Location Storyboard (Travel Story Maker)

My Travel Photos Just Sit There Doing Nothing

Went to Japan last year. Took maybe 800 photos. Showed my parents like 15 of them before they got bored. The rest are still rotting in my phone's camera roll. Felt like such a waste. All these experiences reduced to forgotten files. Built this tool out of pure frustration. Now I dump my trip notes in, get an actual story video with map routes and narration. Actually shows people where I went and what happened instead of boring them with endless photo dumps.

Dump Your Trip Notes and Go

Write what you did each day. Where you went. What you saw. Could be bullet points, could be sentences, doesn't really matter. Tool reads through everything, figures out locations, generates images for each spot, draws your route on a map, adds voice narration. Whole travel story in video form.

How to Write Trip Notes

Just journal normally about your trip:

Day 1: Flew into Tokyo, crashed at hotel in Shibuya. Too jet lagged to do anything real.
Day 2: Morning at Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa. Afternoon exploring Akihabara electronics district. Got lost for two hours.
Day 3: Day trip to Mount Fuji. Weather was perfect. Took way too many photos of the same mountain.
Day 4: Kyoto by bullet train. Visited Fushimi Inari shrine with all the red gates.

That's it. Write like you're telling a friend about your trip. Tool pulls out the locations and creates the story.

Location Detection Actually Works

Mention specific places - cities, landmarks, countries, whatever. Tool picks them up automatically. "Had pizza in Rome" finds Rome. "Hiked to Machu Picchu" finds Peru. Pretty smart about recognizing location names even in casual writing.

Real People Using This Right Now

Solo Travelers Documenting Everything

Met a girl who backpacked through Southeast Asia for six months. Used this to create monthly recap videos. Posted them on YouTube for family back home. Her grandma actually watched them all because they weren't just random photos. Had structure, narration, made sense as stories.

Families Making Vacation Memories

Dad makes these after every family vacation. Types up what they did each day while kids are in car on drive home. By time they get home, video's ready. Posts it to family Facebook group. Way better than dumping 200 unsorted photos nobody looks at.

Travel Bloggers Speeding Up Content

Travel blogger friend uses this for Instagram content. Writes daily summaries while traveling, generates videos immediately, posts them that night. Keeps her followers engaged in real-time instead of posting everything three weeks later when nobody cares anymore.

Understanding the Map Animation

Shows your route plotted on actual map. Draws lines connecting each location in order you visited them. Animates from start to finish as video plays. Really cool watching the path trace out your entire journey. Makes sense of random city names way better than just listing them.

Route Drawing Style

Curved lines between points look smoother. Straight lines show direct paths. Dotted lines can indicate flights versus driving. Pick style that matches your actual travel method. Makes the animation feel more accurate.

Location Markers Pop Up

Each spot gets a marker when you reach it in the story. Shows city name, maybe a quick fact. Gives context for people who don't know geography. My parents needed this because they don't know where half the places I visit actually are.

Mistakes That Ruin Travel Stories

Too much detail per day: Nobody wants to hear about every meal and bathroom break. Highlight the actually interesting stuff. Main attractions, funny moments, significant experiences.

Vague location names: "Went to a temple" - which temple? Where? Be specific. Tool can't map "a beach" but can map "Bondi Beach Sydney."

No sense of timeline: Mark days or dates somehow. "Day 1, Day 2" or "Monday, Tuesday" or actual dates. Chronology matters for story flow and map route accuracy.

Skipping the boring travel parts: Sometimes the travel itself is the story. "Stuck in airport for 8 hours" might be more memorable than the actual destination. Don't edit out everything that wasn't perfect.

Making Videos People Actually Watch

Start Strong

First day should hook people. "Landed in Iceland, immediately drove to see Northern Lights" beats "Arrived, checked into hotel, unpacked." Lead with the exciting part even if chronologically it came later.

Include Mishaps and Problems

Perfect trips are boring. Got food poisoning? Missed a flight? Luggage lost? That's the good stuff. Real stories have complications. Makes them relatable and entertaining instead of just bragging.

Add Personal Reactions

Don't just list what you saw. How'd you feel? "Eiffel Tower was bigger than expected" or "This museum was honestly pretty disappointing." Personal perspective makes it your story instead of generic travel guide.

Video Settings Worth Adjusting

Duration per location: Quick trips through many cities need shorter segments. Deep dive into one place needs longer time per location. Match pacing to your actual travel style.

Map zoom level: Close zoom for city exploration. Wide zoom for cross-country journeys. Changes how dramatic the route animation looks.

Narration speed: Normal speed for casual viewing. Slower for people who really want to absorb details. Faster for quick recaps when you just want to show the highlights.

Image style: Realistic illustrations for serious trips. Cartoon style for fun adventures. Vintage filter for nostalgic feel. Pick aesthetic that matches trip vibe.

Technical Bits You Might Care About

Location Database Coverage

Recognizes major cities, famous landmarks, countries, regions. Pretty comprehensive but occasionally misses really obscure places. Use nearby major city as backup if your specific village doesn't work.

Image Generation Logic

Creates scene illustrations based on location type. Beach destination gets coastal imagery. Mountain town gets alpine scenes. City gets urban architecture. Matches vibe to place automatically.

Export and Sharing

Downloads as standard video file. Post directly to YouTube, Instagram, Facebook. Send to family via email or message. Compatible with basically everything. No weird formats that only work on specific platforms.

When This Tool Actually Helps

Post-trip documentation: Create lasting memory of trips before you forget details. Do it within a week or you'll never do it.

Real-time travel updates: Make videos during trip to share with people back home. Shows them your journey as it happens.

Trip planning visualization: Plot out potential routes before going. See if itinerary makes geographical sense or if you're backtracking constantly.

Travel portfolio: Compile multiple trip videos into travel history. Cool to look back years later and see everywhere you've been.

Group trip memories: Make shared video for everyone who went. Better than scattered individual photo collections nobody organizes.

Why Map Routes Make Stories Better

Humans are visual creatures. Telling someone you went to five cities in Italy doesn't mean much. Showing them the path you took on an actual map? Instantly makes sense. They see distances, understand geography, grasp the journey not just the destinations.

Context matters enormously. "Drove from Oslo to Bergen" sounds simple. Show it on a map with that insane Norwegian coastline? Suddenly people get why it took all day. Geography adds depth that words alone miss.

Route visualization catches mistakes too. Plot your trip and realize you're zigzagging inefficiently? Helps for planning future trips. See patterns in where you actually go versus where you think you go.

Sharing becomes way easier when there's structure. Random photo dump overwhelms people. Story with map and narration guides them through your experience. They follow along instead of getting lost in chaos. Makes them actually care about your trip instead of politely nodding while planning their escape.

Not every trip needs a video. Weekend getaway to the next city over? Probably overkill. But that two-week adventure across multiple countries? Turn it into something worth rewatching. Something you'll actually show people instead of letting it die in your camera roll. Future you will thank present you for making the effort.