“Hold on — I know a spot”
Everyone has said it. A bench facing the sunset, a clearing by the water, a forgotten rooftop, an empty car park with a view over the city.
These places are in no guidebook. They get passed between friends, and they get lost when you move away. IKASpot is simply a map to keep them — and to find other people's.
How we built it
The map comes first
No promotional landing page, no sign-up wall. You arrive, you see the spots, you explore. An account is only needed to contribute.
Places are protected
Signed-out visitors never see a spot's exact position. And any contributor can blur their own, for everyone, when a place is fragile.
Your photos are cleaned
Phone photos carry the GPS coordinates of where they were taken. We strip that metadata before publishing, every time.
Contributing counts
Points, levels, badges, a leaderboard. Not for decoration: sharing a good spot takes effort, and that deserves recognition.
How it works
- 1
You spot a place. On the ground, or from memory.
- 2
You drop a point on the map, add photos, and describe what's there.
- 3
The spot appears for everyone. People vote, confirm they've been, and comment.
- 4
You earn points, unlock badges, and climb the leaderboard.
What we don't share
Private gardens and property, dangerous places, and anything that reveals someone's home address or identity. No spot is worth an accident, or a resident's peace and quiet.
The site is restricted to people aged 18 and over. The details are in the community guidelines.
Built on open foundations
Map data comes from OpenStreetMap, served by OpenFreeMap. Rendering uses MapLibre, address search uses Photon. Your browser downloads map tiles directly from OpenFreeMap, so that server sees your IP address — as any server you connect to does — but it sets no cookie and no identifier. Address searches go through our own server, so Photon never sees your address at all. Because nothing is stored on your device for tracking, the site needs no consent banner. The full detail is in the privacy policy.