Photo: Rjcastillo (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A self-guided audio walking tour of the historic centre of Santiago de Chile. It starts in the Plaza de Armas, where Pedro de Valdivia founded the city on 12 February 1541 and where, seven months later, Indigenous forces led by Michimalonco attacked and burned the settlement; around the square stand the cathedral, whose façade Joaquín Toesca finished by about 1780, the Real Audiencia of 1804 to 1808, now the National History Museum, and the Central Post Office. The walk goes on past the old royal customs house, now the Pre-Columbian Art Museum, the former National Congress and the Courts of Justice to La Moneda, built as the royal mint and told from outside, where on 11 September 1973 the armed forces overthrew President Salvador Allende, jets bombed the palace and Allende died inside. Along the Alameda come the Casa Central of the Universidad de Chile and San Francisco, and in a short cobbled street Londres 38, a secret detention, torture and extermination centre run by the DINA from 1973 to 1975. It ends at the National Library, Cerro Santa Lucía, the Teatro Municipal, La Merced and the Casa Colorada, a few metres from the square. Cruise ships call at San Antonio, a long road journey from the city, so the ship's own excursion is the safer choice.
22 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 334 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 26 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Plaza de Armas de Santiago, Catedral Metropolitana de Santiago, Monumento a los Pueblos Indígenas, Palacio de la Real Audiencia (Museo Histórico Nacional), Correo Central.
Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, Sitio de la Iglesia de la Compañía, Ex Congreso Nacional, Palacio de los Tribunales de Justicia, Palacio de La Moneda, Monumento a Salvador Allende, Plaza de la Ciudadanía, Casa Central de la Universidad de Chile, Iglesia de San Francisco, Museo de Arte Colonial de San Francisco, Londres 38.
Biblioteca Nacional de Chile, Fuente Neptuno, Cerro Santa Lucía, Teatro Municipal, Basílica de la Merced, Casa Colorada.
The founding square of Santiago, laid out after Valdivia founded the city on 12 February 1541, with the cathedral on its west side.
The cathedral on the plot Valdivia reserved for the principal church, begun about 1748, its façade finished by Joaquín Toesca by about 1780.
The royal court of 1804 to 1808, where the First National Congress met on 4 July 1811; the National History Museum since 1982.
The royal mint that became the seat of government in 1846 and was bombed on 11 September 1973; told from outside.
A house used from 1973 to 1975 by the DINA as a secret detention, torture and extermination centre, now a place of memory.
The rocky hill, the Huelén, at whose foot Valdivia founded the city.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 22 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 22 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Santiago de Chile — the Historic Centre and La Moneda, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
22 narration points, including Plaza de Armas de Santiago, Catedral Metropolitana de Santiago, Monumento a los Pueblos Indígenas, Palacio de la Real Audiencia (Museo Histórico Nacional) and Correo Central. That is about 24 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 22 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.