Recommendations: Travel planning apps/spreadsheet templates for Apple/I phone products.

You will get many different answers here, from many different kinds of users. I don't think there is any single tool or set of tools that works for everyone.

Personally, I'm pretty tech-savvy, but have my own quirks, likes and dislikes. I'm very comfortable with the tools I use, but for practically anyone else, they are ridiculous and complete overkill, as they are a complex and expensive, require some dedication to master (already did that long, long ago). I primarily use what are considered "professional"-level publication tools (I know these tools well - I helped build them...), but also plenty of simple things:

• Photoshop
• InDesign
• TextEdit
• Lots and lots of googling, pouring endlessly over maps, both online and paper, multiple computers with massive everything, I have lots of organizational structure dedicated to keeping everything sorted. I'm typically researching, booking, and documenting 6-8 intended trips planned for the next 1-2 years, and have loose ideas sketched in for a few dozen more (how to get there and back, how long to stay, things to see & do, random notes and snippets, etc.), which I use as starting points for trips once I start actively planning them.

For each trip we do, I produce a large, high resolution, custom map (noting our plans and all actual/potential points of interest), and an accompanying guide booklet detailing every single item in exhaustive detail. This booklet typically is 30-40 pages (could be more, or less, depends on the trip length and logistical complexity) and contains EVERY actual detail of the trip, and many optional/discretionary potential points-of-interest. I use it as a day-by-day reference guide once our trip begins. It's all (manually) cross-referenced to the large map I create. Both the day-by-day guide booklet and the detailed map are both printed and also go on our phones and iPads in digital form. Everything is instantly available at our fingertips throughout the trip. It's a monumental task but I enjoy it (my wife rolls her eyes but has come to appreciate it as it provides us great flexibility when we need to adjust or improvise something on a trip - and she lets me do most of the work). I do ask her to research and document restaurant choices, a task she has come to embrace because it means she has a lot of influence over our meals - and all in all, the system helps make our trips soooo much better.

Worth noting: Most of our trips these days take us to places where there's no Rick Steves guide book, usually no decent guidebook at all - that's actually what motivated me to develop my own system. If there's a good guidebook covering our trip, that certainly reduces much of the work (but it also tends to limit you places that you'll need to share with lots of other tourists). Even in some places where there are guidebooks, IME they often tend to be inadequate, more glossy and fluffy than I'd like (present company excluded - the RSE books are generally excellent and align very well with my needs and preferences...I just wish there were a lot more of them).

I've currently got this system up and rolling for our next trips to: Shetland; Puglia; Easter Island; the Philippines; and I'm just starting one for Greece.

This is, of course, extreme overkill for most people. It works for me. Others get by with very, very simple systems that work for them. I fully understand the benefits of "just enough process" but I do enjoy working everything out and having it all instantly accessible all the time. I know for some people they would rather have a root canal. Vive la difference. Do what works for you.

I do everything on Macs, if that helps you. ;) Good luck.

I keep it simple. Create a photo album for each trip, or each city. Screenshot QR codes for tickets, confirmations, etc.

I also use TripAdvisor. Create a separate trip for each city. Save restaurants or attractions to the trip.

Then I create a spreadsheet with a rough itinerary. Or in Notes.

Took me a bit to find it, but here is a pretty good fairly recent discussion on the topic.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/how-do-you-organize-your-trip-research

Myself, I use Google Sheets (I do not use a template), airline apps, other transportation apps, Google Maps, Google Translate, and Wallet. Depending on the trip, I may use Tripit (free version).

I was going to suggest TripIt, but it looks that didn't work for you.

I keep three sets of records. One on Word, one in iCloud and Apple calendar and one on Excel

The first is a paper record in a binder.

I create a Word document, a page for each day and write the necessary information on it.
Most info is in black Ink, but reservations and tickets that need to be purchased are listed in all caps and IN RED with a due date.
Hotels or day tours that are paid for, or booked, I increase the font by one and I bold it.
After each printed page, I print out the receipt, booking information or email or copy of the ticket or confirmation and put right behind the day page.
I also add the URL for the hotel or event. In Word, the URL automatically is shown in BLUE.

Instructions on how to get to a location are in GREEN
If driving, I list miles/Km from point A to point B and travel time.
If I am taking public transportation, I list beginning station, number of stops and exit station. All this information comes from Google Maps.
So for example, "from hotel, walk to Tottenham Court tube station, take Northern Line towards Battersea, change at Embankment, Take district line towards Wimbledon, get off at Sloane Square and walk 10 minutes, 0.4 miles to Flower show entrance. Follow the crowd. etc.

Not only do I print this out to place in a thin binder that stays with me in my carryon daypack.

I also save a PDF of the entire itinerary and save it to my iCloud. On your iPad or iPhone, you can access the this PDF file from your Files App or download it to your Files App.

I also send a copy to my wife's email, so we have a third backup. (she doesn't know how to use iCloud, but saves everything in her Mail app.)

NEXT, (and this is where Apple shines (IMHO)

I save every email confirmation as a PDF file, and I upload to my iCloud in a Travel file.

Then on Apple Calendar, I list every event, including flights, pre-booked shuttle pickups, hotel (as a check in time or as a day event.

To enter a time, you must choose "Floating" as the time zone.

In Calendar, each event , right click-->Info--> and Add Notes, URL or attachments

I attach each PDF file that is in Travel file in iCloud to the event date.

I also enter the address (location) on each event entry. Many times if you start typing in the name of the hotel in that line, Apple Maps will insert the correct address in the apple calendar and you click OK.

That way, at a taxi stand, for example, I can look at my Apple calendar, click on the hotel check in time and the address will be there to tell the taxi driver.
Or if I am driving, I can click on the address listed in Apple calendar, and Apple Maps will ask if I want directions and begin a route to my location.
Once at the hotel, if there is an issue at check in, I can click on the attachment I saved on the event date and the PDF of my booking or receipt will come up as a PDF. I can also bring up tickets that are attached in PDF form or I have stored in my Apple Wallet as a pass.

By having all this information available on my Apple Calendar app, I rarely have to pull out my binder. But god forbid, I lose my iPhone, I have a paper backup of everything. And My wife has a copy also.

Finally, I keep an Excel file,

that lists by date, the costs of every events, the hotels, the meals, transportation costs, etc.
If I am going abroad, I use two columns, one in Euros (typically the price I was charged on my CC) and the second in USD. (that I use Apple Calculator to easily convert from Foreign Currency to USD or later that my CC company has already converted to USD at their good rate.

Is this a lot of work? YES
But for me, half the fun of traveling is the planning.
Now all of this assumes you know how to use all of the Apple Products. But as you state, you are fearful of tech, then
this is all going to be too much for you.

I want to thank all of you for adding what you do to plan, organize and track your travel. Especially the link to the Trip Organization thread that I missed because my search here didn't pick it up. All the information is helpful. What everyone has confirmed for me is that I'm not making it up how much work it is to organize international travel. I am probably the kind of person who actually would benefit from utilizing the services of an old-style professional travel agent (which is what I did when my family and I began traveling years ago) or some kind of paid tech/travel consultant. I'd actually be willing to do this.

I'll keep on reading everything. Even those who are deep into the technology of travel planning/organizing have something helpful.