# Sceniq > Sceniq is a marketplace for travel guides that open as interactive maps. Each guide is made by one independent creator who has been to every spot in it, and travelers buy it once and keep it. Creators keep 85 percent of every sale and can build their guide with the AI agent they already use, through the Sceniq creator API and MCP server. Sceniq (https://sceniq.earth) turns a creator's favorite spots into a guide that opens in the browser on any phone or laptop as a map: a pin for every spot, with the creator's photos, their own notes and the facts that decide a day out, such as access, effort and the best light. Filters cut a guide down to the trip at hand. Browsing is free; each guide is a one-time purchase at a price its creator sets, from $9, with no subscription. A person reviews every creator and every guide before it goes on the store, and guides carry no ads or affiliate links. Sceniq sells every guide as merchant of record through a Stripe checkout and handles VAT, receipts and refunds. Sceniq is in development and not live yet. This is the long form of https://sceniq.earth/llms.txt. ## Key facts - Type: online marketplace for creator-made travel guides that open as interactive maps - Website: https://sceniq.earth - Founded: 2026 - Status: in development, not live yet - Pricing: free to browse; each guide is a one-time purchase at its creator's price, from $9; no subscription and no account fee - Creator fees: No setup or monthly fee. Creators keep 85 percent of each sale; the 15 percent platform fee covers payment processing, tax handling, hosting and payouts. The creator agreement is non-exclusive, so creators may publish elsewhere too. - Payments: Stripe checkout with the operating company as merchant of record; creator payouts through Stripe Connect - Refunds: requests within 14 days for a broken or mis-sold guide or a mistaken charge; approved refunds arrive through Stripe in 5 to 10 business days - Ownership: a purchased guide stays in the buyer's account; only a refund or chargeback removes it, and a creator leaving never does - Platforms: the browser on any phone or laptop; native iOS and Android apps are on the way - Services: guide builder, hosted sales pages, Stripe checkout, VAT handling, receipts, refunds, creator payouts, sales dashboard, creator API and MCP server - Contact: support@sceniq.earth for travelers, creators@sceniq.earth for creators ## Guides on the store - [Gems of Switzerland](https://sceniq.earth/hikebeast/gems-of-switzerland): by Hikebeast. Your guide to the best summer in Switzerland. 131 spots, $29, one-time purchase. - [Explore all guides](https://sceniq.earth/explore): the store, filterable by country and theme. Every sales page shows the region, the number of spots and sample photos before you pay. ## How buying works 1. Browse https://sceniq.earth/explore. Every sales page shows the region, the number of spots and sample photos before you pay. 2. Pay once through a Stripe checkout. The guide attaches to the email used at checkout, and the confirmation email leads to the library. 3. Open the guide in the browser on any phone or laptop, signed in with that email. There is nothing to install. 4. Questions go to support@sceniq.earth. If a guide is broken, does not match its listing or the charge was a mistake, write within 14 days; approved refunds arrive through Stripe in 5 to 10 business days. ## How selling works 1. Apply with the one-minute form at https://sceniq.earth/creators/apply, or email creators@sceniq.earth with your channels and the region you want to cover. 2. A person reads every application. If it fits, the invite arrives by email and building can start the same day. 3. Build the guide and its sales page in the dashboard, by hand or with an AI agent through the creator API. Every guide is reviewed before it appears on the store. 4. Connect Stripe for payouts. Every sale and the stats show in the dashboard, and the creator's share arrives without invoicing anyone. What Sceniq handles for creators: a studio that turns notes into a polished guide, the app buyers open on their phone, taxes, VAT and receipts, a sales page, hosting and instant delivery, refunds, disputes and buyer support, analytics on which sales channels work, payouts to the bank through Stripe, a marketing playbook, the MCP server for the creator's own AI agent, and a store for verified creators only. ## Creator API and MCP server Creators can connect the AI agent they already use (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex or any other MCP client) to Sceniq. The agent gets tools to draft spots, chapters, routes, stays, transport, food and parking, photos and the sales page from the creator's own notes, map links and photos; the creator reviews every spot in the dashboard and decides what goes live. Each of the 57 operations is both an MCP tool and a REST endpoint. - Docs: https://developers.sceniq.earth/ (API reference: https://developers.sceniq.earth/reference; every page has a markdown twin at its address plus .md) - MCP server: https://sceniq.earth/api/mcp - REST API: https://sceniq.earth/api/v1 - OpenAPI document: https://sceniq.earth/api/v1/openapi.json - Photo uploads: https://sceniq.earth/api/v1/media/upload - Authoring skill (SKILL.md): https://sceniq.earth/developers/skill.md ### Keys and scopes Keys start with sk_sceniq_ and are minted by the creator in the Sceniq dashboard under Settings, API keys; the API is for creators with a Sceniq account. A read-and-write key edits guide content, and a key with the publish option can also publish changes to a guide that is already live. Store visibility, payouts and account settings are never reachable with a key. ### Rules for agents The agent is an assistant, not the author. Coordinates, hours, prices and access facts come from the creator's material or from a source the agent names and the creator confirms, and an empty field beats an invented one. Agents use only the creator's photos and never pull images from the web; every photo that is not the creator's own carries a credit. A new guide goes on sale only from the dashboard, a key with the publish option publishes a live guide's changes only when the creator asks, and guides edited through the API get the same human store review as every other listing. Once a guide has buyers, its spots can be archived but not deleted. ### Photos Photos upload as raw bytes (or multipart) with the key. The server checks the real file type, reads the dimensions itself and strips EXIF, GPS, XMP and IPTC metadata before storing; pixels are untouched. JPEG, PNG and WebP up to 6 MB and 6000 px per side; resizing to 2048 px on the long side first keeps pages fast. ### Setup #### Claude Code Adds the Sceniq MCP server to Claude Code for the current project (drop --scope project for just this machine). Then install the skill so Claude follows the authoring rules. ```bash claude mcp add --transport http sceniq https://sceniq.earth/api/mcp \ --header "Authorization: Bearer sk_sceniq_YOUR_KEY" mkdir -p .claude/skills/sceniq-guide-authoring curl -fsSL https://sceniq.earth/developers/skill.md -o .claude/skills/sceniq-guide-authoring/SKILL.md ``` #### Claude Desktop Claude Desktop connectors do not pass custom headers yet, so the open-source mcp-remote bridge supplies the key. Add this to claude_desktop_config.json. ```json { "mcpServers": { "sceniq": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "-y", "mcp-remote", "https://sceniq.earth/api/mcp", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer ${SCENIQ_API_KEY}" ], "env": { "SCENIQ_API_KEY": "sk_sceniq_YOUR_KEY" } } } } ``` #### Cursor Add to .cursor/mcp.json in your project (or the global ~/.cursor/mcp.json). ```json { "mcpServers": { "sceniq": { "url": "https://sceniq.earth/api/mcp", "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer