Multi-day, multi-person, and multi-modal trip planning system

A multi-modal trip planning system, comprising:

• a planning graph representing a plurality of nodes interconnected by a plurality of transit arcs, wherein the nodes include waypoints and trip destinations, wherein the transit arcs include alternate transportation modes, wherein the nodes and arcs have associated time-variable costs;
• a user interface configured to specify a plurality of user objectives within the trip destinations and to customize a plurality of user preferences for a multi-modal trip, wherein the user objectives include a trip starting location, a trip ending location, and an attraction to be visited between the starting and ending locations, wherein the attraction to be visited is included in the nodes and has an associated constraint for optimization;
• an optimizer coupled to the planning graph and the user interface configured to 1) modify the planning graph according to the user objectives and the customized user preferences, 2) compile a plurality of permutations of visiting plans within the modified planning graph which satisfy the specified user objectives including routing to a plurality of trip destinations including the attraction to be visited, and 3) comparing the permutations using an optimization programming to identify at least one optimized visiting plan having a lowest aggregate associated cost that also satisfies a plurality of constraints determined by the customizable user preferences and including the constraint associated with the attraction to be visited;
• wherein the user interface presents at least one optimized visiting plan to a user.