Urban Journeys

Overview

Urban Journeys is a journey composer — not a navigation app. Instead of optimizing for speed, it optimizes for discovery, theme, and delight. Tell it where you're starting, how far you want to walk, and what you want to see. It crafts an optimized walking route with curated stops, engaging descriptions, and accurate distances.

The origin: instead of always driving to the mountains to hike, why not hike the city? The first experiment was "walk to every theater in Denver" — a 35-mile pilgrimage. That's when the real idea emerged: themed urban walks, optimized for humans, not cars.

A 5-phase streaming pipeline discovers POIs from Google Places, curates the best stops with GPT-5.1, optimizes route order with TSP algorithms, adjusts distance to hit your target within 15%, then narrates the whole journey. Progress streams to your browser in real time so you can watch each phase unfold.

Why we built it

Navigation apps answer "get me from A to B." Urban Journeys answers "give me an experience." Points aren't obstacles — they're the point. We built it to push past the same top-10 lists and star ratings and bring back serendipity to everyday life. The hybrid approach — LLMs for creativity, algorithms for math — ensures accurate distances while maintaining personalized, engaging content.

How it works

1. Enter your starting location — Address autocomplete via Google Places 2. Choose your journey size — Quick Walk (1.5 mi / 45 min) to Epic Trek (12 mi / 6 hr) 3. Pick your themes — 12 discovery themes with real-time POI counts showing what's near you 4. Compose — Watch a 5-phase pipeline: Discovery (Google Places) → Curation (GPT-5.1) → Optimization (TSP solver) → Distance Adjustment → Narration 5. Export & Go — Open in Google Maps, Apple Maps, or download GPX for your favorite hiking app

Feature highlights

• 12 Discovery Themes — Theaters, street art, breweries, coffee shops, bookshops, live music, parks, historic buildings, food, architecture, vintage shops, markets
• 6 Journey Sizes — Quick Walk (1.5 mi) to Epic Trek (12 mi) with calibrated stop counts and search radii
• Hybrid AI + Algorithm Pipeline — GPT-5.1 curates interesting stops; TSP algorithms (nearest-neighbor + 2-opt + or-opt) optimize route order
• Real-Time SSE Streaming — Watch the 5-phase composition pipeline as it works
• Accurate Distances — OpenRouteService walking directions keep routes within 15% of target
• Export Anywhere — GPX download, Google Maps, Apple Maps
• City-Agnostic — Works in any city worldwide via Google Places
• Loop or Point-to-Point — Your choice

Notes

• Tech Stack: Next.js 15, TypeScript, React 19, Tailwind CSS, Zustand, Mapbox GL JS, OpenAI GPT-5.1, Google Places API, OpenRouteService, Framer Motion
• Performance: 60-90 second composition time, <2% error rate, 100% POI accuracy (verified via Google Places)
• For Whom: Urban explorers, tourists, locals seeking new perspectives, anyone who'd rather discover than navigate