sk_sceniq_YOUR_KEY" } } } } ``` #### Codex CLI Add to ~/.codex/config.toml. Codex reads the key from the environment variable named in bearer_token_env_var. ```toml [mcp_servers.sceniq] url = "https://sceniq.earth/api/mcp" bearer_token_env_var = "SCENIQ_API_KEY" # then: export SCENIQ_API_KEY="sk_sceniq_YOUR_KEY" ``` #### curl (REST) Every operation is also a plain JSON endpoint. Photos upload as raw bytes. ```bash export SCENIQ_API_KEY="sk_sceniq_YOUR_KEY" curl -s https://sceniq.earth/api/v1/me \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCENIQ_API_KEY" curl -s https://sceniq.earth/api/v1/guides \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCENIQ_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"name":"American West: Parks at First Light"}' curl -s "https://sceniq.earth/api/v1/media/upload?ownerType=spot&ownerId=SPOT_ID&credit=Your%20Name" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCENIQ_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: image/jpeg" \ --data-binary @photo.jpg ``` ### Operations Every operation is one MCP tool and one REST endpoint under https://sceniq.earth/api; the OpenAPI document and the API reference (https://developers.sceniq.earth/reference) carry each input and response field. #### Account - `whoami` (GET /v1/me): Who this key belongs to, plus endpoints and limits - `get_authoring_guide` (GET /v1/authoring-guide): The full Sceniq authoring playbook (markdown) #### Guides - `list_guides` (GET /v1/guides): All guides of this creator (drafts included) - `create_guide` (POST /v1/guides): Create a new draft guide - `get_guide` (GET /v1/guides/{productId}): One guide: settings, region, properties, price, counts - `update_guide` (PATCH /v1/guides/{productId}): Change guide settings (name, headline, tags, country) - `set_guide_region` (PUT /v1/guides/{productId}/region): Set the map region (label, center, zoom, bbox) - `set_guide_price` (PUT /v1/guides/{productId}/price): Set the one-time price - `get_guide_readiness` (GET /v1/guides/{productId}/readiness): Publish checklist: blocking gates, warnings, review link - `list_stale_notices` (GET /v1/guides/{productId}/stale-notices): Dated facts that ran out or need a new check #### Custom properties - `list_properties` (GET /v1/guides/{productId}/properties): Custom spot property definitions of a guide - `create_property` (POST /v1/guides/{productId}/properties): Add a custom property definition - `update_property` (PATCH /v1/properties/{propertyDefId}): Relabel a property or manage its options - `convert_property` (POST /v1/properties/{propertyDefId}/convert): Change a property's kind without losing values - `archive_property` (POST /v1/properties/{propertyDefId}/archive): Archive a property (values on spots are preserved) - `reorder_properties` (PUT /v1/guides/{productId}/properties/order): Set the display order of all live properties #### Spots - `list_spots` (GET /v1/guides/{productId}/spots): All spots of a guide in editor order - `create_spot` (POST /v1/guides/{productId}/spots): Add a spot (a place the creator has been to) - `get_spot` (GET /v1/spots/{spotId}): One spot with its photos, chapters and routes - `update_spot` (PATCH /v1/spots/{spotId}): Edit a spot (fields, arrival, facts, archive) - `delete_spot` (DELETE /v1/spots/{spotId}): Delete a spot (refused once the guide has buyers) - `set_spot_routes` (PUT /v1/spots/{spotId}/routes): Set which routes reach this spot - `upsert_spots` (POST /v1/guides/{productId}/spots/batch): Create or update up to 25 spots by your own ref #### Areas: parks, islands, regions - `list_areas` (GET /v1/guides/{productId}/areas): Parks, islands and regions shared by several spots - `set_area` (PUT /v1/guides/{productId}/areas): Create an area, or replace one area's content - `delete_area` (DELETE /v1/guides/{productId}/areas/{areaId}): Delete an area (spots lose the link, nothing else) #### Chapters and collections - `list_chapters` (GET /v1/guides/{productId}/chapters): Chapters and collections with their members - `create_chapter` (POST /v1/guides/{productId}/chapters): Create a chapter or a collection - `update_chapter` (PATCH /v1/chapters/{collectionId}): Edit a chapter (name, description, prose, cover) - `set_chapter_members` (PUT /v1/chapters/{collectionId}/members): Replace the ordered member list of a chapter - `set_chapter_intro` (PUT /v1/chapters/{collectionId}/intro): Set the structured front matter of an intro chapter - `reorder_chapter` (PUT /v1/chapters/{collectionId}/position): Move a chapter between two neighbours - `delete_chapter` (DELETE /v1/chapters/{collectionId}): Delete a chapter or collection (spots stay) #### Routes (how to get there) - `list_routes` (GET /v1/guides/{productId}/routes): Routes (hikes, approaches) with their spot and facility links - `create_route` (POST /v1/guides/{productId}/routes): Add a route (how to get there) - `update_route` (PATCH /v1/routes/{routeId}): Edit a route - `set_route_spots` (PUT /v1/routes/{routeId}/spots): Replace the ordered spots a route passes - `set_route_facilities` (PUT /v1/routes/{routeId}/facilities): Replace the places a route uses - `delete_route` (DELETE /v1/routes/{routeId}): Delete a route (spots and places remain) #### Places: stays, transport, food, parking - `list_facilities` (GET /v1/guides/{productId}/facilities): Places of a guide (stays, transport, food, parking) - `create_facility` (POST /v1/guides/{productId}/facilities): Add a place: a stay, transport, tour, food or parking - `update_facility` (PATCH /v1/facilities/{facilityId}): Edit a place - `delete_facility` (DELETE /v1/facilities/{facilityId}): Delete a place #### Photos - `list_media` (GET /v1/guides/{productId}/media): Photos of a guide with their owner rows - `update_media` (PATCH /v1/media/{mediaId}): Set a photo's caption, alt, credit, focal point or provenance - `reorder_media` (PUT /v1/media/{mediaId}/order): Move a photo within its owner's gallery - `delete_media` (DELETE /v1/media/{mediaId}): Remove a photo #### Link health - `get_link_report` (GET /v1/guides/{productId}/links): Health of every link buyers can open in the guide - `check_links` (POST /v1/guides/{productId}/links/check): Check the guide's links now - `set_link_verified` (PUT /v1/guides/{productId}/links/verified): Record that a link was confirmed by hand #### Sales page - `get_sales_page` (GET /v1/guides/{productId}/sales-page): The default sales page: draft, published state, media map - `save_sales_page_draft` (PUT /v1/guides/{productId}/sales-page/draft): Save the sales page draft (never publishes) #### Publishing - `get_publish_status` (GET /v1/guides/{productId}/publish): What buyers see, unpublished changes, and what blocks a publish - `publish_changes` (POST /v1/guides/{productId}/publish): Publish a live guide's draft changes to buyers #### Creator profile - `get_profile` (GET /v1/profile): The creator's public profile - `update_profile` (PATCH /v1/profile): Change the display name or real name - `set_profile_socials` (PUT /v1/profile/socials): Replace the social links on the profile ## About - [About Sceniq](https://sceniq.earth/about): what Sceniq is, how it compares with PDF guides, trail apps and review sites, the first guide, key facts and an FAQ. - First guide: Gems of Switzerland by Hikebeast, the Swiss photographer Leon Helg, a map guide to the Alps. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leon.helg, TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@leon.helg - Contact: support@sceniq.earth for travelers, creators@sceniq.earth for creators. A person reads every message. - Platforms: the browser on any phone or laptop, nothing to install; native iOS and Android apps are on the way. ## Legal - [Terms of service](https://sceniq.earth/legal/terms) - [Privacy policy](https://sceniq.earth/legal/privacy) - [Refund policy](https://sceniq.earth/legal/refunds): refund requests within 14 days for a broken or mis-sold guide or a mistaken charge. - [Imprint](https://sceniq.earth/legal/imprint): provider identification and contact for this website. - [Creator agreement](https://sceniq.earth/legal/creator-agreement) ## Articles Every article on https://sceniq.earth/blog, in reading order. ### What is Sceniq? https://sceniq.earth/blog/what-is-sceniq · Basics · published 2026-07-08, updated 2026-09-30 Sceniq is a marketplace for travel guides that work as interactive maps. Every guide is made by one creator who walked, photographed and wrote up each spot in it. You buy a guide once and it stays in your account. The pitch fits in one sentence: the favorite spots of your favorite creator, on a map you can buy. #### A map, not a booklet Open a guide and you are looking at a region with pins on it. Each pin is a spot the creator stands behind: their photos, a few honest lines on what it is and why you would go, plus the facts that decide a morning, how you get in, how hard it is, when the light peaks. Filters sit on top of the map. Narrow it by region, effort, access or best light and the guide shrinks to the trip you are actually taking. Everything runs in the browser on your phone or laptop, behind your account. There is nothing to install. #### Made by one person, on purpose Every guide has a single author, and their name is on it. The photography is their own, every outside shot is credited by name, the notes are theirs, and if a spot disappoints, you know exactly who told you to go. Creators apply to sell here, and a person reads every application. The bar is plain: you sell spots you have stood at, photographed yourself and can write about from experience. [More on the people behind the guides](https://sceniq.earth/blog/who-makes-sceniq-guides). #### The first guide on the shelf The first guide on Sceniq is Gems of Switzerland by Hikebeast, the project of Swiss photographer Leon Helg. It maps 134 spots he has hiked and photographed across many summers in the Alps, gathered into collections that run from regions like Valais and Ticino to a short list of his favorite hidden gems. It costs $29. Tap a pin and the entry reads like a friend briefing you: what the place actually is, the hour the light earns the walk, and the one practical detail nobody thinks to mention until they have stood there. That texture is what you are paying for. #### What it costs Browsing is free, and every sales page shows what a guide holds before you pay. A guide is a one-time purchase at a price its creator sets, starting at $9. No subscription, no account fee. Checkout runs on Stripe. Sceniq sells every guide as merchant of record and takes care of VAT, receipts, refunds and payment questions. #### Common questions **Do purchased guides expire?** No. A guide you buy is yours to keep, and only a refund or chargeback removes it from your account. [The detail on access and refunds](https://sceniq.earth/blog/do-i-keep-my-sceniq-guides). **Is there a mobile app?** Guides open in the browser on any phone or laptop; there is nothing to install. Native iOS and Android apps are on the way, and every purchase carries over. **Can I sell my own guide?** If you have walked your spots and can show your work, apply. [How applications work](https://sceniq.earth/blog/how-to-become-a-sceniq-creator). ### How Sceniq works https://sceniq.earth/blog/how-sceniq-works · Basics · published 2026-07-08, updated 2026-09-30 You pick a guide, pay once at a Stripe checkout, and the guide attaches to your email address. Sign in and it opens as an interactive map in the browser, ready for the trip. #### Finding a guide The [explore page](https://sceniq.earth/explore) lists every guide on the platform. It is a short shelf on purpose: few creators get in, and every guide is walked before it is sold. Each sales page shows the region, the number of spots, sample photos and buyer reviews, so you can judge a guide before paying for it. #### Paying Checkout is a standard Stripe page. Sceniq itself is the merchant of record: the receipt, the VAT and any payment questions are the platform’s job, for every guide from every creator. One thing to read before you click pay: because a guide is digital and delivered on the spot, you agree at checkout to immediate delivery and give up the EU 14-day withdrawal right. If a guide turns out to be materially broken or mis-sold, the [refund policy](https://sceniq.earth/legal/refunds) still applies. #### Opening your guide The purchase attaches to the email you used at checkout. Follow the link in the confirmation email, set up your account, and the guide is in your library. From then on you [sign in](https://sceniq.earth/signin) with that email from any device. #### Using it on the trip The guide is a map. Pins mark the spots; each one opens into photos, the creator’s notes and the practical facts, down to how you get in and when the light is best. Filters cut the map to what fits the day: the region you are in, the effort you are up for, the light you are chasing. It works in the browser on the phone in your pocket. Native apps for iOS and Android are on the way, and purchases carry over when they arrive. #### If something goes wrong Write to [support@sceniq.earth](mailto:support@sceniq.earth) within 14 days of the purchase, from the email you bought with. A person reads it. If the guide is broken, does not match its listing or you were charged in error, you get your money back through Stripe within 5 to 10 business days. ### What is inside a Sceniq guide? https://sceniq.earth/blog/whats-inside-a-sceniq-guide · Basics · published 2026-07-08 A Sceniq guide is built from spots: places with the creator’s photos, their notes, exact map pins and the practical facts. Around the spots sit collections, filters and a map that ties the region together. Guides differ by creator and region, but the skeleton is shared. The examples here come from Gems of Switzerland, the platform’s first guide. #### Spots, the unit everything else is built from A spot is one place the creator stands behind: a lake, a ridge, a gorge, a waterfall. The entry opens with the creator’s photos and a one-line verdict, then longer notes on what it is and what to expect when you arrive. Verdicts stay honest because the author’s name is on them. A famous lake gets called famous, and the entry then tells you how the creator slips past the crowd instead of pretending the crowd is not there. Tourism boards do not write like that. The notes go past description into craft. Waterfall entries in Gems of Switzerland tell you where to place a subject against the white water, and when a drone earns its place in the bag. You are reading over the shoulder of someone who has photographed the place for years. #### The practical layer Each spot carries the facts that decide whether it fits your day: - Access, in the creator’s own words: “Cable car + short walk”, “Postbus + walk”, “Cable car + 2 hour hike”. - Effort, from easy strolls to steep approaches. - Best light, so you stop guessing. Every spot names its hour; some want the sun low, some only ask for a clear sky. - A wild camping verdict where it matters, with the reason: discouraged, restricted or plainly forbidden. Every spot sits at exact coordinates on the guide map, one tap away from directions in your maps app. #### Collections, the table of contents Spots group into collections. Gems of Switzerland splits its 134 spots by region, from Eastern Switzerland to Ticino plus a chapter across the border, then adds curated cuts: the creator’s top six famous spots, his top six hidden gems and a wild camping set. Read them in order like chapters, or ignore them and work straight off the map. #### Filters The facts creators