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Trip Planner AI is your ultimate companion for any travel scenario. Whether it's a solo adventure, a family vacation, or a group expedition, our app tailors every aspect of your journey. Experience the convenience of:

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Discover free itinerary templates from Adobe Express.

Adobe Express offers professionally designed itinerary templates to give you a good foundation for building your next itinerary. The Adobe Express intuitive interface is a breeze to navigate, allowing you to format your itinerary in whatever way best serves your needs. Play around with color themes, font styles, personal branding, and imagery. Adobe Express saves your design so you can edit it on the go. Begin your journey with our guide below.

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Template IDs

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Orientation

(Horizontal/Vertical)

( Full, Std, sixcols )

(number of templates to load each pagination. Min. 5)

Most Viewed

Rare & Original

Newest to Oldest

Oldest to Newest

(true, false, all) true or false will limit to premium only or free only.

Colorful Gradient Framed Star Weekend Itinerary Planner

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How to make an itinerary.

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Itinerary templates from Adobe Express make the design process easy.

Adobe Express puts you in the creative hot seat without the need to read huge instruction manuals first. Explore our itinerary templates as you're gearing up for your next adventure and build out your itinerary every step of the way as you plan. Adobe Express makes it easy to access your itinerary wherever you need it so you can stay organized and on time.

create travel itinerary

Let Adobe Express be your itinerary design expert.

Explore professionally designed templates to get your wheels spinning or create your itinerary from scratch. Establish a theme for your designs using photos, icons, logos, personalized fonts, and other customizable elements to make them feel entirely authentic. With Adobe Express, it's free and easy to make, save, and share your designs within minutes.

Plan a perfect holiday in seconds.

Are you tired of spending hours trying to organize your travel plans? Create a travel planner that simplifies your trip and helps you focus on what truly matters. Adobe Express itinerary maker allows you to effortlessly create an itinerary that helps you plan every detail of your trip for free in one place. Whether you are a seasoned traveler or embarking on your first trip, with Adobe Express itinerary maker, you can stay right on schedule between your activities and destinations.

What activities should you do at what time? Should you consider accommodation and transportation? Create an itinerary that helps you stay organized and keep track of your daily activities with Adobe Express itinerary maker. Upload maps, photos, and notes to your itinerary using Adobe Express drag-and-drop tool to ensure you never miss a beat during your travels.

Create a stunning itinerary design as you like.

Want to go on a solo adventure or plan a group trip? Are you considering a weekend getaway or a month-long adventure? Adobe Express itinerary maker allows you to customize every detail of your itinerary design as you like. Use the drop-and-drag tool to upload your own photos, or choose Adobe Express professionally-made templates and customize the colors to match your travel theme.

Love colorful designs? Add stickers or use a colorful palate to make your itinerary design pop. Once your itinerary design is ready, simply download the file in PDF, JPG, or PNG format and share it with loved ones. Adobe Express enables you to create an itinerary as you like, without any design skills required.

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  • Planning Travel

How to Create a Travel Itinerary

Last Updated: February 4, 2024 References

This article was co-authored by Allyson Edwards . Allyson Edwards graduated from Stanford University with a BA in International Relations. Afterwards, she went on to facilitate International partnerships with agencies in over twenty countries, and has consulted for companies in industries across education, fintech, and retail. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 260,427 times.

A travel itinerary outlines all elements of a trip, from hotel stops to destinations. It can be indispensable, whether you’re planning a weekend vacation or an extended road trip. A good itinerary gives a trip structure, and maximizes the amount you’ll be able to see and do. Though it seems a daunting task, an itinerary is simple to develop. With your basic travel information and a map, you can plan an entire trip out in an efficient and organized manner.

Organizing Your Itinerary

Step 1 Record your information.

  • If you prefer, you can use an online travel itinerary template. This will give you a basic set-up, so all you have to do is fill in the blanks.
  • You may also consider downloading a travel app to keep organized during your trip. [1] X Research source

Step 3 Keep a hard-copy.

  • Keep your page dividers labeled. If they have tabs on them, write the category name on the tab in clear, legible writing.
  • Another alternative is a multi-pocket folder or a multi-section accordion folder.

Step 4 Create a database.

  • If you are traveling out of the country, include the address, telephone number, and directions to your country's embassy or consulate if applicable.
  • You may want to save a list of addresses of family and friends, so you can send them postcards from the destinations you will visit.

Step 5 Account for your responsibilities.

  • If you can't find someone to come over and feed your pets, see if they can stay at a friend's house or in a pet boarding home.
  • If someone can't come over to water your plants, consider lending them to a friend or neighbor for a week.

Planning and Mapping Your Itinerary

Step 1 Make a list.

  • Be conscious of the amount of time you will spend at each stop. Certain destinations, like the Museum of Modern Art, can be an all-day endeavor.
  • If you’re traveling with one or more people, be sure to get feedback and ideas for your destinations.

Step 2 Map your stops.

  • Be sure you have local maps for the areas you will be exploring. It is also helpful to obtain schedules for bus and train services and numbers for local taxis.
  • Make sure that the maps are up-to-date. Cities and other areas change often. A road that existed 10 years ago may no longer exist today.

Step 3 Create a budget.

  • A spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel can help create an organized and portable budget and itinerary. [4] X Research source
  • Alternatively, consider using a budgeting app or website. The downside is that this may not be as portable, especially if you don't have Wi-Fi access.

Step 4 Collect the important information for your trip.

  • If you will be using airport transportation to get to your hotel, include information about fees and hours of operation.

Step 5 Stay flexible.

  • Consider having some back-up plans. For example, if you make a reservation, have a few other places to eat at in mind, just in case you miss it.
  • Never lose sight of the fact that your trip is supposed to be an enjoyable and fulfilling experience.

5 Day Travel Itinerary Template

create travel itinerary

Community Q&A

Community Answer

  • Use guidebooks, online travel sights, and tourist message boards to gather information about the sights and activities on your list. Lonely Planet [5] X Research source , Rough Guides [6] X Research source , and Trip Advisor [7] X Research source are all good resources. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
  • It helps to research local holidays, festivals, and the weather to determine how one (or all) of these situations may impact the availability of transportation and hours of operations for businesses. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 1
  • You may also want to include directions to your hotel, the car rental company you are using as well as directions to the airport for your return flight. If you will be using airport transportation to get to your hotel, include information about fees and hours of operation. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 1

create travel itinerary

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Plan a Vacation

  • ↑ http://lifehacker.com/five-best-travel-planning-apps-1470002139
  • ↑ http://www.independenttraveler.com/travel-tips/troubleshooting/how-to-create-the-perfect-itinerary
  • ↑ http://traveltips.usatoday.com/plan-travel-itinerary-27657.html
  • ↑ http://www.seat61.com/spreadsheet.htm
  • ↑ http://www.lonelyplanet.com/
  • ↑ https://www.roughguides.com/
  • ↑ https://www.tripadvisor.com

About This Article

Allyson Edwards

If you want to create a travel itinerary, first gather your flight numbers, hotel and car rental details, and any restaurant reservations you’ve made. Once you have the broad outlines of your comings and goings, make a list of everything you want to see and do. You can then figure out how and when to fit everything into your vacation days. Try to map your stops sequentially so you don’t waste time doubling back or driving around in circles. Just remember to build in a couple of free days to explore a little-known local treasure or put your tired feet up! For tips on how to organize your itinerary and why to keep it on paper as well as in the cloud, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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create travel itinerary

How to Write a Travel Itinerary (Template and Tips)

Being able to write a good itinerary is a powerful tool in the travel industry. A travel itinerary isn’t just a list of things to do. It’s a stop-by-stop break down of how a traveler should spend their time.

Whether you’re a travel agent, blogger, content writer, or anything in between, itineraries are fundamental.

Creating effective itineraries is also a valuable skill if you’re a traveler. If you can craft a compelling trip plan, you’re in for a holiday that will show you and your loved ones an amazing time.

Why take our advice? We’re highly experienced in the itinerary game. 🙂 The Travel Tractions content team has crafted over 500,000 words worth of travel itineraries in the last 3 months alone.

We know our stuff, and we’re here to share it with you. The following is a detailed guide on how to make a travel itinerary.

Travel Itinerary Template

A travel book on a table surrounded by other travel related items

An itinerary will pretty much always be broken down into days (unless it’s a 24-hour itinerary). Each day is further broken down into individual stops , which are typically the recommended points of interest and attractions.

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The days and stops are the meat of the itinerary, but most itineraries will be supplemented with additional information to further help the reader.

Have a look at how we added a practical packing list in this 3 day London itinerary .

We recommend structuring your vacation itinerary in a similar way to the following:

Introduction

A sandy peninsula in the maldives surrounded by crystal blue water

Every good blog post needs an introduction. For your itinerary, this will be a brief overview of the destination and why it’s an attractive place to visit. Sell the itinerary here. Give the reader a good reason to stay engaged and continue reading.

Brief Overview

Offer a bullet-pointed breakdown of the itinerary, outlining the stops. This allows the reader to understand if it’s right for them before reading in full.

Day 1, etc.

Laptop on a table surrounded by magazines

This is where you lay out the stops for each day. Give some insightful and interesting information about each stop.

The aim here is to get them excited about what you’re suggesting / offering. Don’t overwhelm them with information, just whet their appetite.

Make each stop a heading, and include useful information such as opening hours, cost, and which kind of traveler is best catered for here. You can add must-visit food stops as well, or simply leave that choice up to the reader.

Check out how we helped our readers organize a 7-day trip to Bali .

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Other Useful Information

Girl standing in front of an airport flight schedule

In this section, offer some extra information that will help the user get the most out of their experience. Some things you can add include:

  • Tell the reader a bit about how to get around, transport options, and things to be prepared for.
  • Discuss the best places to stay and suggest a few options for accommodation that you know are great.
  • Make some restaurant recommendations and mention any other foodie stops that haven’t made it into your itinerary stops.
  • Include a packing list if you feel it’s an important aspect (or write a separate packing list post and take advantage of some internal linking).

Hot air balloons at sunset in Bagan

This section exists to help close the itinerary in a satisfying way. Offer a brief summary and some final thoughts. Reaffirm the reasons why the destination is attractive, and why your itinerary is the best on offer.

Important Considerations for Writing an Itinerary

So, now you’ve got the outline for a successful itinerary. But you’ll need to fill this skeleton with high-quality content in order to produce something valuable. Taking into account the following considerations and tips will help you do so.

Decide the Length of the Itinerary

Before writing anything, you’ll need to decide the length of your itinerary. Are you offering an itinerary for three days? five days? one week?

The best option will largely depend on the size of the destination and how much it offers in terms of things to do. For example, most travelers will probably spend at least a week in Bali but perhaps just two or three days in Amsterdam.

This can generally be determined with some logical thinking or past experience. But a bit of keyword research can really help uncover what your audience is truly looking for.

If you already have an idea of what you’d like the reader to see and do, you can base the length of the trip on the time it’ll take them to see it all.

Decide on the Stops & Attractions

Map on a table surrounded by a laptop and cameras. Two people sat around it.

Once you’ve decided on a number of days, you’ll need to figure out how the reader should fill their time.

Ask yourself questions like:

  • What are the most popular landmarks, attractions, and points of interest?
  • What will offer the most memorable experience?
  • Are there any unheard of spots that will enrich the experience and make it unique?

Deciding on the stops can be done through a combination of experience, prior knowledge, and research.

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What’s Achievable?

How much can the reader realistically fit in the time allotted? We know it’s easy to get excited about all the amazing things that a travel destination has to offer. But it’s important to keep it realistic.

