iOS & Android · Free to download

Every pin is a photo
someone took
standing there.

Google Maps tells you the place exists. Photerra shows you what it looks like from where someone stood — in that light, on that day. See it before you go, then plan a trip around it without leaving the app.

Download the app See how it works
4,000+ real photo-spots
31 destinations, and growing
iOS · Android free to download
Loading spots…
A spot shared by the community
— spots in view
Explore all cities

A live preview of Photerra's map. See all cities →

Built to be trusted

Nobody pays to rank. No slop. No selling you out.

The places you find here are real, the ranking is honest, and what's yours stays yours. Not a settings toggle — it's how Photerra is built.

  • Real photos, not AI slop

    Every spot is a real picture a real person took — never AI-generated.

  • No sponsored spots

    Nobody pays to appear on the map or to rank on it. What you see is what travelers actually loved. The booking links are affiliate links, marked as ads in the app, and they never change which places you see.

  • We never sell your data

    Not to advertisers, not to data brokers, not to anyone.

  • We don't track where you go

    Your location shows what's nearby in the moment, then it's forgotten.

  • You're always the owner

    Edit or delete any spot, or your whole account, whenever you want. You're never locked in.

  • Quiet Mode

    Share spots without your name attached to them.

Read our full privacy promise →

Where these spots come from

The best spots don't have a listing.

The bench where the light is perfect at 6pm. The cove past the parking lot. The mural on the side of the laundromat. None of them are business listings — so the apps built on business listings can't show them to you. Photerra pins them where someone stood.

Everyone else

The same recycled map.

Google Maps, the AI planners, the big travel sites — all drawing from the same pile of business listings and reviews. That's why they hand you the same ten places.

Photerra

A map made of photographs.

One real photo at a time, pinned where it was taken — close enough to walk to, from someone who was actually standing there.

See how Photerra compares
A weekend, start to finish

Meet Alex — a San Francisco weekend, planned from photographs.

She has 12 tabs open across Google Maps, Instagram, blogs, and three group chats — and every one shows her the same 30 places, none of which she can actually see. Twelve tabs isn't a speed problem. It's a trust problem.

  1. 01

    She opens Photerra

    The map is photographs, not listings — places shared by travelers and open archives, each one pinned about where the camera was. Hundreds of them in one view, and she can see every one before she goes.

    The Photerra map of San Francisco — every pin a photograph, pinned where it was taken
  2. 02

    She checks the evidence

    Tap a pin and the photo says what it is: the place, when it was taken and who took it, where the photograph carries that — and where it came from. She knows what she's walking to, not what a listing says about it.

    A spot on Photerra — the photo, the place, and the line that says when it was taken and who took it
  3. 03

    She plans day by day

    Her saved spots become a day-by-day plan with her stays and plans alongside. Or she describes the weekend — "quiet viewpoints and good coffee" — and the trip builder assembles it from photographed places. Not a top-10 list.

    A weekend in San Francisco planned day by day on Photerra, with stays and plans beside the photographed stops
  4. 04

    She takes it on the road

    The route draws itself around real stops, split into days by how far she's going. Tables, stays and rides are a hand-off to partners, clearly labelled — one tap opens them, and Photerra never sells a spot.

    A road trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles on Photerra — the route and its photographed stops

Alex has a plan she could see before she went.

One map instead of twelve tabs. Every stop is a photograph, so she knows what she's walking to — and she can share it, tweak it on the go, and hand the bookings off to partners in a tap.

Every stop a photo someone took standing there
What you can do with it

When the map is real, the rest just works.

Search it by the light. Let the AI plan from it. Build a trip with friends and book without leaving. Every one of these is better because the spots underneath are real — not a scraped directory.

See before you go

You're looking at the real thing.

Tap any pin and it's the actual photo someone took standing there — not a stock image, not a star rating. You know what a spot really is before you ever leave.

A spot on Photerra — the photo, the place, and its evidence line
AI trip planner

Describe a trip. Photerra builds it.

"A weekend of quiet viewpoints in Portland." "Three days of good light and long walks in Mexico City." The AI pulls from real photo-spots — every one a photograph taken where it's pinned — so what you get back reflects where people actually went.

Plan a trip on Photerra — describe it, and the route is built from real places and real photographs
Your travel map

A map that shows who you are.