fill in become filters. Cut the map to easy access, to one region, to sunset light, and plan from what remains. On a 134-spot guide, filters are the difference between a catalog and a plan. #### What is not inside No ads, no sponsored placements, no affiliate detours. The creator earns from the purchase, so the content has one job: being right. ### How much does Sceniq cost? https://sceniq.earth/blog/how-much-does-sceniq-cost · Buying · published 2026-07-08, updated 2026-09-30 Browsing Sceniq costs nothing. A guide is a one-time purchase at a price its creator sets, starting at $9; the first guide on the platform costs $29. There is no subscription and no account fee. #### One price, once You pay for a guide the way you pay for a book: once, at the price on the cover. The guide then sits in your account for this trip and every later one to the region. Nothing meters your use and nothing renews in the background. #### Who sets the price The creator does, from $9 up. Prices land in paperback territory: Gems of Switzerland, 134 spots in and around the Alps, costs $29. #### Where the money goes Sceniq keeps a flat 15 percent of each sale; the creator keeps 85 percent. That one fee funds the checkout, the hosting, the tax handling and the payouts. Creators pay nothing up front and no monthly fee, so a guide only costs them something when it earns something. #### Taxes and receipts The checkout shows the final amount before you pay. The platform sells every guide as merchant of record: it handles VAT and sends the receipt, useful if the trip goes on an expense report. > **Yours to keep.** A purchased guide stays in your account; only a refund or chargeback removes it. [What that means in practice](https://sceniq.earth/blog/do-i-keep-my-sceniq-guides). ### Do I keep the guides I buy? https://sceniq.earth/blog/do-i-keep-my-sceniq-guides · Buying · published 2026-07-08 Yes. A guide you buy on Sceniq is yours to keep. It stays in your account, opens in any browser you sign into, and the only thing that removes it is a refund or chargeback, which takes the guide back along with returning your money. #### Where a purchase lives A guide attaches to the email you used at checkout. Sign in with that address and your library follows you: the phone on the trail today, a laptop in the hotel tonight, a new phone next year. When the native apps arrive, the same purchases carry over. #### What a revision means for you Creators can revise their guides, and when they do, your copy shows the guide as it currently stands. Worth being straight about the promise, though: what you buy is the guide as it is on the day you buy it. Sceniq does not sell future updates as a feature, and no listing promises them. Anything a creator adds later lands in your copy as a bonus, not as a contract. #### If the creator leaves Guides already bought stay bought. A creator leaving the platform, or being removed from it, changes what is on sale, never what you already own. #### The refund trade A refund returns your money and takes back the guide. If a guide is materially broken, does not match its listing or you were charged in error, write to [support@sceniq.earth](mailto:support@sceniq.earth) within 14 days of buying; approved refunds go back to your payment method through Stripe in 5 to 10 business days. The full [refund policy](https://sceniq.earth/legal/refunds) is short and readable. > **The one-sentence version.** Bought guides stay, refunded guides go, and nothing else touches your library. ### Why pay for a travel guide? https://sceniq.earth/blog/why-pay-for-a-travel-guide · Perspective · published 2026-07-08, updated 2026-09-30 Most trips run on free content, and plenty of them go fine. You pay for a guide when you want the finished answer instead of the research project: one person’s complete map of a region, walked before it was sold. #### What free is good at Free content built modern travel. Blog posts, map lists, forum threads and reels surface places no guidebook publisher would have printed, and if research is the part of the trip you enjoy, nothing here argues against your evenings of tabs and saved posts. #### Where free costs you The bill arrives as time. The top search result was written to rank, so it hedges everything and commits to nothing. The reel you saved has no location on it. The list you found repeats a list that repeats a list, and none of the three authors went. You cross-reference all evening and still start the morning unsure whether the walk in is twenty minutes or two hours. #### What one walked map changes A Sceniq guide is one person’s finished answer for a region. Finished means the map is the plan: every spot pinned, access spelled out (“Cable car + short walk”), effort rated, light timed. Walked means the person selling it stood there, took the photos and wrote what they know, name attached. The name carries a guarantee. A guide that is materially wrong gets refunded under a [real policy](https://sceniq.earth/legal/refunds) from the platform that sold it, which is a different relationship to being wrong than any listicle offers. And the content has no side hustle. No ads, no sponsored inclusions, no affiliate links deciding which hotel gets mentioned. The creator earns when the guide is worth its price. #### The math on a $29 guide Set the price against what it protects. A trip to the Alps runs to four figures once flights, trains and beds are counted. A wasted morning at a viewpoint that needed dawn, or two hours of switchbacks to a spot that deserved twenty minutes, costs more than the guide did. $29 is what the airport charges for a sandwich and a coffee, with worse reviews. #### When to keep your money If no guide covers your region, that is that; the shelf is deliberately short and grows only when a walked guide clears the bar. If your trip is about drifting without a list, a guide will sit unused. And if the research genuinely is your hobby, keep the hobby. Buy the guide for the trip where the hobby has no time. ### Is a paid travel guide worth it? https://sceniq.earth/blog/is-a-paid-travel-guide-worth-it · Buying · published 2026-07-09, updated 2026-09-30 It depends on the trip, not the guide. Paid guides earn their price on short trips to unfamiliar regions, where a wasted morning costs more than the guide did. They sit unused on open-ended trips and home turf. Here is how to tell which trip you are planning, and how to judge any guide before paying. #### The actual math Price the guide against the trip, not against free. A mountain trip runs to four figures once transport and beds are counted, and it is sliced into a small number of mornings; on a four-day trip, each one carries a triple-digit share of the budget. A guide priced like a paperback has to save you one bad call, one viewpoint attempted at the wrong hour, one two-hour approach that deserved twenty minutes, to pay for itself. Everything after that is margin. The counterweight is real too: a guide you do not open saves you nothing, and the internet is full of purchases that were really a way of feeling prepared. Buying a guide is not planning a trip; using one is. So the question is never whether paid guides are worth it in general. It is whether your next trip is the kind that opens one, on the trail, on the third morning, when the weather just changed the plan. #### Trips where a guide earns its price The pattern is short, fixed and unfamiliar. Fixed dates mean you cannot wait out weather or crowds, so decisions have to be right the first time. Unfamiliar means your instincts do not work yet: you cannot eyeball how long an approach takes or which lake needs dawn. Add a specific ambition, photographs worth keeping, a partner you promised a good trip, a region you may not see again, and the value of borrowed local judgment goes