I built an AI travel companion solo, while working full-time — launching tomorrow 🌍
Hey PH community 👋
Tomorrow I'm launching Triply.now — and I wanted to share the story behind it before the big day.
I'm Raquel, a self-taught solo developer based in the Netherlands. I built Triply entirely alone — Flutter, Python/Flask, Claude AI, Supabase, Stripe, Vercel, Render. No co-founder, no funding, no team.
The idea came from my friends and my own travel fails. A friend showed up to a temple in Morocco in the wrong outfit. Another one didn't know tipping in Japan is considered rude. I had the wrong adapter in Switzerland and I once brought my hair dryer to Boston and couldn't use it — European voltage, American outlets. Triply would have told me that before I packed. ⚡ These aren't rare — every traveler has been there.
So I built the travel companion I wished I had.
Triply doesn't just generate itineraries — it personalizes the entire trip for who you are:
👤 Solo woman? It tells you which areas to avoid at night, what to wear, what not to do.
👨👩👧 Family with kids? Completely different trip, pace, and priorities.
🧳 First-timer? It holds your hand through visa, adapters, currency, etiquette.
Free. No account needed. Live at triply.now.
Would love your honest thoughts before tomorrow — what would you want an AI travel companion to tell you that no app ever has? 🌍
Replies
@raquel_alves1 just tried your product, really great UI btw, but I faced 2 issues and I thought sharing feedback would help you rectify your product.
for context I am from India and my friends, and I were planning on this summer trip to this beautiful place in Kerala called Munnar,
1. So I thought I would give your product a try all I typed was 5 days trip to Munnar and selected friends trip option, it did not even ask my start destination and decided to make an itinerary from London and then again, I tried it, prompted the same thing and got an itinerary from Delhi to Munnar. The thing is I had to wait till it planned the entire itinerary from the wrong starting city as there was no option to stop it. So why does it not ask for my start destination?
2. The way it plans feels very annoying as a user, maybe I am the problem, but it did not ask any of my preference, it straight away planned everything, for example maybe I could prefer to travel by train to Munnar for enjoying the scenery on the way or by car. But triply did not ask anything to me, what this causes is frustration for users as one wrong detail on the itinerary it provides can be corrected in the next prompt only as there is no way to stop it in the middle of its generation, this destroys user experience.
These were just constructive criticism I thought could help you to improve your product, please do not get offended.
@shaheen5 Shaheen, thank you so much for this — this is exactly the kind of feedback that makes a product better 🙏
You're 100% right on both points and I'm not offended at all — I'm genuinely grateful.
1. Starting city — completely valid. Triply should ask where you're departing from before generating anything. I'm adding this to the top of my fix list today.
2. Preferences first — also fair. The "plan everything immediately" approach works for some users but clearly frustrates others who want to be consulted first. A quick preference check before generating (transport mode, pace, budget, interests) would make the experience feel much more like a real conversation and less like a robot making decisions for you.
Munnar sounds absolutely beautiful by the way — Kerala is on my list
Really appreciate you taking the time. This is day one and feedback like yours is what shapes the product. Hope you'll come back and try it again after I ship these fixes! 🚀
Looking forward to testing your product after iterations!! I’m also building in the AI space right now and it's definitely a challenge to get honest feedback early on. If you're ever looking for something new to test, I’ve been working on a project that uses computer vision for personal styling. Would love to get your thoughts on the approach if you have time!!
@shaheen5 Thank you so much! I'll definitely keep you updated as we iterate on Triply.
Your project sounds absolutely fascinating! Computer vision for personal styling is such a cool and smart use case for AI. I would honestly love to check it out and give you my thoughts on the approach. Send over the link or details whenever you can—I'm always down to support fellow AI builders!
The strongest question here is not “what feature should come next,” but which traveler profile feels the pain of a generic itinerary the most.
Right now Triply can serve solo women, families, first-timers, couples, friends, and work trips — but that also makes feedback hard to interpret.
The most useful next test might be very small:
Ask 5 solo female travelers, 5 families with kids, and 5 first-time international travelers to plan one real upcoming trip with Triply.
Then don’t just ask if they like it. Watch whether they:
give real trip details;
correct the itinerary;
ask for safety / visa / local etiquette info;
save or come back to the plan;
say they would actually use it before booking.
A likely outcome is that first-time international travelers or solo female travelers will provide much clearer signals than general travel feedback.
This is great. However, there are two things that concern me.
1. The UI design looks as if it were generated by AI. I’ve seen similar designs many times before.
2. In Japan, tipping is not considered rude because there is no tipping culture here. So, receiving a tip is confusing.