I built a travel discovery platform for uncharted India — 0 users, need brutal feedback
Hey IH community 👋
I'm KC, a solo founder from India.
I built Almanac — a travel discovery platform focused on
uncharted Indian destinations that most platforms completely
ignore. Think hidden cliff monasteries in Leh-Ladakh,
forgotten temple ruins along with peace in Kasauli, heritage villages with no tourists.
The Stack:
→ Next.js + Tailwind CSS
→ Mapbox for 3D destination renderings
→ Cloudflare hosting
→ GitHub OAuth
→ Affiliate model for monetization
The Problem I'm solving:
Every travel platform shows the same 10 Indian destinations.
India has thousands of breathtaking uncharted places that
the world never discovers. I built Almanac to fix that.
Where I need help:
→ Does the UI feel premium enough to trust affiliate links?
→ Is the value proposition clear in 5 seconds?
→ Where does the experience break for you?
→ How would YOU monetize this differently?
Live site → https://manzil.online/
Roast me. I can take it
The site looks premium visually, but the risk is that it feels more like travel inspiration than a reason to act.
For uncharted India, the hard part is not showing beautiful places. It is making people trust the destination enough to plan around it.
I’d pressure-test one thing first: does the page make a traveler think “I want to save this and plan a trip,” or just “nice discovery site”?
That difference probably decides whether affiliate links can work.
Thankyou for the response,
you said "I’d pressure-test one thing first: does the page make a traveler think “I want to save this and plan a trip,” or just “nice discovery site”?" what's you conclusion are you excited to plan a trip or just see and leave it there . And what's the one suggestion you can give for this affiliate links to work .
Glad it’s helpful!
If you want, send me your email and I’ll put together a compact note showing the smallest tweaks to help convert visitors into actual bookings. It’ll be practical and actionable, not just general advice.
Hey Aryan, I would absolutely love that. You can send the notes over to [krishkumarchoudhary300@gmail.com]. Really appreciate you taking the time to put this together!
Just sent you a note.
Kept it focused on how to move the site from “beautiful discovery” to actual planning and booking intent.