Photo: w_lemay (CC BY-SA 2.0)
A self-guided audio tour of Tucson that begins at the rebuilt northeast corner of the Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón, whose site was marked on August 20, 1775, and where a 2,000-year-old pit house lies beneath the Spanish fort. Through the old presidio district it visits the Steinfeld Mansion, the Corbett House, La Casa Cordova's adobe rooms and the Pima County Courthouse, where John Dillinger was arraigned. Downtown, it covers the Southern Pacific depot, Hotel Congress, whose 1934 fire led to the capture of Dillinger's gang, the Fox Theatre and the Temple of Music and Art. South of downtown come St. Augustine Cathedral with its carved horned-toad lizards, the Sosa-Carrillo-Frémont House, the wishing shrine of El Tiradito and the adobe row houses of Barrio Viejo, much of which was demolished in 1969. It ends west of the city at Mission Garden, where the O'odham place name Cuk Ṣon gave Tucson its name, and south by road at Mission San Xavier del Bac, built by O'odham laborers between 1783 and 1797 and still a parish church on the Tohono O'odham Nation.
15 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 · 115 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 23 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.
Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón, Steinfeld Mansion, J. Knox Corbett House, La Casa Cordova, Pima County Courthouse.
Tucson Depot, Hotel Congress, Fox Theatre, Temple of Music and Art.
St. Augustine Cathedral, Sosa-Carrillo-Frémont House, El Tiradito, Barrio Viejo, Mission Garden, San Xavier del Bac.
The rebuilt corner of the Spanish fort founded in 1775, with an original wall line and a 2,000-year-old pit house beneath it.
An adobe row house with two-foot walls and a courtyard, where Maria Navarrete Cordova ran a smoke shop from 1944 until 1973.
The railroad hotel of around 1918 whose 1934 fire led to the capture of John Dillinger's gang, remembered each year as Dillinger Days.
An adobe shrine to a sinner buried where he fell, its cracks filled with candles, wish notes, photographs and milagros.
Adobe row houses built flush with the street around hidden courtyards, much of the neighborhood lost in 1969 to the Convention Center.
The mission church built between 1783 and 1797 by O'odham laborers, its second bell tower left unfinished when the money ran out.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 15 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. 15 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 Tucson — El Presidio, Barrio Viejo and San Xavier del Bac, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
15 narration points, including Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón, Pima County Courthouse, Hotel Congress, St. Augustine Cathedral and El Tiradito. That is about 23 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. 15 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.