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trip planning project

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How to Plan Your Vacation Like a Project Manager

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Planning a vacation can often seem like a challenging and daunting task. There are so many considerations, from booking hotels to figuring out how to get to the destination in the first place. For many, the pre-vacation stress can almost undermine the enjoyment of the actual trip.

For Project Managers, the pre-vacation process can be almost as exciting as the experience, and a chance to utilize the strategies they use daily. (I hesitate to say the planning is more exciting than the experience for us, but it is a close second.)

Do you struggle with the process of planning a trip? Or, do you struggle to wrangle those non-planning types in your life to commit to a travel plan? Follow these simple steps to achieve the best plan, and the best vacation possible!

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1. Work (erm, Vacation) Breakdown Structure

trip planning project

Thinking about the three most important things for any destination is the only thing you should focus on initially: where you will sleep, what will you do, and how you will get there. I insert a “home” consideration at this point, as to not forget about little Fido (my plant) and Fern (my cat).

2. Matrix Diagram

After you’ve mapped your high-level plan, the real fun begins! Based on the breakdown, I create a matrix diagram to organize my research. I tend towards planning too many things to cram into my trip, so this format keeps details, like budget and booking info, organized and accessible.

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3. Gantt Chart

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4. The Hourly Schedule

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5. The “Tour de Voyage”

The pinnacle of my travel planning is the overview deck I create to share with fellow travelers. (Full disclosure: I still create this when I am traveling solo, because it is a convenient and concise way to keep track of information.) I include pictures of the exterior and interior of my accommodations to make check-in easier, as well as confirmation codes and train times.

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While—don’t laugh—I wouldn’t consider myself the most well-planned traveler, I find my meticulous pre-vacation planning allows for more spontaneity while actually on the trip. Knowing that my home is in order, the fixed events of my travels are noted, my reservations are accessible in one place, and my ideas of fun things to do are organized allows me to breathe easy.

Maybe plans change along the way, and that’s ok: the most important thing is to mitigate areas of risk and allow for the least amount of stress possible while on vacation.

Project Managers deserve a break… a well-planned break, at that.

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11 Free Travel Itinerary Templates for Your Next Trip in Google Docs, Excel, & Word

Content Partnership Specialist

April 8, 2024

There are a lot of things that go into planning a trip.

From scheduling flights, booking hotels and car rentals, planning activities, and ensuring all of them fit within your timeline and budget too!

Whether you’re a seasoned traveler or simply someone looking to create an organized travel schedule for your upcoming trip, then you should consider using an itinerary template. 

Itinerary templates help you organize your activities, manage your time , calculate your expenses, give you a breakdown of all your important travel information before a trip, and help you make the most out of your business trip or vacation. 

Head over to the sections below to find out what makes a good itinerary template, and discover 11 free templates you can use to help you plan your next trip! 🏝️

What is an Itinerary Template?

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An itinerary is a document that outlines all of the details of your trip, from your flight and hotel reservations to your planned activities and budget, to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

That said, trip planners should turn to itinerary templates to give you ready-to-use and organized fill-in-the-blank pages that you can use for every type of trip. 

Itinerary templates can help business and leisure travelers:

  • Save time, plan more effectively, and provide an organized format for all the important details of their trip
  • Have a digital planner to keep track of all the details they need to consider when planning their travel, such as dates and locations, transportation and accommodations, and activities
  • Get quick access to all of the necessary details in one place
  • Help manage last-minute changes more effectively

Think of these free itinerary templates as your personal travel agent assistant. They’re there to assist you with planning the most important parts of your trip, so you spend more time enjoying the moment than worrying about what’s next and how you’re getting there.

Moreover, creating a detailed travel itinerary is beneficial if you’re visiting a new city or country you’ve never been to before. 

So what should a travel itinerary look like? Let’s take a look!

There are several types of itinerary templates for different occasions. The most commonly used and sought templates are for business trips, vacations, event planning, and global and domestic travels.

And while there are many types of itinerary templates out there, the best ones offer the following basic elements: 

  • Have clear and concise language
  • Organized and easy-to-read format
  • Customizable and easy to edit
  • Easily accessible and sharable 

And if you need to shift your plans around due to unexpected changes, a solid travel itinerary template should offer the flexibility to let you make changes without compromising the flow of your trip. It also shouldn’t require you to start your travel itinerary from scratch.

Ultimately, these templates should help you create a personalized travel itinerary, save time, and stay organized to help you become a better planner.

Speaking of which—here are 11 hand-picked travel itinerary templates that can help you with that! Each one offers a unique format and features. Check them one by one to see which templates suit your needs the best.

11 Travel Itinerary Templates for Your Next Trip

Ensure that business trips are effectively planned to save time and lower costs using this template

Traveling for work? 

This Business Travel Itinerary Template by ClickUp can help you get all your important travel details and work schedules, all in one place. 

Easily notate your travel dates, hotel information, flight number, and other important information in an organized and easy-to-follow format in ClickUp Docs . If you have multiple travel plans or want to keep your past and future travel itinerary docs in one place, then simply add nested pages under one Doc to keep everything neatly organized and accessible.

And because ClickUp Docs allow you to have full control of sharing permissions and privacy, you can keep your pages private to protect your personal information or securely share them with selected people via a link.

Best of all, ClickUp is available on the mobile app , so you can take your itinerary template wherever you go and access it any time of the day.

Use this free travel itinerary template to streamline your business travel planning process and establish a consistent standard itinerary that you can use again and again.

Streamline your travel planning process using this template

Planning a road trip or exploring a new city?

Whatever type of vacation you’re planning for, this Vacation Planning Travel Itinerary Template by ClickUp can help you create a visual roadmap of your planned activities.

With this free travel itinerary template, you’ll be able to plan your destinations, use ClickUp Custom Fields to add important details such as hotel addresses, type of activity, hours of operation, travel time, accommodations, reservations, and so on to ensure you’re on the right track to hit all the spots you have planned to visit on your trip!

Additionally, this template allows you to visualize your road trip itinerary in Map view, as shown above, and other views in ClickUp, such as List, Embed Board, and Doc view. Each custom view offers a unique look at your travel itinerary to help you visualize and organize your plans in the best way that works for you. 

Use these vacation planning templates to give you the structure and organization you need to plan your next trip and have a stress-free getaway!

Visualize your trip, budget plan, reservations, and everything in between in one place using the ClickUp Trip Planner Template

Streamline your travel planning with ClickUp’s Trip Planner Template ! Say goodbye to the chaos of scattered details and hello to a centralized hub for all your trip essentials. From flights to accommodations, activities to budgets, this template has you covered. Save time by organizing everything in one place and ensure nothing slips through the cracks.

With customizable features like custom statuses, fields, and views, you can tailor the template to suit your specific needs. Collaborate effortlessly with friends and family to create the ultimate travel experience. Whether you’re jetting off for a quick getaway or planning a work trip, this template provides the tools you need for a successful trip.

Set your budget, research destinations, create itineraries, and finalize details all within ClickUp’s intuitive platform. Track progress, assign tasks, and monitor productivity with ease. From start to finish, ClickUp’s Trip Planner Template empowers you to plan your dream trip efficiently and effectively.

ClickUp Event Planning Template allows you to align your team and resources for smooth collaboration to get the job done

Whether you’re born with natural event planning skills or perhaps someone who’s looking to get better at it, this Event Planning Itinerary Template by ClickUp can help you plan your next events with ease!

This event planning itinerary template includes three highly visual ClickUp Views that can be customized for any need, from organizing and scheduling event dates on a List and Board to drag-and-drop planning on a Calendar.

Each view provides pre-built Custom Fields, which allow you and your team to add important details, such as progress percentage bars, payment status, due dates, budget status, and more. You can also create Custom Task Statuses to help identify the stage each task is, keeping everyone in the loop on where each task stands at all times. 

You can download the app on your mobile device to access your tasks regardless of your event’s location, and use this itinerary template to help you become a pro at planning events and start managing all of your business operations, teams, and event planning —all in one place. 

This Template helps you stay focused and organized with a clear daily schedule

Sometimes, it’s best to take things day by day, especially when your workload and to-do lists are getting out of hand. 

Seize the day and stay productive (and motivated) by turning to the 24 Hours Itinerary Template in ClickUp to guide you when creating your daily schedule!

This free itinerary template includes pre-built Custom Fields and Custom Task Statuses to help you easily plan and visualize your daily tasks. And because those features are fully customizable, you can edit and add whatever fields and statuses work best for your workflow.

Use this template to assist you with daily planning , so you easily view all of your to-dos, stay focused on what’s on your plate each day, and make the most of every day!

Use this template to create an organized agenda for your travel

Meetings are a great way to sync with people in real time.

However, without a proper agenda, you might forget to discuss important matters, lose control of the meeting flow, and veer off track, leaving the attendees with more questions than answers or thinking, “this could’ve been an email.” 😅

Don’t let that happen to you! 

Whether you’re hosting a face-to-face or virtual meeting, having a prepared agenda beforehand keeps your meetings productive and helps make the most of your attendee’s time— the free Agenda Template by ClickUp can help you prep for your next meeting.

This template provides you with sections for your meeting details, participants, and so much more. And because this template is available ClickUp Docs, you can easily format the page to support any type of meeting , embed links to add more details to your agenda, and easily share it with your team before the meeting so they can come prepared with insights or questions. 

Use this itinerary template to help you plan and keep your next meetings productive! 

Event planners can use this Conference Agenda Template to help everyone stay on the same page when it comes to planning and organizing events.

Planning a conference and need a conference agenda template ?

This Conference Itinerary Template by ClickUp can help you create, visualize, and manage your events all in one centralized place.

This template offers pre-built views, such as Box, Calendar, and List view, and Custom Fields and Custom Task Statuses to allow you to create your ideal itinerary for your event. Moreover, you can add custom tags to your tasks to add another layer of organization to your itinerary and add new Custom Fields to keep your tasks as detailed as possible as you plan your live or virtual conference events .

And if you need help getting started, no problem. It comes with a Getting Started Guide to help you get familiarized with the template and serve as a guide to help you plan your next event !

ClickUp's Board Meeting Agenda Template serves as an outline to focus on and quickly address the key issues and ensure everyone is on the same page about what needs to be done

A meeting agenda is a must, especially for board meetings. 

The Board Meeting Agenda Template in ClickUp offers pre-built Custom Fields to help board members and leadership create a high-level and organized meeting agenda, and run productive meetings. You may also add single or multiple assignees to each task and subtask to clearly note who’s responsible for completing the task or presenting the topics and check them off the list as each task or topic has been discussed to easily track and note what is yet to be completed.

Use this itinerary template to help you create an organized meeting agenda , keep everyone in the loop ahead of the meeting, and promote open discussion among all participants, which can lead to stronger decisions and better outcomes.

Excel Vacation Itinerary Template

If you’re an Excel user, then this template is for you.

Microsoft Excel offers a handy Vacation Itinerary template that you can use to organize all of your trip details. Whether you want to start a road trip itinerary with friends or a personalized itinerary of your full trip, this trip itinerary template includes entries for flight information, lodging, emergency contacts, activities, and so on. 

Once you’ve filled out the template with the details of your trip, simply save it on your computer or print it to take a physical copy of your itinerary with you or leave a copy for your friends and family while you’re away on your vacation.

Google Docs Travel Itinerary Template

If you like keeping things simple when planning your trips, then this travel itinerary template will work for what you need.

This template allows you to add and edit your travel details, such as destinations, transportation, lodging, and what you need to pack for your trip, in organized tables in Google Docs (where you can also connect to Google Sheets). 

This is one of the many customizable templates that’s free to download. Save it on your computer or print a copy to take with you!

Microsoft Word Business Trip Itinerary Template

Keep your business trips as stress-free as possible by creating a detailed flight itinerary, meeting schedule, and more all on one page. Use Microsoft Word’s Business Trip Itinerary template to keep track of important dates, departure and arrival times, destination addresses, phone numbers, travel time, and other notes about each item on your itinerary. 

Start Planning Your Next Trip with Travel Itinerary Templates

When it comes to planning trips, having an itinerary is key.

But we get it. Making a detailed itinerary can be quite time-consuming. That’s why using an itinerary template can be such a great tool! Stay organized and use the templates we provided above as a starting point for creating your own customized itinerary for your upcoming trips and events.