The last thing you want is to over-promise on what can be achieved during a trip, only to leave the reader rushing from one attraction to the next without time to appreciate each one. They could even end up abandoning the itinerary altogether.

Plan Out Logical Routes

A person holding a map

It’s very important that you consider the geography of the destination when structuring an itinerary. You need to plan out logical routes between stops in order to minimize travel and maximize efficiency. If two or more attractions are close to one another geographically, it only makes sense to visit them at the same time.

Use your knowledge of the area in combination with Google Maps to plot out a route for each day’s itinerary.

Offer Insider Tips

Try to offer unique insights and ideas, insider tips, and some off-the-beaten-track gems.

The reader wants to know that they’re in reliable and experienced hands. Unique and valuable guidance will also help your itinerary stand out against those offering more generic advice.

You can provide these at any point throughout the itinerary. Wherever they fit best.

Be Specific and Unambiguous

A beach with palm trees and dramatic sky in the background

Itineraries provide insightful guidance to those who want to be guided. To those who want their trip to be planned for them.

Therefore, it is your job to guide them fully . Don’t offer too much in the way of flexibility. Display conviction in your chosen stops. Show confidence that if they follow your itinerary to a T, they’ll have a great time.

Include Captivating Images

Macbook, Nikon camera, and iPhone sitting on a rustic desk

High-quality images transport the reader to the destination before they’ve left their seats. They’re one of the strongest mediums for generating excitement and anticipation for an upcoming trip. They also help break up long blocks of text.

Including images frequently is a great way to keep your reader’s attention and enhance their experience.

You can use images from your own trip, or curate some top-notch stock images .

Implement SEO

Data-focused, strategic SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) underpins all of our content. And if your itinerary is being written for the web, it should underpin yours too. Good SEO can help ensure that your itinerary is seen by as many people as possible. And if you’re in the travel business, getting your travel material seen should be a top priority.

Call to action that reads: Looking to increase your traffic? View our content strategy packages here

Final Thoughts

Luggage with a scarf sitting against a brick wall

If you were wondering how to write an itinerary, you landed in the right place. We hope this trip itinerary template helps you craft well-rounded, engaging, and realistic itineraries that leave readers delighted.

Matt G Davison

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Plan Your Trip · Travel Like a Pro

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Organise your trips the easy way with Travaa!

Travel itinerary planner

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No more struggling with Word docs, spreadsheets and Google Maps to plan a trip.

With the Travaa planning website you have one simple tool, to organise your travel.

Create a new trip or start with a ready made itinerary . Add activities and accomodation. Drag-and-drop these around your daily schedule.

Print, publish and share!

Take your Travaa itineraries with you on the road using the Travaa viewer app*. You'll never be lost.

phone app screenshot trips

It all starts with the travel itinerary

As independent travellers or guides, we generally like to have a plan or list of things to see and do. When this travel plan starts to have timings and details, we call it a travel itinerary.

When travelling, having a good travel itinerary is a real stress and time saver. You have a guide for what to do and where to go.

Be present and enjoy the moments in your new surroundings. There is no need to keep figuring out what to do, or where to go next - that's all been sorted. Have no regrets later on, you know that your have covered all (or most) of the must do places. You haven't missed anything.

Having a planned itinerary is the road map to having an efficient route - no energy and time wasted back tracking or circling around.

illustration of Hong Kong

Which of the following describes you?

I'm looking for a tool to create and store / share travel itineraries.

I have been doing research. I have places to be and restaurants in mind. I need to get these organized. I might like plan the trip along with the other members of the party. I think using a text editor, spreadsheets and/or Google Maps is an overkill and messy. Hmmnn, what about tallying costs and more?

There is a much easier way.

Use this Travaa itinerary planner website . A tool to automatically retrieve location details (photos, addresses, etc.), pin markers to a map and drag-and-drop activity cards around your day-by-day timeline.

Work with a large map (which expands to full-screen too!) to visually organize your trip. Having the main costs in place, all can all get a feel of the budget for this trip.

Enjoy growing your trip plan to hundreds of places; quickly and still be on top of all the places and activities.

I'm looking for travel itineraries

Clone a travel plan that someone else has already painstakingly prepared, updated and shared. You can find a variety of these under Itinerararies .

Change it fit your plans and go.

Feel free to share your own plan back on the Itineraries section for others to use after you get back!

Product Details

Planner website.

  • Online travel itinerary planner (works best on desktop browsers)
  • Start from a blank canvas; or use an itinerary from the marketplace; or import your itinerary from TripIt
  • Drag in the world's best places to visit or add your own places to visit and things to do via activity "cards"; drag-and-drop cards around your timeline
  • Any card is fully editable; enter off the beaten path places; pin your own spots on the map
  • Photos and detailed information provided for known places
  • Large resizable map display provides plenty of landscape, aerial and street views around places of interest
  • Print out a professional looking PDF (or paper copies) of your plan
  • Publish your travel plan online with just 2-clicks
  • Share your trip with other party members, plan along on the same view, live in real time!

Mobile viewer app

  • View your itineraries offline
  • Much better than a printout or PDF
  • Download your itineraries by "pulling down"
  • Uses phone GPS to show your real time location on your trip map
  • Tap location marker on map to bring up Google/Apple Maps Directions to that location
  • Open activity websites and phone places directly from the app
  • Be where you plan to be and never be lost again!

Itineraries Collection

  • Ready-made travel itinerary templates
  • Hand created by other users, experts or guides
  • Copy and make it your own.
  • Skip planning altogether; just make bookings and go!
  • Details see Itinerararies

Price Plans

Sign ups start with the Free plan. All features are unlocked. As you create more activities or add more trips, switch to a higher plan at any time.

Share and plan trips with friends and family on any plan. Limits for a trip are tied to the plan of the person who created the trip.

  • Trip Planner

Trip Planner | Travel Itinerary Planner | Plan a Trip

Are you looking for an itinerary planner to plan your next trip? We know creating a customized travel itinerary manually is an overwhelming task. You have to put a lot of time into selecting destinations, booking hotels, flights, and comparing prices. On top of that calculating budgets & booking hotels and flights is another challenge that makes itinerary planning tough.

But what if all of this is done within a few minutes for you? Yes with TripHobo trip planner you can do this smartly. We have observed that many travelers end up spending more time in researching information than enjoying the actual trip. Not only first-time travelers but also experienced travelers struggle in creating perfect travel plans.

Even though it is a tedious task to create a customized itinerary, everyone agrees on the importance of itinerary for an enjoyable holiday. So Triphobo came up with this easy to use automatic itinerary planner.

How Trip Planner Works / Steps to Plan a Trip

Do you want to create your travel itinerary quickly & easily? Are you ready to use this tool now? TripHobo's trip planner plays a major role to ease the itinerary creation process and helps you overcome the pain in the trip planning .  Follow these 4 simple steps to plan a trip & let us know your experience.

1) Choose Your Destination & Dates when you want to travel

Visual algorithmic trip planner lets you choose destinations you want to travel to. You have the freedom to choose the real dates from the calendar. After selecting travel dates, planner runs algorithms to optimize a trip. It starts suggesting activities, sightseeing spots, tours and transport options with the details. For every attraction, it suggests open/close timings, time to spend, and nearby restaurants.

You can drag & drop activities and complete your itinerary within a matter of minutes. You can book yourself a nice vacation once you are sure of all the details, making you plan your trip very easily.

2) Refer to User Created Itineraries

If you have a lot of travel ideas but confused about where to start? Don't worry. Thousands of other people have visited the same destination before and created itineraries with us. Choose from a pool of more than 1 million user-generated itineraries around the globe. You can view other travelers’ itineraries for any location and duration to inspire yourself and then customize them to suit your own preferences.

3) Book Hotels and Flights

TripHobo always tries to offer the best from the travel industry to our valued planners. It has formed alliances with Expedia , Skyscanner, Zomato and Booking.com. Its ratings and reviews come courtesy of TripAdvisor whereas Google (as well as other partners) powers its location data.

TripHobo aims to cater to travelers at every stage of the travel planning process. It provides one platform to create personalized itineraries and hassle-free bookings .

4) Get Ready with a Perfect Itinerary

Once you’ve created your customized itinerary, you can print it. Save your plan for future reference or share it with your friends. When you’re ready, you can finalize and have a perfect travel itinerary ready.

Why Is TripHobo a Smart Trip planner?

There are few things included in the Triphobo planner algorithm & app which builds itinerary within minutes.

  • A free virtual map-based trip planner with a smart algorithm
  • International trip planner with about 1,50,000 popular destinations
  • The largest repository of user-generated itineraries
  • Hassle-free booking options for hotels, tours & flights
  • Provides local transit options like metro, rail, bus, and car
  • Calculates an estimated budget
  • Provides options to save, print and share itinerary
  • Strategic Partnerships with leading travel companies

TripHobo: Around the Web

  • Trip of Your Own
  • Traveling made easier with TripHobo
  • Making The Southeast Asian Travel Connection
  • Ex-HCL employee’s led ‘TripHobo’ is on a mission to become a global brand – a goto place for travel planning!
  • Interview: Praveen Kumar, Founder & CEO of TripHobo
  • TripHobo inks partnership with Zomato
  • How a trip planning startup can succeed
  • Karthik Ramachandram Co-Founder COO, TripHobo - Phocuswright Conference

Here's what travelers have to say about our travel planner

  • Excellent 238

user-avatar

Great and genuinely wonderful website that makes a proper vacation plan simple, like it should. All reviews are 5 stars. The only suggestion I have to enhance this fantastic website is to include a mobile application. Even paying for a version without ads wouldn't bother me.

Every traveller should use this!

So much easier & more helpful than a travel agency, given lots of fantastic ideas, and was extremely helpful for planning the trip. Would strongly advise my family and friends to use this!

Great tool for trip planning. Impportantly it's free and automatically tailors travel plans to your preferences and is completely customisable. The integration with skyscanner and booking.com, and other OTA like priceline and expedia makes it very easy to plan the whole trip along with the bookings in one place.

Are you a travel agent or tour operator ?

We built something just for you., travel itinerary builder.

Use Travefy’s online itinerary builder to make your own custom itinerary template for travel.

  • Create detailed, mobile friendly itineraries in minutes
  • Add places, links and more
  • Share trip plans with your group

Start Free Trial

Mobile Travel Itinerary Builder - Trip Planner Scheduler

Customize & Add Details

It’s easy to add places & notes in a snap.

Save trip ideas.

Search 7+ million restaurants & activities, and over 1 million hotels and vacation rentals.

Access your itinerary on your phone.

Take It With You

Travefy is fully mobile friendly with no apps to download.

Easily share your itinerary with others.

Invite friends to help plan trips or share your travel plans with others.

Need help building a custom travel itinerary?

I need help making an itinerary for a trip • how to make a trip itinerary • how do i make a vacation itinerary calendar • how do i keep all of my travel details in one place • build a travel itinerary online, travefy can help you create a custom travel itinerary with all your trip details in one place..

Build a custom travel itinerary for free

Online Itinerary Creator

Travefy’s online itinerary creator makes it easy and fast to build a custom trip itinerary with all your trip details. It’s an itinerary maker app without any apps to download! Travefy starts you with a vacation itinerary template and you customize by adding all of your trips details including your hotel reservations, flight booking details, restaurants, activities, and more.

It can be time consuming trying to assemble your trip details with a Microsoft Word itinerary template, an Excel travel itinerary template or a Google doc itinerary template. Travefy goes further in giving you a tailored interface to make it easy to add the exact travel details for your trip and be done fast in just a few minutes.

