Introduction of StayMapper PremiumThis is the biggest update to StayMapper yet! Well, apart from the initial launch. After nearly two months of development, I'm excited to unveil a complete transformation of how StayMapper works.
Introducing StayMapper Premium
StayMapper now offers Premium access that unlock powerful new capabilities for serious travelers and digital nomads:
- Travel Maps: Build and visualize your personal travel history on an interactive world map
- Travel Timelines: Track your journeys chronologically and see your travel story unfold over time
- Share Your Adventures: Generate shareable links to show off your travel maps and timelines with friends and family
- Premium Content and Tools: Unlock the full power of StayMapper by accessing all the content and travel tools available
- Flexible plans: 1-week, 1-month, or 1-year passes to fit your needs
Premium helps sustain StayMapper's development while giving you incredible new ways to document and share your travels. Check out the Premium page to learn more!
Travel Map & Timeline Features
The new Travel Map is a game-changer for tracking your journeys:
- Add cities you've visited or plan to visit with custom dates and notes
- See your travels visualized on a beautiful interactive map
- View your timeline to relive your adventures in chronological order
- Share your travel map with a unique link — perfect for inspiring others or showing friends where you've been
- Public profiles let anyone discover your travel journey
This feature turns StayMapper from just a planning tool into a complete travel companion that grows with you over time. Visit your Travel Map to get started!
New Account Info Pages
You now have a dedicated hub for managing everything related to your account:
- View and edit your profile information
- Manage your Premium subscription status and benefits
- Access your shareable travel map link
- Review your account settings in one convenient location
Head to your Account Info page to explore all the new options!
Google Authentication
Signing in is now easier than ever! In addition to email/password login, you can now sign in with Google for a fast, secure authentication experience. A few clicks and you're in!
UI Refresh & Visual Improvements
Sadly I don't have a natural eye for design so it takes me quite some time to get to a UI that seems decent. This update contains yet another iteration to try to make my design more user friendly. A big chunk of the site has received this visual update which includes:
- Cleaner, more intuitive navigation that guides you to the right features
- Updated landing page that better showcases what StayMapper can do for you
- Premium-specific updates to improve clarity around the site
This update represents a huge milestone for StayMapper. The introduction of Premium features means I can keep building and improving the platform while giving you powerful new tools to document your travels. The new account system, authentication options, and sharing capabilities make StayMapper feel more like a complete travel platform than ever before.
Thank you for being part of this journey. Whether you choose to go Premium or continue using the free features, I'm grateful for your support. Here's to many more adventures — both on the road and on StayMapper! 🚀✈️
New City & Hotspots FeatureExciting updates this time around! I've added a brand new city to explore, plus a powerful new tool to help you discover the best spots in any area.
- New City: Tbilisi, Georgia! Dive into the charming capital of Georgia with its historic old town, sulfur baths, and incredible food scene. Check out the full guide here.
- Hotspots Feature: Find high-density clusters of points of interest (like cafes, restaurants, or gyms) directly on the map. Use the new "Find Hotspots" tool in the map toolbar to uncover the most vibrant areas for your favorite categories.
- Updated City Info: Refreshed data for cities like London, Singapore, Berlin, and more, including refined safety scores, walkability ratings, and cost estimates.
- Behind-the-Scenes Upgrades: You might notice loading points of interest to be a bit faster now. This is due to some backend work that would take too long to explain here. Just know, database goes brrr now.
These changes make exploring cities even more intuitive and comprehensive. Try the hotspots tool on your next city visit — it might just reveal your new favorite spot!
City Pages OverhaulThe biggest change in this update is that the city pages have been completely redesigned with a fresh layout and a lot more useful content.
- Complete Overhaul of City Pages: New sections including dealbreakers, how‑to guides and FAQs, a sample itinerary, packing list, and more — all in a brand new layout that should feel like a big upgrade.
- Faster Loading: City pages now load faster when clicked for a snappier browsing experience.
- Improved Mexico City Districts: Districts for Mexico City are now much more granular with better boundaries and data.
Hope you enjoy the improvements — feedback is welcome!
UI Refresh & Powerful New FilteringThis update brings a major refresh to the site's look and feel, along with powerful new ways to find your perfect destination on the explore page.