And if you’re a fan of customizations, then you’ll click well with ClickUp. 

It offers a fully customizable platform with hundreds of features and templates to give you the power to create a personalized experience, connect all your notes and work together, and build a workflow and itineraries that work for you.

Get access to ClickUp’s customizable templates for free today, and start getting excited about planning your next event! 

Bon voyage! 👋

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How to Plan a Trip: Your Step-by-Step Travel Planning Guide

Home » Blog » Travel Tips » How to Plan a Trip: Your Step-by-Step Travel Planning Guide

Planning a trip overseas, whether long or short, can seem overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to be! In this article, we’ll show you how to take the stress out of travel planning, by laying out a simple step-by-step guide on how to plan a trip that’ll ensure you don’t forget anything.

How to Plan a Trip | Angkor Temples Cambodia

Have you ever been overwhelmed by the idea of planning a trip because it seems too, well…  overwhelming ?! 

There’s a lot to think about when planning travel: from getting a visa, to figuring out transportation, to booking accommodation and getting local currency, it can be downright stressful.

And it’s a bit contradictory, right? Stressing out over planning what is supposed to be a relaxing vacation. We’ve definitely been there. Many times , in fact. 

But we’ve learned our share of lessons along the way and now we’re here to help. 

In this article, we’ll show you how to plan a trip without the stress by laying out a simple step-by-step guide that’ll ensure you don’t forget anything.

Here’s exactly what you need to do to take a travel daydream and turn it into reality.

So whether you’re planning a 2-week getaway or a journey with no end date in sight, these steps will take you from the brainstorming phase to stepping foot in your destination. We think you might actually   have fun  planning your next trip.  That’s a dare .

Alright, take a deep breath, because we’re digging right in!

How to Plan a Trip

  • Step 1: Figure out your travel budget
  • Step 2: Decide on your travel style/partner(s)
  • Step 3: Choose a destination
  • Step 4: Book flights
  • Step 5: Book accommodation
  • Step 6: Research things to do
  • Step 7: Get travel insurance
  • Step 8: Minimize travel risks
  • Step 9: Pack your bags
  • Step 10: Last-minute prep

Step 1. Figure out your travel budget

How to Plan a Trip | Budapest Hungary

Before you can even begin to plan a trip, you need to take a good look at your finances and figure out how much money you have to spend on your adventure. This will dictate a lot of the future steps including where you can travel to and for how long. 

This step might sound scary, but we’ve broken it down for you so you can create your very own customized travel budget. We’re even sharing  exactly how we afford to travel and stay on budget .

If you have the time before you go, follow these  simple steps to save money for your travels .

Step 2. Decide on your travel style / partner(s)

How to Plan a Trip | Gili Islands Bali Indonesia

Is this a short vacation, a 3-week trip overseas or long term travel that you are planning for? 

…And who’s coming with you?

Take a moment to answer this question… Are you going to be traveling solo or with a partner? A group of friends, or with your family and children in tow?

The answer to this question can help shape your trip quite a bit. For instance, a solo trip to Tahiti may not be the best choice, as this popular honeymoon destination is going to be swarming with couples on romantic getaways. Likewise, party-centered Ibiza might not be the best place for a wholesome family vacay.

  • Traveling Solo? Traveling solo is an incredibly freeing experience, and there are  many great cities around the world for solo travelers .
  • Want a romantic getaway? Romance isn’t just limited to beaches and resorts. Check out our roundup of some of the  top romantic destinations for every type of traveling couple , some of which might be a little unexpected.
  • Looking for a perfect family vacation spot? There are destinations all over the world that are  amazing spots to bring your kids !

If you are planning on traveling with a partner, don’t book your flights without  asking them these questions first…

Step 3. Choose a destination

How to Plan a Trip | Two Wandering Soles

This step may seem obvious for some, maybe you already know exactly where it is you want to travel and that’s why you’re planning this trip in the first place. For those of you that have a destination nailed down, there are still a few things we’d suggest you consider, you can skip right down to the research step.

For those of you that have the itch to travel, maybe even the vacation time set up, but still have no idea how to narrow down just one place, we suggest looking at a map. No really! Hear us out…

Literally look at a map, and start circling all the cities, towns or attractions you want to visit. Look on  Instagram  for inspiration. Don’t limit yourself. What do you want to do? What do you want to see and experience? When planning a route, we typically look at other trusted bloggers’ recommendations.

And no need for paper maps anymore, go digital! Here’s a great tutorial on  how to use Google My Maps . It’s game-changing. 

We figure out how many nights we can stay in each city and how we’re going to get from city to city. We have many itineraries on our  Itineraries page  where you can see examples of our travel routes and recommendations. We also suggest taking a look at  Lonely Planet travel guides . 

Once you think you’ve nailed down a place, or places…

Do your research

How to Plan a Trip | Milford Sound, New Zealand

Don’t forget to do a little digging and make sure that the time of year you plan to travel is optimal. We have failed to do our research a few times and it ended up really affecting our trip.

Asking yourself the following questions can really save you the troubles or headaches down the road:

What will the weather be like?

  • Will it be the wet season? Hurricane season? Super-duper-unbearably hot?

Example:  We traveled in India during the hottest months of the year and literally could not do much outside some of the days because it was 110 °F (43.3 °C). After that, we vowed never to make the mistake of traveling without really understanding the weather first.   

Is it peak tourism season? Low season?

  • Will it be hard to get a hotel because it’s peak season? Will the lines and crowds at tourist attractions be ridiculous? 
  • Likewise, if you are traveling during low season, should you expect a lot of the businesses to be shut down? Will closures hinder your chance to see and experience everything you were hoping to?

Example:  We visited Croatia in July – its busiest month of the year – and found ourselves super frustrated with the crowds and jacked up prices. We ended up shortening our time there because we were not enjoying it as much as we expected.

Croatia in July was PACKED with tourists. If we had to do it over again, we would not have visited in high tourist season. A little research could have told us that July is probably not the best time to visit if you want to avoid the crowds!

Hold up! Before you start a Googling storm, we’ve got some good news: there are some resources out there that make this process for researching so much faster!

  • If you know WHERE you want to go,  Travelendar  (combination of travel + calendar) will tell you what time of year is best to visit.
  • If you know WHEN you want to travel, check out this list that breaks down  which destinations are best to visit each month of the year .
  • We’ve also done the research for you, nailing down the pros and cons of visiting during different times of the year for a number of popular destinations such as  Japan ,  Bali ,  New Zealand  and  Iceland .

But don’t worry if you don’t know where OR when you want to travel… check out this  calendar of events around the world  for inspiration!

How cool is that?!

How to Plan a Trip | Sziget festival Budapest

These events span all destinations and interests: from European music festivals (like Sziget Festival in Budapest, pictured above!) to cultural celebrations to naturally occurring events like the migration patterns of wildlife in Africa. 

When you find an event that interests you, click on it to learn more.

Pace yourself

Thinking about your pace will determine how many of the places you circled above you’ll realistically be able to see.

Do you want to pack in as much as possible, or do you want to choose a couple places and really get to explore them? Do you want to travel slow and take in the culture to really understand how locals live?

Or do you want to tick places off your list and move from city to city, seeing as much as you can? Maybe a happy mixture of slow and fast? This all depends on the amount of time you have and your budget.

Find out visa requirements

How to Plan a Trip | Applying for visas

Investigate if you need to obtain a visa for the country or countries you’re thinking of traveling to. You may not need one for the first country you arrive in, but will you need one for the other countries in your itinerary? Can you get a visa online, visa on arrival, or do you need to get it in your home country?

For instance, if you’re traveling to Vietnam, Americans need to apply for a visa ahead of time (and  here’s the best and cheapest way to get one ).

If you don’t know if you need a visa, check out your home country’s visa websites:

  • USA citizens
  • UK citizens
  • Canadian citizens
  • Australian citizens
  • Singaporean citizens

Step 4. Book flights

You know where you want to go? Check. Have your visa? Check. 

Now here comes our favorite part: It’s time to book a flight!

First, you’ll need to answer these questions: What airport will you fly into? Are you going to make a round trip and fly out of the same airport? Or are you departing out of a new place? 

Tips for getting the best deals on flights:

  • Know when to buy.  Depending on where you are flying to and from, there are different recommendations for how far in advance you should buy your flight.

This graphic from CheapAir illustrates how far in advance you should purchase flights for the best deals. This map is based off of flight originating from the U.S. Read more onBusiness Insider here .

  • Play around with breaking the flight up.  For example, instead of searching for a flight from Minneapolis to Japan, we’ll search Seattle to Japan. Then we find a flight from Minneapolis to Seattle. This allows you to have a layover in a cool city, and can be a lot cheaper. 
  • Another good gateway into Asia is flying through China. You can usually find one way tickets to China from major US cities for around $350! 
  • Sign up for price alerts.  Many search engines allow you to sign up for alerts between destinations. You’ll get email notifications when the fare goes down, so you can jump on it!
  • There are tons of credit cards that give you miles for purchases.  Find the  best travel credit card for you here . If you’re inclined to get an airline credit card, think about the major airlines at your home airport. You’ll most likely be booking flights with that airline so might as well rack up the points.
Don’t forget to sign up for the frequent flyer miles program  with flight you choose! Many airlines are part of a broad network and the miles are sometimes transferable.

How to Plan a Trip | Find Airline Deals

Understanding WHY a flight is cheap is important. Make sure you think about the arrival time at your destination. The cheapest flight might get in at 2 in the morning and you’ll have to wait for hours for your guesthouse to open, or hotel check in time. 

On the flipside, if you depart super early in the morning, you may have a difficult time hailing down a taxi that early (and have to pay a premium for the ride). Sometimes the absolute cheapest fare will actually cost you more in the end.

If your trip doesn’t involve taking a flight,  check out these  tips for planning an epic USA road trip . 

When searching for a flight we like to use  Skyscanner  first because it allows you to search across the entire month to find the cheapest flight.

Want more tips for finding the best deal on airfare?  You’re in luck, because we have an entire article dedicated to  how to find cheap flights !

Are you a nervous flyer? Don’t let the anxiety of flying prevent you from traveling. Check out these  tips for fearful flyers  that will help put you at ease.

Step 5. Book accommodation

Airbnb+Coupon+Code+Guide

Depending on how long your vacation is you may choose to book all your accommodation ahead of time or none at all.

For instance, if you only have two weeks, it might be best to arrange your hotels or hostels online so you don’t waste precious time trying to figure out accommodation when you’d rather be exploring. Plus, you don’t want to run the risk of everything being booked up! 

If you’re traveling long term, however, you may just book a few days at a time. Or you may prefer to wing it and walk into hotels once you arrive in a town.

We put a lot of consideration into where to book our accommodation when planning a trip. 

First, we want to consider location. We may start to research things to do in a destination before this step so we have a better idea of where we will want to visit and what the most central location will be for us. 

If a city is known for its nightlife, we might consider staying in a quieter neighborhood. If accommodation costs skyrocket the closer to the city center you get, we may consider saving money to stay somewhere further out. 

Transportation

How to Plan a Trip | Rent a Motorbike in Bali

We also consider transportation in a new city. If the city is very walkable, we’ll want to stay right in the center. If Ubers or public transportation is easily accessible, we may consider saving money by staying further outside the center. We recommend doing plenty of research on transportation options and costs before nailing down your accommodation. 

Length of stay

If we are planning to stay in one location for a longer period of time (a couple weeks or more), we like to have a place that feels a bit more like “home” than a hotel. We love to cook, so a place with a kitchen allows us to enjoy our passion and save money on dining out at the same time! We usually use  Airbnb  or  Booking  to find apartment-style rentals in new cities. 

If we have a short layover in a city, or are staying just a few nights, we might splurge on a hotel, or even try to save money by booking a hostel.

Everything you need to know about Airbnb :  You’ll find loads of info on how to book Airbnbs, red flags to watch out for when booking, and our favorite Airbnbs.