Make Your Own Custom Travel Itinerary Online With Travefy

Travefy’s travel itinerary planner online tool is the easiest way to build and share your travel plans. You can plan out every step of your trip with Travefy’s itinerary maker app—and no apps to download. Of course you can add your hotel stay or your flight information, but did you know you can also search and add to your itinerary restaurants, activities, vacation rentals and deals? You can even invite friends and travel mates to collaborate and build your mobile-friendly trip itinerary together.

Beautiful, modern hotel room day spa deals

Add A Hotel Reservations To Your Trip Plans

Search for hotels that fit your trip needs and preferences and add them to your itinerary. Already booked your hotel? No problem. You can add your hotel to your multi-day travel itinerary template super fast.

Flight Deals Travel Itinerary Plan

Add A Flight To Your Travel Itinerary

Add your flights, details and destination airports with a few taps and clicks. You can search for flights on Travefy and add them to your itinerary, or just simply copy/paste your flight details on to your flight itinerary template in seconds.

Restaurant ideas - Where to eat at my trip destination?

Add Restaurants To Your Mobile-Friendly Itinerary

Your trip is not complete without finding great restaurants to enjoy while traveling. With Travefy you just search for restaurants or specific tastes you’re looking for. Already know what restaurants you’re going to at your destination? Just add restaurants directly to your itinerary with the “Add a Place” button.

Famous National and World Landmark Ideas and Activities - Trip Planner Help

Add Activities, Places & Landmarks to Your Detailed Travel Itinerary

Looking for a great beach, music venue or sight seeing landmark? Travefy has 7+ million places around the world to add trip ideas to create your custom travel itinerary. You can search for specific types of places and entertainment for your trip, or just type the name of the place in the “Add a place” field to add a place or landmark to your custom travel itinerary.

Free Wedding Itinerary Maker and Sharer App

Wedding Itinerary Maker

You can even create beautiful, awesome itineraries for your wedding day or destination wedding travel plans. Add specific times, places, hotels and travel information to your custom mobile-friendly wedding itinerary.

Group Travel & Family Trips - Trip Planner Help

Travefy is perfect for small trips and group trips.

Creating a custom travel itinerary with Travefy’s itinerary template and vacation itinerary template is perfect for student associations, college trips, spring break trips . A custom trip itinerary built with Travefy is especially useful for sharing travel and event details with friends and family for destination weddings, bachelor parties and bachelorette parties .

create travel itinerary

Bucket List Journey | Travel + Lifestyle Blog

How to Make a Travel Itinerary: Create the Best One for Your Trip

There is something to be said for aimlessly roaming the streets of an energetic city popping into quaint cafes and talking to the locals, not knowing what you will find.

Though when there’s a limited amount of time, I also don’t want to leave seeing something perfect for the bucket list totally by chance. What if I missed the Skyline Trail hike along the Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia ? Or the stunning Piaynemo view in Raja Ampat ?

I always create a travel itinerary.

In order to make sure I don’t miss any amazing bucket list experiences while exploring a new destination, I always create a loose itinerary that leaves room for unexpected opportunity, like exploring the alleyways along the backstreets of Tokyo .

When I make my travel itinerary strict, it causes me anxiety, but it also can waste precious time when you don’t have a plan. I never want to be spending hours in my hotel room trying to figure out what to do for the day, when I can actually be out there doing it!

create travel itinerary

Here’s how I organize an itinerary:

How to Store your Travel Itinerary

In the beginning of my travel career, I spent a couple months creating a London itinerary , not wanting to miss a thing. I purchased an expensive map and spent hours putting little numbered stickies on all the places to be visited. These numbers coordinated with an Excel spreadsheet that listed the attractions by name along with other essential information.

It was foolproof-so I thought.

create travel itinerary

On day one, while walking to Abbey Road , the map fell out of my purse and was gone. Countless hours of planning were down the drain in a matter of minutes. Since then I have never bought a paper map, (especially since almost every airport and hotel has a free one you can pick up when you arrive).

Instead, I create and store all my itineraries with the Evernote app . The app can keep maps, photos and links to important websites that can be accessed on any of my devices. You can also set up an offline notebook in order to see your notes without Internet access, but keep in mind that you will need Wi-Fi to access any links.

You could also use the Notes app on Apple products (though it does not have as many bells & whistles as Evernote) or Microsoft OneNote , which is Evernote’s main competitor.

create travel itinerary

Do Your Research

If you want to get the most out of your experience, you need to know what you want to do and what will make the ultimate travel venture for you. Are you fascinated by a town’s history, culture or food? Do you want your trip to just be about crazy adventures and a city’s vibrant nightlife? Answering these questions means that you need to do some research for the area you are visiting.

Prior to traveling anywhere I do an online search of “unique things to do in XYZ”, “traditional foods of XYZ” and “best restaurant in XYZ”. I then scroll through dozens of the result sites quickly, making a list in Evernote of all the things that even slightly interest me. It is important to get past the first few pages of the Google results to find more personal stories and blogs, instead of large generic sites that can give you only a touristy perspective.

If the city or country’s Tourism Board website does not come up within the search results, I always check their site for recommendations. I may also see if Netflix has any documentaries on the destination that can be rented, plus browse a few travel guides at the bookstore.

Another good idea is to search a tour website, like Get Your Guide for what sorts of experiences they offer in your travel destination.

After there is a rough list, more elaborate research is done on each attraction and restaurant to determine what will be kept on the itinerary versus what will be deleted. Keep in mind that you can’t see and do it all, so put an asterisk by the items that are absolute must-dos.

create travel itinerary

Divide a City into Sections

Many large cities will be split up in districts, like Paris with its arrondissements or the London boroughs. Look at an online map and determine the sections of a city you are traveling to. Create a header in Evernote for each district; if a town doesn’t have sections, it can be zoned into four quadrants (NE, NW, SE, SW). If your travels will be through several small villages, your headers can just be the name of the village.

Start taking the items from your master list and placing them in the sections that they are located in. This will make planning your day easier when you know what area you will be headed to and all the things you can do there.

Tip: You can create a Google Map with pins in all the locations you want to visit for the day, then add it to your Evernote file.

create travel itinerary

Create a Calendar

Make a calendar for each day of your vacation. You can either do this in a simple list format or create a table. Take a look at your “things to do” list, there are bound to be certain attractions/events that have to be done on specific days due to limited open hours or reservation availability, so put those on the calendar first under the appropriate day and time.

If there are free hours on that specific date, then add anything that is in that same district to it, starting with the important items that have an asterisk next to them. Don’t put specific times on these other entries just squeeze as many as you can in before or after you scheduled event. This way you will have plenty of options on what to in the district that you will be in without having to be strict about the time.

create travel itinerary

Leave Room for Opportunity & Be Realistic

Even when I am in a location trying to make a tick off the bucket list I create loose itineraries, ones that leave room for unexpected opportunities, because a bucket list is just as much about the journey as it is the checkmark.

There are always times while exploring a city that something incredible sidetracks you, and if you are scheduled with events back to back you may have to miss out. Of course you’re going to want to see and do everything on your trip, but also be realistic.

create travel itinerary

Don’t expect to land in Europe, after twelve hours of travel and hit the ground running jam-packing your itinerary from sun up to down. Leave room for meals, sleep, jetlag and rest. Plus expect a few hiccups along the way; flights can be delayed, restaurants can lose reservations and an attraction may pale in comparison in person to the photographs on the Internet.

In the Bahamas our tour guide forgot to pick us up at the hotel, it rained for 24 hours straight and the buggy we rented got a flat tire in the first half hour. Yes, it changed our itinerary a bit, but instead of the original plan we met a lovely Bahamian couple that graciously drove us to the local fish fry where we ate cracked conch and drank bottles of Kalik beer.

Sometimes the unexpected is the most memorable part of the journey.

create travel itinerary

Don’t Forget the Extras

Add your flight numbers, hotel addresses, maps, etc. to your itinerary file for easy access. All my itineraries include this information, plus the currency exchange rate (so I know how much 1 US dollar is worth in the country). It is much easier to look at one file then have to scroll through dozens of emails or check different apps to find what I am looking for.

Note: This should not be a substitute for keeping all that information stored in emails or printed copies of confirmations just in case.

This and a lot more traveling tips can be found in my book Bucket List Adventures .

Happy Traveling!

create travel itinerary

This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through my links, I earn a commission that helps to keep this blog running—at no extra cost to you. For more information read my full disclosure .

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29 thoughts on “How to Make a Travel Itinerary: Create the Best One for Your Trip”

How do you decide how long you will stay somewhere? We are looking to book our first trip to Europ and hope to visit Paris and London. Thinking 5 full days at each but don’t know how to determine that.

Typically, I will research everything I want to do before actually deciding on how long I will stay in a location. After I’ve compiled that list, I seperate the chosen adventures into the cities district and then I will put them all on a mock calendar to determine how much I can see and do on each day. This can determine how many days I need to be in a city, but it also depends on how much time I have to travel too. I think that an amazing overview of almost any city can be seen in 3-4 days. I did both Paris and London in 4. I didn’t get to see it all, but I also didn’t feel like I missed out on any of the monumental things. Five days will get you a lot of exploring in both those cities!

Wow! That kind of itinerary planning takes dedication. I do basic research when I go some place but I wish I can be as organized as you are :) I’ll give Evernote a try. Thanks for mentioning it.

I like my research!

Great article! This is also how I create our travel itineraries with the addition of doing a search for unique souvenirs to bring back home. It takes a lot of time and effort but it also gets you even more excited for the trip knowing what you’ll be seeing! Totally agree on having a loose itinerary – I over planned the first time we went to Europe and even made an itinerary of what paintings to see in museums :0 P.S. Absolutely love Evernote – I feel like my whole life is there :D

I totally over planned my first trip too! I love that you add what souvenirs to look for, that’s something I have never done, but may need to add.

Great article, very useful who love to travel.

Very nice article and photos you I love it thank you for sharing. Good luck

Great tips here–especially on how to use Evernote more effectively for planning! I usually just make a very unorganized list…no more!

I agree that whenever you are on travel always make an allowance to your itinerary. You don’t know along the road you might meet other travelers too that will be going to an interesting place.

I thought I had itinerary planning down, but after reading this, I’m realizing I’m still in the minor leagues! Love the tip about Netflix documentaries and leaving room in the itinerary for opportunity. I used to plan things so rigidly that it at times was very stressful. I’ve since tried to be more flexible and it has made all the difference. Thank you for sharing your trip planning strategies!

I used to be the same and plan very strict itineraries. And you are right—it’s way too stressful!

I wish I had that dedication to planning! Would love to do it step by step though. Gonna try the evernote app first!

Well thank you for those useful tips.

Thank you! It is an honor to be included on this list with this amazing group of customer service and experience experts and organizations. I promise to keep writing! Thank you again

Great blog and thanks for sharing nice facts.

Grateful information. So thank you for sharing.

This is a perfect article to read especially for a first-time traveler. Very informative, thanks a lot for sharing.

Thanks for the practical advice. A well prepared itinerary saves lot of time gets you most out of the journey.

Nice tips on how to store your travel itinerary!

I’m glad you enjoyed your trip to the Bahamas despite the hiccups. I’m from The Bahamas and I love living here

It was a great visit and I hope to return!

Wow. Thanks for the info. A useful article for anyone who wants to travel a lot!

Can you recommend train or bus links for travel in Europe? Specifically Italy, Greece. You have inspired by bucket list!

