---
title: "Self-guided tour"
description: "A curated route visitors follow on their own schedule (no guide, no group), usually with a map and a short story about each stop along the way."
glossary: "https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary"
source: "https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/self-guided-tour"
---

# Self-guided tour

> A curated route visitors follow on their own schedule (no guide, no group), usually with a map and a short story about each stop along the way.

Glossary: https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary  
Source: https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/self-guided-tour

The tours people actually finish share a shape: they are short, they have a
story at every stop, and they never leave the visitor unsure of the way to
the next one. Under an hour beats a whole afternoon, six good stops beat
twenty thin ones, and a line on a map beats written directions. Completion
is the metric that matters, because a visitor who finishes one route comes
back for another.

Delivery is the other half. Printed maps go stale the day a work moves, and
nobody downloads an app for one afternoon. A route that runs on a live
[interactive map](https://www.civiccollection.com/interactive-map) in the browser, with turn-by-turn
navigation, meets visitors on the phone already in their hand.

Related terms: [Art trail](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/art-trail), [Audio tour](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/audio-tour), [Wayfinding](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/wayfinding)

## Mentioned in

- [From Open Data to a Living Guide](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/from-open-data-to-a-living-guide)
- [How to Evaluate Public Art Mapping Software](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/how-to-evaluate-public-art-mapping-software)
- [Ten Ideas for Your Next Public Art Tour](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/ten-ideas-for-your-next-public-art-tour)
- [Introducing Civic Collection](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/introducing-civic-collection)
- [RFP language for procuring a public art guide](https://www.civiccollection.com/toolkit/rfp-language-for-procuring-a-public-art-guide)