Booking resources

Depending on where in the world we’re traveling, we switch up our booking sites. Here are our favorites:

  • Asia:  Booking  or  Agoda  (we find Airbnb is only available in certain cities/countries and not in others in Asia)
  • Europe:   Booking , Airbnb or  Hostelworld
  • USA:   Airbnb  (we rarely stay in hotels in the US and Hostels aren’t nearly as prevalent in the US as elsewhere in the world)
  • South & Central America:   Hostelworld ,  Airbnb or  Booking

Step 6. Research things to do

How to Plan a Trip | Sólheimasandur plane crash in Iceland

When talking about how to plan a trip, this is where the fun really starts … We LOVE doing research to find out what kinds of adventures we can have in a new destination. 

Here are a few of our favorite resources for researching travel destinations:

Pinterest :  Probably the first place we look when we get curious about a new place. We use Pinterest as a search engine (just like we would use Google!) and we have found in our experience that there is TONS more helpful content on travel there than if we were to try and sift through the first page of Google. We love that you can save articles in organized boards as well to return to later (you may have noticed the Pins we create at the bottom of all of our own articles). 

Bloggers:  We are constantly looking to other bloggers we trust for advice on new destinations. We have some we follow closely so we always know where to check if they have information on a place. We like to read a few different suggested itineraries for new cities to figure out what the can’t-miss attractions are and get ideas on how to plan our own itinerary. We leave comments on posts and reach out via social media if we are still left with questions after reading a blog post about a new place. 

Airbnb Experiences :  Sometimes just checking out what’s offered on Airbnb Experiences is a great way to get ideas of cool things to see and do in a new place. You might even find an experience or 2 you want to sign up for!

Trip Advisor:  We like to check reviews for things on trip advisor to see what other travelers have to say about certain experiences or attractions. There can be some seriously good advice on there! 

Step 7. Get travel insurance

How to Plan a Trip | Bungee jumping in Banos, Ecuador

Even though you might be safer abroad than in your home country, accidents happen everywhere and you should always be covered. We never leave home without travel insurance and neither should you.

One of the most popular travel insurance companies is  World Nomads . They cover anyone worldwide and are extremely easy to use. We were covered by them when we trekked to Everest Base Camp  and were very happy with our experience. Fill out the info below to get an instant quote:

For more information on how to pick a policy and what we look for in travel insurance,  check out our detailed travel insurance comparison article .

Be sure to read our  essential travel safety tips  for more detailed advice about how to stay safe and protect your belongings while traveling.

Step 8. Minimize travel risks

How to Plan a Trip | Iceland romantic getaway

When breaking down the steps for how to plan a trip, this is an important one. There are plenty of steps you can take before you even set foot in a country to minimize your risk of something going wrong. 

Register on your country’s Smart Traveler program

For Americans, you should sign up for the  Smart Traveler Enrollment Program  (STEP). Through STEP you’ll get emergency updates that would affect your travels, such as bad weather or civil unrest or protests.

It will also give you easy access to your embassy in the country you’re visiting. Lastly, if anything bad were to happen to you on your travels, you’d be easier to track down. Check your country’s travel department for similar programs. 

Get all necessary Immunizations ahead of time

Before setting foot in a new country, you’ll want to be sure to protect yourself from foreign disease. Use the  CDC website  to research vaccinations and medications you might need in the destination(s) you are planning to visit. We’d also advise visiting your doctor before a longer trip to make sure all of your health concerns are taken care of. 

Scan your documents and email yourself a copy

Scan a copy of your passport and any credit cards you’re bringing, and email it to yourself. Do the same for your travel insurance documents and receipts of the valuables you’re carrying. If anything happens to these while you’re traveling, you’ll have an electronic version.

Know common scams

How to Plan a Trip | Top of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai

While you’re in research mode, do a quick search of common scams in your destination. Being aware of popular scams is often all you need to avoid falling victim. 

We have run into plenty of known scams on our travels, especially in bigger cities like  Bangkok , and have even fallen victim to some ourselves. Unfortunately, scams are a risk you run in traveling, and sometimes unavoidable, but the more informed you are, the better prepared you will be to avoid getting caught in a tourist trap. 

Bring backup credit cards

If you are traveling in a group or as a couple, you have a bit of a support system (assuming you each bring at least one credit card). 

This tip is particularly geared towards solo travelers. 

You will always want to bring a backup credit card (and perhaps a backup debit or ATM card as well) in case of emergencies. We’ve been in situations abroad where our cards have been stolen (sometimes it’s not always obvious as it happens with a swipe and we still have the card in our possession) and if you don’t have a backup, you will have a very hard time accessing your money. 

For this reason, we like to keep our back ups in a separate location in our luggage (one in our hand luggage, one in our suitcase) and then leave one behind at our accommodation in case we were to be mugged. It may sound a bit extreme, but it’s always good to be prepared!

Secure your belongings

It should go without saying that you’ll want to keep your belongings, and especially your valuables in secure places while traveling (you know, use a purse with a zipper for less-easy access and don’t hang it on the back of your chair on a crowded street corner cafe). There are some items you can purchase ahead of time to help keep your belongings safe while traveling. 

  • Basic travel locks
  • Bluetooth tracking luggage locks
  • Hidden pocket scarf
  • A camera bag disguised as a purse

Step 9. Pack your bags

How to Plan a Trip | Walking tour in Istanbul, Turkey

It’s starting to feel real now isn’t it?! Your trip is coming up fast and it’s time to get packing!

Packing for a trip can be quite the puzzle. You want to be prepared and make sure you don’t forget anything, but at the same time, don’t want to feel weighed down by too much stuff.

If you’re a self-proclaimed over-packer, or someone who always ends up using only half the things in their suitcase on every trip… I’m right there with ya! We recommend planning out your packing ahead of time so you are not rushing at the last minute to get everything you need stuffed into your oversized suitcase. 

One tip is to lay everything you think you will need for a trip out on a flat surface (your bedspread works great for this) and then take away half — yes half! — of it. That is how much stuff you should realistically be trying to pack. 

Another rule of thumb we like to try and stick to is packing in a carry-on for any trip shorter than one month .

This may seem incredibly daunting to some, but trust us when we say, you’ll be much happier trying to navigate the cobblestone streets of Europe or lifting your luggage onto a train if it’s smaller than a 50 pound bag!

How to Plan a Trip | Packing Solutions

Below are some essentials you’ll want to make sure you pack for any trip:

  • Passport/Identification
  • Wallet/credit cards (and backups!)
  • Chargers for  all  of your electronics
  • Kindle  or e-reader
  • Travel pillow
  • Insulated water bottle

Think about your electronics

This is a big one not to forget! If you are traveling abroad, you’ll want to look into the outlet situation you can expect in your destination and how it compares to that of your home country. 

A quick Google search will show you what type of outlets you’ll find in the country you’re visiting. Here’s a great  website for electrical outlets . Look at the voltage too, and check the compatibility with any electronics you’re planning to bring along. A great purchase is the  travel converter with adapters . 

Packing resources

Use these packing resources for tips and ideas to help you pack for your next trip:

  • How to Pack for 3 months in a Backpack
  • Ultimate Packing Guide for Long Term Travel
  • Eco Friendly Travel Gear Packing List

Step 10. Last-minute prep

How to Plan a Trip | Seljalandsfoss Waterfall in Iceland

You’ve made it to the final step! Your trip is just around the corner and all that’s left is doing a little research and making some last-minute arrangements.

Data/Internet access

Research the best way to gain access to data or Internet while you’re in your destination. If you’re traveling within your home country, this shouldn’t be a problem.

However, if you are traveling abroad, you might want to consider purchasing a prepaid local SIM card when you arrive. This will be the cheapest way to gain access to data abroad. 

Use our  ultimate guide to getting an international SIM card , including helpful tips for using your phone abroad.

Download some helpful apps

  • Google Translate:  Type in something you want to say, and it’ll translate the phrase into any language you select. You can even take a picture of a menu written in an entirely different language (like Korean, for example), and it will translate what is written. It is amazing!
  • Google Maps:  Before going to a new location, we typically download the offline map for our destination in our Google Maps app. If you have your GPS turned on, the app will show your current location with a blue dot even when you don’t have data or WiFi turned on. This is super helpful if you’re on a long bus ride and want to know exactly where you are, or when you’re lost wandering around in a big city. 
  • GlobalConvert:  This app makes it easy to convert anything from currency to distance to temperature. (Super handy for Americans unfamiliar with the metric system.) And the best part is, it works offline!
  • Time Buddy:  If you’re traveling on the other side of the world, this app makes it super easy to figure out time difference between where you are and your home country.
  • Trail Wallet:  Yeah, yeah, I know, we’ve talked about this one a lot. But it has seriously changed how we travel. This app converts seamlessly through currencies and shows you exactly where you are in regard to your budget. Download this app and you’ll be able to travel longer. Seriously. 

Have a plan for currency

Korean Won

On long-term trips, we typically withdraw money from a local ATM as soon as we enter a new country. We NEVER use currency exchanges as these tend to take a big percentage (like 30%). Plus ATMs are much more efficient.

Our Charles Schwab card ( more info here ) reimburses all ATM fees, so we only take out small amounts at a time.

Tip: Just remember to decline the currency conversion rate offered by the ATM. When you do this you are referring to the conversion rate set by your bank instead. And in our experience, the banks always give a more fair conversion rate and than the pre-set ATM conversion rates.

Notify your bank of your travel plans

This is a step that can sometimes be overlooked, but can put a serious damper on your travel plans when you enter a new country only to find your bank has automatically shut off your debit card because it thinks you are attempting a fraudulent withdrawal. 

How to plan a trip Laos

Learn the language (at least a few phrases)

We’re not insinuating that you must be able to have a conversation in the local language before visiting a foreign country. But learning a few key words or phrases shows locals that you are trying, and people usually respect this.

You’d be surprised how far learning “hello” and “thank you” can get you. Some other helpful words to learn no matter where you are traveling are: “bathroom”, “delicious” and “beautiful”.

And don’t forget about numbers. Write down the numbers 1 through 10 in a small notebook and translate them. Knowing a few numbers makes it a lot easier to order at restaurants. 

If you have any allergies or medical conditions, it’s a good idea to write it out and translate it to the language of your destination country. For instance, “I am a vegetarian,” or “I am diabetic”. Print it out in the local language (and the phonetic spelling) and carry it in your wallet. It will definitely come in handy. 

Refine your manners

A little research can go a long way. Certain gestures you might use everyday, like a thumbs up or okay sign, are offensive in some cultures. Avoid awkward situations by researching some basic manners in the country you’re visiting. 

Where to first?

How to Plan a Trip | Balloons over Cappadocia, Turkey

You’re ready to take the leap! However, the first few hours in a new country can be a little overwhelming (and the most likely time to get scammed). That’s why you should have a plan of how to get from the airport to your hotel (or wherever you’re headed first).

We typically write down the address (in the local language and in English) of our first hostel/hotel in a small book or in the notes app on our phone so we can show taxi/bus drivers, that way we don’t fumble over mispronouncing street names.

It’s also helpful to save the locations of your accommodation, local embassy, hospital and attractions you want to visit in your maps (that you’ve downloaded offline of course!) before leaving.

Book transportation ahead of time or get specific instructions on how to find public transport. Read our  travel tips , other blogs, or guide books on what is the best means of transportation in the specific country you’re visiting. If you have a plan and know what you’re doing, you’ll start off your vacation on the right foot.

Confirm reservations

It’s easiest to call or write to confirm reservations for things like accommodation and transportation before you find yourself in a foreign country with a canceled Airbnb reservation and nowhere to go. Confirm all your important reservations and keep copies of your confirmation receipts in your email.  

And there you have it, 10 simple steps for how to plan a trip to anywhere in the world. 

Following these steps will take some of the stress out of trip planning, but it is important to remember that even the best laid plans often go awry. This is particularly true with travel as there are just too many factors outside of your control.

And that’s okay.  In fact, that is half the fun of it! It’s what makes travel such an incredible  learning experience  and why we keep going back for more.

Need help planning the perfect trip?

Be sure to check out our  Travel Planning page  for resources on everything you need to know about how to plan a trip, from packing to budgeting and more! Or you can read some of our favorite articles about planning your next trip below. 

  • How We Afford to Travel & You Can Too!
  • How to Find Cheap Flights: 17 Expert Tips
  • How We Pick the Best Travel Insurance
  • Cheap Travel Hacks to Save You Money

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How to Plan a Trip | Two Wandering Soles

We want to hear from you!

If you still have more questions about how to plan a trip—both international or otherwise—leave your comment below and we’ll do our best to find you the answers you’re looking for!

Comments (15) on “ How to Plan a Trip: Your Step-by-Step Travel Planning Guide ”

What considerations should you make regarding the timing of your trip, as recommended in the article?

It’s great that you talked about how we’d plan a trip and choose the things we want to do. We’re excited about traveling for our next vacation, and we’d like to start booking hotels and tours, so we’ll follow your tips to help us out. Thanks for the insight on finding all kinds of adventures for our vacation trip.

Bautiful blog and very informative ! Thanks for sharing

Hey guys! Honey is here. Two days back I returned from my vacation and enjoyed myself a lot there. I didn’t face any booking issues regarding stay and tickets reservation. This time I have got 10,000 off on my bookings through the usage of BOB cards and I gained that offer info from Saveplus. You guys must fly! Go on.

Thanks for reminding me to check out my finances first before planning a trip. I have allotted a part of my monthly budget last year so I could travel overseas but it might not be too safe because of the pandemic. I think it would be better to visit something local and just book a Kentucky bourbon tour.

This is a wonderfully structured article! Loved reading it!

Thank you very much for your very pragmatic info. May I have some names of reliable bloggers for my research please? Nic

Your blog is very informative. You have written every thing in deep.

Thank you for great information !

I like that you shared your thoughts with us. I am living in my camper van and I like to read more thoughtful articles like this one. Thanks for the amazing and beautiful post….

Thanks so much for the kind words!

What a wonderful post on how to plan a trip! You have some good points and tips! I also wrote a post on how I planned for my East Coast Trip, check it out on my blog http://innapishtoy.com/2018/05/19/planning-packing-trip/

Thanks for sharing Inna.

Good one content katie. I am impressed. It is very useful for my winter holidays.

So happy to hear it was helpful!

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SYGIC TRAVEL MAPS

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Meet the successor of Sygic Travel Trip Planner! Sygic Travel Maps are the first in the world to display the best attractions, hotels, restaurants or shops directly on the map.

Discover top attractions as well as hidden gems and plan your trips day-by-day. Your trips can be synced with the Sygic Travel app to guide you on your travels.

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SYGIC TRAVEL MAPS APP

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Download offline maps and guides for your destination to keep on track even in the most remote areas. Your trips can be seamlessly synced with the Sygic Travel Maps web.

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How to Plan a Trip: A Month-by-Month Guide

Nomadic Matt wearing a backpack while walking along a beach in Hawaii

Trip planning can be a daunting task. Flights, insurance, gear, itineraries, accommodation, and so much more all need to be considered and sorted out before you go.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed , especially when you haven’t done something like this before.

After over close to twenty years of traveling the world, I’ve planned countless trips and vacations for myself, friends, and family, even group tours. In the beginning, it was trial by fire. I learned a lot of lessons the hard way . However, that helped me develop an efficient checklist that ensures I don’t miss anything important during the trip-planning process.

One big question I get asked a lot is when to start planning. To answer that question, this post breaks the planning process down into month-by-month steps so you can plan your next trip with ease.

Here’s how to plan a trip:

Table of Contents

12 Months Out: Decide on Your Destination(s)

12 months out: start collecting points & miles, 8 months out: visa requirements, passports, and vaccines, 4-6 months out: book your flight, 3-4 months out: book your accommodation, 2 months out: plan your activities, 1 month out: get travel insurance, 7 days out: pack.

A large commercial jet flying through the bright blue sky as it takes off

If you already have a dream destination in mind, great! If not, here are some posts to help you get started:

  • 11 Cheap Places to Visit on the US Dollar
  • 10 Places to Travel on a Budget
  • The Best Tropical Islands in the World
  • My Favorite Cities in the World
  • My 31 Favorite Places to Visit in the USA

But, this far out, the real thing you want to do is start saving money and figuring out your costs. Accommodation and flights are the obvious ones, but how much do restaurants, attractions, and other activities cost? Knowing these costs will allow you accurately estimate how much money you’ll need. Here is how to research costs:

  • Buy a guidebook
  • Check out my free travel guides (we break down all costs for each destination)
  • Skim the cost of living on Numbeo.com
  • Google prices for major activities you want to do, such as scuba diving, winery tours, etc. ( Get Your Guide is a good place to start)
  • Use Skyscanner or Google Flights for flight prices and sign up for alerts to get emails if the price changes
  • Use Discover Cars to price out (and book) a rental car if you need one
  • Use Booking.com and Hostelworld to research accommodation costs

That may seem like a lot but you just want to get a general idea of how much you need to save. You can head to this page to see all my articles on how to save money for your trip .

A bunch of different travel credit cards being held by avid traveler Nomadic Matt

These days, most cards have welcome offers of 60,000-80,000 points (some can be as high as 100,000) when you meet their minimum spending requirement (generally $2,000-5,000 USD within a 3–6-month time frame). That’s enough miles for a free round-trip economy flight to Europe from the East Coast of North America.

For more information on this subject, check out these posts:

  • Points & Miles 101: A Beginner’s Guide
  • How to Pick the Best Travel Credit Card
  • My Favorite Travel Credit Cards
  • How to Earn Points by Paying Your Rent
  • The Ultimate Guide to Points & Miles
  • How to Collect Points & Miles in Canada

In addition, get a fee-free ATM card. I use Charles Schwab, but there are lots of other banks that don’t charge ATM fees (don’t forget to check your local banks and credit unions too). Here’s how you can avoid bank fees while traveling .

While you likely won’t need a visa to your desired destination, you should still check to make sure. If you’re a US citizen, use the State Department’s search tool to learn about your destination’s entry requirements. (Canadians can use this search tool .)

Additionally, make sure that your passport is valid for at least six months after your trip ends. Many countries require this for entry. Passport application and renewal wait times can be long (the standard is 6-8 weeks in the US), so do this as soon as possible.

Also, research if you need any vaccines for your trip as many countries require vaccines to enter (and I don’t mean COVID). You can learn more about country requirements and recommendations at the CDC’s website . They can help you find a clinic near you as well (if you’re in the US).

A huge commerical airliner flying through the dark blue sky as it comes in for a landing at an airport

Here are two articles on how to score a cheap flight:

  • How to Always Find Cheap Flights
  • 5 Steps to Booking a Cheap Flight

If you’ve signed up for a travel credit card and received your sign-up bonus, use your miles to book your flight and/or hotel. The further out you book, the more availability there will be. Use tools like Point.me and Awayz to help you find the best redemptions on your points (for flights and hotels, respectively).

But even if you aren’t using miles or didn’t find a cheap flight deal, there are still many ways to avoid being the person on the flight who paid the most for their ticket. My two favorite sites for finding cheap airfare are Skyscanner and Google Flights .  

A small rolling suitcase standing near the door in a cozy hotel room abroad

Here are my go-to sites when it comes to finding the best deals on accommodation:

  • Hostelworld – Hostelworld has the largest selection of hostels and is my go-to site for finding affordable hostels.
  • Booking.com – Booking.com is the best overall platform for finding budget hotels and guesthouses.
  • Agoda – Agoda has the best results if you’re heading to Asia (though it sometimes has good US deals too).

I recommend checking the cancelation policy of wherever you book. I like having the flexibility to cancel if something comes up.

If you’re on a tight budget or you want to connect with more locals during your travels, consider joining platforms like Couchsurfing or BeWelcome . These communities allow travelers to stay with residents for free as a sort of cultural exchange.

Long-term travelers can also try housesitting or WWOOFing as well, as they both offer free accommodation (in exchange for pet sitting or farm work, respectively).

Now it’s time for the fun part of travel planning! That means reading books about your destination, learning general travel tips, connecting with online communities, and pre-booking any necessary activities.

Pre-booking ensures you don’t miss out on things that you really want to do on your trip. If you’re going to a popular destination, tours and activities fill up quickly, and if you’re going to a smaller place, activities or tours might only run on certain days and have limited availability.

Either way, Get Your Guide the best place to search for and pre-book activities, tours, and tickets. Local tour operators and attractions can list their offerings on this online marketplace, so you can find tons of stuff here, from food tours to museum tickets with skip-the-line entry.

Get travel insurance . That way, these purchases are protected should something happen that makes you cancel your trip.

A lot of people think, “I’m healthy. I don’t need travel insurance.” But travel insurance is much more than just medical protection. It covers you when your camera breaks, your flight is canceled, a family member dies and you have to come home, or something gets stolen. (That’s why you’ll also want to familiarize yourself with any common travel scams to look out for, as well as how to conduct yourself in order to blend in to avoid looking like a target for petty theft.)

Yes, it’s an added expense. But it’s always better to be safe than sorry. I never leave home without it, because I’ve seen firsthand just what can happen on the road.

I never thought I would pop my eardrum while I was scuba diving in Thailand, break my camera in Italy, or get knifed in Colombia.

Unfortunately, bad things can happen when you’re traveling. True, these events are few and far between. But they can cost tens of thousands of dollars. If you’re not prepared to pay out of pocket, buy travel insurance.

Here are some posts on travel insurance to get you started:

  • How to Buy Travel Insurance
  • The 5 Best Travel Insurance Companies
  • The Best Travel Insurance for Seniors

I never leave home without travel insurance. You shouldn’t either.

Nomadic Matt's gear on the bed as he packs his backpack before a trip

I travel with a 45L REI bag and then a smaller day bag. Here’s my suggested packing list to help you take just the right amount of stuff and avoid overpacking ( here’s a list for female travelers ).

Additionally, bring any prescriptions you need for the duration of your trip. Try not to rely on filling those abroad (though bring a prescription and doctor’s note just in case).

With everything taken care of, it’s time to go on your trip and have fun! Make a list of last-minute items you need to pack the day of (your toothbrush, glasses, phone charger, etc.) and check in online beforehand (you can do so 24 hours in advance). (If you’ve got lounge access through a premium travel rewards card , you might find yourself looking forward to getting to the airport early.)

If you’re feeling nervous, don’t worry. That’s perfectly normal. Feeling anxious or unsure is something every traveler experiences. But you’ve made it this far. Trust your planning and follow your instincts. You’re about to have the trip of a lifetime.

Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner . It’s my favorite search engine because it searches websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is being left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld . If you want to stay somewhere other than a hostel, use Booking.com as it consistently returns the cheapest rates for guesthouses and hotels.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

  • SafetyWing (best for everyone)
  • Insure My Trip (for those 70 and over)
  • Medjet (for additional evacuation coverage)

Want to Travel for Free? Travel credit cards allow you to earn points that can be redeemed for free flights and accommodation — all without any extra spending. Check out my guide to picking the right card and my current favorites to get started and see the latest best deals.

Need Help Finding Activities for Your Trip? Get Your Guide is a huge online marketplace where you can find cool walking tours, fun excursions, skip-the-line tickets, private guides, and more.

Ready to Book Your Trip? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel. I list all the ones I use when I travel. They are the best in class and you can’t go wrong using them on your trip.

Got a comment on this article? Join the conversation on Facebook , Instagram , or Twitter and share your thoughts!

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links above may be affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I earn a commission if you make a purchase. I recommend only products and companies I use and the income goes to keeping the site community supported and ad free.

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How to Build a Trip Planner App for Organizing Travelling?

how-to-build-a-trip-planner-app-that-helps-organize-travelling

June 18, 2019

In our new article, we’re discussing how to utilize travel industry insights to create viable travel products, and share our experience of building one.

Mitya Smusin

Planning a trip is just as tiresome as it is pleasant and fun. So many things to be done and kept in mind: stuff to pack, flight tickets, hotel and car reservations, time of check-ins and departures, confirmation numbers, addresses… Preparations turn into a total mess when one tries to keep all this information in perfect order.

A travel planning application can take on this messy part of the travel routine. It can be a nice helping tool to have all of the necessary info in just one place always at hand whenever it is needed. And no more printing out tickets and reservations!

In the article, we’re going to talk about how to build a travel planning app, which features it should possess, and what steps you should take to build a viable product.

best travel apps

Reasons to create a trip planning app

Tourism is on the rise globally. According to the World Tourism Organization, in 2018, the number of international tourists increased by 6% compared to 2017, and a 3–4% growth is projected for 2019.

At the same time, traditional types of traveling are being left behind to be replaced by newly emerging alternatives. Earlier, group tours and vacation packages were popular among tourists, but now people prefer to travel independently, solo, or slowly (i.e. stay in the chosen destinations for quite a long time). Let’s take a look at the factors that laid the groundwork for this shift in the preferences of modern travelers:

Growing exposure to travel opportunities. With lots of online travel agents, self-service booking platforms, and travel fare aggregators, people don’t need travel agencies as mediators anymore in order to create traveling experiences.

In 2016, Airbnb conducted its Airbnb and The Rise of Millennial Study among the millennials from the US, the UK, and China. The findings suggest that at least 75% of the respondents prefer to plan trips themselves rather than buying a packaged tour. These findings reflect the shift in the modern traveling paradigm toward more adventurous, personalized, and local experiences — something that traditional holiday packages and all-inclusive tours have always missed.

Craving a “local touch”. As we’ve mentioned in the previous point, people don’t want standardized experiences anymore.

The desire to feel like temporary locals is another reason why modern travelers tend to plan their trips themselves. While planning, they prefer to utilize global platforms facilitating personal connections — Couchsurfing, Airbnb, etc. rather than the help of a third party — a travel agency. Independent research and planning allow them to interact with local communities, try local ways of life, and have local experiences that aren’t possible with an all-inclusive group trip.

local experience

Strong reliance on travel tech. Smartphones are becoming the number-one assistant supporting travelers on the road. According to the Google/Phocuswright Travel Study conducted globally in 2017, about half of the respondents in most countries feel comfortable using only smartphones when researching and planning upcoming trips (48% in the US, 45% in the UK and Australia, 53% in South Korea, etc.)

Mobile travel products should not necessarily be top-notch. As the Booking.com study suggests , travelers would rather prefer them to be practical and easy-to-use. For example, 57% of the respondents named a single app that would cover all their trip planning needs among their top preferences.

The described tendencies showcase that travelers are in strong need of advanced tech products that would facilitate the process of trip planning and help travelers get in touch with local communities. So you should take these tendencies into account if you decided to make a travel planner app.

yeti

Trip planner app development: what features to include?

Studies and research are the main sources of valuable insights into what users want their ideal travel planning app to be. As a source of additional information, you can also take a look at the best travel planning apps already existing on the market to see what features they have.

Let’s see what basic features you should consider if you decide to build a trip planning app.

1.  Maps are an indispensable part of any trip planning app. Its primary functions are to help users locate themselves in an unknown area, search for directions, or see what places are located nearby . But it can also serve other purposes. Here are some ideas.

TripIt , a well-known trip planner, features interactive maps of airports and terminals. Orienting within an unknown airport can be quite a confusing experience. So detailed maps showing how to reach a necessary gate or terminal in real time can be of great help for users:

best travel apps

Maps can also be a source of amusing statistics for users. For example, App in the Air features a map that visualizes all of the users’ departures and arrivals as dots connected by lines (routes), showing how many times a user went on a trip. The map can also be viewed as a video and even as a globe in the AR mode. A nice way to get inspired by your own trips! You can check how many trips you've made anytime and anywhere, like we did right in our office:)

AR mode travel app

2. Itinerary is a detailed visualization of user travel plans, step by step, from getting on and off the plane, to taking a shuttle bus from the airport to the city, to checking in the hotel. Itineraries can also include places of interest, restaurants, museums, and other places the user plans to visit. Check out how this was implemented in TripIt, where you can find all of the necessary details: flight number, confirmation numbers, addresses, etc.:

best travel apps

Itineraries can be created manually or automatically. For example, TripIt asks users to forward all of their reservation confirmations to a special email, then parses all of the necessary data from the emails and creates master itineraries for users. Quite an elegant solution to take note of if you want to create a trip itinerary app.

3. Reminders. When trying to keep in mind tons of travel details, there is a good chance of forgetting something: the gate number, check-in time, etc. Checking with the app once in a while can sometimes be a way out, especially when you travel alone. But what if the trip involves a lot of details, people, and places?

In this case, reminders and push notifications about the upcoming check-ins and planned visits are of great help. They can release users from the burden of constantly checking the phone and grant a feeling that everything is under control and goes as expected. Moreover, notifications can sometimes be a source of additional useful info, which, otherwise, could have been missed or obtained with extra effort from somewhere else. With so many details that you need to keep in mind when travelling, a push message can literally save the day if anything changes:

push messages

4. Support of voice and digital assistants. Increasingly more people tend to communicate with the tech in natural language. Oliver Heckmann, Google’s VP of engineering for travel and shopping, says that, according to Google global research, at least one in three respondents would prefer to use digital assistants for trip researching and planning.

In this regard, it would be a good idea to integrate your trip planning app with a smartphone assistant. For example, TripIt allows creating Siri shortcuts that help obtain travel info in a quick manner – when asked about the upcoming flight and gate number, Siri obtains the information from TripIt and presents it to the user:

voice support travel apps

5. Sharing. The ability to share itineraries with co-travelers — friends or family members — is a must in trip planning. Therefore, users can make sure that everyone won’t miss a thing in the upcoming trip and always be kept up-to-date about the trip details. These are the basic features any trip planning app should possess. Below are some additional ones that are not necessary but would be a nice bonus for travelers:

  • Packing checklists. The ability to create packing checklists and save templates for different types of trips can save plenty of time and effort, especially for those who travel often. It is also a good idea to send reminders to pack the things that haven’t been checked off the list prior to the trip.
  • Travel hints & tips. The recent findings of the global research conducted by Booking.com  suggest that almost a third of the respondents won’t mind if trip planning programs use their previous travel experience to offer ideas and destinations for upcoming trips.
  • Flight statistics. You may also include some statictics and interesting details about the flights, like visited countries or preferred airlines:

flights stats travel apps

Steps to build a travel planning app

Once you’ve decided to create a trip planning app, you may find yourself unsure of where to start. Here’s a set of steps that we at Yellow always follow to build a viable product.

1. Brainstorm ideas and research

Before coming up with product concepts, it is a good idea to find out what products the market lacks. After you’ve done the market research, you can use the acquired data to brainstorm ideas for future app functionality.

Remember that the golden rule for building successful products is “one product — one key feature”. A key feature is a core of the product, something that the entire application is based upon. For example, the key feature of TripIt is creating itineraries, of App In The Air — marking flight destinations, etc. So before jumping in travel planning app development, ask yourself: what would be my app’s key feature?

2. Prototype

Prototyping is a nice tool to test product ideas and leverage the power of user feedback at an early stage of product development.

Start with simple black-and-white wireframes — they’re enough for the potential users to evaluate the basic look and feel of your future trip planning app and make sure that the application is well-organized and easy to navigate. Once you’ve tested several ideas and chosen the best one, you can transform a wireframe into an interactive prototype that can be used for further usability tests.

Once the app backbone — a prototype — is created and approved, you can proceed to design a future app interface.

Try to keep your design neat, clean, and intuitive. Remember that sometimes the best interface is not having an interface at all.

4. Develop, review, test, repeat

The next step is to power your design with code. Start with developing a minimum viable product (MVP) with a key product feature — it’s enough to test the app on your target audience, gather and analyze user feedback, and add new features accordingly.

Finally, the world will see your app! However, the successful launch doesn’t mean that you can rest on your laurels and enjoy your product success. Remember to keep your product up to users’ needs, release timely updates, and fix bugs if there are any.

Do you want to build a travel app?

Our experience

TripLine is a mobile trip planner application that we created for an LA-based startup. Byron Dumbrill, the CEO of TripLine says : “Planning is a creative process”. This is exactly the mission of TripLine — to make the process of trip planning amusing, creative, and fun.

TripLine allows for creating trip itineraries by marking destination points on the map. To add a place, you simply have to find it by its name through the in-app search bar. If the place is found, it automatically appears on the map as a red dot. When there are several dots on the map, they are connected by the line, visualizing the entire route.

To make your itinerary more informative, you can add photos and text to each destination point. The app is integrated with various social media , such as Instagram, Flickr, Foursquare, etc. so you can import your photos and check-ins from there into your itinerary. And this is what the TripLine itinerary looks like:

travel app itinerary

Currently, the product is undergoing beta testing.

Final thoughts

Modern travelers prefer planning trips themselves, rather than reaching a third party  — a travel agency. They need advanced tools to facilitate the process of trip planning and researching.

Once you’ve decided to develop a vacation planning app, look into travel industry insights and the best examples on the market to find out what basic features your app can include.

Before embarking on a trip planner app development, it’s a good idea to research the market to find out what it lacks. Therefore, you’ll be able to give users a product that they really need.

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Project Management

13 minute read

Project Management for Travel Agencies: The Ultimate Guide

Maria Fernanda Castro Jorge

Maria Fernanda Castro Jorge

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Quite a large proportion of modern business in Europe and worldwide is project-oriented . This part is nearly 25% worldwide, and the travel sector is no exception. This is because more and more companies are focused on creating fundamentally new or unique products and services. They're also focused on achieving new results. Projects are no longer a set of technical documentation and estimates (as they used to be) but are serious activities aimed at realizing individual company goals.

In short, the travel agency's success strongly depends on the ability to implement project-based work. In this regard, project management has become a relevant and important topic for travel agents of any level.

What is a project?

A project is a process (or group of activities) with a clearly defined timeframe. Its purpose is to create a unique product or obtain some innovative results. In the tourism business, the goal of a project is often called the solution of specific tasks. Accordingly, project management is a specific activity, the purpose of which is to realize all the tasks set. For this purpose, the maximum amount of effort, knowledge, experience, techniques, and project management software are applied.

examples-projects

A project is a process or group of activities with a clearly defined timeframe.

It is important to understand how they differ from everyday activities in the organization. First, each project has its own unique goal and time constraints for its achievement. In day-to-day activities, the goal is repetitive, and the deadlines are as well. Secondly, a project ends when it has reached a set goal. Day-to-day activities are endless, and their purpose is to maintain the normal flow of the tourism business.

Project management helps to achieve the set goals quickly and efficiently. Besides, a whole system of subtasks is formed in the process, which ties in to the company's more general goals. A scheme of competent distribution of resources is developed.

Project management is a whole science that has acquired a body of knowledge, rules, and standards. The most famous resource is PMBOK . This "book of knowledge" in project management describes the best practical advice and knowledge.

What does project management involve?

project-management-phases

  • Defining and forming requirements for the project.
  • Setting as clear and understandable goals as possible.
  • Establishing and implementing communication between the parties involved in the project.
  • Balancing project constraints: budget, resources, risks, deadlines, quality.
  • Communicating with the team, considering their needs/wants/expectations, and adjusting existing plans according to the input received.

Want to learn more?

Take your project management skills to the next level with our comprehensive (and free) ebook!

All these activities are segmented into distinct phases: project initiation, planning, execution and control, and completion. Careful project management planning , organization of tasks and project components, providing the necessary resources, and controlling the effectiveness of the chosen strategy contribute to achieving the goal in the tourism business. Let's discuss this in more detail:

  • Initiation (i.e., the start of the project) is a kind of familiarization with the project. Its essence and goals are defined, and a suitable team is formed.
  • Planning is the most important part of the travel project management. As stated in the classical methodology on PMBOK, it should take about 50% of all time in the project realization process. The difficulty is that all the actions the travel agent must carry out to achieve a given goal are carefully prescribed during this stage. For this purpose, the project is initially divided into parts and a set of small tasks. A certain work schedule is created in which deadlines for each task are prescribed. A list of necessary resources is also worked out. In the travel agency case, project management planning includes periodic adjustments because new nuances, subtasks, and pitfalls appear in the work process.
  • Execution and control. This stage should be alternated with the previous one. In an ideal project management system, everything looks like this: set a task, do it, control it, make the necessary adjustments to the plan, set the next task, and so on. At the execution stage, some tools usually facilitate the flow of processes: delegation, time management, and the Eisenhower matrix.
  • Project finalization. At this stage, a control check of the completed work is made. The original data, involved instructions, and regulations are saved. This is necessary so that even a new team member can understand what and how things were done before him.

There are quite a large number of methods of how projects are managed. Besides the classic method which we just described above, some others are used:

  • Agile . This is when one big project is divided into many mini-projects with step-by-step implementation.
  • Lean. This is the distribution of the project into small work packages.
  • Scrum. This is the division of the project into component parts.
  • Kanban. This is a variant for projects that are not limited by deadlines because they can be postponed.

