For Linda Carnell, exploration isn’t just a pastime; it’s a way of life. She’s traveled the world and lived in various cities across the country, now calling Winston-Salem home. Her journey has been shaped by curiosity, creativity, and a desire to understand the world more deeply.
That spirit of discovery is what ultimately led her to create Walksy, a walking tour app designed to help users experience cities on their own terms.
“I’ve always loved walking tours,” Linda says. “It’s my favorite way to see a city.” But a frustrating experience while traveling abroad revealed a gap in the market. Overcrowded groups, rigid schedules, and limited accessibility made traditional tours feel more restrictive than enriching. “I remember thinking that there has to be a better way.”
When Linda couldn’t find the answer to her problem, she made her own solution: Walksy. With the help of her daughters and a developer in California, Linda created a mobile app that puts the power of exploration directly into the user’s hands. The concept is simple but transformative: instead of following a guide through a fixed route, users can begin anywhere, move at their own pace, and engage with a city in a way that feels natural and flexible.
“It’s like having your own personal tour guide in your pocket,” she says.
The app offers curated walking tours with multiple stops, allowing users to jump in at any point, skip locations, or linger where they choose. With multilingual capabilities and built-in navigation, Walksy removes many of the barriers that often come with traditional tours. There’s even a “what’s that?” feature that uses image recognition to identify landmarks in real time.
“Being able to see a place and get a richer understanding of how it came to be — that’s what explore means to me,” Linda says. “When you understand the history, the culture, the people, it brings everything full circle.”
While Walksy is designed for travelers, it’s equally valuable for locals. In developing tours for Winston-Salem, Linda found herself uncovering details she had never noticed before, from historic landmarks to hidden gems tucked into familiar streets.
“It’s only when you start to understand the stories behind a place that you realize how much there is to explore,” she says.
The app also opens new doors for creators. With plans to allow local experts, guides, and even content creators to build and share their own tours, Walksy aims to become a global marketplace for exploration, what Linda describes as “the Airbnb of walking tours.”
It’s an ambitious vision, but one rooted in a simple idea. People value their time as much as their money and they want meaningful, flexible experiences.
As Walksy continues to grow — with hundreds of tours already available and more added each week — Linda remains focused on the same principle that sparked the idea years ago: making exploration easier, richer, and more accessible for everyone.
At its core, exploration isn’t about checking off landmarks. It’s about understanding the story behind them, and having the freedom to discover it your own way.
Adventure is just a download away
Walksy is available in the App store. Download it today for free and start exploring. Learn more about the Walksy app at www.walksyapp.com.