Turist Pro

Desktop trip planner with Google Maps integration and automatic scanning for points of interest along a route or within a radius.

The user interface is in Romanian. Button names below are given in Romanian, with the English meaning in brackets.

📋 Overview

Turist Pro is a trip-planning application that lets you:

• find and display points of interest on an interactive map
• plan custom routes through multiple destinations
• automatically scan for points of interest along the planned route
• manage your own database of places (imported from Excel)
• export routes to KML for GPS devices and apps

✨ Main features

🗺️ Interactive map

• Interactive Google Maps view
• 4 map types: Roadmap, Satellite, Hybrid, Terrain
• Add points by clicking on the map or by searching
• Drag & drop to reorder waypoints
• Visual preview of the planned route

🎯 Search modes

Radial mode (search around a point)

• Configurable radius (10–200 km)
• Multiple keywords per search
• Automatic quality filter (rating ≥ 4.0 for restaurants)
• Sort by distance or rating

Linear mode (scan along the route)

• Automatic scanning along the planned route
• Configurable scan interval (5–50 km)
• Configurable allowed deviation from the route (500 m – 10 km)
• KML export with every point found
• Detailed logging to text files

📊 Custom data

• Import from Excel (.xlsx)
• Predefined column structure:
  • name, community size, patron saint (hram), type, year
  • GPS coordinates
  • region, archdiocese, metropolis
  • web links
• Unique IDs generated automatically
• Separate visual layer on the map

🔍 Filtering and sorting

• Filter by rating (1–5 stars)
• Filter by number of reviews
• Filter by source (custom / Google)
• Sort by distance or popularity
• Search within the results

💾 Saved application state

• Recently used routes
• User preferences
• Favourite keywords
• Map position
• Scan settings

🛠️ Technologies

• Python 3.8+
• PySide6 (Qt 6): desktop GUI
• Google Maps Platform: Maps JavaScript API, Places API, Directions API
• googlemaps (Python client for the Google Maps APIs)
• OpenPyXL: Excel import
• python-dotenv, requests

📦 Installation

Requirements

pip install PySide6 googlemaps openpyxl python-dotenv requests

API key

1. Get an API key from the Google Cloud Console.
2. Enable these services:
   • Maps JavaScript API
   • Places API
   • Directions API
3. Create a .env file in the application folder:

GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

File structure

turist_pro_v05/
├── turist_pro_v05.py          # main application
├── custom_data_manager.py     # custom data manager
├── .env                       # API key (never commit it!)
├── map_template.html          # map template
├── Logs/                      # log folder (created automatically)
└── date_custom.xlsx           # (optional) custom data file

🚀 Usage

Start the application

python turist_pro_v05.py

1. Set the starting point

• Option 1: click on the map
• Option 2: search in the text field at the top
• Option 3: the "📍 Locație Curentă" button (current location, via IP geolocation)

2. Radial search

1. Set the search radius (slider, 10–200 km).
2. Enter keywords (e.g. "biserică" = church, "mănăstire" = monastery, "muzeu" = museum).
3. Click "🔍 Căutare Radială" (radial search).
4. Review the results in the "Rezultate" (results) tab.

3. Route planning

1. Add waypoints:
   • click "Adaugă Waypoint" (add waypoint) and search for the place,
   • or click directly on the map while waypoint mode is active.
2. Reorder them by drag & drop in the list.
3. Remove unwanted points with the "🗑️" button.
4. Click "🎯 Calculează Rută" (calculate route) for a preview.
5. Click "🚀 SCANARE LINIARĂ" (linear scan) to search along the route.

4. Linear scan (advanced)

Parameters:

• Scan interval: distance between search points (5–50 km)
• Google deviation: how far from the route to search Google Places (500 m – 10 km)
• Custom deviation: how far from the route to include custom places (0.5–20 km)

After the scan:

• results appear in the "Rezultate" tab
• a detailed log file is written to Logs/
• the "💾 EXPORT KML" button becomes active
• every point is marked on the map

5. KML export

After a linear scan:

1. Click "💾 EXPORT KML".
2. Choose the folder and file name.
3. The file contains:
   • the full route
   • all waypoints
   • all places found
   • details for each place (rating, number of reviews, types)

📋 Custom data Excel format

Required structure

The column headers stay in Romanian, because the application reads them that way.

Column	Index	Header	Meaning	Format	Example
C	2	Nume	name	text	"Biserica Sf. Nicolae"
D	3	Viețuitori	community size	number	"5000"
E	4	Hram	patron saint	text	"Sf. Nicolae"
F	5	Tip	type	text	"Biserică"
G	6	An	year	number/text	"1850"
H	7	Coordonate	coordinates	"lat,lng"	"47.1585, 27.6014"
I	8	Regiune	region	text	"Moldova"
J	9	Arhiepiscopie	archdiocese	text	"Iași"
K	10	Mitropolie	metropolis	text	"Moldovei"

Rules

• The first row is the header and is skipped.
• Coordinates can be separated by , or ;.
• Empty cells are filled automatically with "-".
• Web links: put a hyperlink on the cell in column C (name).
• Unique IDs are generated from name + coordinates.

Example of a valid row

C: Biserica Vovidenia (with a hyperlink to its website)
D: 3500
E: Sf. Maria
F: Biserică
G: 1803
H: 47.1585, 27.6014
I: Moldova
J: Iași
K: Moldovei și Bucovinei

⚙️ Advanced settings

Quality filters

• Restaurants / cafés / bars: minimum rating 4.0, applied automatically
• Other categories: no rating filter
• Filtering by number of reviews is available in the UI

Scan parameters

# Maximum distance for "nearby" in radial mode
MAX_RADIAL_SEARCH = 200_000  # metres

# Default interval between scan points
DEFAULT_SCAN_STEP = 20  # km

# Default deviation from the route
DEFAULT_DEVIATION_GOOGLE = 3000  # metres
DEFAULT_DEVIATION_CUSTOM = 5000  # metres

📁 Logs

A log file is written automatically for every scan:

Logs/
└── scan_2025-01-28_143522.txt

Log contents

• timestamp for every action
• scan parameters used
• number of scan points
• a detailed table for each candidate:
  • name (max. 32 characters)
  • rating
  • number of votes
  • deviation from the route
  • status (accepted / skipped)
• final statistics

Sample log (the log text is in Romanian)

[14:35:25] [INFO] 📍 Puncte de scanare (Pioneze): 8
[14:35:26] [DATA] 📍 PUNCT SCANARE 1/8 ((47.158, 27.601))
[14:35:26] [DATA]    🔎 Keyword 'restaurant': 12 candidați brut.
[14:35:26] [DATA]       NUME                             | RAT. | VOTURI | ABATERE    | STATUS
[14:35:26] [DATA]       ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[14:35:26] [DATA]       Restaurant Panoramic            | 4.5  | 324    | 1250m      | ✅ ACCEPTAT
[14:35:26] [DATA]       Bistro La Castel               | 3.8  | 89     | 890m       | ❌ SKIP CALITATE (3.8<4.0)

🔧 Development

Building the executable (.exe)

pip install pyinstaller

pyinstaller --onefile --windowed \
    --add-data "map_template.html;." \
    --add-data ".env;." \
    --icon=icon.ico \
    --name="TuristPro" \
    turist_pro_v05.py

Main helper functions

# Distance between two coordinates
haversine_distance(lat1, lon1, lat2, lon2) -> float

# Decode a Google polyline
decode_polyline(polyline_str) -> List[Tuple[float, float]]

# Distance from a point to a line segment
point_line_distance(point, start, end) -> float

🐛 Troubleshooting

"Invalid API Key"

• Check the .env file.
• Make sure the APIs are enabled in the Google Cloud Console.
• Check the key restrictions (IP, referrer).

The map does not load

• Check your internet connection.
• Check the JavaScript console (Debug menu).
• Regenerate the map (menu → Regenerare Hartă).

Custom data does not appear

• Check the Excel structure (correct columns).
• Check the coordinate format (lat,lng).
• Check the logs for import errors.

Linear scan is slow

• Use fewer keywords.
• Increase the scan interval.
• Reduce the search radius.

📝 Changelog

v0.5 (current)

• ✅ Logging to console and file
• ✅ Detailed table for every scan candidate
• ✅ Working KML export
• ✅ Custom data manager with 3 new columns
• ✅ Automatic quality filtering
• ✅ Improved UI with tabs and icons
• ✅ Saving and restoring the application state

📄 License

Private project. All rights reserved.

👨‍💻 Author

Mihai Mereu (github.com/mmereu97). Built to plan tourist routes and discover points of interest across Romania, including its monasteries and churches.

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Version: 0.5 · Date: November 2024