Youtravel: YouTube Travel Map - Geotagged Video Explorer

I’ve always enjoyed traveling with my wife whenever we can. One thing I kept running into was how hard it is to find “hidden gems” or less obvious places, like small villages, lesser-known hiking spots, or vibrant new neighborhoods in big cities. Most platforms show the same popular places. That’s why I built Youtravel.

Youtravel is a responsive web app that lets you explore geolocated YouTube travel videos directly on a map. The idea is simple: instead of searching places, you explore real experiences. It’s useful both for planning trips and for those moments when you just wonder: “has anyone ever been here?”

Challenges

• Taming the YouTube API (Without Burning Through Your Quota)
• Using PostGIS to Find Emerging Travel Destinations

Objectives

1. Make travel discovery more exploratory and less list-based
2. Use video content as a way to understand places
3. Visualize content geographically through an interactive map
4. Allow users to save and revisit interesting locations

Features

1. Map-based video exploration

• Browse videos from a list or directly on a map with pins
• Interactive map built with Leaflet
• Video previews inside map popups

2. Smart video search

• Search geolocated videos using the YouTube API
• Filter by topics like food, hiking, budget travel or history
• Location suggestions powered by Geoapify

3. Handling geolocation

• Use video metadata when available
• Fallback to tags and descriptions to infer locations
• Graceful handling of incomplete or missing data

4. User features

• Save favorite videos (when logged in)
• Access a personal favorites section
• Switch between English and Spanish
• Fully responsive for mobile use