Nearby — find restaurants, attractions and toilets nearby

This app is still in development and is not yet listed on the App Store or Google Play. This page describes what has been built.

The two searches that are always harder than they should be

A general map app is excellent at restaurants and hotels and mediocre at the two categories that are genuinely urgent when travelling. Finding a public toilet means typing the word and scrolling through results that are mostly businesses; finding reliably vegetarian food means reading menus in a language you do not have.

Nearby makes both a single tap, alongside the four ordinary categories, so the urgent search is not the hardest one.

Six one-tap categories, including find toilets nearby

Open, allow location, tap a category.

• Six categories, one tap each. Restaurants, vegetarian, attractions, hotels, transit and toilets. Vegetarian is its own category rather than a filter, and toilets are a first-class search rather than a keyword.
• Place detail with current status. Each result opens with the detail you need to decide whether to walk there, including a status chip so you are not walking to somewhere closed.
• Saved places. Anything worth returning to can be saved, which is how the app becomes useful on day three of a trip rather than only on day one.
• Caching, so you are not burning roaming data. Results are cached locally, so revisiting a category does not mean a fresh round of requests. The app also enforces a daily request quota per device — 300 calls, reset at local midnight — which keeps behaviour predictable and prevents a runaway loop quietly consuming your data.
• A permission gate that explains itself. Location is requested through an explicit gate rather than a surprise system prompt on launch, because a travel app asking for your position deserves to say why first.

Built around low data use

Most place-search apps assume unlimited data. Abroad, that assumption is expensive. The caching layer and the hard daily quota are there because a travel app should be predictable about what it costs to run on a roaming SIM.

Place data comes from HERE and Google Places, with attribution shown in the app. Your location is used to run the search and is not stored on a server by this app.

Who it is for

Travellers in an unfamiliar city who need a specific thing quickly — the categories are chosen for that rather than for browsing. Vegetarians and vegans abroad, where the dedicated category saves the menu-reading problem entirely.

And parents, or anyone with a medical reason to know where the nearest toilet is, for whom that search is not a joke and should not take four taps and a scroll.

Data sources and privacy

Place data is provided by HERE and Google Places, and attribution is displayed inside the app. Your device location is used to perform the search; results are cached on the device and a daily request quota is enforced locally.

There is no account. Opening hours and status come from the data providers and can be out of date — check before travelling far for something.

This app is still in development and is not yet listed on the App Store or Google Play. This page describes what has been built.

Frequently asked questions

Which categories can I search? Restaurants, vegetarian food, attractions, hotels, transit and public toilets — one tap each.

Will it use a lot of mobile data? It is designed not to. Results are cached locally, and the app enforces a daily cap of 300 place requests per device, reset at local midnight.

Where does the place data come from? HERE and Google Places, with attribution displayed in the app.

Does it need my location? Yes, to search around you. It is requested through an explicit permission gate rather than a surprise prompt, and used to run the search rather than stored by the app.

Can I save places? Yes — saved places are kept on the device.