Learn more: Kanban vs. Scrum – what's the difference?

Each methodology has a lot of its nuances, advantages, and disadvantages. Choosing the right system depends on the specifics of your travel agency and the team that will be working on a particular project.

How is project management relevant to tourism and travel management?

Project management skills are highly relevant to a tourism and travel management career.

A travel agency's success strongly depends on its ability to implement project-based work.

Here's how project management skills can be applied in this field:

  • Planning and organization. Project managers excel in creating detailed project plans, crucial in tourism and travel management. You must plan itineraries, book accommodations, arrange transportation, and schedule tourist activities. Being well-organized ensures that everything runs smoothly.
  • Time management. Time is of the essence in the travel industry. Project managers are skilled at setting and meeting deadlines, which is vital when booking flights, organizing tours, and ensuring that travelers are on time for their activities.
  • Budgeting. Project management involves creating and managing budgets. You'll often have to work within budget constraints in tourism and travel management. Effective budget management ensures that resources are allocated efficiently and that costs are controlled.
  • Stakeholder management. Project managers are adept at managing stakeholders, and this skill is essential when dealing with tourists, travel agencies, hotels, airlines, and other service providers. Building strong relationships with these stakeholders can lead to better deals and partnerships.
  • Risk management. Identifying and mitigating risks is a critical project management skill. In the travel industry, you must anticipate and manage risks such as weather-related disruptions, health emergencies, or political unrest in destination countries.
  • Communication. Clear and effective communication is key in both project management and travel management. You must communicate with clients, team members, and service providers to ensure everyone is on the same page and that information is conveyed accurately.
  • Resource allocation. Project managers are skilled at allocating resources efficiently, whether assigning tasks to team members or managing the allocation of rooms and transportation for travelers.
  • Problem solving. In tourism and travel, unexpected issues such as flight cancellations or visa problems can arise. Project managers are trained to handle unexpected challenges and find solutions quickly.
  • Quality assurance. Ensuring a high level of service quality is essential in the tourism and travel industry. Project management skills can help you establish quality standards, monitor performance, and make improvements where necessary.
  • Continuous improvement. Project managers are trained to review and analyze project outcomes to identify areas for improvement. This can involve analyzing customer feedback and adjusting services to enhance the overall travel experience in travel management.

So, project management skills are highly transferable and can greatly benefit a tourism and travel management career. These skills enable professionals in this field to plan, execute, and manage various aspects of travel experiences efficiently, ultimately leading to satisfied clients and successful travel operations.

Project management software for travel agencies

Implementing project management techniques is best done with dedicated project management software. Otherwise, you may end up spending more time managing your project management tool than using the tool to manage your project. The best project management software for travel agencies are:

  • Worksection

All of them pursue 3 main goals:

  • To make employees more efficient.
  • To make the project management process itself more productive and effective.
  • To make the management of the company's project profile more convenient and transparent for an outside view.

Project management software is appropriate when the projects themselves are more or less of the same nature. They allow you to form a unified picture of the project profile, track the stages of its implementation at different levels, and control the budget and deadlines.

Project management software are tools for the organization and the team, making all the company's activities as transparent as possible. Everyone can see the time and financial costs of certain projects, their workload, and their colleagues' workload.

As a result, using such systems and the subsequent transparency of work makes it easy to identify the causes of overruns or errors, optimize costs, and effectively reduce expenses (time, finances, and labor).

A case study in tourism project management: the Bookatrekking story

bookatrekking-case-study

In their initial years, Bookatrekking faced many challenges common to many travel agencies. Coordinating trips, managing a dynamic team of guides, ensuring customer satisfaction, and navigating the ever-changing world of travel proved to be their own uphill climb. They realized that while their love for adventure was undeniable, the need for structured management was imperative.

Recognizing the need for change, Bookatrekking embraced the principles of project management. This team implemented Basecamp and Trello in their work processes. Trello was used for implementing strategic goals, and Basecamp for local tasks.

Streamlining operations

One of the first critical steps was streamlining their operations. They recognized that time is of the essence in the world of adventure. They optimized their tour planning, booking processes, and communication through Basecamp. It enhanced their internal team coordination and ensured that customers received quick responses and seamless experiences.

Team empowerment

With Basecamp, they empowered their guides and staff. Detailed workflows and standardized procedures provided clarity, minimized errors, and allowed for quicker decision-making. The team, once struggling with chaos, was now a well-oiled machine.

Data-driven decisions

Data became their compass. With the help of Trello, Bookatrekking meticulously analyzed customer feedback, booking trends, and market insights. It allowed them to make informed decisions, tailor their tour offerings to meet customer desires, and adapt to the travel landscape.

Where a travel agent should learn project management

In this article, we have considered the basics of the rather complex project management concept.

Suppose you are seriously aiming at a deep study of this science and planning your career development as a project manager. In that case, going to the Project Management Basics course at GoSkills makes sense. In 14 engaging lessons, you will learn how to effectively manage projects from start to finish through a range of topics, including project initiation and closeout, scope, schedule and resource planning, project execution and control, and more.

Prepare to get certified in project management

Start learning today with GoSkills courses

Project management is an indispensable skill needed by every travel agent. It is important to understand that project management is not a situational set of measures but a procedural implementation and realization of the whole mechanism. Stay calm if this topic seems too complex and vague to you now. Modern project management is a competent and balanced system, which you should approach with readiness and seriousness. Then, you will be able to understand everything and successfully apply it in the management of your travel agency business.

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Maria Fernanda Castro Jorge

Maria Fernanda manages GoSkills' social media channels and enjoys writing content whenever needed. A cup of coffee and an early morning run is all she needs to have a great start to her day.

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The Ultimate Guide to Trip Planning: Adventure Awaits!

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The Ultimate Guide to Trip Planning: Adventure Awaits!

  • Short, impactful experiences are a top choice for travelers.
  • Kickstart your planning 12 weeks in advance, with flight bookings leading the way.
  • Personalized experiences are the current rage, trumping cookie-cutter vacations.
  • Listen to the experts; it’s about the journey, not just the destination.
  • “Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Battuta

Why Travelers Love Short, Impactful Experiences

Stats don’t lie.

According to a report by TrekkSoft, a whopping 82% of bookings made through their platform in 2019 were for experiences lasting less than a day. This trend showcases a clear shift towards travelers valuing quality over quantity. It’s not just about how long you’re away, but the memories you make during that time.

Your Trip-Planning Blueprint

Starting line: 12 weeks out.

The foundation of a great trip? Solid planning. As revealed, preparations can often commence up to 12 weeks ahead of your trip. Most voyagers secure their flight tickets first, followed closely by accommodations.

Remember: early birds get not just the worm, but also the best deals!

Going Beyond the Brochures

Trends suggest a rising demand for unique, custom-made itineraries. Gone are the days of generic travel packages. Nowadays, it’s all about curated experiences tailored to individual preferences. Whether it’s midnight street food hunting in Bangkok or secret speakeasy bars in NYC, it’s all about those secret insider gems.

How to Plan a Trip: A Step-by-Step Guide

Embarking on a journey? Whether it’s a short getaway or a long expedition, careful planning can make your experience smoother and more enjoyable. Here’s a comprehensive guide to ensure you’ve got all bases covered:

1. Define Your Travel Goals

  • Purpose: Decide if you’re traveling for relaxation, adventure, cultural exploration, or something else.
  • Duration: Determine the length of your stay.

2. Research Your Destination

  • Cultural norms: Are there any local customs you should be aware of?
  • Weather: What will the weather be like during your visit? This will affect your packing.
  • Safety: Check for travel advisories related to health or political situations.

3. Set a Budget

  • Accommodations: Consider hotels, hostels, or vacation rentals.
  • Transportation: Decide between flights, trains, buses, or renting a car.
  • Activities: Factor in entrance fees to attractions, guided tours, etc.
  • Food: Remember to budget for meals, snacks, and beverages.
  • Miscellaneous: Always keep a buffer for unexpected expenses.

4. Book Transportation

  • Compare prices: Use comparison websites to get the best deals.
  • Seat selection: If you’re picky about seating, book in advance.
  • Visas: Ensure you have the necessary visas or travel permissions.

5. Secure Accommodations

  • Location: Stay centrally to minimize transportation costs.
  • Reviews: Read user reviews to know what to expect.
  • Amenities: Do you need free WiFi, breakfast, a pool, etc.?

6. Create an Itinerary

  • Must-sees: Prioritize the top attractions or experiences.
  • Timing: Avoid overstuffing your days.
  • Flexibility: Leave room for spontaneous activities or changes.

7. Pack Smartly

  • Essentials: Passport, tickets, medicines, chargers, etc.
  • Clothing: Consider the weather and local customs.
  • Limit luggage: Pack versatile items and avoid overpacking.

8. Plan Your Meals

  • Local cuisine: Research local dishes to try.
  • Allergies: If you have dietary restrictions, learn how to communicate them in the local language.

9. Stay Connected

  • SIM cards: Consider buying a local SIM or an international roaming plan.
  • Offline maps: Download offline maps of the areas you’ll be visiting.
  • Translation apps: Helpful if you’re visiting a country where you don’t speak the language.

10. Get Travel Insurance

  • Coverage: Ensure it covers medical emergencies, cancellations, lost luggage, etc.
  • Duration: Make sure the insurance covers your entire trip duration.

11. Inform Close Ones

  • Safety: Let a close friend or family member know your itinerary.
  • Regular check-ins: Plan regular check-ins to ensure your safety .

12. Prepare for Departure

  • Documents: Keep copies of important documents.
  • Currency: Exchange some local currency for initial expenses.
  • Transport: Know how you’ll get from the airport to your accommodation.

Expert-Approved Tips for a Stellar Trip

Rick Steves , a travel connoisseur, puts it perfectly, “Plan your itinerary to spend your time efficiently. Minimize your time in transit, and you’ll see more and enjoy your trip more.” Smart planning is the difference between seeing a place and truly experiencing it. Flora Goodwin’s two cents? Always have a plan, but never shy away from impromptu detours—they often lead to the most unforgettable memories.

Challenging Assumptions

Ever thought about combining business with pleasure? The line between business travel and leisure trips is blurring. Next time you’re on a trip, consider extending your stay. Explore local markets, cultural landmarks, or even nearby cities. Flora’s secret tip? Local eateries often offer a more authentic taste of a place than any guidebook can.

What’s the best time to start planning a trip? Begin preparations around 12 weeks before your departure, starting with flight bookings.

Are short trips worth it? Absolutely! Statistics show travelers are leaning more towards short, meaningful experiences.

Why are personalized trips trending? Travelers are seeking unique experiences, valuing authenticity over generic vacation packages.

How can I ensure efficient travel? Expert Rick Steves suggests focusing on minimizing transit times for a more enriched experience.

Any tips for business travelers? Consider extending your business trips. Explore the city, its culture, and indulge in local delicacies.

Concluding Thoughts

Embrace the journey of planning as much as the trip itself. With the right approach, prepping for your adventure can be as thrilling as the voyage. Dive into research, seek unique experiences, and above all, enjoy every moment.Travel planning might seem daunting, but breaking it down step by step makes the process manageable. Remember, while planning is essential, leave room for spontaneity. Sometimes, the most memorable experiences come from the unexpected. Safe travels! 🌍

Remember: the world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.

  • TrekkSoft Travel Report, 2019.
  • Rick Steves’ Europe – Travel Tips.
  • Flora Goodwin’s Secret Travel Diaries.

This post is also available in: English

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One response to “The Ultimate Guide to Trip Planning: Adventure Awaits!”

Charming Deborah Green, your take on the art of preserving vintage postcards really took me back to my grandmother’s attic where I found my first postcard collection. The joy and nostalgia are unparalleled! How do you navigate preserving postcards with handwritten notes on the back? Do you think different inks require different preservation methods?💭 From my experience, I’ve noticed that some inks fade more quickly than others, and would love to hear your thoughts. Let’s not forget about the stamps, they add a unique historical context that could be explored further. Have a splendid day!

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Planning a Trip

Introduction

There are many things to consider when planning a trip. In this project, you will explore how to plan for a trip and determine the actual cost of traveling to and from your vacation destination.

