How to find all the settlements included in the route on the map?

Question

PHP

HTTP request Google map API get a route from city A to B. How to find out the settlements included in this route?
I, in principle, do not need the map itself and the interface, I am only interested in the list of settlements in the route.
I came across an interesting RouteBoxer
library, but it is desirable for me to execute a request on the server side (node.js or php)
OpenStreetMap - it seems to be a bit complicated for me.
In which direction to dig?

Answer 1

Well, as an option:
1. Have a database with polygons of settlements, you can import from OSM
2. Run a cycle through the waypoints, checking the occurrence of these polygons in your database,
is done with a simple SQL query.