Thank you for highlighting your valuable words through this article

Thanks for the clearly laid out explanations, makes lots of sense. I do like allowing a bit of down time or for the unexpected too.

I found this review quite informative and helpful, I enjoyed it

Thank you for the information it helps a lot due to i love to travel on my down days, However it would be nice to have some kind of transportation included like a bus or some to make sure we get where we need to be.

This festivals looks an amazing at the first glance, a lot of countries’ respresentative. It should be on the bucket list of the travellers who want to experience cultures and traditions. I will try my best to be a part of this too.

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create travel itinerary

Hey Bucket Listers! I'm Annette .

I’m a goal obsessed mid-lifer, traveler, experience collector, fear crusher, digital marketer and author with big bucket list dreams. Let's Connect!

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create travel itinerary

A flexible platform for organizing your travel details. Gather plans, build itineraries, and share with others.

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Unlimited Flexible Planning

Start building an itinerary right away with or without specific dates or confirmation emails. Rearrange individual trip components or entire destinations with just a few clicks.

Generate Itineraries

Print out your itinerary or access it from a mobile device. Create different versions so you can compare options or limit what you share with others.

Automatic Timezone Adjustments

View your travel in actual elapsed time while the timeline automatically adjusts to local time as you move through different timezones.

Archive Your Trip

Revisit your trips to relive the memories or even just to recall a name of a favorite restaurant or hotel.

Finally! A flexible platform that helps you organize travel details, build itineraries, finalize plans and archive trips. No reservations necessary.

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Creating a trip has never been easier! Tripety is a travel planning platform that makes your trips convenient and hassle-free. Simply enter your travel details and places to visit into our  itinerary planner  to get a clear overview of your journey. Organize each day, use checklists to ensure nothing is forgotten, and keep essential documents all in one place. Also, you can manage and track your spending during your travel. Check out the itinerary maker to see how simple it is!

Want to coordinate travel plans with family, friends, or colleagues? Invite your friends or trip companions to Tripety for an easy way to discuss the details of your journey. Generate ideas or arrangements, track your spending, and use our group travel itinerary planner to explore new places together.

Is the process of planning your favorite part of the trip? Are you a detailed-oriented person who wants to use the  best business travel planner  or organize your family vacation tour? Then Tripety, an online trip management platform, is perfect for you! Dream, organize, share, manage your business and personal trips within our easy-to-use,  intuitive travel itinerary manager as your planner . It will keep all the needed information in one place and track everything, as it’s a flight tracker, road trip planner both in one.

Tripety helps manage and keep track of your finances before and during your journey. Monitor spending with the help of our convenient budget tool. See and manage your expenses ‘as you go’ to stay on top of your budget.

Planning a trip or vacation shouldn’t be tiresome and complicated. Easy to use, an intuitive and neat Travel Planning Platform that we created is for travelers like YOU! Tripety helps you compile, organize, and share your travel arrangements. Keep an eye on your travel budget while on vacation or business trip. We are trying to make your world a bit more colorful and a lot more relaxed. Tripety, add travel to your life!

Planning a trip can become quite challenging, especially when you have to go over many big and small details. The last thing you want is to run into problems while you’re away. This is why you must always plan all the details of your trip beforehand.

Thankfully, now you can use Tripety, a travel planner and itinerary maker, to plan each and every detail of your trip. From budgeting to group collaboration, we ensure that you have a smooth planning process. We also have an online road trip planner that’s sure to give you the hassle-free trip of your dreams.

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Plan Your Perfect Trip!

Planapple helps you create , organize , access and share all your vacation plans, what's planapple (watch this short video & see).

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How Planapple Simplifies Travel Planning

Organize ideas.

(Jotting a list of vacation ideas)

Collect your vacation ideas in an online trip notebook, and keep everything organized in one place.

Planapple is like a travel binder that organizes your vacation plans, with sections for where to stay, eat, play, and more.

That's where Planapple comes in. A web travel binder of sorts, Planapple helps you collect your ideas, possibilities, and plans — and saves them all in one place, organized and manageable.

Save things into your Planapple travel binder directly from sites like TripAdvisor, HomeAway, VRBO, Yahoo Travel, Yelp, and even email.

Planapple even creates a custom map tailored to your plans, so you can actually see which hotel is closest to your daily destinations!

Plan Together

(Friends giving the thumbs-up sign)

Discuss and decide your ideal itinerary with your tripmates.

Planapple helps you discuss things like which hotel to book

Planapple eliminates the communication challenges and email negotiations, making group planning far simpler.

Planapple's itinerary includes a day-by-day calendar, showing where you're staying, what you're doing, and even a countdown to your departure

And, as your burgeoning itinerary comes together, it's all captured in your Planapple binder for you and your tripmates to see, so no one misses out on one juicy detail.

Carry Your Plans

(Planapple smartphone app with your current trip to Hawaii)

Carry your plans on your mobile device —  or access them anywhere.

The Planapple mobile app, running on an iPhone, shows your travel plans grouped into categories like Lodging, Dining, Attractions, and Transportation

Planapple's mobile app puts your plans right in your pocket. Access your entire trip: itinerary, bookmarks, addresses, phone numbers, emails, even discussions with your co-travelers. (And Planapple can download it all to your phone before you go, avoiding scary international data charges.)

A woman lounging at a beach resort is checking her Planapple plans on her iPad

And, if you're a paper person, you can print your plans just as easily and take them anywhere you go. We get it.

Share With Friends

(Family and friends excited about your travels)

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A Broken Backpack

Complete Guide: How To Create A Memorable Travel Itinerary

by Melissa Giroux | Mar 12, 2023 | Travel Tips

Are you the kind of traveler who loves to plan ahead and make sure that every detail is in place before embarking on a journey? Well, if so, you’re going to love this guide!

We’ve designed this comprehensive guide for travelers looking to create an unforgettable travel itinerary . We’ll give you insider tips and tricks, plus we’ll share our own tried-and-tested methods for crafting a fantastic trip itinerary.

Whether it’s your first time traveling or your hundredth, planning a trip can be both exciting and daunting.

But don’t worry – with our helpful guide, even those pesky details will become second nature!

Let’s get started!

Trip itinerary in hand at the airport

What Is A Travel Itinerary?

A travel itinerary is a plan that outlines the places you want to visit while on your trip, along with a timeline of when and where you’ll be at each location.

It can also include other details such as transportation, accommodation, activities, and more.

Do You Need A Travel Itinerary?

Depending on your travel style, a travel itinerary can be incredibly helpful.

For those who like to make sure they know what’s coming next, an itinerary can help keep you organized while allowing room for spontaneity.

It also makes it easier to budget your trip and ensure you make the most of your time.

Finally, having an itinerary for a trip can be helpful, especially if you have a limited time frame and want to see as much as possible.

So if you’re a traveler who likes to plan ahead, an itinerary is a great tool to have on hand.

Airport window view

How To Write A Travel Itinerary

There are several ways to create a travel itinerary. Some people drop everything in a Google Doc or a spreadsheet, while others prefer to use a dedicated travel planning app.

Whatever you choose, the most important thing is that it works for you and helps you stay organized.

We’ve recently come across a new trip planner application called Roaming Duck. In this guide, we’ll also show you how to use it to make an itinerary, so keep reading to learn more.

Let’s dive right in!

Step 1: Research Your Destination

Before you start putting together your travel itinerary, it’s important to do some research on your destination.

For example, you can read our blog posts to learn more about your destination!

Look for the best time to visit before booking flights, and find out if you need a visa.

The idea is to pick a destination that aligns with your travel style and budget.

When researching your destination, you must know what to expect regarding budget, climate, culture, and more.

The better your understanding of the destination you’re traveling to, the smoother your journey will be!

Woman researching her destination

Step 2: Set Up A Budget

Now that you have some basic information about the destination, it’s time to set a budget.

Creating a travel budget is crucial for all types of trips, from short weekend getaways to extended backpacking trips.

Think about how much you’re willing to spend on flights, accommodation, food, transportation, and activities.

Be sure to factor in any incidentals, such as airport transfers or visas , that may be required.

Once you’ve set a budget, you can start planning your trip around it.

If you’re comfortable with money, you may not need to set up a budget.

However, you can still look at major expenses like flight, hotel, and activity prices to make sure you can afford them.

When setting up your travel budget, it’s a good time to think about the travel style you want.

Do you prefer luxury over affordability, or are you open to both?

Are you planning on exploring your destination by renting a car, or will you use public transportation?

Do you want to move fast between places, or do you prefer to relax?

The idea here is to have a travel style that reflects your budget.

Woman preparing budget for her travels

Step 3: Decide On Your Travel Dates

Now that you’ve chosen your destination and done some research, it’s time to decide on the dates of your trip.

How long are you planning on traveling? Is there anything to consider, like time difference or jet lag?

This is a key step because it will determine the overall structure of your itinerary.

If you’re flexible with dates, you may want to decide by looking at the high seasons and low seasons of the destination and when flights are cheaper.

Don’t forget to factor in any national holidays as well – you don’t want to miss out on the festivities!

Now, think of a travel pace that fits your travel style. Do you want to move fast or take it slow?

Once you have a general idea, sketch out the number of days you’ll spend in each destination.

This will be your basic itinerary timeline, which you can later use to plan out the activities for each day.

If you need extra help with this step, we suggest you make a list of all the places and things you wish to do and see how long it would take to do everything.

Then, keep it realistic by adding a couple of days, and this should give you a rough idea of how long you’ll need for your trip.

Holiday on a calendar

Step 4: Book Your Transportation

Next, you’ll need to book your transportation.

Are you flying? Taking a train or a ferry? Driving?

Check flights, trains, ferries, and buses for the best deals. You can use a comparison website to compare the prices and find the best deal available.

Once you’ve found the right transportation, book it and add it to your itinerary.

Step 5: Make A List Of Destinations, And Things To Do

Now that you have your travel dates and transportation booked, it’s time to start planning what to do during your trip.

Make a list of destinations, activities and places you want to visit.

You can use a travel guidebook or search our website for tips.

If you’re traveling to one destination, focus on just that area.

If you’re planning a road trip, plan the route and the stops along the way.

If you’re traveling to multiple cities or countries, make a list of the places you want to visit in each location.

Slim down your list as needed and prioritize what’s important to you.

You can always add more activities later if there’s time!

When building an itinerary, it’s important to look at the map so that the route makes sense.

Make sure you leave enough time to explore each destination and take in the sights. You’ll also need to look at the distances between places to keep it realistic.

Woman traveling alone

Step 6: Research Transport And Accommodation

Now it’s time to start looking for transportation and accommodation. You’re not booking anything yet, but the idea is to see if everything is available.

Is there a hotel in the area? Do you need to rent a car or take public transport?

Look at reviews and compare prices. If you’re looking for accommodation, check the location of the hotel to make sure it’s close enough to the places you want to visit.

When researching transportation, consider how much time you want to spend traveling.

If you’re taking a bus, is there an overnight option? If it’s a train, how long will it take? This can help you decide whether to fly or take a slower means of transport.

Once you’ve made your research, it’s time to book the transport and accommodation for your trip.

Step 7: Book Transport And Accommodation

Now you’re ready to finalize your itinerary by booking transportation and accommodation for your trip.

We usually book transportation first, and then we move on to accommodation, but it also depends on the type of trip you’re taking and your destination.

For example, if there’s limited accommodation availability, book it first.

Once you’ve booked everything, make a detailed itinerary with all the important information. You can even save the important places (trains stations, airports, hotels) on your map.