Working together with your group, you will explore the rate at which you must travel to arrive at your vacation destination, a reasonable plan for travel, and costs associated with travel. Finally, using all that your group has learned, you will make an itinerary for each day of your trip. You will create a poster presentation of your trip to serve as an advertisement, so your group can recommend it to others.

Instructions

Solve each problem in order and save your work along the way, as you will create a professional advertisement at the conclusion of the project. If required, round to the hundredths place (two decimal places).

·          First problem:

·          Your group will be taking a road trip.  You need to determine a destination at a distance of between 1000-1500 miles. You should go to a website, such as www.randmcnally.com/ or www.mapquest.com/ , to find a map, driving directions, and estimated travel time. Print these resources as they will be needed in your project. Record the information in the table below.

Hint: If your estimated time is in hours and minutes, divide the minute portion by 60, so it is part of an hour, and then add that to the number of hours.

·          Your group will need to decide the type of vehicle that you want to use for travel. If there are four or five people, make sure there is enough room for yourselves and your luggage. Use a website such as www.fueleconomy.gov to find the EPA Estimated Fuel Economy for your vehicle and the fuel tank size. Since most of your driving will be on a highway, record the highway fuel economy for your vehicle in the table below.

Beginning Trip Information

           

·          Based on the estimated time to the destination shown in your table, calculate the average rate at which you must travel to arrive at your destination.

·          Many times when you travel by car, there is road construction or slow traffic. You want to determine how long it would take you to arrive at your destination if your average rate is different from what you calculated. Calculate your estimated time to your destination based on the rates given in the table below, comparing each value to that for 55 miles per hour to see how much time you save by driving faster.

Changing the Average Rate

·          Using your results from changing the average rate, make a statement describing the effect of increasing your average rate.  Be sure to comment on the significance of the sign of your numbers in the third column.

·          Second problem:

·          With a long trip, it is wise to have a plan for how far or long you want to travel in one day. Many people will try to travel 500 miles in a day. You need to determine the number of days you will be traveling and how long you will be driving each day if 500 miles per day is your goal.

Goal of 500 Miles in a Day

Number of Days of Travel __________________________

·          Some drivers prefer to only have 8 hours of driving in a day. You need to determine how many days and how far you will be driving each day if 8 hours per day is your goal.

Goal of 8 Hours of Driving Time in a Day

·          Your group needs to use your calculations to make a decision whether you want to travel either 500 miles per day or a total of 8 hours of driving time. You should think about what your goal is in terms of how far or long to drive per day and a reasonable rate of travel. Be able to defend your choices.

·          Based on your decision for travel, determine, the number of days it will take you to reach your destination, how many days you want to stay at your destination, and the number of days for your return trip home (it should be the same number of days as it took to reach your destination). Then, calculate the total number of days you will be on vacation.

Decision for travel (including average rate):

Number of Days to Reach Destination ___________

Number of Days Staying at Destination __________

Number of Days to Return Home ____________

Total Number of Days on Vacation: _______________

·          Third Problem:

·          You will need to rent the vehicle that you have decided to travel with. The car rental place has two different offers:

Offer #1: $10 per day, first 100 miles are free, after the first 100 miles, they charge $0.20 per mile.

Offer #2: $25 per day, all miles are charged at the rate of $0.15 per mile, and if you keep the car for more than 1 week, they take $50 off your total bill.

Write an expression for computing the cost of the car rental for each of the above options.  Use d to represent the number of days and m to represent the number of miles driven.

·         For your trip, calculate the cost for each offer and determine the best offer for your vacation.

Finally, determine the per day cost of renting the car.

Hint: You will need to calculate the cost for the entire trip meaning that you will have to double your mileage. Then, estimate how many miles you think you will travel at your destination. Finally, calculate the total mileage of the trip. Use this number and the number of days of travel from Problem #2, to calculate the cost of renting a car.

·          You will also have to purchase gas for the entire trip. You will need to calculate the amount and cost of fuel based on your mileage and estimated fuel efficiency from Problem #1. Use $2.70 per gallon for the cost of gas.

Hint: Calculate the fuel needed by determining total mileage divided by fuel efficiency. 

·          The last expenses for your trip are food and lodging. Estimate how much you will spend on food per day. Be reasonable in your estimates. On average lodging is $100 per night for a single room with double beds. If your group is larger than 4 people, you will need to have two rooms. Calculate the daily cost for food and lodging and then the total cost for food and lodging based on the number of days in your trip.

·          Finally, determine how much money each person in your group should contribute to the trip.

·                      Fourth problem:

·          Finally, your group will use all of the information that you have gathered and determine an itinerary for the trip. You will need to calculate how many miles you can drive before stopping for gas. Use the size of your fuel tank and fuel efficiency from Problem #1 to calculate this. Remember you do not want to run out of gas, so leave some gallons of gas in the fuel tank.

·          You will need to use your map to figure out the starting and ending location for each day.  Fill out the itinerary chart on the next page.

·         Now, fill out the checkbook for each day of your trip.  You should be able to get the beginning balance from Problem #3.  Your beginning balance will be positive, but each day’s cost should be recorded as a negative number.  Record your new balance in the right-hand column for each day.

·          Make a sales-pitch recommending the trip.

Itinerary Chart

Collaboration

Get together with another group to compare your answers to each of the four problems.  Discuss how your group decided to travel, costs for food, number of days at vacation spot and explain your trip itinerary. Some groups may have more than four members, so this should be taken into account.

·         What if you wanted to stop at destinations along the way of your trip? How would this affect your plans?

·         What is a reasonable amount of time and distance to travel per day?

·         What happens if someone wants his or her own lodging? How could you recalculate the price per person?

·         Do some Internet research to determine how much it costs to travel in a different way (train, plane, or bus). Determine if another mode of transportation would lower the cost of the trip.

Conclusions

Your advertisement should be a presentation of your trip that would allure other people to join in. It should be on a poster board highlighting the itinerary and costs associated with the trip. It should include all of the mathematics used to solve the four problems above.  You may either neatly write out the tables or use software such as Microsoft Word to create a professional computer generated product.  You may want to include pictures of the map and destination to make it colorful.

Your project should correctly identify and justify mathematically: (1) the rate at which you must travel, (2) a reasonable plan for travel, (3) costs associated with travel, and (4) the itinerary for each day of the trip.

OpenTripPlanner

Multimodal trip planning.

OpenTripPlanner (OTP) is a family of open source software projects that provide passenger information and transportation network analysis services. The core server-side Java component finds itineraries combining transit, pedestrian, bicycle, and car segments through networks built from widely available, open standard OpenStreetMap and GTFS data. This service can be accessed directly via its web API or using a range of Javascript client libraries, including modern reactive modular components targeting mobile platforms.

Launched in 2009, the project has attracted a thriving community of users and developers, receiving support from public agencies, startups, and transportation consultancies alike. OTP powers regional and national journey planning services around the world, as well as several popular multi-city mobile applications.

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Project Idea | (Trip Planner)

This project is basically an application which helps friends, colleagues or relatives who live at far off places (generally in another country) plan a trip together to a place in optimal budget.

Use Case One friend lives in Delhi and another in London. They aspire to go for a vacation to a 3 rd city. So they put in the details of their respective current locations into the application along with the starting date and duration of the trip. On click of Submit, they are presented with options like “Paris”, “Dubai”, “Abu Dhabi”etc. sorted according to the total budget. The budget includes the costs of their respective flights to and fro, accommodation, average food costs etc.

  • The factors to be included in calculating the budget can be customized. For example, in addition to already mentioned costs, other costs like international calling card’s cost, Airport pick and drop taxi cost etc. can be added.
  • Once the user decides upon the trip to go for, the user will be presented an option to book flight tickets directly from the application.
  • The application can act as single solution to cater to all needs of the trip like booking the taxi for pick and drop, buying calling cards, booking the hotel, Visa information, weather details etc.
  • Feedback about the trip can be taken after the trip from the user which can be shown to future users for their ready reference.

Technologies: For Web application, the front end can be developed using any JavaScript/HTML based framework like Ext JS, Angular JS. In case of android app, Java is the only option. For backend, PHP can be used to interact with Database.

Research More options can be provided to the users like integration with social networks. For example checking the recently visited places by friends on Facebook to get the first hand trustworthy feedback about the planned trip. Also different algorithms can be developed to design the travel itinerary.

About the author:

“Harshit is a technology enthusiast and has keen interest in programming. He holds a   B.Tech. degree in Computer Science from JIIT, Noida and currently works as Front-end Developer at SAP. He is also a state level table tennis player. Apart from this he likes to unwind by watching movies and English sitcoms. He is based out of Delhi and you can reach out to him at  https://in.linkedin.com/pub/harshit-jain/2a/129/bb5

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Oregon River Trip Planning Just Got Easier

Media contact.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon river information is now more accessible than ever on the National Rivers Project’s recreational river map. In collaboration with the Bureau of Land Management, the River Management Society recently added or updated over 1,000 miles of Oregon rivers to the NRP website. This includes nearly 700 miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers, iconic whitewater reaches, and beginner-friendly sections.

rapidly flowing river with fir trees on the bank and colorful sunset with clouds in the background

“Whether you want to paddle through Oregon’s high deserts and canyons or explore the rainforests and coastal waterways, the National Rivers Project is a really convenient first stop in the planning process,” says David Ballenger, BLM Oregon/Washington Recreation Lead.

The NRP website offers intuitive search features for both beginners and experienced paddlers. Users can sort sections by difficulty and recreational amenities such as fishing, camping and boat ramps. Each listing provides river access and permit details, with links to more information.

“Recreating on Oregon rivers gives people a stronger sense of stewardship,” says Lauren Pidot, BLM Oregon/Washington National Conservation Lands Program Lead. “Visitors are interested in protecting these public resources. We’re excited to help people more easily find these opportunities.”

Some of the recently added sections are very accessible with developed launches, while others are more wild and remote. BLM rangers remind boaters to check local weather conditions, water levels and permit requirements before departing on a river trip.

“All of our river and access information is sourced and reviewed by managing agencies, so boaters can feel confident when they begin their trip planning on our website,” says James Major, NRP Coordinator. “We want to give special thanks to BLM Oregon for their invaluable assistance on this project.”

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Is CERN activating the world’s most powerful particle accelerator for the April 8 eclipse? No

Cern restarted its large hadron collider after a regular winter stop for maintenance. it is unrelated to the eclipse. .

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As people around the country await the April 8 total eclipse, conspiracy theories about a Switzerland-based nuclear research facility have some social media users on edge. In their view is CERN, also known as the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

“Why is CERN being reactivated on April 8, the same day as the infamous eclipse?” asked a  March 29 Facebook post , referencing what it called the group’s plan to activate “the large hadron collider” on the day of the eclipse. “My gut instinct is that something really big is being planned for that day… perhaps a total takedown of both the grid and society in general worldwide.” In  another post  April 1, a man in a baseball cap speculated that CERN is deliberately starting back up April 8 to “open up a gateway, a portal.”

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(Screenshot/Facebook)

These posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our  partnership with Meta , which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

It is not unusual for scientists to conduct research during an eclipse, when the sun’s corona becomes visible and areas in totality go briefly dark in the moon’s shadow.  Total solar eclipses   allow researchers “to study Earth’s atmosphere under uncommon conditions.” NASA, for example, is launching three sounding rockets on the day of the eclipse to study its effects on the ionosphere (a mission that also became a  subject of   misinformation ).

But CERN’s research is different. The primary research focus of CERN — an acronym derived from the French name “Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire” — is  particle physics , or “the study of the fundamental constituents of matter and the forces acting between them.” The organization seeks to find answers about the  universe’s fundamental structure .

CERN houses the Large Hadron Collider, the  most powerful particle accelerator in the world , which measures around 16.8 miles (27 kilometers) in circumference. The collider’s aim, as  Britannica explains , is to “understand the fundamental structure of matter by re-creating the extreme conditions that occurred in the first few moments of the universe according to the big-bang model.”

CERN spokesperson Sophie Tesauri told PolitiFact in an email that the collider’s activities have nothing to do with the April 8 eclipse.

“What we do at CERN is doing particle physics with accelerators such as the LHC, and this has little to do with astrophysics in a direct way,”  Tesauri said. “So there is no link between the solar eclipse on Monday 8th April, and what we do at CERN.”

