Kerala Journey

A zero-BS Kerala trip planner for first-timers: Explore → Decide → Plan → Export.

1. Explore: pick one or more trip vibes (Mist & Mountains, Backwaters & Slow Living, Cliffside & Surf, Wild Rainforests) and read the candid Is Kerala for you? reality check.
2. Decide: a three-step wizard asks for length and pace, then who's travelling, and builds a day-by-day itinerary. Stops follow the map (hills → water → coast), so a route never doubles back, and the airports are chosen to match (Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram or Kozhikode). Activities that don't suit the traveller or are closed that month are left out with a reason, and riskier ones are flagged.
3. Plan: every transit leg with realistic options (cab, KSRTC bus, train), times, fares in ₹ and boarding tips, plus survival essentials: UPI and cash, plugs, SIMs, common scams and emergency numbers.
4. Export: Download My Travel Dossier saves the plan, transit guide, emergency numbers and a packing list as Markdown; Print / PDF prints the same dossier.

The page is meant to be played with before planning:

• Atmospheric hero and theme engine: a full-bleed, slowly pushing-in photo of Munnar, Alleppey, Varkala or Thekkady. Hovering a place (in the hero or on a vibe card) morphs the photo, the copy, the sensory notes and the whole page's accent and ambient-glow colours (CSS custom properties registered with @property, so they interpolate). It drifts through the moods on its own until someone interacts.
• Vibe Canvas: photo cards with a micro-story each, plus a drag-to-compare slider (Munnar mist vs Kumarakom sunset).
• Monsoon & Festival Time-Machine: a Jan–Dec slider (or "Play the year") with rainfall, temperature, festivals and a photo per month; the rainfall bars double as the month picker, and "Plan my trip for…" feeds the month into the wizard.
• Spice Matrix: eight spices with where they grow, where to taste them, a story and a buying tip; filter by region.
• Malayalam card-flip: 22 survival, transit, food and slang phrases with pronunciation and context; progress is saved.
• Easter eggs: type a secret word anywhere on the page.

Motion uses Motion (Framer Motion) and respects prefers-reduced-motion. The last trip, and which phrases you've discovered, are remembered in the browser (localStorage).

Photos in public/images are from Kerala Tourism's royalty-free gallery (credited in lib/experience.ts and on the page), used pending their written permission as on the earlier version of the site. Swap them in that one file if needed.

Run it

npm install
npm run dev        # http://localhost:3000
npm test           # planner + dossier tests (Node 22+)
npm run build      # production build

Deploys to Vercel as a standard Next.js app.

Layout

app/                 layout, page, globals.css (Tailwind v4 theme: forest, sand, clay, ink)
components/
  TripContext.tsx    all trip state; derives the itinerary from the wizard answers
  MoodContext.tsx    theme engine: the active mood and its CSS colour variables
  Hero.tsx           cinematic hero with the region selector
  VibeCanvas.tsx     Module A: photo vibe cards with micro-stories; ComparisonSlider.tsx
  RealityCheck.tsx   Module A: "Is Kerala for you?" accordion
  TimeMachine.tsx    month slider: rainfall, festivals, seasonal photos
  SpiceMatrix.tsx    spice grid and detail panel
  PhraseFlip.tsx     Malayalam flip cards
  EasterEgg.tsx, Reveal.tsx  secret words; scroll-in animation
  TripWizard.tsx     Module B: steps 1–3
  ItineraryView.tsx  Module B: route strip and day-by-day plan
  LogisticsCard.tsx  Module C: one transit leg
  SurvivalEssentials.tsx  Module C: money, power, scams, norms, emergency numbers
  DossierModal.tsx   Module D: preview, download, copy, print
  DossierDocument.tsx  the dossier as a printable document
lib/
  keralaData.ts      vibes, regions, activities, transit legs, essentials, months, packing
  experience.ts      photos and credits, moods, micro-stories, seasons, phrases, spices
  planner.ts         stop selection, route order, day building (pure functions)
  dossier.ts         Markdown export and shared formatting
  planner.test.ts

Facts were checked against official and published sources on 2026-10-06. Links appear next to each fact on the page and in the dossier, the registry is lib/sources.ts, and SOURCES.md lists what was confirmed, what was corrected and what is still unverified (most cab fares, activity prices and the Malayalam transliterations). Re-check fares, opening days and closures each season, and update CHECKED_ON in lib/sources.ts.

The previous version of the site (interactive district map, panoramas, culture and food pages) is in git history on main before this rewrite.

License

MIT, see LICENSE.