Exploring

The home page is an interactive world map showing every place recommended by Dialog members. Places appear as color-coded pins grouped into clusters.

Clusters and pins

When zoomed out, nearby pins are grouped into clusters with a count badge. As you zoom in, clusters break apart into individual pins. Each pin is color-coded by its category — restaurants, hotels, bars, shops, and more.

Interacting with pins

Desktop: Click a pin to see a preview card with the place name, category, recommendation count, top quote, and any enrichment badges. Click “View Details” to go to the full place page.

Mobile: Tap a pin to see the same card slide up from the bottom of the screen. Tap the card to navigate to the place page.

Your location

On your first visit, the map centers on your approximate location based on your IP address. After a few seconds, a banner appears asking if you’d like to share your precise location for a better experience. If you allow it, the map re-centers to your exact position. This preference is remembered for future visits. You can manage location access in Settings.

Each city has a dedicated page with a hero section showing the city name, country flag, summary, and community stats. The hero also includes three actions:

• Save (heart icon) — add this city to your favorites
• Follow (bell icon) — subscribe to weekly email notifications when new places are added
• Know a spot? Add it. — submit a place recommendation

Below the hero are four tabs.

Map tab

An interactive map zoomed to the city showing all recommended places as pins. Same interaction as the world map — click a pin for a preview, click again for details. A floating “+” button in the bottom-right corner also lets you add a place.

List tab

All places in the city displayed in a scrollable list. Sort by “Most Recommended” (default), “Recently Added,” or “Alphabetical.” Each place card shows a heart icon to save it to your favorites.

Info tab

Practical information: timezone, currency, languages, and population. If members have set this city as their homebase, a “Locals” section shows their names and avatars. Enrichment badges from recognized sources are shown at the bottom.

Quotes tab

All notable quotes about this city, displayed as large pull-quotes — both city-level quotes and place-level quotes attributed to their authors.

Every place has a detail page with photos, community recommendations, enrichment badges, and practical information.

Photo carousel

Photos sourced from Google Places are displayed in a swipeable carousel. If no photos are available, a category-specific placeholder is shown.

“From the Dialog community”

The primary section — every recommendation from group members, shown as individual cards with quotes, context, and the recommender’s name or alias. If a member gave a negative review, the card has an amber “Mixed review” label.

“Also recognized by”

If the place appears in curated guides, you will see badges for Michelin stars, World’s 50 Best ranking, Atlas Obscura, and more.

Member reviews

You can write your own review of any place. Scroll to the review section, type your thoughts in the text area, and click “Post Review.” After posting, you can attach up to 3 photos (JPEG, PNG, or WebP, max 5MB each).

Actions

• Save (heart icon) — add this place to your favorites
• Add to Trip — save this place to one of your trip itineraries
• Share — copy the link to your clipboard
• Open in Maps — view the location in Google Maps

In addition to recommendations captured from the WhatsApp group, you can submit places directly. Click the + button in the top navigation bar (available on every page) to open the submission form.

Single place

Paste a Google Maps URL and optionally select a category. The system extracts the place name, coordinates, and city. If the city doesn’t exist in Dialog Travel yet, it’s created automatically. If you skip the category, it’s auto-detected from Google (restaurant, shop, hotel, etc.).

Bulk import

Switch to the “Import list” tab to import an entire Google Maps saved list. Paste the shared list link, optionally pick a category for all places (or leave on auto-detect), and up to 50 places are added at once. Progress streams in real time. 2 imports per day.

Regions group related cities together by geography or culture — think “Tuscany,” “French Riviera,” or “Patagonia.” They appear in search results and have their own dedicated pages.

What you'll find on a region page

• Cities — all cities within the region, with place counts
• Map — a zoomed view showing all the region's cities
• Follow button — subscribe to get weekly digest emails when new places are added in any city within the region
• Favorite button — save the region to your Favorites for quick access

How to find regions

Use the search bar (⌘+K) and type a region name. Regions appear in search results with a flag and city count. You can also find regions linked from city pages when a city belongs to a named region.

Press ⌘+K on Mac or Ctrl+K on Windows to open the search modal from anywhere in the app.

How it works

Type to search across cities, regions, places, and members. Results are grouped — cities first, then regions, then places, then members. Use arrow keys to navigate results and press Enter to select.

What happens when you select

• Selecting a city — navigates to the city page
• Selecting a region — navigates to the region page
• Selecting a place — navigates to the place detail page
• Selecting a member — navigates to their profile page

Category filter buttons appear at the top of the world map and city pages. Toggle categories on and off to focus on what you are looking for.

Filter categories

The filter bar shows: Restaurant, Hotel, Bar, Cafe, Shop, Museum, Experience, Nature, Nightlife, and Other. Click “Clear” to reset all filters. See the full list of all 15 place categories in the Reference section.