CERN has an  accelerator complex  composed of machines with “increasingly higher energies.” A beam of particles is injected by one machine to the next one, bringing the beam to a higher energy — and the Large Hadron Collider is the last element in this complex.

“Hadrons” are a group of particles that include protons and ions. In the Large Hadron Collider,  two beams  travel in opposite directions at nearly light speed and are made to collide. In 2012, Large Hadron Collider experiments led to the discovery of the  Higgs boson particle , a particle named for British physicist Peter Higgs, who in the 1960s postulated about the existence of a particle that interacted with other particles at the beginning of time to provide them with their mass.

Tesauri told PolitiFact that the accelerator complex is restarted every year after a brief winter technical stop, when beam production ceases so that the accelerators can undergo maintenance. Restarting an accelerator like the Large Hadron Collider “requires a full commissioning process in order to check that all equipment works properly.”

“Now that all the checks have been performed, the LHC is ready to provide particle collisions to the LHC experiments, and first collisions for this year should actually happen today 5th April,” Tesauri said in her email. “This will mark the beginning of the physics run for 2024.”

The beams were initially expected to enter collision April 8, according to a  March 14 report . It said, “Depending on how work progresses, this milestone may shift forwards or backwards by a few days.”

On April 5, CERN  announced  that the Large Hadron Collider achieved its first stable beams in 2024, “marking the official start of the 2024 physics data-taking season.” The statement said that from March 8 to April 5, the Large Hadron Collider was set up to handle the beam and tested for any issues.

“Although the solar eclipse on 8 April will not affect the beams in the LHC, the gravitational pull of the moon, like the tides, changes the shape of the LHC because the machine is so big,” CERN’s announcement said. This phenomenon is not unique to an eclipse; a  2012 news release  discussed distortions in the machine brought about by a full moon.

According to CERN’s frequently asked questions page, the Large Hadron Collider is  expected to run over 20 years , “with several stops scheduled for upgrades and maintenance work.”

Conspiracy theories surrounding CERN’s work have been circulating for  years . In a statement to  Verify  fact-checkers, CERN said that its research “captures the imagination of lots of people, which is why CERN has been featured in a lot of science fiction books / even movies, around the world.” CERN said works inspired by its research are fictional and “should not be confused with the actual scientific research.”

False claims about the group’s work are so common that the organization addresses some common theories on its  FAQ page : No, it won’t “open a door to another dimension,” and no, it won’t “generate black holes in the cosmological sense.”

We rate the claim that CERN is activating its Large Hadron Collider in connection with the April 8 solar eclipse False.

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  • What if newsrooms treated every day like eclipse day?

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Opinion | Republican lawmaker crushes Tucker Carlson with surprisingly legitimate commentary

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Donald Trump said all legal scholars, ‘on both sides,’ wanted federal abortion law overturned. That’s wrong.

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IMAGES

  1. Plan a Road Trip PBL

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  2. How To Plan A Trip: Easy 15 Step Travel + Vacation Planner For 2023

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  3. How to Plan a Trip: 7 Easy Tips for Your Next Adventure

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  5. The Best Road Trip Planner You'll Ever Need

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  6. Where To START Planning a Vacation: The Experience

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VIDEO

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  4. group trip planning 🫢 every group has same Problem #trip #friends fri#youtube #comedy #comment

  5. How I Plan A Trip!!

  6. Trip Planning Pro Tips: Exploring 2 Unique Strategies for A Successful Adventure!

COMMENTS

  1. How to Plan Your Vacation Like a Project Manager

    Follow these simple steps to achieve the best plan, and the best vacation possible! 1. Work (erm, Vacation) Breakdown Structure. First thing first, get this plan on paper. I start with the same breakdown for every trip, keeping the high-level considerations at the front of my plan in order to mitigate potential vacation-scope-creep.

  2. travel-planner · GitHub Topics · GitHub

    This project is to develop a travel planner system, which describes about the climatic conditions, interesting places to visit, top hotels in the area and some additional features like travel reminders depending on the user's destination. ... The Travel Planner App is a web application that allows users to plan and organize their trips ...

  3. How to Plan a Trip in 8 Practical Steps (& What NOT to Plan)

    Instead, pack clothes that all go together and can be mixed and matched easily. I like to keep all the clothes I bring in the same family of colors, with a few basic templates: pants + shirt + cardigan + scarf, say, and then I bring 2 pairs of pants and 4 shirts and 2 scarves to mix and match.

  4. OpenTripPlanner Project · GitHub

    Pinned. OpenTripPlanner Public. An open source multi-modal trip planner. Java 2.1k 986. otp-react-redux Public. A library for writing modern OpenTripPlanner-compatible multimodal journey planning applications using React and Redux. JavaScript 67 48. otp-ui Public. React component library, which can be used to build trip planner webapps.

  5. 10 Free Travel Itinerary Templates in Google Docs, Word, & Excel

    Use this free travel itinerary template to streamline your business travel planning process and establish a consistent standard itinerary that you can use again and again. Download this Template. 2. ClickUp Vacation Planning Travel Itinerary Template. Streamline your travel planning process using this template.

  6. Project Management for Travel Planning

    Planning a complicated trip is like building a house, or launching a new product. It has a lot of variables, a definite timeframe, and it costs money. Sometimes, lots of money. In project management speak, those equate to the classic constraints inherent to any project: scope, time, and cost.

  7. How to Plan a Trip: Step-by-Step Guide

    Step 10: Last-minute prep. Step 1. Figure out your travel budget. Before you can even begin to plan a trip, you need to take a good look at your finances and figure out how much money you have to spend on your adventure. This will dictate a lot of the future steps including where you can travel to and for how long.

  8. trip-planner · GitHub Topics · GitHub

    This sample project is a customizable regional travel planning app that uses artificial intelligence to generate itineraries based on user text, powered by OpenAI Chat Completions API, built using Next.js 13. ... Add a description, image, and links to the trip-planner topic page so that developers can more easily learn about it. ...

  9. Wanderbot

    Discover the future of travel planning with Wanderbot, our AI-powered trip planner. Create personalized itineraries, view your entire journey on an interactive map for a clear overview, and effortlessly plan, book, and share your adventures via email, Twitter, and more.

  10. Travel Planner and Itinerary Maker

    The Sygic Travel Maps mobile app displays the best tourist attractions, museums, restaurants, shops and more. Discover top places as well as hidden gems sourced from travel editors and fellow travelers and create your day-by-day trip plan directly in the app. Download offline maps and guides for your destination to keep on track even in the ...

  11. How to Plan a Trip: A Month-by-Month Guide

    Here's how to plan a trip: Table of Contents. 12 Months Out: Decide on Your Destination (s) 12 Months Out: Start Collecting Points & Miles. 8 Months Out: Visa Requirements, Passports, and Vaccines. 4-6 Months Out: Book Your Flight. 3-4 Months Out: Book Your Accommodation. 2 Months Out: Plan Your Activities.

  12. How to Build a Trip Planner App?

    4. Develop, review, test, repeat. The next step is to power your design with code. Start with developing a minimum viable product (MVP) with a key product feature — it's enough to test the app on your target audience, gather and analyze user feedback, and add new features accordingly.

  13. UX/UI Case study: VOYAY

    An app that offers convenient group travel planning to make the process easier and more enjoyable, even when traveling with large groups. ... Aiming to provide a fun experience for everyone involved in planning the trip. About project. VOYAY focuses on supporting group travel planning, helping people exchange information, and updating trip ...

  14. Trip Planner AI: Free & Customizable Travel Itinerary App

    Revolutionize your travel itineraries with Trip Planner AI, the ultimate tool for modern travelers. Our advanced AI trip and travel planner capabilities ensure seamless itinerary planning. Experience the ease of crafting AI-optimized itineraries tailored to your preferences. Plan your trip effortlessly with our innovative technology and start exploring smarter today!

  15. Project Management for Travel Agencies: The Ultimate Guide

    Planning and organization. Project managers excel in creating detailed project plans, crucial in tourism and travel management. You must plan itineraries, book accommodations, arrange transportation, and schedule tourist activities. Being well-organized ensures that everything runs smoothly. Time management.

  16. Mastering Your Next Adventure: How to Plan a Trip like a Pro! ️

    Here's a comprehensive guide to ensure you've got all bases covered: 1. Define Your Travel Goals. Purpose: Decide if you're traveling for relaxation, adventure, cultural exploration, or something else. Duration: Determine the length of your stay. 2. Research Your Destination.

  17. Road Trip Planner

    Keep exploring with the Roadtrippers mobile apps. Anything you plan or save automagically syncs with the apps, ready for you when you hit the road! Tall tales, trip guides, and the weird and wonderful. Plan your next trip, find amazing places, and take fascinating detours with the #1 trip planner. Every trip is a road trip.

  18. Project: Planning a Trip

    The car rental place has two different offers: Offer #1: $10 per day, first 100 miles are free, after the first 100 miles, they charge $0.20 per mile. Offer #2: $25 per day, all miles are charged at the rate of $0.15 per mile, and if you keep the car for more than 1 week, they take $50 off your total bill.

  19. OpenTripPlanner

    Launched in 2009, the project has attracted a thriving community of users and developers, receiving support from public agencies, startups, and transportation consultancies alike. OTP powers regional and national journey planning services around the world, as well as several popular multi-city mobile applications.

  20. AI Trip Planner

    Travel style. Run. AI Trip Planner. Explore More. Marcos GPT. Chat with Marcos and refine your trip (ChatGPT plus users)

  21. (PDF) A SURVEY ON TOURIST TRIP PLANNING SYSTEMS

    A SURVEY ON TOURIST TRIP PLANNING SYSTEMS. Kadri Sylejmani and Agni Dika. University of Prishtina, Kosova. Nowadays, there are a number of online trip planning systems that make it possible to ...

  22. Project Idea

    This project is basically an application which helps friends, colleagues or relatives who live at far off places (generally in another country) plan a trip together to a place in optimal budget. Use Case. One friend lives in Delhi and another in London. They aspire to go for a vacation to a 3 rd city. So they put in the details of their ...

  23. GitHub

    TravelBugs will take the stress out of planning a group trip by allowing multiple users to interact and collaborate on planning their trip. Users can create a trip, invite their friends and start building the itinerary together. Users can explore the local area for activities, assign tasks to each other and create polls if they have trouble ...

  24. Oregon River Trip Planning Just Got Easier

    April 10, 2024. PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon river information is now more accessible than ever on the National Rivers Project's recreational river map. In collaboration with the Bureau of Land Management, the River Management Society recently added or updated over 1,000 miles of Oregon rivers to the NRP website.

  25. Project 2025

    Project 2025 (officially the Presidential Transition Project) is a collection of policy proposals to reshape the executive branch of the U.S. federal government at an unprecedented scale in the event of a Republican victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Established in 2022, the project seeks to recruit tens of thousands of conservatives to Washington, D.C., to replace existing ...

  26. Gov. Justice announces plans to ease congestion on WV 9 in Berkeley County

    MARTINSBURG, WV — Gov. Jim Justice today announced a 15-point improvement project to alleviate congestion along several sections of West Virginia Route 9. Growth in the Eastern Panhandle, and Berkeley County in particular, has led to congestion on WV 9 between Martinsburg and Hedgesville. The presence of multiple schools in the area, with more planned, has led to congestion at the beginning ...

  27. Is CERN activating the world's most powerful particle ...

    As people around the country await the April 8 total eclipse, conspiracy theories about a Switzerland-based nuclear research facility have some social media users on edge.

  28. trip-planning · GitHub Topics · GitHub

    To associate your repository with the trip-planning topic, visit your repo's landing page and select "manage topics." GitHub is where people build software. More than 100 million people use GitHub to discover, fork, and contribute to over 420 million projects.

  29. Three Leaf wins final approval for 267-unit housing project in Hartland

    Three Leaf's plan for the project, designed by Milwaukee's JLA Architects, centers around a tree-lined boulevard off Capitol Drive. There will be 27 townhouse-style units and 240 units in two ...

  30. $550 million Kansas City flood project enters its last phase

    The project there was one of 20 at various spots along the 17-mile stretch in a single day. ... Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce planning luxury trip to Coachella music fest, reports say