Step 8: Book Activities And Guided Tours

Booking activities and guided tours in advance is a great way to make the most of your trip.

Research different activities you can do in each destination and decide which ones you want to do.

Look at reviews, compare prices, and book the activities in advance if possible.

If there are any guided tours you want to do, make sure to book them early, as they can get sold out quickly.

Traveler in Egypt

What Does A Travel Itinerary Look Like?

A travel itinerary can look different depending on the type of trip you’re taking.

For example, if you’re taking a short weekend trip, it might just include the essentials like flights, transport, and accommodation.

If you’re taking a longer trip with several destinations, your travel itinerary will be more detailed.

It should include the dates and times of your flights, transport between cities or countries, accommodation, activities you plan to do, and any other important information.

A travel itinerary should be easy to read and understand so that everyone traveling can easily access the information.

Now, let’s see an example by creating a travel itinerary with Roaming Duck.

How To Create A Travel Itinerary With Roaming Duck

Creating a travel itinerary with Roaming Duck is easy and intuitive.

What Is Roaming Duck?

Roaming Duck is a free travel planner that you can use to create a trip itinerary. You can map your own itinerary and book activities, flights, and hotels in one place.

The trip dashboard is divided into three main sections:

  • The Itinerary Builder
  • Notes & Chat

Keep reading to learn how to create a travel itinerary with Roaming Duck.

roaming duck homepage

Step 1: Create An Account

To get started, go to Roaming Duck and sign up. Once your account is created, you’ll get a welcome email that explains how to get started.

Step 2: Go To The Search Section

Once you’re logged into your dashboard, go to the menu bar and click on “My Trips”. Then, click on “Create a new trip”. You can give it a name.

Then, you’ll see a search section. Click on the button “Show” to search for flights, hotels, and activities.

roaming duck

In the search section, you’ll get the option to “View & Book” flights, hotels, and activities. When you click on that button, you’ll get a prompt asking if you wish to add this item to your itinerary.

Alternatively, you can click on “Add to Itinerary”. This is a great option if your itinerary is not set in stone yet.

flight on roaming duck

Step 3: Use The Itinerary Builder

In the itinerary builder section, you can add items:

  • Other (You can create your own item with details, cost, and notes)

itinerary roaming duck

Step 4: Add Notes

There’s a section to add notes and create your to-do tasks.

This is quite helpful because creating a travel itinerary is a lot of work, and you don’t want to forget anything important.

Step 5: Invite Your Family And Friends

Finally, there’s an option to invite your friends and family so that they can see your itinerary and collaborate.

We think this feature is pretty cool. It can also be an excellent way for your parents to see where you are if they’re nervous about you taking a trip.

Advantages Of Using Roaming Duck To Plan Your Itinerary

Using Roaming Duck to create your travel itinerary has numerous advantages:

  • You can add everything you need in one place.
  • It’s intuitive and easy to use.
  • You can book flights, hotels, and activities in one go.
  • You can create your itinerary first and then book everything. You’ll even be able to see the total trip cost.
  • You can invite your travel buddies to build the itinerary together.
  • You can create a to-do list to help you plan everything.
  • You can switch views (map and list).
  • The application is free.

Now, it’s important to note that Roaming Duck is a new application. So, keep an eye out; it will even improve over time.

Tips For Making An Itinerary

Now that you know how to make an itinerary, we’ll share some extra tips with you.

Female traveler

1. Start Making Your Itinerary Early

If you’re planning a trip, it’s best to start making your itinerary as early as possible. This way, you’ll be able to book flights and hotels at the best prices.

These days, flights are more expensive, so booking in advance can save you money!

2. Don’t Overbook Yourself

It’s easy to overbook yourself when planning a trip. Don’t forget, you’re on holiday! Make sure that you leave some days for rest and relaxation.

Keeping in mind the time difference and potential jet lag, make sure you give yourself enough time to rest.

Having a strict travel itinerary may cause stress and burnout. Instead, keep it flexible when you can.

You don’t want to return from your trip exhausted!

3. Leave Some Space For Spontaneous Adventures

When you plan your itinerary, make sure you leave some room for spontaneous adventures. Unplanned activities can be the best part of a trip.

So, as you plan your itinerary, leave some days for unexpected surprises. You never know what could happen!

For example, if you befriend the locals, they might have great recommendations for you. Or if you stay in a hostel , you might make some friends and decide to explore a new city together.

This is especially true if you’re planning a longer trip. So, don’t be too strict with your itinerary, and make sure to leave some space in your itinerary for something special. You won’t regret it!

4. If Something Is Important To You, Book It In Advance

If there’s something that you don’t want to miss out on, make sure to book it in advance. This could be a hot air balloon ride or a cooking class.

Booking activities and attractions early can also save you money, but more importantly, you’ll have peace of mind knowing that you won’t miss out.

Couple traveling to a new country

Final Thoughts On Creating An Itinerary For Travel

Creating an itinerary for a trip can be a daunting task. However, with the help of Roaming Duck and these tips, you’ll have no problem planning your travel itinerary.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, start by writing down the basic information and then add details as you go.

Also, remember that having an itinerary doesn’t mean you can’t make changes. You can always be spontaneous and adjust your itinerary as you go.

Above all, make sure to have fun! What’s the point of traveling if you don’t enjoy it?

Happy planning!

Need more help planning a trip? Read one of the following guides:

  • Best eSIM for international travel
  • Revolut travel card
  • SafetyWing vs Genki

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Roaming the Americas

How to Use Google My Maps to Plan a Trip (Ultimate Guide)

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Note: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a commission at no additional cost to you. More details are  here .

create travel itinerary

I love a good map. I’ve got maps hanging on my walls. I go to the bookstore to read maps. Whenever I navigate my way home using only a map, I feel like I must have some innate bushcraft skills. And if you’ve read my posts about traveling in Maine , you’re probably sick of me talking about the DeLorme Atlas by now.

But while reading paper maps will always inspire a sense of get-up-and-go adventure for me, I’m not totally opposed to using tech for planning my trips and navigating on the ground.

And one of my favorite techy solutions? A secret little trip planner called Google My Maps, buried inside of everyone’s favorite map tool.

Google My Maps lets you create shareable custom maps with multiple layers, plus location pins with icons and notes. It’s a great way to brainstorm travel plans or create a trip itinerary from a desktop. And since the map can be viewed in the Google Maps app, you can use it to navigate on the go. 

To give you an example of what this post will show you how to do, here’s one of the custom Google Maps I’ve created for a trip.

Keep reading for an overview of how to use Google My Maps to plan a trip, plus a video tutorial of how to set it up—all updated in 2023. I’ll also share answers to commonly asked questions and some lesser known tips to help you get the most out of this tool. 

A quick note: Creating a custom map in Google My Maps is distinct from Google Lists of saved places. Check out our Google My Maps vs Lists comparison to see all the differences and our full guide to using Google Maps Lists .

8 Top Google My Maps Features

(AKA Why It’s Awesome)

Google My Maps allows you to see your trip itinerary. 

This is so helpful, especially if you’re a visual person or enjoy using maps. But even if you’re not, it’s still really useful to see where everything is in relation to each other as you plan your trip, vacation, or holiday because it helps you be realistic about your plans.

It connects with other Google apps. 

Setting aside my (ahem, very rational) fear that they may take over the world soon, I love all things Google. My Maps stores a copy of the map in whatever Google Drive account you’re using. (Am I the only one who has six of these?) So if you like to create Google Docs or folders to store trip planning information, documents, photos, or itineraries, it’s nice to have your map easily accessible in the same folder.

You get additional location information since it’s part of Google Maps. 

If a location is on Google, you can see their website, phone number, address, reviews, and website when you add it to your custom map. (Note that you can’t see this information when clicking on your saved pin from the Google Maps app, but you can from desktop.)

You can add your own extra notes and photos.

Customize your map even more by adding notes, photos, or videos. Use the notes during planning to add website, hours, or tips. If I hear about the location from a particular website, I usually add that link and what was noted in the article about the location (e.g., it’s a great sunset spot, which dish on the menu is recommended) so I can reference it later.

You can view your route by creating a layer with directions. 

When I traveled to Burlington, Vermont, I wanted to see the length of the bike trail on the map, so I used the directions feature to show the whole route. (Check out the Burlington travel guide for an example of the travel map I created that includes the bike path route.) And while I haven’t done this yet, you could also use Google My Maps to plan a road trip itinerary for a longer adventure. 

Caveat: As I’ll discuss later, you can’t use directions layers to get turn-by-turn directions (but I mention an alternative below). For this reason, I only use these layers to visualize my route.

It’s highly customizable. 

Don’t mind me while I swoon over the color coding and organization options over here. Use custom icons, layers, and colors so it’s easy to see what things are at a glance. For example, you can give different locations individual styles: a coffee cup icon for cafes, a bed icon for hotels, and a swimming icon for beaches. You can also use layers in many different ways, such as one layer for each day of your trip or one layer for each category (like dining, lodging, and things to do).

In-depth planning on your computer. Easy, on-the-go access from your phone. 

While you can’t edit the maps from the Google Maps app on iPhone or Android, you (and anyone you’ve shared them with) can view them. You can click on icons and see your notes, as well as navigate to those locations. 

Note that there used to be a dedicated My Maps app on Android, but this has been deprecated. 

It’s easy to share it with a friend or with the world. 

If you’re planning a trip with other people, it’s easy to share the map with others . And if it’s something you want to make available to everyone (like I do on my travel guide posts), just change the privacy setting and share the link or embed it on a website.

3 Ways to Use Google My Maps

Brainstorm and store ideas for future “maybe” trips. 

I often come across a really interesting hotel, restaurant, or fun thing to do in destinations I want to travel to in the future, and I want to make sure I don’t forget about them. I have so many bookmarks in so many places (Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram), but Google My Maps is the place I’ve started storing ideas for future trips.

Plan your trip itinerary. 

Want to use Google Maps for route planning? When you’re ready to plan an upcoming trip, plot it out visually by using Google My Maps to create your itinerary. If you like structured itineraries, you can easily create a detailed day-to-day plan. 

Or, you can use a looser itinerary structure like we usually do by adding all the places you might like to go. 

For example, on a day trip to NYC, we added tons of places to eat on the map (thank you, Tiktok). As we were walking around doing other activities and started to get hungry, we were able to easily see which saved restaurants were closest to us. 

Navigate on the go.

Whether you’re using your map loosely for ideas or for a structured itinerary, you can pull it up on your phone anytime and get directions to your next location. 

Not sure what you want to do today, or want to see what the closest restaurant from your list is for dinner? Pop into your custom map to jog your memory from the notes you made or to get directions to your next location.

Recommended: Need an organized backpack to take on the road? Check out my favorite luggage for camping, road trips, and flying: the Cotopaxi Nazca 24L and Allpa 35L !

How to Use Google My Maps to Plan a Trip

How to create a new custom map.

Go to Google My Maps from your desktop browser . Check the Google icon in the top right corner to make sure you’re using the Google account you want to. Click “Create A New Map” and a window will open with a blank map. To give your map a name and description , click the map name (“Untitled Map”).

Google My Maps Create New Map

You can also change the color and style of the base map if desired. At the bottom of the layer panel on the left, click the arrow next to “Base Map.” You’ll get a window with nine options, including terrain, light political (a very light version of the standard Google Maps), satellite, and some different colored versions. Note that changing the base map style on desktop won’t change anything when viewing on mobile in Google Maps.

