tour-ward

Inspiration

Traveling to a new country can be daunting because of cultural differences, language barriers and currency confusions. These things can ruin the travel experience.

What it does

Our app helps connect travelers to locals in the areas they are traveling to. These people have been vetted and can ensure an interesting and authentic experience.

The app allows a user to search by location and receive a list of attractions from the TripAdvisor API. They can then see which locals are available in the area to show her around. She can read their reviews, interests and message them to schedule a meeting.

The app also uses dialogue-flow to provide accessibility to visually impaired customers. The app also tries to connect travelers with volunteer opportunities in the area.

How we built it

This is a web app built using Node.JS and Javascript for the backend. We got the latitude and longitude from the Mapquest API and used these coordinates to receive the information from the TripAdvisor API. The frontend was built using Bootstrap, HTML, CSS and Handlebars.JS. For a database of users, we used mongoDB. We used Github for collaboration and Heroku for deployment.

The dialogue-flow was built using Google Assistant.

Challenges we ran into

It was difficult working with the TripAdvisor API at first. We needed to access two different APIs so it was difficult to coordinate the data in the right way. However, with the help of a mentor, we were able to get it to work. We also had to think about how to make sure our users were safe when using the app.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud that we learned to use a new API and created a cool idea that we believe can help travelers.

What we learned

We learned how to work with different APIs. How to use git commands to make teamwork efficient. How to integrate two APIs and work with Javascript promises. We also learned how to power through on two hours of sleep!

What's next for tour-ward

The opportunities for this app are endless. We really want to implement the security features like user authentication and background search. We also want to add functionality to other features, such as sort by type of attraction -- like restaurants, museums, parks, etc. We also want to implement an airBNB style payment method.