Frequently Asked Questions

Places relies entirely on human curators, not user reviews or algorithms, to select every listing. Curators travel the globe, visit locations in person, and catalog places that meet a high bar for quality, so recommendations reflect real expertise rather than average crowd sentiment.

Most review and map apps aggregate opinions from anyone; Places filters that noise out by relying on expert curators and your own trusted network instead. The result is a smaller, higher-confidence list of places rather than thousands of unfiltered results — built for people who want a great answer fast, not a spreadsheet to sort through.

Download Places for free from the Apple App Store, create an account, and start browsing curator picks near you or in any city worldwide. Download on the App Store

Places is currently available only on iPhone (iOS 18.0 or later) through the Apple App Store. There is no Android version at this time.

Places is free to download, with full functionality unlocked through a Places membership. Membership is an auto-renewing subscription that gives you complete access to curated recommendations, maps, itineraries, and booking features. Not ready to commit? Try it with a free trial first.

Places membership is billed as an auto-renewing subscription through the App Store. Pricing can vary by region, so the current rate is always shown in the app before you subscribe. Current Raya members receive complimentary Places membership as part of their existing plan.

Yes. Places lets you browse and book available reservations from multiple reservation platforms in real time, so you can go from discovering a place to booking a table in just a few taps without leaving the app.

Yes. You can ask Places to plan anything from a single evening out to a full multi-day itinerary, built entirely from its curated database of vetted locations rather than generic search results.

Yes. Places lets you follow friends and curators to see the places they’ve saved, visited, and recommend, so your discovery feed reflects people you actually trust rather than anonymous reviewers.

Yes. You can save any place to build your own personal record of favorites, then share individual spots or full collections with friends directly from the app.

Places covers restaurants, bars, cafes, hotels and unique stays, shops, spas, galleries, studios and other cultural spaces wherever you live or travel. New openings are added as curators find and vet them.

Curators continuously scout and add new openings, so recently opened restaurants, bars and hotels typically surface on Places as soon as they’ve been vetted, rather than waiting for a large volume of public reviews to accumulate.

A Curated Star means a place was hand-picked by our team to earn a spot in the library. Nothing makes it in by algorithm or crowdsourcing. It’s the baseline guarantee of quality for every starred listing on Places.

A Dragon is Places’ highest distinction, reserved for places our Curators consider singular and extraordinary: not just worth visiting, but especially worth knowing. If a Curated Star indicates a place worth remembering, a Dragon marks one you won’t forget.