Unscene Gems

Inspiration

Travel apps often highlight the same popular tourist spots, but the best experiences are usually the ones you accidentally discover — hidden viewpoints, quiet cafés, local streets, and underrated places that feel special. We built Unseen Gems to make exploring feel like a treasure hunt, helping travelers and locals discover places that don’t always show up on “Top 10” lists. We also wanted the experience to feel global and exciting, so we used an open-source 3D globe visualization to represent exploration across the world and make discovery feel limitless.

What it does

Unseen Gems is a travel discovery app that helps users explore hidden and underrated places anywhere in the world.

Users can:

Explore locations through an interactive map experience
Filter nearby places by categories like Restaurants, Attractions, Hotels, Safety Info, and Transport
View a list of recommended places with ratings and details
Quickly find interesting places beyond crowded tourist destinations

How we built it

We built Unseen Gems as a modern web app using:

React for the frontend
React Router for multi-page navigation
Leaflet + OpenStreetMap for interactive maps and location pins
Globe.gl (open-source, built on Three.js) for the 3D globe visualization
Vercel for deployment and hosting

The goal was to create a smooth experience where users can discover places visually (map pins) and practically (a ranked list of results).

Challenges we ran into

Designing a UI that feels clean while showing maps + filters + results all at once
Managing app routing and deployment so every page works smoothly in production
Keeping the globe visualization smooth and lightweight while still looking high quality
Balancing features within the limited hackathon time window

Accomplishments that we're proud of

A working map-first exploration UI that feels like a real product
Category filters that make discovery fast and easy
Clean place cards with ratings and details for quick decision-making
A visually engaging 3D globe experience that reinforces global discovery
Successfully deploying the project and making it accessible online

What we learned

How to design a product around user experience first
How to integrate mapping and location-based discovery into a web app
How to use open-source libraries like Globe.gl / Three.js for strong visual storytelling
How to ship a polished project under hackathon pressure