up again. #### Trips where it will not Skip the purchase if the trip is open-ended and the drifting is the point; a fixed list fights the drift. Skip it for regions you already know well; you are the guide there. Skip it if research evenings are genuinely your hobby rather than your cost. And skip it when nothing good covers your region: a mediocre guide is worse than honest ignorance, because it spends your confidence on someone else’s guesses. #### Six questions that expose a bad guide Before paying for any travel guide, from anyone, check: - Is a real person’s name on it, with channels you can inspect? Anonymous guides answer to nobody. - Did the author plainly go? Original photography is the tell; stock photos and drone shots from licensing libraries are the other tell. - Is the scope stated? A region, a number of places, what each entry contains. Vague scope hides thin content. - Does each place come with decision-grade facts, how to get in, how hard it is, when to go, or just adjectives? - Is the price one-time or recurring, and what exactly do you keep? - Is there a refund policy a company actually has to honor, or a checkout that never answers email again? #### What no guide can do Fair expectations keep the purchase honest. A guide cannot fix weather, fitness or a late start; it hands you better decisions, and you still have to make them. It also cannot replace the maps app, the avalanche bulletin or your own judgment about what your group can walk. And a guide is one person’s region: buying it means borrowing their taste, which is the value and the limit in the same sentence. If their eye matches yours, every pin is a gift; read their public work first and check that it does. #### Running the checklist on Sceniq We built the platform to pass this list, so the answers are short. Every guide carries its creator’s name and channels, and the photography is the creator’s own, with outside shots credited by name. Sales pages state the region, the spot count, sample photos and buyer reviews before any money moves. Entries carry access, effort and best light as structured facts, which is what makes the map filterable. [The full anatomy](https://sceniq.earth/blog/whats-inside-a-sceniq-guide). Prices are one-time, set by the creator from $9, with no subscription; a purchased guide stays in your account, and [only a refund or chargeback removes it](https://sceniq.earth/blog/do-i-keep-my-sceniq-guides). Refunds run under a [written policy](https://sceniq.earth/legal/refunds) backed by the platform as merchant of record, within 14 days for guides that are broken or mis-sold. > **The one-sentence verdict.** Buy a walked guide for the short trip to the unfamiliar region; keep your money when the trip is long, local or the research is the fun part. #### The related question Worth it is half the decision; the other half is why paid beats free at all when free is this abundant. [That argument, including where free wins](https://sceniq.earth/blog/why-pay-for-a-travel-guide). ### Planning a trip with a Sceniq guide https://sceniq.earth/blog/how-to-plan-a-trip-with-sceniq · Basics · published 2026-07-08 The map does the planning work a folder of saves cannot: see the whole region at once, filter it down to your days, and let each spot’s access and light decide when you go. #### Start from the whole map Lists hide geography; the map shows it. Open the guide and look for clusters first: five pins around one valley is a day, two pins across a pass is a decision. Pick where you sleep by where the pins thicken. #### Filter to the trip you actually booked You booked three days, a rental car and mixed weather, so cut the guide down to that. Filter by region to your valley, by effort to what your knees and your company can carry, by access to what works when the car stays parked. The map drops from 134 pins to nine, and nine is a plan. #### Let light and effort set the schedule Each entry carries best light and effort, and those two facts arrange a day on their own: clear-sky lakes take the flexible midday, sunset spots take the evening, the steep approach takes the fresh legs of the morning. When an entry warns that a famous spot fills up, you know which alarm to set. #### Use the access line the night before The access notes read like a friend’s text: “Cable car + short walk”, “Postbus + walk”, “Cable car + 2 hour hike”. Check them the evening before, note the first lift or bus, and the morning runs itself. Where a spot carries a wild camping verdict, you know before you carry a tent up whether the answer is yes, restricted or forbidden. #### On the trip The guide lives in the browser, signed in with your purchase email, so the phone in your pocket carries the plan. Spots link straight to your maps app for the drive. After the trip the guide stays in your library, and the next visit starts from the same map. ### How to plan a Switzerland itinerary https://sceniq.earth/blog/planning-a-switzerland-itinerary · Travel · published 2026-07-09 Plan Switzerland around two facts: distances look short but mountain travel is slow, and weather decides more than you do. Pick one or two bases, keep a sunny-day list and a cloudy-day list, and let the forecast set the order. #### Small country, slow kilometers On the map, Switzerland is three hours corner to corner. On the ground, the mountains multiply every distance: a valley that sits next to yours can be two passes and half a day away. The classic first-trip mistake is treating it like a road-trip country and chaining five hotels in seven days. You spend the week packing, checking in and staring out of train windows at the places you are not stopping. The regions are also more different than the country’s size suggests. The Bernese Oberland, Valais, Ticino, Graubünden and Eastern Switzerland each feel like their own trip: different landscapes, different weather patterns, in Ticino a different language and vegetation. Picking a region is most of the itinerary decision. #### How many days to plan for A useful rule: one region per week. Three or four days is a real trip to one valley system; seven lets you add a second base or slow down; ten to fourteen covers two regions properly. The whole-country circuit in a week exists on the booking sites, but it is a tour of train seats. If the calendar only gives you four days, shrink the map, not the sleep. A small itinerary done in good light beats a big one done from a timetable, and the region you cut is the reason to come back. #### Pick bases, not routes Choose where you sleep by where your targets cluster, then stay put. A good base gives you five or six day-trips without moving your bag. For a week, one or two bases is right; every extra base costs you half a day of transfer and the morning that follows it. Look for clusters first and beds second: five targets around one valley is a base, two targets across a pass is a decision. #### You may not need a car Swiss public transport reaches further into the mountains than almost anywhere else: trains up the valleys, postbuses over the passes, cable cars up the walls. Plenty of good itineraries run entirely on the timetable, and rail passes can pay for themselves on a lift-heavy week if you run the numbers on your actual routes. A car earns its cost when your targets sit at trailheads the buses reach twice a day, or when you are chasing light at hours the timetable does not keep. Either way, check access the night before, not in the morning. Cable cars close for revision weeks, high passes close for the season, and the first lift of the day is a fact you plan around rather than discover. #### The season sets the ceiling Be honest with the calendar. Snow holds on high trails into early summer, so June trips should keep their ambitions below the snowline or check conditions locally. High