How it works
A local friend with a map and a lot of patience
Hop the Town plans a night out or a trip from a sentence. "Bar crawl in Denver tonight, dives and cocktails." "Two days in Chicago, first time, we love food." It comes back with a plan you can walk, with the reasons for every stop.
What happens when you ask
An AI planner (Claude, from Anthropic) reads what you wrote and works the way you would with Google Maps open and an hour to spare. It searches Google Places by neighborhood and by what you asked for, compares ratings and review counts, and reads recent reviews of the places it's unsure about. When it matters, it searches the web for what's on that night, new openings and closures, and happy hours.
It checks each place's listed hours against the day and the time you'll arrive, and starts tonight's plan after the local time now. Then it orders the stops so the walks stay short. A plan for a few days gets one day at a time, clustered by neighborhood, with a ride between areas when walking would eat the afternoon.
What you get
- Each stop with its time, how long to stay, why it fits, and what to order or see.
- Google's rating, price level, neighborhood, photo and hours for that day, with a warning if a place may be closed when you get there.
- Walking routes on real streets between stops, drawn on the map, with minutes and distance.
- A link to walk the whole day in Google Maps, and a link to share the plan with your group.
- A box to change anything: swap a stop, start later, add a rooftop. The rest of the plan stays put.
What it can't promise
Listed hours change, kitchens close early, and a quiet Tuesday spot can be packed on a Friday. Treat the plan as a very good first draft, and check a place before you go if your night depends on it. If you're drinking, eat something, drink water, and take a ride home.
Where the data comes from
Places, ratings, hours, reviews and photos come from Google Maps. Walking routes come from the FOSSGIS routing service on OpenStreetMap data. Web results are listed at the bottom of each plan. Plans are saved so their link works; they aren't tied to an account and aren't listed anywhere.
Who made it
Hop the Town was built by Will Loughlin as part of 30 websites in 30 days. Questions or a plan that went sideways: [email protected].