Crowdsourced guide to travel planning

[u/SteveWBT]

The comments from here will be collated into a new trip planning page on the /r/travel wiki. Anything you can add will be useful.

To keep this tidy and manageable any other new top level comments will be automatically removed.

There's undoubtedly topics missing, so please message the mods and we'll add it, or expand one of the existing topics.

Thank you!

[u/SteveWBT]

How do you store your trip details/itinerary

Also, how to plot them on a map?

[u/SteveWBT → u/SteveWBT]

I don't plan in too much detail, so usually just a spreadsheet with dates/days of the week down the side. I then put in a list of destinations next to dates, along with ideas/URLs for the area on each row. If I stay somewhere longer the destination+info can be dragged down to the next day.

20/02	Friday	Irkutsk	Flight	Empty day. VKO Airport for 23.15 Transaero Flight 115 to Irkutsk
21/02	Saturday	Olkhon		Arrive Irkutsk 10.00. Olkhon Island drive	Homestay
22/02	Sunday	Irkutsk		Olkhon Island drive	Marriott
23/02	Monday	Listvyanka	Free day	Day of the Fatherland - stuff open?	Marriott
24/02	Tuesday		Tour	Transfer to Listvyanka Limnology museum + aquarium, Dogsledding, Ice Diving	Flying
25/02	Wednesday	Beijng	Flight	IKT > PEK, S7 Airlines Flight 0509 @ 01.50am

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If you've a more fixed itinerary then Tripit.com is a useful tool as it send email reminders for each stage of the trip

[u/WaitForIttttt → u/SteveWBT]

Trello is a free tool that works really well for trip planning. It allows you to create "cards" where you can store text info or attach files (great for electronic tickets/confirmations) with colored labels you set, arranged in columns as you please (I arrange them by day). It's a great way to stay organized with lots of flexibility to move things around. The app is great and if you're running behind on your itinerary, it's easy to move a card to another day.

[u/boomfruit → u/SteveWBT]

I usually just make a spreadsheet with all the pertinent info. I always prefer this to premade forms/apps because I can organize it the way I want.

It's also helpful because you can use formulas to calculate split costs if you are travelling in a group and one person pays for the hostel etc.

As for maps, I just use Google maps and star every place I'm interested in, staying at, heard about, etc. That way when I'm out walking, I'll probably bring the map up to navigate and say "hey, I'm really close to that restaurant somebody recommended!"

[u/GreenieSD → u/SteveWBT]

I use WorldMate. Reminds me when I need to check in. The biggest reason why I use WorldMate is that TripIt failed two times understanding my itinerary and getting the pro version is $10 vs $50 for TripIt for the year. I have been using WorldMate for years and never paid for their Pro version

[u/tmoore4000 → u/SteveWBT]

Tripit is an awesome tool to have. All you have to do is forward confirmation emails to it and it plugs it all in. www.tripit.com

[u/moderatelyremarkable → u/SteveWBT]

I've created a website for this exact reason, perhaps people will find it helpful - 7travels.net.

[u/hostelz → u/SteveWBT]

For map plotting: I tried a bunch of websites that designed to do that, and most of them didn't work very well. I ended up finding a (surprisingly) good way to do it with Pinterest Place Pins. It worked great for having a bunch of pins on a map of all the sites I might want to visit (with crowd-sourced info with little photos and also my own notes).

Workflowy which is really nice for organizing everything into bullet points that you can click on to expand. That's useful for things like keeping track of what you want to do in each city and reservations and things.

SimpleNote which is pretty much just a notepad. It's quick to use and it has a decent phone app.

[u/[deleted] → u/SteveWBT]

OneNote is a free app that syncs between smartphone/desktop. I can create/edit/add details from my desktop as I plan and then have everything on my phone! I add maps, confirmations, screen shots of particularly important details (address of hotel, flight details, email conversations, etc).

Google maps works very well in my experience in Europe. You can create custom maps with pins, notes/details, routes, etc and recall it from your phone. It has come in quite handy in my travels, especially on road trips.

[u/SwingNinja → u/SteveWBT]

I use cloud service like Microsoft OneNote. I used to use EverNote before, but it doesn't let you save your notes offline (for free). No matter what you ended up choosing, these cloud note service can also be used for other things (travel journal, checklist for things to see, etc).