How to use curated city guides in Apple Maps on iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Learn how to use curated city guides (a part of Detailed City Experience) in Apple Maps on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac to explore places of interest when you’re traveling to a new major city.

View NYC Curated Guides Maps iPad

When traveling to a major city, it’s helpful to know where to go. You may want to indulge in localized cuisine, browse through neighborhood shops, or explore parts of a city you’ve never seen. To help you do all this with ease, you can use the city guides feature in Apple Maps.

These curated guides are designed to help you enjoy your time in the city by showing you the best spots. And the guides are automatically updated with new recommendations all the time, so you’ll always be up to date on new places to check out.

Whether you’re traveling next week or next month, heading to a city for business or pleasure, here’s how to use the curated city guides in Maps.

Related: How to use Apple Maps Flyover to see the world

Find a city guide

On iPhone or iPad

To view the guides available, enter one of the above cities into the Search field in the Apple Maps app and then select it from the list. You can also tap Guides right in the search results if you see it.

Next, scroll down the city screen, and you will see a Guides section. Swipe to the right within that section to view a few guides, or tap Explore Guides for all available guides.

See Guides in Apple Maps on iPhone

Tap to view a guide. You can then choose to save the guide, share it, or simply browse through the locations on it.

Exploring guides for New York in Apple Maps on iPhone

You’ll see a photo, a brief description, hours, and a price indicator for the spots in the guide. Tap Find out more to get additional information on the web and view each location plotted on the map.

If you want to save a particular location within a guide, tap the plus sign. You can save it to an existing guide or create a new one.

Find out more about a place or save a guide in Apple Maps

On Mac

Browse all guides: Click the Search box at the top of the sidebar. Before you even enter a location, you’ll see some popular guides under Editor’s Picks. If you see one you like, just select it to view the details. Otherwise, click See All next to Editor’s Picks.

Maps See All Guides

You’ll then see a pop-up window on the right of the map with all of the available guides. If you click the Editor’s Picks drop-down at the top of that list, you can select a particular city to see its guides.

Maps Editors Picks and Cities

Browse guides by city: Second, if you search for a city that happens to have curated guides, you’ll see a small pop-up display next to the location on the map that offers up a few to check out. You can also click See More.

Maps See More Guides

If you choose one of those guides but still want to find more, click the three dots on the top right. You’ll see options for See All Guides and See Publisher’s Guides.

Maps See All or Publishers Guides

View your saved guides

On iPhone or iPad

Guides that you save are accessible from below your Favorites and Recents section. You’ll see a section labeled My Guides.

Access My Guides in Apple Maps on iPhone

On Mac

As mentioned, both curated and custom guides reside in the My Guides area of the sidebar. Click a curated guide to open its pop-up window on the map.

Click the arrow next to a guide you create to expand and view the saved locations. You can also sort the locations in your custom guides by name, distance, or date added using the drop-down list below the guide’s name.

Sort Guide Locations

Create your own guide

On iPhone or iPad

1) Swipe up on the first Maps screen and tap New Guide under the My Guides option.

2) Give it a name and optionally a photo, and tap Create.

Tap New Guide and enter a name for it on iPhone

3) Tap the newly created Guide and hit Add a Place.

4) Use the search box to find the place, tap the plus button to add it to your Guide, and tap Done.

Search and add a place to guide on iPhone

Alternatively, you can also search for city Guide, tap the plus button next to an option, and choose an existing Guide or New Guide.

Tap plus button and choose a guide or tap New Guide

On Mac

If you already have some places in mind that you want to put into a new guide or simply want an empty guide that’s ready for when you find a spot, start in the sidebar.

1) Click the plus sign in the My Guides section of the sidebar. (The plus sign displays when you hover your cursor over My Guides.)

2) Give your new guide a name and optionally a photo which you can pick from your Photos or Albums.

3) Hit your Return key.

Maps Create New Guide

If you have locations that you’d like to add to your newly created guide immediately, follow these steps.

1) Right-click the guide in the sidebar.

2) Select Add New Place.

3) Search for the locations you want or view the suggestions.

4) Click the plus sign next to each spot you want to add and click Done with you finish.

Create New Guide and Add Locations

Alternatively, you can select the spot on the map and then click the three dots on the top right of its pop-up window. Next, pick Save to Guide > New Guide or choose an existing Guide.

Create New Guide from Map

Remove saved guides

On iPhone or iPad

If you want to remove a curated guide that you saved, swipe left on its name and tap Delete. You can also go inside that guide and swipe left on an entry there to delete it.

To remove more than one entry inside a guide, tap Edit, select the guides to remove, and tap Delete. You can also remove individual guides from the list by swiping to the left and tapping Delete.

Delete a guide in Apple Maps on iPhone

On Mac

You can remove a curated or custom guide from your list in the sidebar. Either right-click or click the Info icon and select Delete Guide. Confirm by clicking the Delete button.

Maps Delete Guide