How to Add and Edit Layers

When you create a new map, the first layer will already be created, so you’ll probably want to rename it. To give your first layer a title , click directly on the title name like you did with the map name, or click the 3 dots next to “Untitled Layer” and then click “Rename Layer.” Clicking these 3 dots next to a layer title is also how you can delete a layer if you add one accidentally or change your mind. In this example, I’m changing my first layer to “dining” and will add all restaurants to this layer.

You can use layers any way you want to, or simply stick to one layer if you don’t need multiple. To add new layers , simply click “Add Layer” in the gray section below the map title and description.

To move a pin between layers , click the pin on the layer and hold down the mouse, and then drag it to the desired layer.

Google My Maps Create New Map

How to Add Location Pins

There are various ways to add location pins to a layer. First, make sure the correct layer is chosen by clicking anywhere in the white area on the layer. You’ll see which layer is selected by looking for the blue bar on the left of the layer.

  • In the map search bar, type either a place name or an address. Click “Add to Map” to add a pin for this location . This is how I add most pins.
  • If you don’t need an exact location or don’t have an address , you can click the pin marker button below the map search bar (“Add Marker”). It will turn your mouse into a T and you can click anywhere on the map to add a blank pin. You’ll immediately be prompted to add the pin title and description.
  • If you’re dealing with very remote locations (or you just like geeky map stuff), you can also use latitude and longitude coordinates in the search bar.

To delete a pin , simply click on it and click the trash icon.

Google My Maps selected layer

A few tips and best practices for adding pins:

  • If the place you’re searching for does not have a listing on Google, you’ll have to use an address. One thing to note is that sometimes Google Maps listings aren’t correct or don’t take you to the right place, so you may want to double check the location if you’re not using a street address to add the pin (especially if it’s a small business without a website).
  • I have also found that hiking trail heads are frequently on Google Maps, but they’re not always correct in terms of navigating there by car. I usually add them to my map to get a basic idea of where they are while planning, but I use a paper map or atlas to find them while traveling.

How to Customize Location Pins

To change the title and add notes to your listing, click on the pin on the map, and then click the pencil icon (“Edit”).

To change the color and icon of the pin , click the paint bucket icon (from the pin itself or directly in the layer). Click “More Icons” to view all the icon options. You can color code by type of activity, by layer, or any way that makes sense to you.

To add photos or videos to a pin , click on the pin on the map, and then click the camera icon (“Add Image or Video”). This is another way to make your map interactive, especially after you’ve visited a location and want to share it with others.

Google My Maps Change Title & Notes

How to Add A Directions Layer

I find that directions layers are helpful for showing the route of a walking tour, bike path, or road trip you want to take, but I don’t find them useful for directions while traveling since I can simply use the maps app to navigate. 

I use directions layers whenever I want to show an entire route on a map , rather than a specific location. Think of this as the 2024 version of mapping out a trip with AAA paper maps and a highlighter (if you’re old enough to remember).

Click the arrow icon underneath the search bar, which will create a new directions layer. On the legend, click “Driving” if you want to change this to walking or biking directions. Add a location name or address to Points A and B in the legend. If you find that the pins are not exactly where they should be, you can drag the points on the map.

Continue adding points by clicking “Add Destination” on the map. You can either type the information into the legend or hover your mouse to a spot on the map and double click it. (This is especially useful if you’re tracing a route on something like a bike path or hiking trail that won’t have an address.)

Rearrange the order by dragging the items around in the legend. Just like altering directions on Google Maps navigation, you can click on part of the route and drag it to a different road if you want to change part of the route after it is complete.

If you need to access the directions so you can see the distance of your route or the time it will take, click the three dots on the layer and click “Step-by-Step Directions.” Note that you can’t actually use this to get turn-by-turn directions in Google Maps.

Google My Maps Add Directions

How to Share A Google My Map

There are several options for sharing your Google Maps trip plan.

Open up your map, then click the share button in the gray bar above your layers. To allow others to view your map (which includes embedding on your website), click “change” under the section “Who has access.” For embedding, you will need to make this setting public.

Otherwise, if you want to allow others to edit your map, add their email address in the “invite people” section.

Google My Maps Trip Planner - Sharing a Map

How to View Your Custom Map in Google Maps (iPhone or Android)

Open Google Maps and go to the Saved icon at the bottom. Scroll to the bottom of this screen and click “Maps.” Choose the My Map you want to view. The layers with your custom icons will now be visible on your Google Map. You can click on any pin to view your details (such as description or photos), as well as to navigate there. 

To close a map, click on a pin and then click “View Map Legend.” There, you can click the Close icon.

From the Map Legend, you can also toggle layers on and off, and then backing out to the main map (don’t click Close—just the back arrow or back button).

How to Navigate with a Custom My Map (iPhone or Android)

To navigate to one of your pins, open your map, find the pin for where you want to go, click it, and then click “directions.” When you do this, you won’t see your custom map anymore but will be looking at the regular navigation of Google Maps.

You can’t use a My Maps “directions layer” for navigation. If you’re looking for that functionality, I recommend just creating a route in Google Maps and sending it to your phone (or sharing with others). See here for more details. 

How to Import Locations from Google Sheets, CSV, or Excel

Importing locations to a My Maps layer can be helpful in a few scenarios:

  • You have a significant amount of locations to add to your layer
  • Your data is already in the form of a spreadsheet
  • You want additional fields included besides the default Name and Description
  • You want to create groupings of pins (for example, a list of 50 restaurants could have a column for “Cuisine,” which will give you the option to group and style the pins by cuisine)

The process is simple, and you can import a variety of file types, including CSV, Excel (XLSX), or directly from Google Sheets. There are also special file formats that import map data from other programs, but this section is focused on spreadsheet-type files that you create and format.

Create a spreadsheet with the desired column headers. At a minimum, you need place names and either addresses or latitude-longitude information . 

If you want to group your pins by some type of categorization, you should include that as a column. Other columns you could include: website, phone number, description, or notes. While Google Sheets allows you to include photos in a cell, Google My Maps will not import photos in this way (it will include the column as a field, but will be blank). 

Once your spreadsheet file is ready, click “Import” on a blank layer (if your map already has layers, you will need to add a new layer to see this option). If uploading a CSV or XLSX, do this from the Upload tab. If using a Google Sheet, click the Google Drive tab and choose your file. 

Choose which column has location data (address or latitude-longitude) and click “Continue.” Choose the location name column next and click “Finish.” 

To change the icons individually, click “Uniform Style” next to the paintbrush on your layer. Under “Group Places By,” choose “Individual Styles.”

To change styles by a category column (such as Cuisine), click the link next to the paintbrush and choose to group places by the desired column. You can then give each category its own color or icon.

You can manually add new pins to this layer, and they will include all the fields you imported from the spreadsheet columns. 

You can also add more items to your spreadsheet, and import this new data. Click the three dots on your layer. Under “Reimport and Merge,” click “Add More Items” and choose your file. It will add the new rows to your layer.

How to Import a Route from Google Maps Timeline History (KML) or GPS Data From a Fitness App (GPX)

Google My Maps can import routes and locations you’ve already traveled to via special file types that are very easy to download from certain apps. This could be useful if you want to share a walking, biking, or driving route that you’ve taken without having to recreate it on a directions layer. 

Note that this only works as well as the GPS satellites were able to track your location while you were traveling.

If there are a lot of clouds, dense forest, buildings, or anything else blocking the GPS signal, your tracked route will be much less precise. I’ve noticed that Google Maps sometimes has my route showing somewhere I couldn’t have walked or driven. 

If you have your location history turned on in Google Maps, you can download a KML file from a trip, which will include the route traveled and location pins for any stops. Sometimes it misses a location name or adds a pin in the wrong place, but overall it’s pretty good.

Go to your Google Maps Timeline and locate the day you want to export. Click on it, and you should now see your route highlighted along with any stops you made. Now click the gear icon on the bottom of your map, and click “Export this day to KML.” Go to your My Map and on a new layer, click “Import.” Choose the KML file you just downloaded. You can now edit each portion as needed—changing the color and thickness of the route line, changing the location icons, as well as adjusting the route where desired.

If you have other apps that track your location, such as fitness apps, you may be able to download a GPX file that shows the route you took. The instructions for doing this will vary from app to app, but I was able to easily find it in Samsung Health by looking at the detail of a particular workout/walk and clicking the three dots to download a GPX. The import process to Google My Maps is the same as above.

With both methods, you can make adjustments to points/stops along the way or even add more pins. With the Google Maps KML file, you can also adjust your route by moving the small white dots.

Google My Maps Tutorial

Here’s a walk through video to show you how to use Google Maps to plan a trip, along with several of my own Google My Maps itinerary examples. Coming soon: a 2024 update!

Google My Maps Examples

Here are a few more examples of My Maps I’ve created for sharing recommendations, trip ideas, and actual vacation planning.

Screen shot of desktop view of a custom My Map for Hawai'i

Google My Maps FAQs and Tips

As great as Google My Maps is for planning a trip, there are some limitations to using it. Lots of questions have also come up about more specific uses and ways to use its features. Thanks to all the readers who have asked or shared tips in the comments as I’m always looking to make this a more robust guide. I’ve organized the questions and tips here since it makes it easier than scrolling through the comments.

How many layers can you add to a map?

Google My Maps limits you to 10 layers. If you are planning a longer road trip and want to create a layer for each day, this limitation may prove frustrating. 

Here are a couple of workaround ideas: You can create 2 maps, and have the entire master route as 1 layer on each (showing the very basic route for all 12 days—say from city to city) as a reference. Then build individual layers for each day. As a second option, you could add multiple days to 1 layer and change the titles to start with the day they correspond to (so it would be “1 – Name of Place” instead of just “Name of Place.”) However, this option may not be ideal since you can’t see the titles until you click when you’re on the phone.

How many location pins can you add to each layer?

You can add up to 2,000 pins per layer, and the entire map cannot exceed 10,000 lines, shapes, or places total. I haven’t tested the limits, and it’s possible adding this amount of items could slow things down. My guess is that most travelers wouldn’t need anything so large, but it is possible according to Google . 

Are custom Google My Maps available offline?

No, but keep reading for a workaround and alternative. 

One of the biggest complaints about Google My Maps is that you can’t download your custom map and pins to use offline, unlike the rest of Google Maps. 

However, I have been able to use it in areas with spotty reception. I pulled the map up when I did have reception, and I left it running in the background. It would stay loaded in the app and I was able to pull it up to look at it later when I was out of reception. I’m not sure I would rely on this as a surefire workaround, but it can work in a pinch.

Another alternative, especially if you’ll be traveling in another country where you’ll be completely offline, is to use Google Maps Lists, which can be edited from desktop or your phone but don’t offer the option for separate layers, unique icons, or adding photos. 

Is there an app for Google My Maps?

There is no separate Google My Maps app, but you can view your maps within Google Maps. Just make sure you’re signed into the same account, and all your maps will sync. 

(There used to be a dedicated My Maps app on Android, but this was deprecated in 2021.)

Can you create or edit maps from your phone?

No, the maps cannot be edited from the Google Maps app. Google My Maps can only be created or edited from the desktop version of the site. This is another huge advantage Google Lists has over Google My Maps because Lists allow you to add new places or entire lists from any device—iPhone, Android, tablet, laptop, or desktop.

Is there a bridge height filter?

No. For RVers and others who need to plan ahead for height limitations, there is no bridge height filter available in Google Maps. Since I haven’t had to use this feature myself, I am not confident in an alternative to recommend. However, from a bit of digging around, there are some apps and GPS units for truckers that may be a good place to start looking if you have an oversize vehicle.

What is the difference between Google Maps Lists and Google My Maps?