summer brings long days and reliable lifts, plus afternoon thunderstorms that build over the peaks and crowds at the famous names. Early autumn trades a little daylight for clearer air and quieter trails, and late autumn starts closing lifts between seasons. None of these are wrong times; they are different trips. #### Plan a portfolio, not a schedule Mountain forecasts are only trustworthy a day or two out, so an itinerary that fixes Tuesday to a viewpoint is a plan for disappointment. Build three lists instead: a sunny-day list of the places that need the view, a cloudy-day list of gorges, forests and waterfalls that photograph better without harsh sun, and a rain list of towns, museums and thermal baths. Book the beds, leave the days liquid, and each evening let the forecast pick tomorrow from the right list. #### Mornings are the lever Almost everything that frustrates people about Switzerland in summer is a schedule problem, not a place problem. The famous spots are quiet at dawn, the light is better before the haze builds, and the thunderstorms belong to the afternoon. Taking the first lift or the first bus is the single cheapest upgrade an itinerary can buy. Plan the big walk for the morning, keep the afternoon for the easy targets, and be back below the ridgeline when the sky starts working. #### Where a walked guide fits This method has one input it cannot generate: a trustworthy list of places with the facts attached. That is the research project, and it is where the evenings go. A [Sceniq guide](https://sceniq.earth/blog/whats-inside-a-sceniq-guide) is that list finished by someone who walked it: every spot pinned on a map, with access, effort and best light filled in by the creator, so the sunny-day list and the cloudy-day list are a filter away. [How that works in practice](https://sceniq.earth/blog/how-to-plan-a-trip-with-sceniq). The shelf currently holds one Switzerland guide, Gems of Switzerland, 134 spots by the photographer behind Hikebeast; the method above is the trip it was built for. ### Hidden gems vs tourist spots: an honest comparison https://sceniq.earth/blog/hidden-gems-vs-tourist-spots · Travel · published 2026-07-09 Neither wins. Tourist spots are certain and crowded; hidden gems are quiet and uncertain. A good itinerary mixes both, and the real advantage is not knowing secret places, it is knowing the right hour and the right approach for the places you pick. #### In defense of the tourist spot Famous places earned it. The lake on every postcard is on every postcard because it looks like that, and skipping it to prove a point is a pose that costs you the lake. Tourist spots are also the low-risk half of a trip: the path is signed, the lift runs on a timetable, the photo you saw is the photo you get. When you have two days and one shot at a region, certainty is worth a lot. What you pay is the crowd, and the crowd is real: full parking lots, a queue at the cable car, forty tripods at the viewpoint. But the crowd is a schedule, not a fact about the place. The same famous shoreline at dawn belongs to you and two other people; at eleven it belongs to the buses. Most of what people dislike about tourist spots is just the hour they chose to arrive. #### What a hidden gem actually is Honest definition: a hidden gem is rarely hidden and rarely a secret. It is a place that photographs less famously, sits a little further from the lift, or asks a steeper walk than most visitors accept. The filter is effort and information, not secrecy. That filter is also the appeal: the reward for the extra hour on foot is usually the mountain to yourself. The costs are just as real, only quieter. Uncertainty is the big one: less coverage means fewer answers about the approach, the conditions and whether the place holds up in person. Variance is the other. Some of these places beat the famous ones; some are a long walk to a decent view. Anyone selling hidden gems as pure upside has not walked to enough of them. #### The label has been inflated Search for hidden gems in any famous region and the results are lists, and the lists name the most photographed places in the country. The phrase ranks well, so it gets attached to whatever already ranks. A useful test: if a place appears in three top-ten lists, it is a tourist spot now, whatever the headline calls it, and it deserves the tourist-spot treatment: go early, have a plan B. #### Paying less of the uncertainty tax The quiet places reward homework, so do the homework where it is cheap. Look for recent photos rather than the famous one, which may be ten years and one rockslide old. Read the approach on a real map, not a caption: contour lines answer the how-hard question that adjectives dodge. Check what the access actually is, because unsigned trailheads and twice-a-day buses are exactly the details lists leave out. And have an exit: the quiet valley with a plan B costs you nothing when it disappoints, while the one you bet the whole day on costs the day. #### Timing beats the label The distinction that actually changes a trip is not famous versus hidden, it is informed versus uninformed. The person who knows that a famous gorge is empty before nine, that the postbus reaches a quiet valley twice a day, or that a viewpoint needs evening light is having a better trip at both kinds of places than the person working from a saved reel. Crowds, light and access are knowable facts. Knowing them is the whole game. #### Build days that mix both The pattern that works: anchor each day with one certain thing, then spend the rest of the day on the quieter targets nearby. The anchor gives the day a guaranteed win; the detours give it the stories. Doing it in that order matters, because the anchor is the thing that punishes a late start, and the quiet places forgive one. In practice that looks like: the postcard lake at seven, coffee when the buses arrive, and the unnamed ridge above it for the afternoon, with nobody on it and the same water in the frame. [How to stack days like this into an itinerary](https://sceniq.earth/blog/planning-a-switzerland-itinerary). #### How Sceniq guides handle the split Sceniq creators sell regions they have walked for years, so their guides carry both halves honestly. A famous spot gets called famous, and the entry tells you how the creator slips past the crowd instead of pretending the crowd is not there. The quieter spots come with the facts that make uncertainty manageable: access in plain words, an effort rating, the light worth waiting for. The first guide on the shelf, [Gems of Switzerland](https://sceniq.earth/blog/whats-inside-a-sceniq-guide), even splits its curated collections along exactly this line: a short list of the creator’s favorite famous spots, and a short list of his favorite hidden gems. Both lists exist because both kinds of places belong on a trip. ### Wild camping in Switzerland: the rules in plain language https://sceniq.earth/blog/wild-camping-in-switzerland · Travel · published 2026-07-09 Switzerland has no national law that bans wild camping and none that allows it. The rules are set by cantons and municipalities. In practice: protected areas are a hard no, a single discreet night high above the treeline is often tolerated, and everything in between needs checking locally. #### The legal shape People ask for the Swiss rule, and the honest answer is that there is no single Swiss rule. Camping regulation lives with the cantons and municipalities, and the same ridge can cross two sets of rules. Land ownership matters too: much of what looks wild is someone’s pasture or a common, and on private land the owner’s permission is the rule everywhere. That sounds unusable, but the practice sorts into three clear bands: places where the answer is always no, places where a careful night is broadly