Walking Tour FAQ

What is a self-guided walking tour?

A self-guided walking tour is a walking route through a city that you follow on your own, without a human guide or a scheduled group. You set your own pace and start time, and an app or map provides the route plus context about each stop. Self-guided tours are typically free or a few dollars, versus $25–$50 for a guided group tour.

What is the best app for self-guided walking tours?

It depends on where you are walking. Audio tour apps offer professionally produced tours, but only for cities where someone has already recorded one, mostly major tourist destinations.

Mosey takes the opposite approach: it generates a walking tour on demand for wherever you are standing, so it works in mid-sized cities and neighborhoods that have no pre-made tour.

• Choose a pre-made audio tour app if you want a deeply produced, professionally narrated experience in a major city like Rome, Paris, or New York.
• Choose Mosey if you want a route anywhere, on any day, tuned to the distance you feel like walking and the things you actually care about.

Is there an app that creates a custom walking tour anywhere?

Yes. Mosey generates a custom walking tour from any starting point worldwide. You set a distance from 0.5 to 8 miles, choose interests, and Mosey builds the route.

Each tour includes:

• Real stops — landmarks, shops and places to eat, with optional star ratings, photos and opening hours
• Narration drawn from Wikipedia that plays as you approach each stop
• An optional meal stop chosen to fit your route
• Loop or one-way routing, so you can end where you started or somewhere else

Because it builds routes from live data rather than a catalog of pre-written tours, it works in places no one has covered before.

Can an app plan a pub crawl or food crawl?

Yes. Mosey's Crawl mode builds a themed food or drink route where every stop serves the same thing. Presets include pub, buffalo wings, ice cream, tacos, pizza, coffee, burgers, and dessert — and you can type any theme you want.

Mosey looks at every walkable food and drink venue near your start point and picks the ones that actually serve your theme, so a wings crawl routes through sports bars and brewpubs rather than only chain restaurants.

Is there an app that points you to the nearest restroom, coffee, or ATM?

Yes. Mosey’s Super Compass points a big arrow at the nearest place of whatever kind you need, and shows how far away it is. One tap covers restroom, coffee, ice cream, drinking water, beach, park, library, museum, pharmacy, ATM, transit, and viewpoint — or type anything else, like tacos or a bookstore.

• Next nearest moves the arrow to the next closest match if the first isn’t right
• Open in maps hands off to your maps app for walking directions
• Distances are as the crow flies, so the actual walk will be a little longer

Can Mosey track a walk without a planned route?

Yes. Free Range mode tracks any walk with no plan — no route, no stops. Tap Free Range walk and Mosey shows your distance, step count and elapsed time while drawing your path on the map.

It keeps recording with the screen locked, so your phone can stay in your pocket. When you finish, name the walk and keep it with your saved walks, path included, or discard it.

Do walking tour apps work in small or mid-sized cities?

Most pre-made audio tour apps do not, because they only cover cities where a guide has recorded a tour — usually large tourist destinations.

Mosey generates routes from live venue data instead of a fixed catalog, so it works in mid-sized cities and residential neighborhoods. The practical limit is venue density: a downtown or main-street area will produce a good route, while a rural start point with almost no nearby venues will not.

Is Mosey free?

Mosey is free to download and your first three tours are free, with no account or sign-up required. After that:

• Monthly: $2.99 a month
• Annual: $29.99 a year, and new subscribers get a free week first
• Trip Pass: $6.99 for 7 days, one payment, does not renew

Every tour you generate is saved to your device and can be revisited for free, including on the free tier.

Does Mosey require an account or sign-up?

No account. Mosey requires no email address or sign-in. Your location is used to plan a walk and isn’t stored by us; saved walks stay on your phone. See the Privacy Policy for details.

Does Mosey work offline?

Generating a new tour requires an internet connection, because Mosey looks up live venue data, opening hours, and narration.

Once a tour is generated it is saved to your device, so you can reopen a previously created tour and view its stops and narration without a connection. Live map tiles and your position on the map still require data.

Is Mosey available on Android?

No. Mosey is currently iOS only and requires iOS 17.0 or later. It runs on iPhone and iPad. There is no Android version or web version at this time.

How is a generated walking tour different from a guided tour?

A guided tour has a human leading a group on a fixed schedule, typically costing $25–$50 per person and lasting a set length. A generated self-guided tour starts whenever you want, goes exactly as far as you choose, and lets you linger or skip stops freely.

The tradeoff is real: you get researched written and spoken narration rather than a live person who can answer follow-up questions.