops and events nearest to you, with what Metro Mode recommends on top.
- TonightWhat is on, and where to eat when it is over.
Chapter V
Everyone who touches the place
Here for a weekend
Right now – what is open, what is on tonight, the weather and the sea. The tables our editors would book, and a camera that tells you what you are looking at.
Just moved in
The markets and their days, the pharmacies, the beaches, the practical side of a new life – every street and every shop in one place, so a new city starts to feel like yours in weeks, not years.
Lived there for twenty years
The shop that opened on your own street, the courtyard you never noticed, the story behind the façade across the square. The gems you never knew were there – a few minutes from your door.
Chapter VI
From here to everywhere
Every city gets its hub – every street, every building.
- Live now
All of France, Stockholm, London and Monaco. Monaco and Antibes have their full city hubs on Metro Mode.
- Within weeks
Most of Europe and the United States.
- Then
The rest of the world.
And it starts with one tap. Free, on your Home Screen, with no account and no app store – the city guides, the camera, and the pages you have read, ready even when the signal is not. The first page at the top of this story opens the same promise in every city: for a weekend, and for a lifetime.
- Everything in one placeEvery shop, every table, every sight and every event – not a shortlist, the whole city.
- Chosen by editorsMetro Mode recommends what we would send a friend to. You will see the mark wherever it applies.
- Every source namedThe registers behind each guide are listed on the page, so you always know where a fact comes from.
- Free, on your Home ScreenNo account, no app store. Add it once and the city is one tap away.
Start with the city you are in.
Pass it on
Know someone who travels, has just moved, or thinks they know their city by heart? Send them this.