tolerated, and a middle band where you ask. #### Where the answer is always no Protected areas are the hard line, and it is enforced with real fines. Camping is forbidden in the Swiss National Park, in nature reserves, in federal game sanctuaries and, seasonally, in wildlife resting zones, which exist precisely so animals get winter and spring without human surprises. Many mire and marsh landscapes carry protection as well. These zones are mapped and usually signed at the trailheads; a no here is not a grey area. #### Where a night is broadly tolerated High in the mountains, above the treeline and away from the protected zones, a single overnight for a small group is widely tolerated, and guidance published by the Swiss Alpine Club points the same way. The tolerance rests on how it is done: pitch late, leave early, one night in one place, no fire scars, no trace in the morning. An emergency bivouac when weather or darkness catches you is treated more leniently still, everywhere. Near mountain huts, ask the hut team before pitching. Many huts have a spot they will point you to, and the conversation costs nothing. Tolerated is also not the same as easy. A night at that altitude means real weather exposure, cold that surprises people in August, and no cell signal in plenty of valleys. The legal question is the smaller half of the preparation; take the forecast seriously and tell someone where you are sleeping. #### The middle band: forests, pastures, valley floors Below the treeline the tolerance thins out fast. Forests are sensitive and often carry their own cantonal rules, valley floors are farmland or building zones, and lakeshores in famous regions are usually explicitly signed against camping because everyone has the same idea. This is the band where wild camping most often goes wrong. The fix is boring and effective: ask the landowner, ask the municipality, or take the campground for a night. Swiss campgrounds are frequent and often sit in exactly the scenery you came for. #### Vans and rooftop tents are a different question Sleeping in a vehicle follows its own rules, and they are usually stricter than the tent’s. Trailhead parking lots and mountain pass pull-outs are commonly signed against overnighting, famous lakeside lots almost always are, and municipalities enforce it in high season. The tolerant band that exists for a tent above the treeline has no equivalent for a van by the road. If the vehicle is the bed, plan on campgrounds and designated motorhome spots, and treat a quiet free night in a village lot as the exception you confirmed locally, not the default. #### Fires, and the rest of the duties Open fire is its own rulebook. Fire danger levels are published federally and change with the weather; in a dry summer, total fire bans across whole cantons are normal and taken seriously. The rest is leave-no-trace basics: pack everything out, keep soap out of lakes and streams, keep distance from wildlife at dawn and dusk, and leave the meadow looking like you were never in it. Tolerance for wild camping survives exactly as long as the average camper deserves it. #### How to check a specific spot Signage on the ground beats any article, including this one. Before a night out: look at whether the spot sits in a protected zone, read the municipality’s website, and when in doubt, ask locally. Rules also change, so a verdict from a two-year-old forum thread is a rumor, not a permission. > **The short version.** Protected area: no. High above the treeline, one careful night: usually tolerated. Anywhere else: ask before you pitch, and check the fire danger level either way. #### Where a walked guide helps The hard part is rarely the principle, it is the verdict for the exact place you have in mind. This is one of the facts Sceniq asks creators to settle on the spot level: entries in [Gems of Switzerland](https://sceniq.earth/blog/whats-inside-a-sceniq-guide) carry a wild camping verdict where the question comes up, with the reason, and a wild camping collection sits among the guide’s curated cuts. The point is the same as this article’s, settled spot by spot by someone who has stood there: know the answer before you carry a tent uphill, not by headlamp. ### Who makes Sceniq guides? https://sceniq.earth/blog/who-makes-sceniq-guides · Creators · published 2026-07-08, updated 2026-09-30 Independent creators make every guide: photographers, hikers and locals selling the regions they know from years of walking them. Sceniq lets few of them in, and each guide carries its author’s name. #### One name on every guide Open any guide and the author is right there: name, face, channels. You can scroll their Instagram and check whether the person selling you a region has stood in it. Most travel content works hard to hide who wrote it; here the byline is the warranty. #### The bar for getting in Nobody lists a guide by signing up. Creators apply with their channels and the region they want to cover; a person reads every application and says yes to few. The test is short: you have stood at your spots, the photos are yours, and the notes could only come from you. As the [creators page](https://sceniq.earth/creators) puts it, we would rather host fifty walked guides than five thousand generated ones. That is why the shelf looks short. It is short. #### The first one Hikebeast is the project of Leon Helg, a Swiss photographer who has spent many summers in the Alps. His guide, Gems of Switzerland, maps 134 of those spots, and his own words explain the product better than we can: the app is the shortcut he wishes he had when he started. Sceniq is built for creators like him, which shows in the details: payouts that arrive without paperwork, a builder that thinks in spots and photos, and a shelf that grows by invitation. [The longer story](https://sceniq.earth/blog/why-we-built-sceniq). #### What sellers get Creators keep 85 percent of each sale. The platform’s flat 15 percent covers checkout, taxes, hosting and payouts, and Sceniq carries the merchant duties, so a creator’s job stays the one they are good at: knowing the place. If that is you, [here is how applications work](https://sceniq.earth/blog/how-to-become-a-sceniq-creator). ### How travel creators make money https://sceniq.earth/blog/how-travel-creators-make-money · Creators · published 2026-07-09, updated 2026-09-30 Most travel creators earn from some mix of five things: platform ad revenue, brand deals, affiliate links, client work and products they own. Each pays differently, and each bends the content in a different direction. That bend is worth understanding whether you make travel content or just plan trips off it. #### Ad revenue: the visible one Platforms share ad money with creators, and for a small number of very large channels that is a living. For most travel creators it is coffee money, because travel audiences are seasonal and the per-view rates are outside the creator’s control. The deeper cost is editorial: ad revenue pays for watch time, so the content drifts toward whatever keeps a feed scrolling, which is not the same thing as whatever helps you plan a trip. #### Brand deals: the big one Sponsorships are where most full-time travel creators actually earn: a tourism board pays for a visit, a gear brand pays for a placement. There is nothing shameful in it, and the good creators disclose it. But the incentive is plain: the destination that pays gets the coverage, and the coverage is contractually sunny. A sponsored week can be honest work and still tell you nothing about whether the place suits your trip. #### Affiliate links: the quiet one Book through my link and the creator earns a cut. Hotels, tours, insurance, gear: affiliate income scales with clicks, so posts organize themselves around bookable things. The recommendation engine behind