About MonkeyEatingMango
Built by a traveler, for travelers
MonkeyEatingMango is an AI travel planner that turns 8 quick questions into a costed, day-by-day itinerary, with maps and food guides.
Built by Shobhit Shrivastava · Founder
Bangalore, India
Why I'm building this
A few years ago, a family friend and I drove through the Pacific Northwest, from Seattle across Washington and Oregon. We built the plan together: where to stop each day, what to see, where to eat. This was before AI. It was one of the best trips I've had.
After that, every trip added a new section to my plans, something I'd missed the time before. The trips kept getting better, and the plans cost almost nothing next to what the trips cost. MonkeyEatingMango gives every traveler a plan like that.
Before this, I was an Engineering Manager at Microsoft and Google. I started the app to learn AI, and kept going because a good itinerary is a hard and important problem.
And the name? It comes from a bedtime story I made up for my daughter. She named it Monkey Eating Mango.
I wrote more about why I'm building this on Substack. If something's off or you have an idea, write to me. I read every message.
Shobhit Shrivastava · Founder
What the data and reviewers say
Our 356-trip study found a fault in 43% of first-draft AI days, from shut venues to routes that double back. Every day is now checked against live venue data, and a day that fails is rewritten. Read the study
“You reach a finished plan without handing over an email address, which almost nothing else here does.”
“It would be easy to write a teardown where everything broke. It would also be inaccurate.”
“Overall this is a great itinerary building experience! … I personally love a map of the itinerary.”
What MonkeyEatingMango does
Custom AI itineraries
Answer a few quick questions and get a day-by-day plan with timed stops, meals, a cost estimate and a map, usually in about a minute.
Ready-made itineraries
Complete plans for popular trips, free to read with no signup.
Destination guides
Visas, food, shopping and when to go, with every country guide reviewed by a named editor.
Where should I go?
Dates but no destination? Get one pick and three alternates, each with an all-in cost.
Free planner templates
Blank trip planners for Google Sheets, Excel, Word and PDF, with no signup or email.
Trip downloads
Any generated trip as a PDF, Excel, Word, Google Sheets or Google Docs file.
What makes MonkeyEatingMango different
A finished plan, not a blank map
Eight answers produce a complete day-by-day itinerary. Wanderlog starts you from an empty trip where you add every place yourself, and TripIt organizes bookings you have already made. MonkeyEatingMango vs Wanderlog
Pay once per trip, not every year
Planning is free, and so are the first two days of every trip. The full trip plus exports is a one-time $0.99. Wanderlog Pro costs $39.99 a year, Layla Premium costs $49 a year, and TripIt Pro costs $49 a year. See pricing
No account needed to plan
You can generate an itinerary and read its first two days without signing up. When we checked in mid-2026, Mindtrip asked for a Google or Apple login before its planner would start. Mindtrip alternatives
Checked against real venue data
Plans are checked against real venue details: where each place is, when it opens, and how long it takes to get between stops. A general-purpose chatbot like ChatGPT has no such check, so it can send you to a closed museum or across town and back. How we check content
Any device, any browser
MonkeyEatingMango runs in a browser on any phone or laptop, with nothing to install. Tripsy only runs on Apple devices (iOS and macOS). MonkeyEatingMango vs Tripsy
Who MonkeyEatingMango is for
- Travelers planning several cities in one trip, such as Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka in ten days, who need the transfers between cities worked out.
- Families with kids who need a slower pace, built-in downtime and stops that suit the kids’ ages.
- Budget-minded travelers who want a realistic cost estimate for the whole trip before they book anything.
- First-time visitors to a country who want a sensible first draft before booking anything.
- People who have the time off but no destination yet, and want a shortlist with real costs.
How MonkeyEatingMango works
- Answer a few quick, tap-based questions: destination (or “I want to explore” to get suggestions), where you are starting from, who is coming, interests, dates, trip length and pace.
- Your itinerary builds on screen in about a minute, section by section: the day-by-day plan, costs, food guide, packing list and practical tips.
- Read, share or save it. Sharing a link and reading the first two days are free, and signing in with Google keeps your trips across devices.
- Unlock the rest of the days and the downloads with a one-time Trip Pass, if you want them.
Questions or problems go to hello@monkeyeatingmango.com, with a reply usually within a day or two.
Key facts
- Company name
- MonkeyEatingMango (also written Monkey Eating Mango)
- Type
- AI travel itinerary planner (web app)
- Launched
- April 2026
- Founder
- Shobhit Shrivastava
- Founder background
- Engineering Manager at Microsoft and Google
- Headquarters
- Bangalore, India
- Website
- monkeyeatingmango.com
- Core offering
- AI-generated, day-by-day travel itineraries with costs, maps and food guides
- Pricing
- Free to plan, with the first two days of every trip free to read. A one-time $0.99 Trip Pass per trip unlocks the rest of the days and every export.
- Contract terms
- None. No subscription, and no account needed to plan.
- Services
- Custom AI itineraries, Ready-made itineraries, Destination guides, Where should I go?, Free planner templates, Trip downloads
- Published itineraries
- 136 ready-made itineraries across 54 countries
- Support
- Email hello@monkeyeatingmango.com
- Competitors
- Wanderlog, TripIt, Tripsy, Mindtrip, Layla
- Profiles
- AlternativeTo, Reddit, Indie Hackers, SaaSHub, PeerPush
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
Who built MonkeyEatingMango?
MonkeyEatingMango was built by its founder, Shobhit Shrivastava, in Bangalore, India. He was previously an Engineering Manager at Microsoft and Google. The app grew from a road-trip plan he built with a family friend for the Pacific Northwest, which he added to on every trip after. An editor, Namrata, reviews every country guide.
Where does the travel data come from?
Itineraries combine AI inference for personalization with verified real-world data: real venue details, openly licensed landmark photos, curated traveler knowledge and live commute calculations. Every photo and text source that asks for credit is listed under Credits on this page. The goal is grounded, accurate output rather than the made-up details a general-purpose chatbot can produce.
Can I see what MonkeyEatingMango produces before trying it?
Yes. Browse 136 pre-built itineraries at the itineraries directory, organized by country, duration and travel style. Each one is a complete day-by-day plan with costs, maps and food guides, the same as the AI generator produces for custom trips.
Credits
Data sources & attributions
MonkeyEatingMango is built on open and openly-licensed data. We credit the sources that ask for it:
- OpenStreetMap — the map data behind our trip maps, © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License.
- CARTO — our basemap tiles; see CARTO attribution.
- Wikimedia Commons & Wikidata — destination, place, dish and festival photos. Each file carries its own license — CC BY-SA, CC BY, CC0 or public domain — and its author and license are credited beside the photo. Browse the originals on Wikimedia Commons.
- Wikivoyage — community-written travel knowledge that informs our local tips and planning notes, available under CC BY-SA 4.0 at wikivoyage.org.
- Copernicus Climate Change Service — rain days and sea temperatures in our weather sections, from the ERA5 reanalysis. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information, used under the Licence to use Copernicus Products.
- TerraClimate — monthly high and low temperatures in our weather sections (Abatzoglou et al., Climatology Lab), released under CC0.
- GeoNames — each city's location and time zone, behind the sunrise and sunset times in our weather sections, available under CC BY 4.0 at geonames.org.
- Pexels — food, product and festival photos where no openly-licensed image exists, used under the Pexels License. Each photo credits its photographer, linked, beside the photo. Photos provided by Pexels.
- Unsplash — additional photos under the Unsplash License, each credited to its photographer beside the photo. Photos from Unsplash.