planning calendars?

Some people use paper and pencil + post it notes. Some use apps.

I personally use a Google Docs method. I make a table using 3 columns across (Date/Activity or Transportation/Hotel or other notes. I set it up for as many days as I will be gone and add a few rows for things I need to do ahead of time. This works for me because I can modify it as many times as I need to AND it's available across all my devices, MAC/iPhone/iPad Mini.

I didn't look closely at the threads below but Jean from Idaho uses a big calendar with post-it note sized squares and can move her stuff around with the post it notes. She is traveling today so might not be on to explain her method until later.

There are lots of threads on this but it took some doing with the search engine to find some of them!

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/how-do-you-organize-your-trip-research

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tech-tips/travel-planning-app

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tech-tips/calendar-planning-app

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/recommendations-travel-planning-apps-spreadsheet-templates-for-apple-i-phone-products

My trip calendar is very simple, I just enter each day into the calendar app. of my phone. The first day will say "GRR-MUC" or such, next day will say "Arrive Munich". And each hotel stay will be entered as multiple days. Then some events, like Oktoberfest or others, will go in there. We don't normally preplan every day, we just go where we feel like each morning.

A convenient thing is that my tablet is also Android, and I "shared" the calendar app of the phone with the tablet.

I also keep a lot of notes in the G**gle Keep app. for each trip, and some of those notes are "shared" with the tablet.

I am still an ink and paper guy. I scan and then print a copy of my wall calendar upon which live all the doctor and hospital appointments and other key days and then fill in bits of trips where there are gaps.

Trip it app I use it and like it. Some people like it and some don't. It is a great way to keep things organized, especially if you plan multiple trips at the same time. If traveling with others, you can share the information with specific people and everyone has a real time itinerary. I can attach pdf's of confirmations so that they are readily accessible no matter where I am. Finally, real time updates on flight changes or gate changes have saved me more than once.

I am on so many mailing lists of 'worthy causes' seeking donations, I get several calendars each year.

Like Nigel I use a physical calendar. Unlike Nigel I do not need to print one out.

If you use pencil you can erase and rearrange as needed. Use ink only for the final version.

Hi John,

I’m back from my trip to Spain. Yes, as Pam mentioned, I make a working calendar for each trip to use for the first few months until everything is solid enough to place on a 1-page spreadsheet that I print & take on my trip. I also use Trip-It but mainly because it tracks my flights better than airline apps and is a second layer backup for me.

To make the paper calendar, I take four pieces of printer paper and tape them into a large 2x2 calendar. Then I use colored regular size Post-Its. They will fit to give you 7 days across and up to a month down. I write the date # on the white paper, not the Post-It. Each city I am staying in gets one color of Post-it, so 3 days in Dresden will be 3 consecutive blue Post-Its, for instance. The name of the city is in the middle of the Post-it, the hotel is written on the upper part & a checkmark box when reserved. Breakfast included gets a green circle, or orange if no breakfast.

The area below the name of the city is for ideas for that city or that day. Any reservations made get the checkmark box checked. If I am interested in a museum, I will write (closed Mon) next to it. That’s because these Post-its can easily move to a different date as I am playing with locations, and I don’t want to accidentally plan a museum for a day of week that would now not work.

The beauty of the system is that it’s completely flexible. It’s easy to move Post-its around. Also, I write everything in ink and sometimes I want to scrap a plan for a city and start over. Easy - just tear up that one and place a new one on that date. The overall colors let me see at a glance how often I am moving locations. The other advantage is that I can walk into my office and immediately see which city’s plan I could work on for an hour since everything is visible.

This calendar is too large and bulky to bring on your trip. It’s intended to be a help during the planning process. Hope that helps!

I use a fillable Word calendar. I do go through several versions by the time I lock down my itinerary. The other document I create is a list of all the cities/towns/villages I need to stay in/day trip to visit specific places. Both the calendar and the place list have turned into templates that I reuse every year. Works well for me. I have tried apps like TripAdvisor and Wanderlog, but found them more trouble than they are worth.

I use google sheets, and then have the app on my phone for when I'm actually traveling. For our upcoming trip I have the tab for our itinerary. As I'm planning I have tabs for restaurants ideas, adventure ideas, travel clothes selection and anything else I want to have. I get a lot of ideas from the forum and others in my research, so I can come up with different ideas. I have a tab for travel clothes as I read about someone's suggestion worth checking out.

I also have an actual file folder that I keep printed copies that I often take because I don't always trust that I can get to my tickets for a museum or something in my email when I need it. I would love to know what others do for this, as you can't always put everything in Apple Wallet.

A lot of people suggest the Trip It App, I just haven't used it yet. It would probably let me attach tickets etc.

Wanderlog.

I just use a grid table I make in Word, with 3 columns: date, location, and comments. So the second column could have something like Frankfurt > Cologne, or just Cologne if I plan on staying for a few days, repeated until the next change of location, and the third column would have mode of transport, times, etc. Or the third column will have the hotel information, and then the hotel name would be repeated for every night I intend to stay. I print it up and put it in a clear plastic folder and then print up all travel documents and pin them behind it with a bulldog clip. It doesn't mean I can't put these things on my phone, I do this with boarding passes, but also I like a printed version of everything in case technology fails me. I have been doing this system for years, and as I travel for work sometimes, all dockets and evidence of my trip are in one place, in the plastic folder. Prior to this when planning I used to print up a blank PDF calendar sheet that I got from Etsy and I could change the dates at will or scribble on it, but this method allows me to 'perfect' the trip before printing. Also can be shared with family easily by email.

Lavandula

EDIT: added grid to disambiguate

I use Wanderlog, along with Microsoft One Note, to keep track of everything. Wanderlog is great for organizing everything and the proper dates. It keeps all the flights at the top, then it has a section for hotels and lodging, and then my itinerary, which I can fill in as needed. I love it because it adds photos, which makes it very visual, and once I enter everything in my basic itinerary, I can easily move everything around to make it more conducive to planning.

How it works is you create a trip by entering your destination and travel dates. Then you can look on Wanderlog for attractions, restaurants, etc., or add your own places that you found (WL will make suggestions of popular destinations). Wanderlog will then pull it from their database and give you something to put in there that has a link to the actual website of the attraction, times and dates, and even more information, including photos.

After that, you just start building your itinerary by dragging and dropping activities into each day of the trip. The nice thing about Wanderlog is that it has Google maps side by side with your itinerary, so that you can see exactly where your stops are on the map. This helps to plan your day more efficiently. You can also share the app with other trip members or your family so they can see where you're going to be. And you can use it on your phone or on your laptop. I usually create the itinerary on my laptop when I'm doing the trip planning because it's a bigger screen, but when I'm traveling, I have it open on my phone as needed.

The best part is that Wanderlog is free. There is a paid version, which I have, because there are a few extra features that I like, but you can pretty much do everything with the free version.

I also use Microsoft OneNote. CWSocial turned me on to that and now I'm hooked (we're both geeks at heart). I use that to keep all of my necessary documents and detailed information, so I can keep Wanderlog relatively uncluttered. It has everything in there, but if I want more detail, then I just head to the OneNote app and get it from there. I'm still trying to figure out a way to link them together more, but I haven't really found anything. But they still work pretty well, and I like using both apps together.