- UI Refresh: The landing and explore pages have received a visual overhaul for a cleaner, more modern, and intuitive experience.
- Enhanced Filtering: The explore page now has a comprehensive set of
filters. You can now narrow your search by:
- Region, traveler type, and primary language.
- Sliders for cost, safety, walkability, and WiFi speed.
- A new section to select multiple city "vibes" and interests.
- Minor Tweaks & Bug Fixes: I've also squashed some bugs and made several small improvements across the site for a smoother experience.
I'm excited for you to try out the new filters on the revamped explore page. I hope it makes finding your next destination easier than ever!
Book Your Stay & Other Key UpdatesI'm excited to announce a new feature that makes planning your trip even easier! You can now search for accommodations directly through StayMapper. Alongside this, I've rolled out several other improvements to make the site more reliable and user-friendly.
- New! Book Accommodations: A "Book Accommodations" tool has been to the map toolbar to help you search for your place to stay on Expedia. Now you can seamlessly go from exploring a district to booking your stay and doing so supports the website.
- UI Enhancements: I've made several small but impactful visual tweaks. The map tools have been refined for a cleaner look, and a few of the user experience workflows have been updated to be more intuitive.
- Image Service Fixes: I've resolved some issues with the image service to ensure city and district images load more reliably. If they go missing again let me know!
I hope this new booking feature streamlines your travel planning. Thanks for your continued support!
Major Map Update & ImprovementsThis update brings a big visual and functional upgrade to the maps on StayMapper!
- Brand new, higher resolution map tiles for a much sharper and more detailed look for high resolution displays.
- Points of interest on the map have been completely overhauled:
- Each type of place now has its own icon for easier identification.
- Clustering is now supported, so the map stays clean and usable even when there are lots of places in one area.
- Fixed several bugs, including some districts not loading their points and some images not displaying correctly.
- Light mode is now the default look for the site! If you prefer dark mode, you can still switch to it anytime.
I hope these changes make exploring cities on StayMapper even better. As always, let me know if you spot any issues or have suggestions!
Small Tweaks + New LaunchSince the launch I have made a few tweaks to improve the user experience when using the website. These changes include:
- Re-worded a few things around the website to make it more clear.
- Fixed the images for cities so that it always has a relevant picture. Will need a similar fix for districts in a future update.
- Made it so you don't lose your spot in the explore page if you click on a city then hit the back button.
- Tweaked some of the colors on the map to make it less visually cluttered.
I am also happy to announce that I have added a new city to the website, Kuala Lumpur!
However, this isn't the exciting news I want to share here. The exciting news is that I have launched a new website to complement this one! It's called Postcards and Patch Notes, and it's a blog where I share my experiences traveling to some of the cities featured on StayMapper, explain what I am working on from a tech perspective, and provide tips and tricks for digital nomads.
You can check it out at Postcards and Patch Notes. I hope you find it useful and enjoyable! I write it all personally (no AI) and I try to inject my personality into it to make it a fun read.
Along with this new blog, I added a new section on StayMapper for cities I've written about on my blog. For example, you can check out the Buenos Aires page to see how I have integrated my blog posts into the new section at the bottom. In this new section, I hope to add other resources such as YouTube videos, Reddit posts, and other content that I think travelers would want to have when deciding about their trip to that city.
Well, that is all for this update! I am going to continue to try to market both of these new websites which is turning out to be very hard. Hope to see you back here soon for more updates!
- Initial ReleaseAfter a few months of hard work, the first version of the website is finally ready to share. It's got a list of important features that will serve as a foundation for future updates. Let's have a quick look at the features:
- Maps for each city with boundaries shown for their districts or neighborhoods.
- Key points of interest for each district including cafes, groceries, gyms, restaurants, coworking spaces, accommodations, tourist attractions, and bars.
- A travel time feature which allows you to see how far you can go in 10 min walking, cycling, or driving.
- A detailed city overview for each city with key information about the city.
- Recommended districts in each city, each with their own detailed information.
- City quick facts section which shows data including what plugs they use, average wifi speeds, languages spoken, currency used, and scores for walkability, safety, and relative cost.
- Multiple areas where feedback can be submitted such as thumbs up/down for cities and districts information, a voting page for the next city, and a feature request page.
- Quality of life features such as support for both mobile and desktop, and a toggle for light or dark mode