Guided Mural Mile tours embark daily at 11:30 a.m. from the Independence Visitor Center, taking in the 17 murals on a 90-minute walk that covers 2 1/2 miles. (The Mural "Mile" is a literal mile only if you start your pedometer at Mural No. 3 and end at Mural No. 14, skipping five outliers at the farther reaches of the tour route.)
Each participant gets an MP3 player and a funky set of headphones to hear prerecorded stories along the way about how the various murals came to be.
No worries about ear-foot coordination: You listen only when you're standing still.
En route from mural to mural, your guide answers questions, shares Mural Arts history and trivia (the cobalt-blue accent paint that's been custom-engineered for our city's demanding wall environment costs $115 a gallon) and expertly steers you to the next location and away from kamikaze cyclists.
Mural Tour manager Ryan Derfler recommends the guided option for people who don't know their way around Center City, since self-directed MP3 and cell- phone versions of the tour rely on knowing, for example, which way is north.
You might also consider joining a guided tour if you'd be inclined to focus so intently on the audio tracks, with cameo commentaries by Mayor Nutter and renowned chef Marc Vetri, among others, that you'd absentmindedly veer off the sidewalk and collide with a duck boat or something.
Mural Arts personnel are trained to be watchful shepherds. "Honestly, that's another reason we want people to go with guides," Derfler said. The tours cost $17 a person.
Go your own way
The best argument for setting out on your own is the fascinating territory that the Mural Mile passes through.
