When everything started in 2014, I (Manuel) never imagined growing such a big community around the idea to find the most beautiful photo spots around the world. Like most projects, I just started to build something to see if others would participate and have the same problem as I had back then. The idea was born at Kirby Cove, San Francisco in 2011 already and the first version of the platform went live in autumn 2014. Over 3 years passed since the initial idea and I thought over and over again about it and how to build it until I finally started to work on Locationscout for every evening and entire weekends.

A lot has changed since these days and while the platform grew, the costs for hosting and providing Locationscout did so too. The only thing that didn't change is the countless evenings and weekends - which is fine since I love what I do and I really care about the community and creating something valuable to others. Premium subscriptions are therefore an urgently required way to be able to build a sustainable business around Locationscout, making it possible to pay the recurring costs, earn my living, hire more talented people, and to keep providing the best possible solution to find beautiful places around the world.

By subscribing to Premium you are supporting the further development and the maintenance of the platform and the apps for iOS and Android. Additionally, Locationscout is financially supporting multiple environmental projects to protect wildlife and nature.

P.S. Since I am getting asked this a lot: "Aren't ads already enough to finance the platform?" That's an excellent question and I always thought so too because we all know how much Google and Facebook are earning, but the truth is that companies usually are not advertising on individual websites. They are using ad networks like Google Adwords and this results in quite low earnings for the websites itself while ad blockers cut these earnings in half. I don't want to flood this platform with ads and I will never integrate ad networks that could harm you, even if this results in ad revenues that can't even pay the server costs. This might be my own fault, but it is in line with my conviction and integrity.

It took me 12 years to build this platform while talking to thousands of users about their constructive feedback and ideas to make it the best possible solution for every traveler and photographer. And because I'm so convinced that this platform will be extremely valuable to you as well, I've added a money-back guarantee to the annual plan so you can try it out for yourself without any risk.

If there is any reason why you are not satisfied within the first 30 days, you can simply write me an email to and you get your money back. And if you miss something, I'm still happy to hear from you at any time.

Important: I can only give this guarantee if you subscribe via the website, as iOS and Android don't allow developers to refund anything manually.

Yes. The Premium subscription is tied to your personal account and you can use it on iOS, Android and the website in parallel.

If you subscribe via the website, you can cancel anytime via your billing settings. On iOS devices, you can cancel with your iTunes account settings. On Android, you can use the Google Play Store to see your current subscriptions and cancel them.

Subscriptions will automatically renew unless cancelled within 24-hours before the end of the current period. If you cancel your plan, it will not renew at the end of your subscription cycle and you can keep using Premium until the period you have paid for is over.

While Around Me helps you to find spots based on your current or a custom position in a radius of up to 250km (in the app and on the website), Spots Nearby can be enabled within each spot via the map to directly see which other spots are nearby in a 5km radius and could be combined or fit even better for your trip.

Both features support routing, which is enabled as soon as you select a spot on the map. An overlay exactly tells you the distance and calculates travel time plus the shortest route, which is shown on the map as a blue path.