Gowalla announced earlier this week that the company’s geo-social app is being revamped to function as a social travel guide for over 60 cities worldwide. The location-based social network’s newest version will do away with “check-ins” and aims to include travel-oriented recommendations unique to each user as well as more user-generated content curated by a mixture of friends, locals and experts.

The app will allow users to create “stories” around their travel experiences with other users interacting at the same location.

Although Gowalla CEO Josh Williams insists that the Austin-based company has always been about sharing high-level experiences and much less about the transactional check-ins, the new move to reinvent its product seems like an attempt to give rival startup Foursquare compatible competition and expand Gowalla’s scope beyond simply check-ins.

Gowalla is partnering up with big names, such as Disney, National Geographic and the Austin American-Statesman, as well as a number of universities, including the University of Texas, to offer additional place guides.

Gowalla plans to revamp both its desktop site and mobile application, but has not yet announced the launch date for the new app.