They both allow you to create custom maps with pins, but there are some key differences, such as offline access, layer capabilities, customizable pins, and creating/editing within the app. Check out the details on how Google My Maps compares to Lists (including a features comparison table).

How many stops can you add on a directions layer?

You can only add 10 stops per directions layer. This is also the maximum number of stops you can add for navigation in Google Maps. As some readers have pointed out, this can be limiting when you want to use this feature for a long road trip.

Can you use the directions layers on your phone for navigation purposes?

No, you cannot create a directions layer and then access those turn-by-turn directions for navigation in the Google Maps app. 

So…are directions layers totally useless? What’s the point of having a Driving Directions layer in My Maps?

Personally, I still like to use these layers, but only to show a route for my very visual brain, rather than to actually create custom directions. 

Can you send a custom created route (layer) to someone else so that the other person will take that specific driving route on google maps?

No, you can’t do this from My Maps, but there’s a workaround I can suggest.

Forget My Maps, and use Google Maps from desktop or mobile to plot a route. You can add up to 10 stops, and then you will be able to share your custom directions. 

From desktop, there’s an extra step in first sending the directions to your phone. If you’ve created the directions in the mobile app or once you have them pulled up there, you can share them with anyone by clicking the 3 dots next to your list of locations (sharing must be done before clicking “Start”—if you’re already in the navigation, you need to back out of it to share). When you share, it will list all the steps as well as send a link for the other person to open the directions in Google Maps directly. 

An important caveat to sharing custom routes: Google Maps will reroute the directions as it normally does according to current traffic at the time of driving, so this method cannot be relied upon if you’ve mapped a specific route for bridge clearances. As a workaround, you can add “stops” on the desired interstate (zoom in and add this literally on the road itself so navigation doesn’t try to take you off an exit), which will force Google Maps to take the driver that way. This is what I do when driving south from Connecticut to PA because Google Maps always wants me to take its beloved George Washington Bridge and I always don’t want to. I add a stop to force my route across the Tappan Zee Bridge. However, I’m not sure I would rely on this workaround as a sole method for RVs or truckers.

Can you see how much time the directions will take?

Yes, on desktop you can view the details if you want to know the distance or how long a route will take. To view distance and time for a directions layer, click the 3 dots on the laye, then click Step-by-Step Directions. 

Of course, this doesn’t really help when you want to get this information on your phone or use the directions for navigation. As mentioned elsewhere, the “directions” layer functions best as a way to visualize a route. If you need turn-by-turn directions, see the steps mentioned above to save and send directions in Google Maps. 

This post was originally published on July 27, 2017 and has been updated in May 2023.

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Travel Photographer | FAA Certified Drone Pilot

Naomi is the coffee-loving, crazy-about-Latin-America writer and photographer behind everything here. She's guided by curiosity and a belief that every place has a story to tell–whether it’s through the intricate details of nature, history that has shaped a culture, or the people who call a place home. Learn More

How To Create a Travel Itinerary

how to create a travel itinerary

There's absolutely no doubt that planning an upcoming vacation can be one of the most exciting and exhilarating moments of the year for travelers. Between looking up flight prices, hotel deals, and popular things to do nearby, you can let your imagination soar with possibilities for what you can do while away. However, the planning process can sometimes become a bit overwhelming, especially if you need help figuring out where to begin.

Creating a travel itinerary is a great way to organize your trip. But where do you even start? This guide will show you exactly how to plan the perfect travel itinerary. From preliminary research to making that final list, these travel planning tips will help you maximize your exciting holiday experiences while minimizing the stress that can come from trying to design the ultimate dream vacation you deserve.

Map of the world with pins in it

Choose a Destination

Choosing where to go during your time off is the first step to crafting the perfect travel itinerary. And even if you have a destination in mind, it's important to examine the amount of time you have and the budget you're willing to work with to narrow down the list. Here are a few tips to help you find the best destination:

  • Think about the kind of traveler you are. What are you really looking to get out of this vacation? Do you want time to relax and unwind in a quiet space, or are you looking to get out and explore as many different cultural opportunities as possible?
  • Be honest about your  travel budget . How much are you willing to spend? Would it be better to spend a significant amount on a flight to an exotic destination around the world or spend more time exploring spaces a bit closer to home?
  • Take the time of year into consideration. Not every destination has perfect year-round weather. And the season in which you decide to travel can have a huge impact on your experience overall.
  • Think outside the box. Visiting a popular destination can be a life-changing experience, but you may choose to find something a bit more off the beaten path. Hidden gems can be exciting places to visit, and they're often less crowded and more affordable vacation spots. 

Woman working on the floor on a laptop

Do Your Research

Once you have a destination in mind, it's time to start doing the research. Finding out everything that area has to see and do while you're there will help ensure you don't miss out on any fantastic, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Some of the things you'll want to gather information on include:

  • Local attractions such as museums, local landmarks, various outdoor activities, or anything that will keep you on the go during your stay.
  • Local activities. Are there art festivals during your stay or culinary showcases you could visit? Will there be any celebrations or large events taking place at the time of your holiday?
  • What is the transportation like in this destination? Is this a walkable area? Is public transportation reliable, or will you need to rent a car?
  • What kind of accommodations are available in this destination? Are there more budget-friendly boutique options, or are you looking for that luxury five-star hotel experience? Take a look at what is available in the area where you're looking to stay.
  • What are the local customs and culture like? It's important to research and familiarize yourself with the etiquette and cultural norms of any destination before you visit to make sure you are both respectful during your time there and able to enjoy the very best that destination has to offer.

Create a Priority List

Once you've done the research and have a better idea of what the destination has to offer, it's time to start prioritizing what you actually want to see and do while you're there. While everyone hopes they can see everything that a destination offers, the reality is that sometimes, our vacation days just aren't enough. Brainstorming your wish list and getting to know your, and maybe your travel partners', absolute must-see, would-like-to-see, and don't-really-care-about spots is a great way to start organizing your days and figuring out a schedule.

Person writing in a notebook

After you've laid out the most important things for you to see, it's time to start mapping it out. To create a logical and well-thought-out travel itinerary, planning your days around specific areas within your destination is the best way to go. Rather than wasting precious holiday time flinging yourself from one side of the city to another, laying out the local attractions you want to see and opportunities you hope to experience on a map will help you visualize what is where and what you can do on a specific day to optimize your time.

Keep in mind, this is also a great way to see if you can squeeze in a few of those "would-be-nice-to-see" attractions that maybe you didn't realize were right near one of your absolute musts. Seeing everything laid out in front of you is a great way to bring your itinerary together.

Think About Balance

Making sure you plan out each one of your travel days with a balanced schedule is a great way to ensure you don't get overwhelmed or tuckered out on the very first day. While you may want to see every one of the local must-see attractions as quickly as possible, striking a balance between exciting experiences, sightseeing, and time for relaxation every day is the best way to ensure you enjoy every minute of your trip. Think about a daily blending of local activities that include:

  • Cultural events
  • Outdoor activities
  • Historical and architectural landmarks
  • Local culinary experiences

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Stay Connected With an eSIM

Of course, planning out the ideal travel itinerary won't mean much if you can't stay connected during your trip. Making sure you have a way to get online (and stay online!) is key to a well-organized vacation. 

That's where we come in. With an  eSIM from Airalo , you can connect like a local within minutes of arriving at your destination. There's no need to find a local SIM vendor, fumble with physical SIM cards, or rely on spotty Wi-Fi while you travel. Instead, instant connectivity is right at your fingertips.

Here are just a few of the benefits of using an Airalo eSIM when you travel:

  • Connect to a local mobile network within minutes of arrival.
  • Choose from flexible  local, regional, and global eSIM plans .
  • Say goodbye to unexpected (and expensive!) roaming charges.
  • Store multiple eSIM plans on your device, making it easy to switch things up as you travel.
  • Top up your data on the go, right from the Airalo app.
  • Earn cashback rewards  with every eSIM purchase.

Planning your next adventure? Visit the  Airalo store  to find eSIMs for 200+ countries and regions worldwide.

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CNET

Travel Planning With AI: I Tested It for a City I Know Inside and Out

Would you let AI plan your next vacation? For the time-poor among us, it's a tempting proposition.

There's no two ways about it -- planning a great trip is a labor-intensive activity. If you're not careful, you can spend as long reading about and preparing to visit your chosen destination as you'll eventually spend on the ground there. And with many major tourist cities attracting more visitors than ever, even the most seat-of-their-pants kinds of traveler needs to do some preparation.

Over the past year, generative AI (in which you use a prompt to ask an algorithm to generate content -- either text, image or video) has become a publicly available plaything, leading it to be touted as a promising, if often over-hyped, tool to be used in almost any context you can think of. No surprise then that as the world has experimented with OpenAI's ChatGPT tool, many people have been using it to quickly and efficiently create travel itineraries.

A number of travel-specific AI services have sprung up as a result, offering to take on the burden of generating itineraries. But are they any good? Results have been mixed , suggesting there's no black-and-white answer to this question. It's not so much whether you should use AI to plan an itinerary, but how to use it to achieve the best results. 

As someone who lists trip planning as a top-three hobby, I was keen to explore its potential and its limits.

I decided the best methodology would be to use my own city of Edinburgh as a testbed for a three-day trip. I know Edinburgh like the back of my hand, it's a popular destination and it's the ideal location for a quick getaway, even from the US. It's small enough that you won't leave feeling as though you've barely scratched the surface, but big enough and packed with history and tourist attractions so that there's no chance of you finding yourself at a loose end by Sunday afternoon.

I used a range of AI travel tools to build itineraries including ChatGPT, GuideGeek, Roam Around, Wonderplan, Tripnotes and the Out of Office, or OOO app. Here's how I got on.

Travel itineraries: An art, not a science

A well-constructed travel itinerary is more than just a list of attractions, neighborhoods and local businesses. The best itineraries will string your day together in a way that makes sense geographically and thematically. 

The journey between attraction A and attraction B will be part of the fun, taking you down a picturesque street or providing a surprising view you might not otherwise have seen. It will also be well paced, taking into account that by the third gallery of the day, even the most cultured among us will likely be struggling with museum fatigue.

Very few of the itineraries I asked AI to create for Edinburgh fit this brief. Roam Around, Tripnotes, OOO and Wonderplan clearly had no sense of the geography of the city. ChatGPT and GuideGeek did a much better job of grouping attractions according to neighborhood, building a day around Edinburgh's Old Town, a day around Holyrood and Arthur's Seat, and a day around the New Town area.

The most egregious examples of nonsensical itinerary planning came from OOO and Roam Around when I tested them further by asking them to create larger itineraries for a seven-day trip around Scotland. Roam Around presented me with a fantastic selection of activities and attractions around the country but suggested I drive hours back and forth to Edinburgh for every meal. 

Meanwhile, Day 1 from OOO started me off with breakfast and a graveyard in Edinburgh, a Glasgow Museum at lunchtime, Glenfinnan Viaduct in the Highlands in the afternoon, before staying overnight at a hotel on the Isle of Skye (but with drinks and dinner back in Edinburgh). That's 10 and a half hours of driving, and it only got more exhausting from there.

I approved of the majority of the suggestions AI came up with for Edinburgh, and for Scotland more broadly, both in terms of attractions and local businesses. But aside from ChatGPT and GuideGeek, which were able to create thematically and geographically cohesive itineraries when pushed, the way they were strung together was often counterintuitive.

It's clear that many AI tools are doing little more than aggregating information found elsewhere -- an approach that leaves you with what Lonely Planet Senior Editor Laura Motta describes as "Google Search scrambled eggs." 

