$14.99Turning PointsDallas Audio Walking Tours
Self-guided, narrated walks through Dallas. Buy a tour once, download it, and hear the story at each stop while you walk at your own pace.
Tours from $14.99
Friends walk free. One purchase covers everyone on your walk. Start the tour, invite your friends to join, and it plays on every phone in your group.
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Dallas audio tours
Each tour is a mapped route with narration at every stop. Buy it once and it is yours to keep, no subscription.
$14.99Turning PointsWhat to expect on a Dallas audio walking tour
A Dallas audio walk follows November 22 to 24, 1963 through a few downtown blocks, from the JFK Memorial and the Book Depository window to the grassy knoll, then along Jack Ruby's path to the old police basement, told quietly and in the order the streets allow.
The walk starts at the JFK Memorial, Philip Johnson's roofless cenotaph at Main and Market, then follows the motorcade's last turns onto Houston and Elm to the Texas School Book Depository and its sixth floor corner window. From there it goes down Elm to the white pergola and the grassy knoll, where Abraham Zapruder filmed the motorcade from a small concrete pedestal.
At the knoll the narration sets out what the Warren Commission, the 1979 House committee and the 1982 National Academy of Sciences panel each concluded, in order, and leaves it there. The route then jumps ahead to Sunday at the old county jail on Houston and Main, and steps back to Friday at the old Dallas Morning News on Young Street, where Jack Ruby was placing ads when the shots were fired.
The last stretch follows Ruby along Commerce Street past the site of his Carousel Club to the old Municipal Building at Main and Harwood, where he shot Oswald in the police basement on November 24. It's about 2.9 kilometers, roughly 43 minutes of walking, flat apart from the gentle slope of the knoll, starting about 300 meters from West End DART station and ending about 500 meters from St. Paul.
Where to walk in Dallas
A few of the stops you will pass, and why they are worth slowing down for.
JFK Memorial
Philip Johnson designed the JFK Memorial as a cenotaph, an empty tomb, and it was dedicated on June 24, 1970. It's a roofless square room open to the sky, 50 feet on each side and 30 feet high, walled in tall white concrete, and inside sits a low granite block with John F. Kennedy's name in gold. Walk in, then step back out to Main Street and look west toward Old Red. That is the way the motorcade went on the morning of November 22, past crowds the Warren Commission called a tremendous reception.
Texas School Book Depository
From above you can take in the whole of Dealey Plaza: the seven story red brick Texas School Book Depository at the corner of Houston and Elm, Elm Street curving down past the lawns, and the white concrete pergola at the edge of the grass. The building went up in 1901, after lightning burned an earlier one on the same spot. In 1964 the Warren Commission concluded that the shots came from its sixth floor window at the southeast corner, the corner nearest Houston Street. Dallas County bought it between 1977 and 1981, and since 1989 it has held the Sixth Floor Museum.
Grassy Knoll
Elm Street curves down through Dealey Plaza with the Book Depository behind the trees, and the grassy slope rising on its north side, below the white pergola, is the grassy knoll. Abraham Zapruder stood on a small concrete pedestal by the pergola and filmed the motorcade here, the key visual record of the day. In person the plaza is far smaller than it looks on film, and all of it has been a National Historic Landmark District since 1993. Elm is a live road with fast traffic, so look at everything, including the unofficial X painted in the lane, from the sidewalk or the grass.
Old Red and the Criminal Courts
This red sandstone landmark with its turrets and clock tower is the Old Red Courthouse, finished in 1892, and the motorcade turned right beside it from Main onto Houston. Across Main Street stands the Dallas County Criminal Courts Building of 1915, which held the county jail in 1963. On Sunday, November 24, Oswald was due to be moved there from the city jail, and he never arrived. Jack Ruby was later tried for murder in the same building and convicted on March 14, 1964, a conviction overturned in October 1966.
Get the Audio Tour in 3 Simple Steps
All in the free Walk With Me app, and the first stops of every tour are free to try.
Tap the Gold Headphones and Pick a Tour
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Walk It Solo or Invite Someone
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Press Play and Walk
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Handcrafted for Your Time in the City
These tours aren't a checklist of sights. They're made to be walked slowly, headphones on, eyes on the city.
Meditative and Immersive
Each story is told where it happened. The app chimes when you reach a stop, one tap starts the story, and the stretch between stops is yours to take in at your own pace.
Handcrafted With Care
We choose every route and every stop ourselves and shape each story with care, so the time you have in the city goes to the places most worth seeing.
Better With Someone
Every walk is better with someone beside you, so if you can bring a friend, we really hope you do. That's why one purchase covers everyone you invite: they join your tour free.