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Wanderlog Report from England Trip

Wanderlog is an app and website that allows you to do trip planning and organize your research and travel details. I spent a lot of time on it when I was planning my 5 1/2 week trip to England. Here are my thoughts:

First, I will definitely be using Wanderlog to plan more trips. It was incredibly handy to have. I would log on the night before to look at the next day's itinerary, check out things I needed to do, and something move things around. It was so convenient to have all this information in one place and yet be fluid enough so that it could be changed. I also used the app during the day. Sometimes I would add in a restaurant from the Restaurants category at the top, or just use the app to look at what I still had to see that day and figure out if it was still feasible. It was especially helpful in Cornwall and Devon when there was so much rain that sites were closed.

Next time, though, I will do my part and flesh out the information in the itineraries. For example, I added a lot of information that I found in other places (including here on the forum) to each destination and that worked out great. But I fell short by not doing that with all (or even most) of the places on my itinerary. I relied too much on the fact that Wanderlog gives you basic info and a link to the website for each place. The problem was I wanted more information for many of the places. I think I got a bit overwhelmed since the trip was pretty long. It will be easier with shorter trips, definitely.

There were a few issues. Some of the information about sites (museums, and so forth) was wrong. For example, Wanderlog said that the Birdoswald site near Hadrian's Wall was closed on Monday, which was not correct. I always check that stuff anyway, but it was something that should be corrected and I sent them feedback.

A lot of the bookings I got by email did not make their way into Wanderlog automatically, even though I have a paid version. They worked on Tripit, though. I wouldn't mind so much if it was part of the free version, but since it is a paid feature, I expected that it would work more often. But again, not a deal breaker and I sent them feedback on that as well.

Overall, I thought the app worked well and was a very handy tool for travel. I will definitely be using it again. I might go back to the free version after my paid year expires, but that depends on whether they fix the issues I sent them.

Posted by
7349 posts

Mardee, it’s early morning (3am) here in Italy, and the social gathering just finished at the piazza next to my B&B. : )

I was hoping you would give us your feedback on Wanderlog after your trip! I think your itinerary gave it a good exercise in testing the capability features, so it’s great to hear your perspective afterwards.

I found a glitch with TripIt during my flights. Sometime between the months when my flights were loaded into TripIt and when I received my boarding passes, one of the flight numbers changed. So, TripIt was giving me real-time updates for the previous old flight number when I landed at JFK. Thankfully, I had my boarding pass and glanced at the reader board before later seeing the info directions from TripIt. Whew, that could have been a huge mess, sending me to the wrong area of an airport! So, something to check in the future with all of these apps.

Posted by
2092 posts

Marge—glad you liked it! I swear by it and have it all set for our upcoming Iceland trip but still need to work on it for Norway as well as our Christmas market trips. I haven’t had any issues with the hotel email bookings not showing up, unless I screw it up. I double check myself on that every time.

Posted by
4202 posts

Interesting. I haven’t had a look at it yet but probably need to. I have a fairly elaborate spreadsheet and use the free version of TripIt for a scaled back look at my plans, as well as an easy way to share where I will be with some of my family. In fact, the other day making sure I had forwarded all emails to TripIt alerted me to the fact I had bought one train ticket for the wrong date. (Oops)

So I will have to see if Wanderlog could replace my spreadsheets…..

Posted by
4696 posts

I wanted more information for many of the places.

Thanks for taking the time to write up your review. Your comment about wanting more information is exactly what I was finding when I was trying Wanderlog for a couple of my trips. I also tend to add a lot of information about each destination to my OneNote notebooks, basically creating my only little electronic guidebook, and was investigating whether Wanderlog might save me some of that effort. Alas, I wasn't finding that to be the case.

I also found myself wishing that Wanderlog had more organizational structure than it's left navigation bar - the ability to "expand" and "collapse" to different levels of detail.

I do know that I'm "stuck in my ways" with OneNote, and perhaps if I actually used Wanderlog during a trip, I might be more tempted.

Posted by
6632 posts

Jean, sorry that TripIt had some glitches. I think all of us tend to rely on various apps, but they do fail sometimes so it's good to stay on top of everything, as I know you do! And I hope you get some sleep!

mikliz97, I will say that the misfires with email bookings all dealt with the local small B&Bs, so it could have had something to do with formatting. When it happened, though, it was easy to fix by just emailing it to Wanderlog. There were two that I had to input manually however, as they were casual emails between me and the owner. But I expected that.

TexasTravelMom, I like it because I am a very visual person and I love seeing the places on the maps, and the graphics and how I can see where everything is at a glance. The maps feature is really nice because it uses layers, so you can pinpoint certain days to show up on the map. I used that a lot to see how far places were from each other.

CWSocial, yes, it would have helped. That said, the fault there was with me not with WL. Wanderlog does have the capacity for users to enter as much info as they want. I just sort of petered out halfway through. But knowing how helpful the info I did add was, I will definitely spend more time on it next trip.

Posted by
2092 posts

Mardee--I am a visual person as well. The problem with Wanderlog and this is that I keep looking at it and want to go NOW, lol. I also like being able to look back at other trips I used it for, and that actually helped plan this trip a bit.

Posted by
6632 posts

Mardee--I am a visual person as well. The problem with Wanderlog and this is that I keep looking at it and want to go NOW, lol. I also like being able to look back at other trips I used it for, and that actually helped plan this trip a bit.

Ha ha ha, mikliz97, yep, I definitely feel some immediacy when I look at it, lol! And yes, I wholeheartedly agree about being able to use it for other trips. Did you know you can turn the trips into guides for other people as well? I haven't tried it yet, but might take a shot at it when I get a chance.