Every spot you add builds your personal travel map — and reveals your travel type. See the places you were the first to put on the map, how you rank among fellow travelers, and share a card worth showing off.

Road trips & routes

Plan the whole route, stop by stop.

Going from A to B — a road trip from San Francisco to Portland, a walk across a city, a bike ride through the hills — Photerra plans the real photo-spots worth stopping for along the way, split into days by how far you're going. How road trips work →

Trip Recorder

Turn a past trip into a map.

Point Photerra at the photos from a trip you already took, and it rebuilds it on your map — day by day, in order. It even finds the places that aren't on Photerra yet, so you can add them for the next traveler.

Dense hubs

Hundreds of spots per city.

460+ in San Francisco. 610+ in Portland. 140+ in Mexico City. We go deep in a few cities before we go wide — so the map is useful the day you open it.

The Photerra map of San Francisco, dense with photographed spots
Day-by-day

Save it. Plan it. Go.

Drag spots into days. Auto-optimize routes. Collaborate with your group in real time.

A trip organised day by day on Photerra
Booking is a hand-off

One tap to navigate, or to a partner.

OpenTable, Resy, Booking.com, Airbnb, Hostelworld, Hipcamp, Skyscanner, Viator, GetYourGuide, Uber, Lyft — restaurants, stays, flights, activities and rides, one tap from any spot. You book with them; we hand you over.

OpenTable Booking.com Airbnb Skyscanner Viator GetYourGuide Uber
Bulk upload

Your camera roll becomes the map.

Add 5, 50, or 100 photos at once. Each lands at the coordinate where you took it. Where a photo carries its location, the photo is the entry; where it doesn’t, you fill in what’s missing once and move on.

Search by the light

Golden hour, on the map.

Every spot is a real photo, and most carry the time they were taken. Filter for morning, golden hour, or evening — and find the places worth being at the right time.

Where we are now →

The cities we've gone deepest in.

A map is only useful when it's dense — so we go deep before we go wide. These are a few of the places where travelers have already built that depth; there are 31 in all.

Browse all destinations →

Want your city next? Tell us where you'd like to explore →

Frequently asked

The quick version.

Is Photerra free?

Yes. The app is free to download and all the core features — browsing the map, saving spots, building trips, inviting friends — are free. We make money on the affiliate side when you book a flight, hotel, restaurant, or campsite through the app. You're never charged for a spot.

Do I need an account to use it?

You can browse the pre-seeded map without an account. To save spots, build trips, upload your own photos, or plan with friends, you'll need a free account — email or Apple/Google sign-in.

Which cities are live?

Photerra's community has mapped destinations across the US, Mexico, Europe, Asia and Australia — from San Francisco, Portland and Los Angeles to Rome, Kyoto, Sydney and Mexico City — each with its own page of real photo-spots, plus dozens of areas just getting started. Browse every destination →

What if my city isn't covered yet?

You can still use the app — upload your own spots, build trips anywhere, and the AI planner works globally. The seeded cities are just where there's already a dense community layer to discover from. If enough travelers in your city start posting, it becomes the next hub.

Does it work offline?

Not yet. Photerra needs a connection to load spots, maps and trips. You can export an itinerary as a PDF before you leave, which is readable without data.

How does the AI trip planner work?

Tell it where you're going and what you want ("quiet viewpoints," "good light for photos," "where locals gather"). It builds a day-by-day itinerary from real photo-spots — not generic lists. Refine with prompts or edit by hand.

Can I plan trips with friends?

Yes. Trips are collaborative — invite friends and everyone can add, reorder, or comment on spots. Photerra auto-calculates routing, distances, and travel times across days.

What happens to the photos I upload?

Only the photos you choose to post become spots — the rest of your camera roll is never touched. A photo you post is pinned to the coordinate where you took it, and an AI sorts what's in it (a viewpoint, a quiet spot, good light) so other travelers can find it. You're always the owner: edit or remove any spot, or your whole account, anytime.

Put your best spots
on the map.

Every spot you share becomes part of a map no business directory can build. Help map it — start with your own camera roll.

Download on the App Store Get it on Google Play

No sponsored spots. No paid rankings. No account required to browse.

The Photerra map of San Francisco — every pin a photograph