Unless you’re going on an organised trip you probably need to do some planning of your own. You’ll need a place to stay, restaurants to eat at and activities to do. And then you’ll also need to find out how to get to those places. Nearly impossible to plan all of these things in advance, so you will be planning your trip while on the road. In this post we outline everything we use to plan our trip around the world.
Tools we use to plan our trip together
We’re traveling as a couple so it’s important that both of us have input and are aware of the plan and ideas for the trip. In our case, I’m the one that likes planning these things, but all the tools we use are easily accessible by the both of us.
An overview of our most commonly used tools/apps/websites:
Asana
Asana is basically a project management tool with a big focus on collaboration. This makes it a great tool for planning a trip together. A country we’ll be visiting is a project and tasks can be anything from flights we have to catch (with a due date and time) to restaurants we want to try and recommendations from other travellers we’ve met. Use the description field for any other information you want to add like flight numbers, opening hours, prices or signature dishes.
You can use Asana in a lot of different ways, so just find one that works for you. There’s an accompanying app as well, which is great when you’re on the go. The only real downside: there is no offline mode (for now). This can be a bit tricky, especially for travellers.
Google My Maps
Even better than a list of the places you want to visit? A map of the places you want to visit!
Google My Maps allows you to pin all the places you want to go to (accommodation, restaurants, sights, …) and give them a nice little icon on your own private (or shared!) map. You can even add a little description with some more information.
The best part is that these maps you’ve created can then be displayed in the Google Maps app on your phone. Perfect for navigating around.
Google Sheets
A great collaborative alternative to Excel. You can use it for budgeting, tracking expenses and plenty of other things. If something involves numbers, Google Sheets might be useful!
Travelfish
If you’re going to Southeast Asia, do check out Travelfish. It’s an online travel guide that focusses on that specific region and is perfect for inspiration, accommodation, restaurants, activities and more.
Other
Other well known apps and websites we frequently use on the road: TripAdvisor and Foursquare for their user reviews of different places and Agoda and Hostelworld for finding accommodation.
How we use these tools while planning our trip on the road
Keeping track of our Bucket List
Whenever we read about something interesting on a blog or find some inspiration on Pinterest, we add it to Asana. We have a project for every country on our trip and also a “Next Trip Ideas” one. If it’s a blog post or website we usually add a link in the description, allowing us to get back to it later.
When it’s time to start the actual planning for that country we’ve got a nice little bucket list of ideas we can plan around. Once we’ve visited the place, seen the sight or eaten at that restaurant we can mark the task as complete!
Traveling to a new country
There are a few things you need to get in order before traveling to a new country. We’ve only visited Southeast Asian countries up until now, so Travelfish was the perfect first stop for learning about the Visa requirements and other general information. If there were any todos (like applying for a visa or making sure to have the right amount of US dollars before departure) they would go into Asana.
Remember the downside of Asana though? No offline mode. Very annoying when you want to look up details for your next flight when filling out the arrival and departure forms on the plane or when you want to give the address of your hostel to your airport taxi driver. Make sure to write these down or store them in an offline notes app before you leave.
Finding a place to stay
While it’s definitely possible to just arrive and find a place for the night (we’ve done it once or twice), we prefer the peace of mind of having a place to stay before we get somewhere. Most of the time we use Agoda and Hostelworld to look for places that are available in our price range and then check the reviews on Travelfish and TripAdvisor.
You should take some user reviews with a grain of salt, but overall they are a good indicator of what you can expect. Up until now we’ve only had a few disappointments with our accommodation, so this method seems to work for us.
Getting around in foreign places
Getting around is obviously the terrain of Google Maps. As long as you have a mobile connection (and battery power!) you can’t really get lost. It even allows you to download certain areas for offline usage. In combination with the Google My Maps pins we’ve created before this is the perfect app for getting around.
Where to eat and what to do
The best way to find great restaurants or fun things to do? Get recommendations from your fellow travellers! If that’s not an option, both TripAdvisor and Foursquare have great apps that allow you to display restaurants and activities close to you. Take a quick peek through the user reviews (remember your grain of salt) and take your pick!
Planning your trip while on the road is often fun but don’t fall into the trap of having everything set in stone. Sometimes just forget about your plans and go along when someone proposes something or check out a restaurant that looks great without feeling the urge to check your apps first. You’ll never know what you find!
Jullie blijven ons verwonderen … xx