About Carta Volta

Carta Volta is a travel platform where travellers can discover interactive maps full of personal recommendations from locals, content creators, and city insiders. Founded in Ghent, Belgium by Amandine and Angelo in 2025, we help travellers find trustworthy places without endless research, generic lists, or outdated information.

Published: 04 Jun 2025Updated: 27 Jul 20264 min read

• The team behind Carta Volta
• Why did we create Carta Volta?
• How does Carta Volta work?
• Carta Volta in numbers

The team behind Carta Volta

The platform is built by Amandine and Angelo to help travellers discover places worth remembering. Together, we combine personal travel experience, local curiosity and entrepreneurial know-how to develop Carta Volta and support our creators.

Amandine Keppenne

Co-founder

View Maps

Angelo Vandamme

Co-founder

View Maps

Why did we create Carta Volta?

Two travellers, two very different styles

We are both passionate about travelling and discovering cultures, but our travel styles couldn’t be more different. Angelo explores a city without a plan, guided by instinct and whatever feels right in the moment. Amandine dives into a series of “15 best of…” blogs, scrolls endlessly through TikTok, and spends hours online hunting for the most photogenic spots. Even though we often stray off the beaten path and put a lot of effort into our travel research, we still don’t always find those “wow!” places we know so well in our home city: the heavenly little restaurants, hidden corners, quirky spots, and the unique things locals fill their days with.

The night that sparked Carta Volta

In May 2025, we visited Vienna, armed with tips from someone who had once studied there on Erasmus. After some hesitation, we decided to try one of their recommendations. It didn’t seem to add up, and indeed, the place had changed entirely: expensive, poor quality, and lacking character. While waiting for a mediocre drink, we scrolled through Google Maps in search of alternatives. Nothing stood out. We asked fellow tourists for advice, but unfortunately, we had no luck there either. After a lot of wandering, we finally stumbled upon a fantastic little bar tucked away in a side street: great cocktails at honest prices, run by wonderful people, and - something that became quickly clear - loved by the locals.

Finding places is easy. Finding quality isn’t.

All good, but we had wasted a big part of our evening searching and scrolling. And it wasn’t the first time! We’ve lost count of how often we relied on “4.5 stars or higher”, only to arrive and question how the place had received such glowing reviews. Luckily, we often get to end such nights with a free drink in exchange for five stars. Some influencers get paid to hype so-called phenomenal spots, but when you actually get there, “Instagram vs. Reality” hits hard. And then there’s ChatGPT. Sure, it gives you a flood of superlatives, but then you discover the place has been closed for years. The 2017 blog post used as a source was never updated. Surprising? Not really. Today, finding places to visit online is easy. Knowing which ones are genuinely worth it is much harder.

From frustration to a solution

So, we decided to do something about it. What if…the solution was actually pretty obvious? What if the most valuable recommendations came from people who genuinely know a city: those who live there, work there, have family there or visit regularly? They know how the city evolves: what’s opening or closing, which places are getting better or worse. So we built a platform where travellers can find curated travel maps created and managed by locals, content creators and city insiders.

Carta Volta makes travel more authentic, personalised and memorable by providing travellers with trusted recommendations and guidance from locals, content creators, and destination experts. Our curated interactive maps enable people to spend less time searching and more time discovering places that match their interests and travel style.

How does Carta Volta work?

Unlike a generic list of places, every Carta Volta map reflects the perspective and experience of a local, content creator or other city insider. They use Carta Volta to build interactive maps with places they would personally recommend. Each pin includes a personal description, practical details and useful travel tips. Travellers open the map directly in their browser, filter recommendations by category and use the same map together throughout their trip.

Carta Volta in numbers