What is the Dallas self-guided walking tour?
The Dallas self-guided walking tour is an audio walk you take on your own with the World City Trail app, which leads you from stop to stop and narrates what happened at each one. Plan on about 3 hours in total; the 3.8 km between the 10 stops take around 54 minutes on foot. The route crosses downtown from the Arts District to the West End and back east, so museums, plazas and memorials sit within easy reach of one another.
At Klyde Warren Park the narration explains how a park of about five acres was laid over the Woodall Rodgers Freeway in 2012, and at the Perot Museum you hear about Thom Mayne's cube with the glass-encased escalator jutting out of its façade. Dealey Plaza brings the founding of Dallas by John Neely Bryan in 1841 and the shooting of President Kennedy on 22 November 1963, and a block east stands the memorial by Philip Johnson, a roofless room of 72 white columns. At Pioneer Plaza the story is the bronze cattle drive of 49 longhorns recalling the Shawnee Trail, and at Thanks-Giving Square the spiral chapel and Gabriel Loire's Glory Window.
- Durationabout 3 hours
- Walkingabout 54 min · 3.8 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, Spanish
From stop to stop
Stories, legends, facts
Every stop has its own narrated chapter: the history, the local legends and a few surprising facts, with the full text on screen for anyone who prefers reading.
Google Maps in your pocket
The route is 3.8 km long, about 54 minutes of actual walking, and Google Maps shows the direction each time you move on.
No timetable
There is no meeting point and no group waiting. Step into a café or a museum, then return to the route later or the following day.
Recommendations nearby
The app suggests places to eat and local shops close to the stops, and it lets you pick another starting point or rearrange the stops.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of people. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Walk when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who gets most from this walk
First-time visitors
Within a few hours you know where the main sights of Dallas are and what each one stands for.
Independent travellers
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for: stay longer where you are curious and move on where you are not.
Tight schedules
Around 3 hours is enough for the centre, which leaves the rest of the day for other plans.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Groups of up to 5 work best; larger groups split up, one ticket per person.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
Arts District to Thanks-Giving Square
10 stops · about 54 min walking · start: Klyde Warren Park · finish: Thanks-Giving Square
Klyde Warren Park, built over a freeway, opens the walk, with the Dallas Museum of Art and the Perot Museum of Nature and Science close by. The route then heads into the West End for the Dallas World Aquarium and the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, before reaching Dealey Plaza and John F. Kennedy Memorial Plaza. Pioneer Plaza and its bronze longhorns come next, then the AT&T Discovery District, and the last stop is Thanks-Giving Square. You can begin at another stop in the app, and no entry ticket is needed on the way.
Open the route map ↗
1Klyde Warren ParkStart
This park of about five acres was built on a deck over the sunken Woodall Rodgers Freeway and opened in October 2012, reconnecting Uptown with the Arts District. Its lawns and gardens sit above a busy road, so you can walk over the traffic below.
2Dallas Museum of Art
Founded in 1903, the Dallas Museum of Art moved in 1984 into a building by the architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, the first major building of the new Arts District. Its collection covers art from around the world and across thousands of years, from ancient Mediterranean pieces to American and contemporary works.
3Perot Museum of Nature and Science
The Perot Museum opened in December 2012 in a cube-shaped building by Thom Mayne of Morphosis Architects, about 14 storeys high. It honours Margot and Ross Perot, whose children made the founding gift, and a glass-encased escalator juts diagonally out of the façade.
4Dallas World Aquarium
The Dallas World Aquarium opened in October 1992 in a converted 1920s warehouse near the Historic West End. Its exhibits include a rainforest modelled on South America's Orinoco region and the Cloud Forest Trek, which uses a large LED screen to extend the jungle setting.
5Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum
This museum, founded by Holocaust survivors living in Dallas, moved into its present building in the West End in September 2019. Inside, visitors walk through a restored Nazi-era boxcar, and the exhibits go on to other genocides and the American civil rights movement.
6Dealey Plaza
Dealey Plaza was completed in 1940 near the place where John Neely Bryan founded Dallas in 1841, and it is named after George Bannerman Dealey, publisher of The Dallas Morning News. President Kennedy was shot here on November 22, 1963, and the former Texas School Book Depository on its edge now houses the Sixth Floor Museum.
7John F. Kennedy Memorial Plaza
One block east of Dealey Plaza stands the memorial to President Kennedy that Philip Johnson designed for no fee, dedicated in 1970. It is a roofless square room about 30 feet high, its walls made of 72 white concrete columns, with a plain block of dark granite inside that bears his name in gold letters.
8Pioneer Plaza
Pioneer Plaza opened in 1994 with a bronze cattle drive by the Texas sculptor Robert Summers: 49 longhorn steers and three trail riders on horseback. It recalls the Shawnee Trail, along which cattle were driven north through the Dallas area in the 19th century, and it lies next to the old Pioneer Park Cemetery.
9AT&T Discovery District
In 2019 AT&T opened the blocks around its downtown headquarters as the AT&T Discovery District, an open-air plaza with restaurants, seating and public events. Its best-known feature is a media wall about 104 feet tall that wraps around the corner of a building and shows digital art.
10Thanks-Giving SquareFinish
This small downtown park was designed by Philip Johnson and opened in 1977 as a place where people of all faiths can give thanks. Its chapel rises in a 90-foot spiral, and inside, the Glory Window by the French artist Gabriel Loire, designed in 1976, fills the space with coloured light.
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