How to find tourist or cultural sites using mobile apps?

In today's digital age, planning trips and discovering cultural attractions has become much easier thanks to mobile apps. In Calgary, a city renowned for its diverse infrastructure and rich cultural heritage, there are a number of apps that allow you to find landmarks, museums, parks, and cultural centers right from your smartphone. In this article, we'll take a detailed look at how to use key mobile platforms to find and explore tourist and cultural attractions in Calgary.

Global Travel Guides

One of the most common ways to find major attractions is through universal travel guides that cover the entire city and offer categorized lists of places, integrated maps, and real-time routes.

Calgary Travel & Explore

The Calgary Travel & Explore app is designed for travelers who not only want to plan their trip in advance, but also want to be able to use the guide offline. In the category view, users can select “Natural Attractions,” “Museums,” or “Cultural Events” and immediately see the location on a detailed map. The built-in Street View feature allows you to look down the streets to the selected object, and the ability to save selected locations in “EduBank” provides quick access to your favorite places even without the Internet.

Where Calgary

Another powerful tool is Where Calgary. This app positions itself as a digital information stand that contains recommendations for restaurants, attractions, shops, and transportation hubs. The “Bookmarks” feature helps you create your own list of locations, and the integrated navigation shows you the best route to any corner of the city. In addition, Where Calgary is updated quarterly, ensuring that information about new establishments and events is always up to date.

Cultural and interactive routes

In addition to general guides, Calgary is home to popular specialized apps that combine art and technology to create unique interactive routes.

IndigiTRAILS

The IndigiTRAILS app offers digital open-air art galleries. Using GPS, users can download a map of a themed route and walk from one interactive art object to another. This approach allows users not only to learn about the culture of local indigenous peoples, but also to experience the city through the prism of contemporary art.

Driftscape

The partnership between Heritage Park and the Driftscape platform has made exploring one of North America's largest historical parks even more interesting. The app offers audio and text tours that reveal little-known historical facts and guide you from pavilion to pavilion along a clear route. By scanning QR codes at locations, users gain access to unique content and videos about life in western Canada over a century ago.

Story City

The Story City platform turns downtown Calgary into a real adventure: by choosing their own story, users complete missions, solve puzzles, and move between locations, including Stephen Avenue, Peace Bridge, and Chinatown. Each step is accompanied by audio narration and visual inserts, turning the exploration of the city into an interactive open-air theater.

Themed self-guided tours

Independent walks with a smartphone as a guide are becoming increasingly popular, especially among those who prefer flexibility and the ability to stop at any point they wish.

GPSmyCity

Thanks to GPSmyCity, travelers get several ready-made walking routes covering the city center, Inglewood, and other areas. Once the map is downloaded, the entire tour is available offline with the option to activate voice navigation. This app is ideal for family walks or those who want to explore the city at their own pace.

Landmarks and cultural centers

Each of the apps mentioned above provides descriptions and photos of Calgary's key landmarks. For example, Heritage Park offers introductory tours with antique installations and live theater scenes, while Prince's Island Park is uniquely presented as an urban oasis with walking trails and regular major events. The city's museums are also often integrated into the apps — Glenbow showcases permanent and temporary exhibitions, while The Military Museums offers an immersion into the history of the Canadian Armed Forces.

In addition to natural and museum locations, the relevant categories include cultural centers of various diasporas: from the Croatian Canadian Cultural Centre, which regularly hosts concert and gastronomic evenings, to the Polish Canadian Cultural Centre, known for its fairs and dance programs. The Calgary Chinese Cultural Centre adds diversity to the city's cultural landscape with interactive exhibitions and workshops.

Conclusion

Mobile apps for finding tourist and cultural sites in Calgary are becoming a real digital compass for travelers and city residents. They combine offline guides and online services, innovative interactive formats, and classic mapping solutions. Using universal tourist guides, interactive cultural routes, and self-guided tours, everyone can find their own way to explore Calgary — from contemplating natural landscapes to immersing themselves in the deeper layers of local culture.