a lot of travel content is not what was best, it is what has a program. Once you see it, you notice which hotels get named and which trailheads do not, because a trailhead pays no commission. For the reader the tell is composition: content that keeps steering toward bookable nouns, tours, stays, transfers, is monetizing your itinerary, not informing it. #### Client work: the invisible one A lot of travel-creator income never touches the audience: shooting content for brands, licensing photos, making videos for tourism campaigns. It is honest freelance work with a portfolio that happens to be public. Its only cost is time, the same time that would otherwise go into the creator’s own channels. #### Owned products: the aligned one The last mix is selling something the audience buys directly: presets, prints, ebooks, courses, guides. This is the only model where the buyer and the payer are the same person, which changes the incentive completely. Nobody buys a preset pack twice out of politeness; an owned product earns exactly as long as it is worth its price. The traditional format here was the PDF guide in a bio link, which earns but ages badly and reads like a printout on a phone. [That PDF problem is roughly why Sceniq exists](https://sceniq.earth/blog/why-we-built-sceniq). #### How the mix shifts Almost nobody runs one model; the realistic picture is a stack that changes with scale. Early on, client work and small affiliate income carry the hobby, because both pay without an audience. Growth brings the brand deals, and with them the tension: the quarter looks great and the feed slowly stops being yours. Owned products usually come last, which is backwards, because they are the piece that compounds. An audience that bought something from you and got their money’s worth is worth more, per follower, than any reach a sponsor rents, and the product keeps selling in months when no brand is booking. #### Where Sceniq fits Sceniq is the owned-product model, built specifically for place knowledge. A creator turns the region they have walked for years into an interactive map guide and sells it at a one-time price they set, from $9. The split is flat: the creator keeps 85 percent of every sale, and the platform’s 15 percent covers checkout, VAT, hosting and payouts, with the platform itself acting as merchant of record so tax paperwork never reaches the creator. [How applications work](https://sceniq.earth/blog/how-to-become-a-sceniq-creator). The buyer-side rules protect the incentive: no ads inside guides, no sponsored placements, no affiliate detours. A guide earns once, from the person using it, which is the entire reason its verdicts can afford to be honest. [Who is selling here today](https://sceniq.earth/blog/who-makes-sceniq-guides). #### The honest caveat No model, this one included, turns a small audience into a salary, and nobody serious will promise you numbers. What an owned guide changes is the direction of the work: instead of renting your reach to whoever pays this quarter, you build one product from knowledge you already have, and it sells on whether it is good. The asset underneath every model on this page is the same one: an audience that believes you. Ads and sponsorships spend that trust; a product the buyer is glad they paid for is the rare model that builds it. For the people whose DMs are already full of where-is-this questions, that is usually the right trade. ### How to become a Sceniq creator https://sceniq.earth/blog/how-to-become-a-sceniq-creator · Creators · published 2026-07-08, updated 2026-09-30 Email creators@sceniq.earth with links to your channels and the region you want to cover. A person reads every application; if it fits, you can be building your guide the same day. #### The application is an email Send links to where your work lives, Instagram, YouTube, a blog, and name the region you would cover. That is the whole application; there is no form and no pitch deck. Address it to [creators@sceniq.earth](mailto:creators@sceniq.earth). The channels do the talking. We look for spots you have plainly stood at, photography that is yours, and posts that sound like someone who knows the parking situation rather than someone who read about it. #### What happens next A person reads the application. If it fits, an invite arrives and you can start building the same day. Entering a spot takes a few minutes, a first draft of a real guide takes an afternoon, and a weekend is enough to polish it into something you are proud to link. You add the spots, upload the photos and write the notes; the builder turns them into a structured guide as you go. A sales page comes with it, already designed: your photos, your words, your own address on sceniq.earth. #### What the platform carries Sceniq sells your guide as merchant of record. Checkout, VAT, receipts, refunds and payment support never reach your desk; you see every sale and all your stats in the dashboard, and your share arrives without invoicing anyone. The price is yours to set, from $9 up. The split is flat: you keep 85 percent of every sale and the platform keeps 15, which covers checkout, taxes, hosting and payouts. Nothing up front, no monthly fee. #### What stays yours Your audience, your channels, your link. The formal customer relationship for a purchase sits with the platform, which is what makes the tax handling possible; the reach you bring stays yours, and the guide strengthens it: one link in your bio that answers the DMs for you. ### Why we built Sceniq https://sceniq.earth/blog/why-we-built-sceniq · Perspective · published 2026-07-08, updated 2026-09-30 Sceniq exists because the honest answer to “where is this?” never fit in a DM. We built the place where a creator’s knowledge of a region becomes a product they own and a map you can trust. #### An inbox as a product brief Post a photograph of a turquoise lake and the comments fill with one question: where is this? Answer it in DMs and the same question arrives tomorrow, from someone new, forever. Travel creators spend years in that loop. The knowledge people want from them is real, specific and earned; the channel for sharing it is a chat box. The obvious fixes were bad. A PDF in a bio link is ugly the day it ships, and a folder of saved posts is where plans go to die. The spots deserved a map, the notes deserved a product, and the person who walked it all deserved the majority of the price. #### What the travel internet optimizes for Search rewards volume, so region pages get written by people who ranked for the region rather than walked it, and lately not by people at all. Sceniq is a bet on the opposite: fewer guides, walked ones, sold by their authors under their own names. #### The rules we set - One author per guide, name attached, so someone is accountable for every pin. - Walked spots only. A person reads every application, and the shelf grows by invitation. - One-time prices. A guide is a product you keep, so no subscription meters your trips. - The creator keeps 85 percent. The platform’s 15 covers checkout, taxes, hosting and payouts. - One merchant of record. The platform sells every guide, so creators never touch VAT and buyers get a company they can hold to its policies. - No ads anywhere. The product is the product. #### Where it stands Sceniq is still in development and not live yet. The first guide is ready: Gems of Switzerland by Hikebeast, 134 spots in and around the Alps. The shelf will grow by invitation, slowly on purpose, and native apps are on the way with every purchase carrying over. Questions go to [support@sceniq.earth](mailto:support@sceniq.earth) and applications to [creators@sceniq.earth](mailto:creators@sceniq.earth). Both inboxes get read by people, which, for a platform that started with an inbox problem, is the least we owe an inbox.