OdysseyGO

Odyssey Go: AI-powered travel planning in seconds. Set your location, time, and budget—we'll craft the perfect itinerary with local hotspots and optimal routes. Plan less, explore more.

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Odyssey Go ✈️🌍

Your personalized travel planner – one-click itineraries, no stress required.

Inspiration

Odyssey Go was inspired by a recent trip our team took to Colorado — a trip that was incredible, but took weeks of planning. We juggled spreadsheets, Google Maps pins, group texts, and way too many browser tabs. The frustration of organizing what should have been a fun, spontaneous experience made us ask:
Why isn’t there a smarter way to plan day trips?

That question led to Odyssey Go — a one-stop platform that helps users generate personalized, efficient travel itineraries based on their preferences, time, and budget. Whether it’s a solo escape or a group adventure, Odyssey Go makes planning feel like part of the journey — not a chore.

How We Built It

We used React for the frontend and integrated state hooks to manage user inputs like date, time, budget, and location. On the backend, we implemented C++ algorithms for itinerary optimization, including dynamic programming and a simplified version of the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). The app fetches mock attraction data and generates a time-aware schedule that balances sightseeing, food, transport, and rest.

We also used Lucide React icons for a clean, intuitive UI and built our layout without external frameworks like Tailwind — relying instead on custom inline styles to give us more control and flexibility. Map interactions (Google Maps API or Mapbox) were mocked for this hackathon, with planned future integration.

What We Learned

  • How to build a full-stack web app using C++ for backend logic alongside a React frontend
  • How to handle multi-constraint optimization and translate time-based algorithms into a user-friendly experience
  • The power of simplifying UX — when planning becomes visual and interactive, it changes how people engage with travel
  • That even within 24 hours, small teams can create meaningful tools rooted in lived experiences

Challenges We Faced

  • Integrating C++ backend logic with a modern React frontend required careful planning and clear input/output formats
  • Designing a layout that felt balanced and responsive without relying on CSS frameworks
  • Managing time — both in the itinerary logic and our own workflow — to prioritize features that made the biggest impact
  • Debugging overlapping state conditions in React while simulating user journeys with varying inputs

Odyssey Go is just the beginning. With real map APIs, live attraction data, and fatigue-aware algorithms, we envision this tool evolving into a must-have for spontaneous travelers everywhere 🌄🗺️

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