Travel log

landing page
user profile that allows searching visited Cities
Map cities view
Map cities detailed view
Map countries view
Ai recommendation / chatbot view

Inspiration

Being an international student, I have been privileged to visit many countries and experiment with various cultures. These travels were really enriching, and I wanted a way to document those memories in a more interactive and personal way. I was also inspired by the potential of AI to improve the user experience. That encouraged me to incorporate features like personalized AI-powered travel recommendations and a chatting chatbot to aid users in learning about travel ideas more intuitively.

What it does

Travel log allows users to:

Log cities they've visited, along with notes, dates, and preferences
View their traveled destinations in an interactive map
View their full travel history in a structured way
Get AI-generated destination recommendations based on their travel patterns
Chat with an AI bot to ask travel-related questions or explore ideas interactively

How we built it

We used:

Spring Boot for the backend REST API
Spring AI with OpenAI integration for recommendations and chatbot functionality
MongoDB to store user and travel data
React for the frontend interface -Google Map places api for map integration
JWT & OAuth2 for secure authentication and user management

The backend handles user data and connects to AI services. The frontend communicates via REST API, receiving structured JSON responses and rendering them in a clean UI.

Challenges we ran into

One of the key issues was separation of frontend and backend work. With all the team members involved in various parts of the stack, initially, we were finding it hard to come to an agreement on data exchange structuring and API designing. Overcoming these integration issues helped us understand more about full-stack development and significantly enhanced our communications and collaboration.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Successfully integrated Spring AI to create a multi-turn conversation chatbot
Built a fully functioning RESTful API and connected it to a modern React frontend
Designed a clean user experience that combines data storage, smart recommendations, and interactive AI features

What we learned

How to design and implement REST APIs that work smoothly with frontend clients
Practical integration of AI services in a real-world app using Spring AI
The importance of cross-team communication when building full-stack applications