Picture standing in front of a painting that stops you in your tracks. You want to know more. You spot a nearby QR code, scan it with your phone, and a voice tells you all about what you're looking at. That’s a self-guided tour.
In this article, we cover what a self-guided tour actually is, how one works, and what you need to make one a reality.
So, what is a self-guided tour?
A self-guided tour lets visitors explore a place using their smartphone (or a loaned device) as the guide. Visitors move through a series of stops at their own pace. At each one, they get audio narration, text, images, maps, or interactive content. Audio is the most common format; an audio tour is simply a self-guided tour where the storytelling is carried by voice.
The "self-guided" part is the whole point: there's no live guide setting the pace. Visitors start when they want, pause where they want, skip the stops they don't care about, and pick up later where they left off.
Self-guided tours show up everywhere. They’re used in museums and art galleries, sculpture parks, gardens and farms, historic districts, national parks and trails, university and corporate campuses, wineries, and more general-purpose walking and driving routes.
What’s the difference between an audio tour, audio guide, and mobile guide?
These terms get used interchangeably, but here are the rough differences:
Audio tour is the experience: a sequence of narrated stops on a device or an app.
Audio guide traditionally meant physical hardware. These are handheld devices with a keypad you'd rent at a museum. Today, it often refers the audio content itself.
Mobile guide refers to the delivery method for the tour, meaning that it runs on a phone. Usually its a web app, and can include maps, images, video, and much more than just audio. Some tour platforms refer to indoor tours as mobile guides, and outdoor tours as audio tours.
How does a self-guided tour work?
From the visitor's point of view, they type in a URL or scan a QR code, which opens the tour on their phone. Then they tap a stop from a list, or scan a new QR code at each stop. For outdoor walking or driving tours, the app uses the phone's GPS to guide visitors from stop to stop. Some platforms also show where they are on a map.
Some apps also interact with physical hardware like bluetooth beacons, to auto-play content when a visitor enters a specific area. Beacons require a native app and raise privacy and accessibility considerations, so they’re less common than the other two. Most tour builders also let visitors download content ahead of time so the core features work offline.
Want to dive deeper into how self guided tours work? Check out our article How to Create a GPS Audio Tour in 8 Steps.
Why visitors (and venues) see value in self-guided tours
Self-guided tours aren’t replacements for docents and volunteer-led guided tours. They instead provide a complementary experience that can scale your offerings, improve tour availability in multiple languages, and enhance accessibility for your visitors. That said, here are some reasons visitors and tour-providing organizations like the experience:
For visitors:
Move at your own pace: choose stops that appeal to you, while skipping the ones you’re not interested in.
Flexibility: with a self-guided tour, you don’t have to book a slot, meet at a specific point, or wait around for the rest of the group to show up.
Content in your language: good tours offer multiple languages, transcripts, and other accessibility features.
For the venue or organization:
Available 24/7: the tour works any day, any hour, with no staff to schedule.
Scaleable: serve one visitor or a thousand, whether they’re near you or halfway across the world.
New revenue: some organizations sell tours, offer sponsorship placements, or bundle tour access with membership.
Improve accessibility: offer tours in multiple languages and screen-reader compatible formats.
Thinking about offering one?
Creating a self-guided tour is easier than you might think. You don't need to purchase physical hardware, hire a developer, or submit to app stores. Many tour building platforms let you build a tour with a drag-and-drop editor, then publish and share it with a QR code.
We compare the leading tools in our 5 Best Apps for Creating Audio Tours article.