Lonely Planet, a sister site to CNET, is currently building its own AI tool, Motta tells me, and is attempting to go beyond simply providing you a jumbled list of must-see places. Instead, it's using preexisting, expertly sourced granular knowledge of destinations to help people build itineraries around must-see attractions.

"Of course you want to see the Eiffel Tower -- maybe don't want to skip that if it's your first time to Paris," Motta says. But the plan is to introduce you to other things in the vicinity of these main sites that you might otherwise have missed -- a bakery perhaps, or a nearby square containing an important piece of history. 

"It's about a balance between seeing the big sites and getting out and doing other things," Motta says. "And AI, at this point, is not great at recommending the other things."

Verify, crosscheck and double source

You're likely going to come to Edinburgh (or any city) with a list of sites you absolutely want to see, and any good AI itinerary will help you find these. But not all. When I asked Tripnotes what I should see with a long weekend in my city, the two activities it suggested for the first day were the Fruitmarket Gallery (good, but not exactly a must-see) and a hostel.

I have so many questions, but mainly, where did it get these ideas from? There's not really a way of knowing, which means it's up to you to do some digging of your own. "It's going to be really important to validate some of what comes out, because the recommendations are not sourced particularly well," Motta says.

Even when AI recommends the big attractions, you're not totally safe. Every AI itinerary I generated for Edinburgh recommended a trip to Edinburgh Castle -- predictable, but fair. But did you know that tickets for Edinburgh Castle regularly sell out days in advance? And that if it's too windy, the castle will close -- often at short notice?

Real-time and even recent information are just a couple of things you shouldn't currently expect to find on your AI travel itinerary. The fact that AI uses historical data makes it incredibly backward looking, which Motta identifies as the biggest issue when it comes to using it for travel planning right now. "The guidance is never going to be of the moment the way that you need real-time travel advice to be," she says.

It's going to fall to you to double-check what AI tells you -- and that goes for everything it tells you.

It's particularly important that you don't follow food and drink recommendations blindly. Almost every service I used pointed me to a cafe, bar or restaurant I know to be permanently closed. Additionally, Roam Around suggested I have breakfast at a gastro pub one morning and a pizzeria the following morning -- neither of which opens before midday.

The last few years in particular have seen a huge shakeup in the food and drink industry in cities around the world, with some businesses closing due to the pandemic, others opening and yet more popping up or reopening elsewhere. "There's going to be a lot of inaccuracy in there just because of what's happened in the world," Motta says.

If you're the kind of traveler that likes to visit the hottest new openings in town, you're going to need to resort entirely to your own research. At this time, the AI travel tools available are simply not capable of staying on top of trends -- and they're honest about it.

When I asked ChatGPT about the most exciting new openings in Edinburgh, it responded letting me know that its knowledge is only current up to 2021. It then pointed me in the direction of TripAdvisor, Yelp and local food and travel publications. ( OpenAI announced last week that the new GPT-4 Turbo, the brains behind ChatGPT, is trained on more up-to-date data, up to April 2023.)

The promise of AI is that it can take away the heavy lifting of creating a travel itinerary. The reality, at least for now, is more complicated. AI can provide a great framework for your trip, but it's still up to you to fact-check it before traveling -- so don't ditch the guidebooks, Google Reviews and TikToks filmed in low-lit restaurants just yet.

Helping AI to help you

With generative AI as with so many things in life, you get out what you put in. Asking smart questions can make all the difference to the quality of guidance you will get for your trip.

One common activity suggested by several of the AI tools I used to generate itineraries for Edinburgh was climbing Arthur's Seat -- an extinct volcano that sits right in the heart of the city. I fully endorse its inclusion in any Edinburgh itinerary (it's a unique attraction and the views are magnificent), but where I do take issue is the lack of guidance the AI tools provided when it came to the climb.

The hike up Arthur's Seat is short but strenuous with some scrambling at the top. It's achievable for most people with a good level of fitness, but not for everyone -- and definitely not without appropriate footwear. Several times a year people need to be airlifted off the hillside, and there are many weather conditions I wouldn't personally attempt it in. I certainly wouldn't want to spend the rest of the day afterward, as GuideGeek suggested doing, taking another long walk around a completely different area of the city. Likewise, I wouldn't want to make it the very last thing I did on a day in November, when the sun sets around 4 p.m., as suggested by Wonderplan.

None of the AI tools I used to generate itineraries proactively told me any of this information, but when I asked GuideGeek whether it was safe to climb Arthur's Seat in winter, it gave me great safety advice, which included warnings about the short length of daylight hours in Scotland in winter.

This isn't the only time GuideGeek's chat function served me well. All of the AI tools I used showed me a very similar list of "top" restaurants in Edinburgh to choose from during my trip. Most of these restaurants had Michelin stars, would be considered fine dining or are otherside very expensive -- not accessible options for many travelers. Noting this, I was then able to ask for much more specific advice about small independent restaurants, wine bars and affordable options. The resulting recommendations included many of my favorite establishments from around the city.

These examples demonstrate the importance of asking the right questions. AI does potentially have all of the answers you need, but you might have to dig deep to get them. Taking the time to thoughtfully structure your AI prompts will likely yield more relevant results. Queries you might want to put to any AI itinerary planning tools include asking whether you need to prebook tickets for attractions it recommends, or to help you plan visits to popular tourist sites at quieter times.

Personalization: The next frontier

Not all tools currently available have the capacity to engage in back and forth like chatbots such as ChatGPT and GuideGeek. This does give these services the edge when it comes to itinerary planning, even if it does result in some farcical conversation (such as GuideGeek telling me it was "a fellow fan of the wizarding world" when I asked for Harry Potter recommendations).

Right now, most AI tools fall under the umbrella of generative AI, in that they can generate content -- travel itineraries, for example. But we're also quickly moving toward the adoption of more interactive AI , whereby tools and services are built for us to engage with them through questions and prompts. 

Developments in interactive AI, including more natural conversation skills and the ability of AI tools and companions to get to know our personal preferences could take itinerary planning to the next level. Instead of presenting everyone with roughly the same information, this iteration of AI is much more likely to be able to learn to adapt to your personal preferences.

Travelers come in many different flavors, all with their own preferred approaches to trip planning and their own ideas about what makes a dream vacation. The most underwhelming thing about the Edinburgh itineraries I generated using AI were that they were all fairly generic. ChatGPT and GuideGeek did a fairly decent job of adjusting itineraries when asked to include more nature, more culture or more of a focus on Scotland's whisky heritage, but it felt like an off-the-shelf solution rather than a carefully curated journey tailored to my travel style. 

Even when I was presented with a solid itinerary, I still wanted the option to add in my own finds or recommendations from friends -- and some services do allow this. The way some of the travel tools -- OOO in particular -- presented the itineraries using imagery made them visually appealing, and they also left room to manually add in or adjust the trip that they generated for me. 

The plan for Lonely Planet's AI tool, Motta says, is to ensure that people still have a sense of agency when it comes to planning. There's no expectation they'll follow every recommendation. Rather, they'll pick and choose from well-sourced options surfaced by the tool and fill in the rest themselves.

"Do we want to save you time and energy when it comes to planning your trip?" Motta asked. "Yes, absolutely. But I also don't think we want to take the joy out of that process either."

AI tools have some way to go before they're able to read us as well as we can read them. No doubt there will be a point in the future when AI knows our accessibility needs, our penchant for an afternoon nap, our walking speed and our preference for a particular style of wine or art, and can plan for us accordingly.

Just because we're not there yet doesn't mean you shouldn't use AI to help plan your trip -- just so long as you remember it's there to supplement your own research, not serve as a replacement.

Editors' note: CNET is using an AI engine to help create some stories. For more, see this post .

Travel Planning With AI: I Tested It for a City I Know Inside and Out

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    Add your flight numbers, hotel addresses, maps, etc. to your itinerary file for easy access. All my itineraries include this information, plus the currency exchange rate (so I know how much 1 US dollar is worth in the country). It is much easier to look at one file then have to scroll through dozens of emails or check different apps to find ...

  14. Free Vacation Trip Planner

    Plan the vacation of your dreams and enjoy an unparalleled travel experience. Use the Trip Planner for your upcoming journey and personalize your activities, dates, and transportation according to your needs in any destination on your bucket list. The comprehensive itinerary planner allows you to add the activities that interest you most ...

  15. Trip30: Travel Itinerary

    Pasar Triwindu, Indonesia. "Trip30 helps me organize and rearrange the options, dates, and times for all the trips I plan. Best of all, it automatically creates a detailed itinerary I can share with my clients and friends." Maureen G. Events Planner. With Trip30, you can organize your travel plans and build your itinerary with as much detail as ...

  16. Travel Planner and Itinerary Maker

    Tripety is a website that helps you create travel itineraries for your trips, with features such as trip planning, trip tracking, trip sharing, and trip management. You can choose from various modes of transportation, destinations, dates, and activities, and get personalized recommendations and tips.

  17. Planapple: an easy, free, complete trip planning tool

    For family vacations, holidays abroad, or group trips of any sort… from a weekend getaway to an adventure across countries and continents… it's easy to plan your perfect trip with Planapple. Start Planning Your Trip! Planapple: an easy, free, complete travel planning tool for effortlessly organizing trips with friends and family.

  18. Wanderbot

    AI update your trip for you. Easily Book your flight and hotels. Hotels will. 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.

  19. Planbuddy

    1. Enter your destination, travel dates and pick your interests. 2. Your itinerary will be compiled using our 1,000s of curated attractions, restaurants and travel advice. 3. Export your itinerary to PDF and have it in your back pocket.

  20. Roam Around

    Sa. Arrive Mon, Mar 25. Depart Fri, Mar 29. Save Dates. Experience the future of AI travel planning with Roam Around! We've crafted over 10 million tailor-made itineraries to date Just pick your destination, and we'll provide a unique plan within seconds. Embrace seamless travel planning now!

  21. Complete Guide: How To Create A Memorable Travel Itinerary

    Step 2: Go To The Search Section. Once you're logged into your dashboard, go to the menu bar and click on "My Trips". Then, click on "Create a new trip". You can give it a name. Then, you'll see a search section. Click on the button "Show" to search for flights, hotels, and activities.

  22. How to Use Google My Maps to Plan a Trip (Ultimate Guide)

    Go to Google My Maps from your desktop browser. Check the Google icon in the top right corner to make sure you're using the Google account you want to. Click "Create A New Map" and a window will open with a blank map. To give your map a name and description, click the map name ("Untitled Map").

  23. How To Create a Travel Itinerary

    This guide will show you exactly how to plan the perfect travel itinerary. From preliminary research to making that final list, these travel planning tips will help you maximize your exciting holiday experiences while minimizing the stress that can come from trying to design the ultimate dream vacation you deserve.

  24. Travel Planning With AI: I Tested It for a City I Know Inside and Out

    The most egregious examples of nonsensical itinerary planning came from OOO and Roam Around when I tested them further by asking them to create larger itineraries for a seven-day trip around Scotland.

  25. With demand high for longer river cruises, Riviera combines itineraries

    Riviera River Cruises will launch a series of sailings that combine existing itineraries to create longer journeys. Starting in 2025, the river cruise line will offer five back-to-back itineraries ...

  26. Evita Barwise • Instagram Growth + Business Coach on Instagram: " Day

    208 likes, 30 comments - evita_social on March 4, 2024: " Day 9 of 30 Viral Reels Challenge VIRAL HOOK: Are you feeling [customer's problem..."