For years I have meticulously researched trips abroad before travelling, sometimes before booking any flights. I know alot about Basel, Switzerland but have never been! I pin these places on Google Maps; cafes, shops, restaurants, good craft beer bars, design shops etc and more recently car charging points. Google Maps is good at directing you to a destination but isn't great at remembering why you pinned it in the first place.
The Idea
So for this summer's family vacation I decided to build my own app, leveraging the concept of pinning places but also integrating AI for recommendations based on my preferences, time of day and location. "John you had Pizza at Enzo's yesterday, why not try Fish for lunch today? Harbour Kitchen is 5min walk away". I liked the idea of my family, especially the kids having a say in what we do on holiday, so I added an option for them to vote on suggested places, altho I still have the final say. Hah I'm not that stupid!
The Outcome
I have the guts of the application built as a mobile web app via Lovable, which I found to be better at building mobile-first applications than Cursor. I did want to build a native iOS app via a Cursor tutorial I found but my old 2019 iMAC won't support X-Code anymore. My vacation in France this summer will be the big test, I've already places pinned and a rough itinerary in place. Maybe I'll roll it out to family and friends if it gets a Clerkin family thumbs up.