Finprints: the travel and dive map I built for myself

The main idea is simple: cities and dive sites on the same map. Travel logs and dive logs usually live in different apps. I had not seen one place that treated both as part of the same trip, and I wanted that for myself.

Most trips on this site get a post. Plenty of places do not. Finprints holds both: the dives and cities I wrote about, and the ones that never made it into an article.

I started it as my own log and spent hundreds of hours on it. Once it worked the way I needed, I wanted to share it. It is the interactive map on /map, and a free app other people can use at finprints.arospro.com.

Try it

You can start without an account. Open finprints.arospro.com, add a few pins, and the map stays on that device. Sign up later when you want cloud sync or a public embed for a blog or forum post.

If you only care about my footprints, stay on /map.

Why I built it

I was tired of private spreadsheets and half-remembered lists. Dive logs lived in one tool. Cities lived in another. Posts lived here. None of them, on their own, showed the full picture of a trip.

Finprints is the version I wanted for myself. Cities only when I was really there. Dive sites from a catalogue or from my own log file. Dive details kept private if I want them to be. A map I can put next to a trip write-up without turning the post into a data dump.

What you see on the map

Visited countries get a light tint. Regions with a city or dive show up stronger. Cities are pins (capitals as stars). Dive sites use the diver-down flag, and they cluster when you zoom out. On the blog embed, posts show up as article markers when I have tagged them with a country.

You can turn the country tint off and keep only the pins. In the editor, click a pin to open it and fly the map there.

Named custom maps (for example a dive bucket list) can be embedded on their own, so a post does not have to show every footprint you have ever logged.

Logging cities and dives

Cities start with search. Pick a result and it saves. You can add trip dates, notes, and a link to a post.

Dive sites search a large local catalogue. The site is required; the dive-log fields are optional (date, depth, gas, buddy, notes, and the rest). There is a quick spreadsheet-style log and a full table with filters, print layout, and CSV export.

You never type coordinates by hand for a new place. Pins come from search, imports, suggestions when you zoom in, or dropping a pin on the map.

Imports and privacy

Travel imports pull cities from Google Timeline, My Maps, Saved Places, TripAdvisor paste, or plain GeoJSON / CSV. Dive imports take Subsurface files and CSV/TSV.

The map works on your device first. Cloud sync is optional. The public embed stays off until you turn it on. When it is on, names and coordinates can publish; notes and dive-log detail stay private. You can export or restore a backup from Settings anytime.

Passport numbers and this blog

The passport side counts countries, capitals, and continents, plus a few explorer and diver milestones. On this site, /map shows my public map, a short stats line, and a World explored block. Country pages such as /map/mv list the posts for that country. The map itself is still the full world.

Posts get a marker when they include country codes in the front matter. A trip post can also embed the map under the story. That is how Finprints sits next to the writing without replacing it.

Free and Pro

Anyone can use Finprints. The free plan keeps an unlimited local map, a public embed with a Finprints credit, and cloud sync up to 250 footprints. Pro unlocks unlimited sync, dive Insights, and an embed without the credit. Pricing is in the app under Settings.

I still do most day-to-day logging on the free side. Pro is there when sync and Insights matter.

How to use it with this blog

1. Open my live log at /map.
2. Browse posts by country from that page, or jump from a marker on the embed.
3. If you want your own travel and dive map, start at finprints.arospro.com (no account required to try).

Summary:
Finprints puts travel and diving on one map because I could not find a tool that did. My public log is on /map. Make your own at finprints.arospro.com.