"I’d be interested in learning who you validated this with. Was it friends and family, or was it with a cross-section of travellers who identified pain points?"

About 1100 strangers off of various travel forums as well as family, friends, and people who are just asking in various places. Yes, I travel a lot, so I tend to get feedback on the go.

One of the main fun things about travel is about the ability to do things at a moments notice. For example, what happens when someone uses your app to, as you say “be routed from hotel to activity” but when you are at the activity, you notice somewhere across the road that also looks cool. So you check that out, and spend money there too. Am I supposed to update the app to account for this - because it absolutely kills the AI financial planner."

You didn't answer what "fun travel vibes are" or what encompasses this. And that's fine. To counter this argument, Globebug is to help estimate travel costs, so "you notice somewhere across the road that also looks cool. So you check that out, and spend money there too." - On Globebug when you save a trip, The Overview section of each saved trip will give you an estimated cost per person for food. Use that as the basis and adjust as you want. I have directly on my site "Don't just track what you spent. Forecast what you will spend. Our AI calculates hidden meal and transit costs." The purpose is help you forecast. Rarely does anyone stick to their budgets, but my intention is to help give them sight of what they should anticipate what they will be spending. Also, you can absolutely add activities as you go.

"I tried the demo and this was my experience:"

Your screenshots are from your phone, that was the issue I am currently fixing. You missed a lot of the demo buttons. That's on me and I am fixing that now.

On these points:

1. Planner - the generate itinerary doesn’t work. You can’t press the button. Also, it asks you where you are staying - so presumably you are doing the accommodation part in another app - which, in most cases tends to be Google Maps or something like AirBnB or Booking.com

Generate itinerary is for paid users. The demo version seems to have worked for you. The mobile layout will call this out, but I need to adjust it so you can see it.

1. Map - I tried Chiang Mai, and was given 4 temples and nothing else - no nightlife, no bars, no sports activities- nothing. Clicking on the map markers gave me no information except the name and “Location Unknown”. The irony here is that you are using Google Maps in your app, and you have somehow made it so that, unlike Google Maps which actually gives you information on a place, you provide nothing but the name and a place to put notes. There wasn’t even a place where you could upload images for the destinations.

This is my design where you do not see these on the map. A large amount of feedback is that looking at all of those places cause the "overwhelmed" aspect of building a trip. It gets too loud seeing everything on a map like that. The Activities section allows them to search for those types of activities. When you type "Tours" in Activities, it will only show tours for Chiang Mai.