Exploring Manipal & Udupi: An Interactive Leaflet Map

About this page

This page was created on October 27, 2026 as the peer-graded assignment for Developing Data Products (Week 2). It shows an interactive map, built with the Leaflet R package, of places worth visiting around Manipal Institute of Technology and the coastal town of Udupi, Karnataka.

Try these on the map:

• Click any circle for details; hover for its name.
• Use the layer box (top-right) to switch between Street, Satellite and Terrain views, and to show or hide each category.
• Follow the dashed line for a one-day campus-to-coast route.
• Use the ruler (bottom-left) to measure distances, and the home button to reset the view.

The map

# 1. The data: name, category, coordinates and a short description
places <- data.frame(
  name = c("Manipal Institute of Technology", "Kasturba Medical College",
           "Manipal Lake", "End Point", "Hasta Shilpa Heritage Village",
           "Sri Krishna Matha, Udupi", "Malpe Beach", "St. Mary's Island",
           "Kaup Beach & Lighthouse"),
  category = c("Campus", "Campus", "Nature", "Nature", "Culture",
               "Culture", "Beach", "Beach", "Beach"),
  lat = c(13.3525, 13.3537, 13.3575, 13.3436, 13.3480,
          13.3409, 13.3510, 13.3750, 13.2240),
  lng = c(74.7928, 74.7862, 74.7880, 74.8003, 74.7843,
          74.7524, 74.7031, 74.6740, 74.7454),
  info = c("Engineering campus of MAHE, founded in 1957.",
           "One of India's oldest private medical colleges.",
           "Popular walking and jogging spot in the heart of Manipal.",
           "Hilltop viewpoint over the Swarna river - best at sunset.",
           "Restored traditional houses from across South India.",
           "13th-century temple founded by Sri Madhvacharya.",
           "Busy beach and fishing harbour; boats leave for St. Mary's Island.",
           "Islands of hexagonal basalt columns, about 88 million years old.",
           "Quiet beach with a 1901 lighthouse you can climb."),
  stringsAsFactors = FALSE
)

# Popup text (HTML) shown when a marker is clicked
places$popup <- paste0("<b>", places$name, "</b><br>",
                       "<i>", places$category, "</i><br>",
                       places$info)

# 2. One colour per category
categories <- c("Campus", "Nature", "Culture", "Beach")
pal <- colorFactor(c("#2c7fb8", "#31a354", "#d95f0e", "#c51b8a"),
                   levels = categories)

# 3. Base map with three switchable background styles
m <- leaflet(places) %>%
  addTiles(group = "Street") %>%
  addProviderTiles(providers$Esri.WorldImagery, group = "Satellite") %>%
  addProviderTiles(providers$OpenTopoMap, group = "Terrain")

# 4. Add each category as its own layer so it can be toggled on/off
for (cat in categories) {
  m <- m %>%
    addCircleMarkers(data = places[places$category == cat, ],
                     lng = ~lng, lat = ~lat,
                     radius = 9, color = "white", weight = 2,
                     fillColor = ~pal(category), fillOpacity = 0.9,
                     popup = ~popup, label = ~name,
                     group = cat)
}

# 5. A suggested one-day route: campus -> End Point -> temple -> beach -> island
route <- places[match(c("Manipal Institute of Technology", "End Point",
                        "Sri Krishna Matha, Udupi", "Malpe Beach",
                        "St. Mary's Island"), places$name), ]

m %>%
  addPolylines(lng = route$lng, lat = route$lat,
               color = "#444444", weight = 3, dashArray = "8, 8",
               group = "One-day route") %>%
  addLegend("bottomright", pal = pal, values = categories,
            title = "Category", opacity = 1) %>%
  addLayersControl(baseGroups = c("Street", "Satellite", "Terrain"),
                   overlayGroups = c(categories, "One-day route"),
                   options = layersControlOptions(collapsed = FALSE)) %>%
  addMiniMap(toggleDisplay = TRUE, minimized = TRUE) %>%
  addMeasure(position = "bottomleft", primaryLengthUnit = "kilometers") %>%
  addScaleBar(position = "bottomleft") %>%
  addEasyButton(easyButton(icon = "fa-home", title = "Reset view",
                           onClick = JS("function(btn, map){ map.setView([13.33, 74.75], 11); }"))) %>%
  setView(lng = 74.75, lat = 13.33, zoom = 11)

The places at a glance

knitr::kable(places[, c("name", "category", "lat", "lng")],
             col.names = c("Place", "Category", "Latitude", "Longitude"),
             digits = 4)

Place	Category	Latitude	Longitude
Manipal Institute of Technology	Campus	13.3525	74.7928
Kasturba Medical College	Campus	13.3537	74.7862
Manipal Lake	Nature	13.3575	74.7880
End Point	Nature	13.3436	74.8003
Hasta Shilpa Heritage Village	Culture	13.3480	74.7843
Sri Krishna Matha, Udupi	Culture	13.3409	74.7524
Malpe Beach	Beach	13.3510	74.7031
St. Mary’s Island	Beach	13.3750	74.6740
Kaup Beach & Lighthouse	Beach	13.2240	74.7454

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, OpenTopoMap and Esri. Coordinates are approximate.