AD | I have been or could be if you click on a link in this post compensated via a cash payment, gift or something else of value for writing this post. See our full disclosure policy and privacy policy for more details.
Why BookBeat – the new audio book streaming service – is the perfect travel companion!
This post is in collaboration with BookBeat. For £12.90 per month, BookBeat gives listeners unlimited access to thousands of audiobooks, which you can access whenever they like, through your phone. BookBeat is only available in the UK.
Readers of Mini Travellers can sign up for one month’s free trial, instead of the usual two weeks. Just go to https://www.bookbeat.com/uk/MiniTravellers for your months trial which includes half term!
I love reading but since having the kids I’ve read less due to having less free time, however I have developed a love for audiobooks. I have a current subscription to an audio book service and listen to a couple a month. I listen to these when I’m cooking, driving, trying to fall to sleep and when I’m running. It’s a great way to get your book fix whilst getting something else done as well!
With BookBeat you can listen to books wherever you are, whether you have an internet connection or not. You simply search through the categories they have (broken down into ages for the kids/type for adults and download the books to your phone. It really is that simple.
The main issue I have with my current audio subscription service, is not that if I want to listen to two books in a month it costs me £14.99 a month – double if not more than the cost of two paperbacks, but that if I download a book and I don’t like the voice of the narrator then I’ve effectively wasted that download for that month as I won’t be able to listen to it. If I can’t get on board with the narrators voice it doesn’t matter how good the book is, I just can’t listen to it. Anyway I digress slightly.
The reason that I love using BookBeat is that I can download as many books at once as my phone will allow. I can (and am currently) listening to a travel book ‘Have Mother, Will Travel’, ‘The Nest: apparently America’s hottest new bestseller and ‘The One that got Away’. I listen to them at different times, in different moods, one of the narrators voices sends to me sleep and the other perks me up to run. It’s the perfect solution. Add to that the fact that I can download books for the kids to listen to in the car at the same time and you have a near perfect streaming service.
Ahead of our trip to Wales at half term a few hours drive I have just downloaded David Walliams – The Worlds Worst Children and Famous People in History. I think I’m going to download The Great Galleon too, it’s a lovely collection of books for the drive and there will be one that suits all of them (or at least one of them) on the journey down.
It’s also a fantastic thing for them to listen to on their own iPads when we are flying as individual books can be downloaded to each iPad. No arguments there. Just to note that while you can use BookBeat on up to five devices you can only listen from one device at a time. i.e. one audiobook at time.
I say near perfect – it’s the sort of service that when it becomes more popular it will be – just at the moment there isn’t as many books on there as I’d like there to be. You can’t for example listen to Roald Dahl’s back catalogue which is a firm favourite in this house and books like Harry Potter for example are noticeable by their absence. This matters less to me as an adult as I’ll always find something I like, but my kids who are just discovering their reading journey do have some firm favourites they’d like to see there.
It is however a service that I’m going to switch to. I just love the multiple book options and I’m hopeful that in time more of my favourite books, and the kids favourites will be on there too!
Don’t forget you can sign up for a one month free trial with BookBeat instead of the standard two weeks they usually offer by simply using the following link.
https://www.bookbeat.com/uk/MiniTravellers
Wondering if it is for your family? Well take a look at what some other bloggers think:
- Single Slummy Mummy
- Mum in the Madhouse
- Mummy Travels
- The Pidgeon Pair and Me
- Five Little Doves
- Just Average Jen
- What the Redhead Said
- Kiddy Charts
- TinBox Traveller
1 - Join our Reviews and Recommendations Facebook Group here which includes lots of ideas for things to do - you can post your own recommendations too.
2 - Buy our debut novel for boys and girls ages 7-11 The Little Museum (an exciting adventure set in France)
3 - Click here to leave Mini Travellers a Google Review.
4 - Share this post with your friends
5 - Follow Mini Travellers on the following platforms :
Thank you for your support as always.
This sounds like such a good idea. I’ll have to get organised and download some books.
BookBeat was the first audiobook service I tried, and it’s interesting what you say about it being better value than your old service. Now I’m even more determined to stick with it!