Tech for Travel Talk Sat Jun 13 - Digital Wall Planners for Travel - online

Some of the tools we may Show and Tell are:

VIsual Planner - A highly popular, free, open-source web app that connects to your Google Calendar via API to render a custom full-year planner with readable event labels.

3M PostIt app - a free app for your phone to create a simple post-it style wall calendar; this app does not synch with your calendar, so it would be more for the daydream/vision stage of long range planning.

YearGlance - synchs with your Google Calendar to create a yearly view of your calendar that displays multi-day events; works nicely with your TripIt feed.

With the Wall Planners, I was looking for a tool that would display a high level, long range planning view, rather than an itinerary view.

For tools that are better at itinerary planning and management, we can briefly show TripIt and Wanderlog, mainly so that you can see what sort of calendaring you get as compared to a Digital Wall Planner.

We won't be going in to detail on TripIt and Wanderlog in this session, though I'm happy to do so in another session. And feel free to suggest other tools that you might like to see in a future Tech for Travel session.

Here is the thread about our research:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tech-tips/digital-wall-planner-for-travels

This should work for me, although it’s a travel day in Greece. Looking forward to learning new things!

I'm definitely on board for this one. I totally need to move out of the pencil-and-paper stone ages.

Wanderlust, that's great that you want to do that! I honestly think that working with tech, even as we get older, is a good way to ward off dementia. It's always helpful to learn new things, and it definitely opens the mind up to new possibilities. And I think it will be fun!

Watching our grandsons that day, but please send me the link in case I can join for a while.

I would like join-thanks.

Hi CW. I think I may be able to join you then. I should have a window between breakfast and an 8th grade graduation party at 12 noon PDT ( 2 pm here in Chicago).

Please include me as one of the paper dinosaurs trying together on board with digital travel help.

Welcome to everyone, including "paper dinousaurs."

Goal of using a Digital Wall Planner: to be able to see multiple of your trips across the months or even (with some of the tools) across the years. This is best for people who are planning several trips out in time, or just want to see the "big picture view."

Digital Wall Planners are not good at, nor intended for, keeping track of the details of a trip. Other tools (TripIt, Wanderlog, OneNote, spreadsheets, etc) are better for that.

Technical pre-requisites if you want to try any of the digital wall planners.

PostIt app for cellphones - this is the only tool that doesn't have pre-requisites that you have any of your travel planning online. You don't even have to create an account to get started. Simply download the PostIt app on your phone and try it. If you want to synch across multiple devices (e.g., phone and tablet) then you will need to create a free account.

Each of the other digital Wall Planners synchs with your travel plans in Google Calendar. To use those you will need to have a Google email address, have set up your Google Calendar, and have entered a "trip" into your calendar. Your trip can be as sparse as a multi-day event with the Trip Name, or it can include flights and hotels and any other activities.

Hi, sounds fun! Please send me the invite. : )

….just don’t take away my Post-It detailed calendar because they make me happy - LOL!

Oh, Jean, I won't be taking away your pretty post-it calendar. I know what you mean because my post-it wall calendar makes me happy as well! I only got started down this track because I am missing gazing at it and daydreaming about new trips!

Can you send me the link please. Not sure I’ll make it but sounds interesting.
Patty

Hey thanks CWS, great idea but I don't think I will make it this time.

Great topic! I can make the first part of the meeting, but will need to leave early.

I've sent the meeting details via forum message to everyone who has responded above. Please let me know if I inadvertently missed you. It happens!

Thanks for joining today!

I would be happy to host sessions on other Tech for Travel tools, perhaps an in-depth session on specific tools. Candidates might be:

TripIt
Wanderlog
OneNote
eSIMs
Expense apps, e.g., HandTrip, SplitWise
Google Wallet / Apple Wallet for reservations

You can comment on this thread or send me a note. If I don't know the tool very well, I can coordinate with someone who does.

I like those suggestions!

I also like those suggestions.

I'm interested in those topics, too.

Well this is interesting. My brother sent his flight details to me this morning. Immediately after (the timestamps are the same) I got an email from Google Calendar saying "Google Calendar now shows events from Gmail." And sure enough, his flight now displays on that Google Calendar.

It's been doing this for a while on my other Google Calendars and I didn't realize why it was happening. This was a new Gmail address, receiving a reservation for the first time, so Google sent the email.

It explains why events have shown up twice with my older Gmail and calendars. And it's a setting you can turn on/off.

The things you suddenly figure out after they've been staring at you forever!

I used the Splitwise app with my daughters during their trips. We just traded off occasionally with meals and checked it a few times during the trip to alternate who paid towards the end.

Thanks, Jean, I'm adding Splitwise to the list. Perhaps we'll have one session for expense apps.