Finally, the city of Stirling has launched not only a pretty app, but an amazingly well-built and useful touristic app for the region. And I’m happy to be reviewing it today!
Stirling is a Scottish city situated about 1h from Edinburgh and 30 minutes from Glasgow, at the door to the Highlands. As far as we’ve lived here, the Brit and I have noticed that most tourists, especially foreign ones, only pop into Stirling on their way to the Highlands. As a pitstop on their Scottish trip. Totally understandable, there is too much beauty to see in Scotland to stay longer in a smaller region. But for those who have the time, there needed to be an incentive or even advertisement about what Stirling has to offer.
This app, called Explore Stirling, is finally the perfect tool for that!
It’s honestly what we’ve been waiting for! It’s wonderful for planning a trip but especially for while you’re here to discover the region a bit more with self-guided tours. The app includes two main sections, channels and routes.
The routes are great, they include simple routes, such as walking from the train station to the castle, to special interests, such as architecture or statues around the city. But it also includes cycling routes as well as driving routes around the region.
The channels are more of cultural interests to those who may want some audioguide for their drive, Scottish music, or even just to learn more about the region. There are witch stories, and bagpipes songs and wee history lessons.
To try it out, the Brit and I went on our way with one of the routes. Because we have walked around the town a lot, we picked something we knew less about, we picked the “SCHT City Centre Hidden Gems” tour. We went around about a dozen buildings in the city centre and learnt about their history and architecture. Those are streets we walk on daily and there were details that we had never noticed before. We really enjoyed it and here are a few of the photos of our tour – all taken by my Brit:
There were some glitches, which I’ve already mentioned to the team in charge of the app, and I’m sure it’ll get better and better with time. But it’s available for both android and apple devices.
When it comes down to it, I highly recommend this app if you’re about to visit this wonderful wee city. Or even if you want to take a break in the region, which I recommend even more! And please know that if you’re reading this and want to come visit, don’t hesitate to get in touch and I can help plan this trip! If you’re looking for any advice generally for a Scottish trip you can also start with my free resources.
Have you ever done a self-guided tour with an app? What did you think?xx
