The Old Way to Organize Your Travel
We used to travel with confirmation numbers, printouts and travel books. Then we all got iPhones and tried to ditch the paper and keep everything in email attachments and calendar links. Eventually we evolved to travel apps that attempted to help us organize all of our travel in one place. However, these tools fell short as they were too restrictive or too complicated to use.
The New Way to Organize Your Travel
The new reality is that there are unlimited, amazing and helpful travel tools, resources, websites and apps that we rely on to take a work trip, weekend getaway or family vacation.
As we know, our trip planning is done in stages, and at each stage, there are fantastic tools we can tap into maximize the quality of our adventure.
These trip planning steps include:
- Choosing a destination or multiple destinations
- Picking the best neighborhoods for you to stay, eat and play
- Booking flights, transportation and hotels
- Researching and prioritizing the best restaurants, bars, entertainment, parks, attractions and activities in each area of town
- Coordinating the research, notes and to-dos of your trip with your travel partners
The Best Resources for Organizing My Travel
Resources to Help Choose a Destination or Multiple Destinations
- Google – Start with a “Best” Google Search using words that matter to you and the region of interest (“Best Beaches in the Costa Rica”, “Best Hiking Spots in Europe”, “Best Music Venues in Nashville”)
- AirBnB – Not only does AirBnB have rooms, but they also have experiences. Browse different areas to see the types of experiences you want and AirBnB will match you up with the resources you need
- Google Flights – Search from your destination to any country (not the city) and on a map it will show prices. Cool tip: Move the map around the globe and find out where it’s cheapest to travel to for the dates you provided.
- Of course there are countless amazing sites so please suggest your favorites in the comments below
Resources to Pick the Best Neighborhoods to Stay, Eat and Play
- Google – Google has it all, but you just have to know how to search to find what you need. “Fun Neighborhoods in San Diego”, for example, nails the top 6 perfectly.
- Trip Advisor – Search the City and explore restaurants, things to do and more
- Lonely Planet – Search your destination and filter by Activities & Tours, Things to Do, Books, Videos, Hotels, etc…
- Of course there are countless amazing sites so please suggest your favorites in the comments below
Resource for Booking Flights and Hotels
These sites all have advantages and disadvantages but it’s up to you to decide which ones your prefer. If you already use one or two of these sites, it’s convenient to stay with them. If you are exploring, you may find some with too much on the page and others with too little.
- Kayak
- Hotels.com
- Booking.com
- Expedia
- Travelocity
- Priceline
- What else should we mention? Suggest additional sites in the comments below.
General Purpose Tools to Store Travel Research
- Make a Google Sheet – Google Sheets are spreadsheets that are in the cloud and easy to share with your travel partners. You can create tabs inside for ideas, budgets, to-dos, etc. It’s lacks structure, so come to your blank sheet with ideas on what you want to store related to your trip.
- Set Up an Evernote Notebook – Evernote is a cloud based note tools that can be shared with others. If you plan to create multiple notes, try setting up a Notebook for your trip. If you only need a single continuous stream of thought on your travel, then just create one note and edit it as you go. You can store your flight information, reservations, ideas and suggestions there. Just copy paste from the web or your email into your note.
- Create a Dropbox Folder – If you plan to save a bunch of PDF files, photos or documents related to your trip, Dropbox is a simple way to store them on the cloud and share them with others. Box, Google Drive, OneDrive are alternatives to Dropbox if you already have accounts on these platforms.
- Use Pinterest for a Visual Representation – A great place for you to store your favorite destinations and travel ideas is on a Pinterest Board that you create and share with your travel companions. Each person can add “pins” to the board and it creates a visual representation of your trip. Although not ideal for storing confirmations, notes and bookings, Pinterest provides a much needed visual representation of what your group would like to do on the trip. The photos are engaging and will help get you excited to take your vacation.
Where to Store All My Travel Links and Info
Don’t limit yourself to a single travel tool when you can use them all. Leverage multiple travel platforms with confidence by organizing them all together and collaborating with your travel companions using LifeSpace.
In LifeSpace, you can create a generic travel space for your planning sites and a specific space for each of your trips. Invite your travel partners to the individual spaces to collaborate on your trip together.
It’s easy to take advantage of all the great resources for travel and organize your trips with LifeSpace. Join our LifeSpace Beta today: