Trip Planner All In One Travel Apps!
Savvy, on-the-go travelers have one thing in common, they stay organized with
trip planner all in one travel apps!
Ahhh travel, how we love thee! Be it for business, leisure, or bleisure, the art of travel can be a balancing act between excitement and anxiety. To get it right, it takes well thought out planning, efficient organization and a little risk taking.
Just how do savvy, on-the-go journeyers mitigate risk and take the stress out of travel? They stay organized with trip planner all in one travel apps!
The Magical Trip Planner All In One
In this article, we take you on our journey to discover the magical unicorn of all travel apps, the trip planner all in one! To this end, we need to ask ourselves exactly what are we looking for in this perfect trip planner?
To answer our question, we walk a week in the life of 7 vacationers and put ourselves in the shoes of this on-the-go group of adventurers.
Hatching A Plan & Getting Organized
In celebration of my bestie’s birthday, myself and 6 of our closest friends decide we need to escape the long days of winter by vacationing to a warm, sunny location. We have been cooped up most of 2020 and are simply dying to get away! Toes in the sand and spending precious time connecting is just the ticket.
We narrow down our April dates and begin focusing on location and begin by reviewing rules, health trends and online safety tips that may impact our decision. We discover that the CDC State & Territorial Health Department provides a lot useful information organized state by state.
Equally invaluable are online travel blogs and adventure guides. Alas, we all decide on Hawaii, specifically the island of Kauai. I mean, come on, it is HAWAII after all!
Now that our dates and location are determined, we set our sights on organizing our plans including flights, Lodging, rental car, and restaurant reservations.
Confirmations Begin Stacking Up!
Firstly, we focus on lodging! We elect to rent a vacation house and find a beautiful AirBnB that will accommodate our group. It’s in the perfect location at just the right price and our collection of reservations has begun!
Secondly, ground transportation. We agree two rental cars will do the trick for adventuring, road tripping and getting around in general. Those get booked and we have two more reservations to add to our shared stack!
Thirdly, each of us go about our business booking flights! Generally I use google flights to compare options, however I know Alaska Airlines has the routing I am looking for. Furthermore, I am part of the Alaskan Airlines rewards program and have a companion ticket through Alaskan that needs to be used. Therefore, a friend and I elect to book together, taking advantage of the discounted fare.
Six more reservations, now up to 9 and counting!
Now that’s money in the bank!
Maximize loyalty & rewards programs for amazing benefits!
Free Nights At Your Favorite Hotels
Flight Upgrades
Rental Car Discounts
Purchasing Points
Collaboration Is Key!
Since our lodging has a kitchen, we agree to share groceries and go out to dinner two nights as a group. We begin collectively building our shopping list and I go on point to research restaurant options using Yelp and TripAdvisor as a place to begin.
Two restaurants reservations made and we are now up to one master shopping list and 11 reservations. Quite the portfolio!
Leisure Becomes Bleisure
To make this trip a little more exciting, I have a few clients based in Honolulu that I plan to meet while in the area. Just like that, my trip has now turned into a true bleisure adventure!
To this end, I anticipate booking a hopper flight over to Oahu and reserve a few nights lodging under my Marriott rewards program and plan to use Lyft to get me from point A to B. Subsequently, I incorporate these logistics into my planning alongside those that our group has amassed. I ensure that I will save all receipts as my company has a strict accountable plan in place as a method for reimbursing employees for corporate travel and business expenses.
Take Off & Arrival
As we plan for takeoff, each of us agree that keeping in close communication and sharing real time flight alerts is essential.
Fast forward to landing and the art of the rendezvous. Since most of us are coming in at different times, on different airlines, we expect it to feel a bit like herding cats!
We joke about how great it would be to work from one collective calendar, synchronized with our master itinerary, to schedule times and coordinate rides. Furthermore, as most of us not have landed in Kauai, certainly accessing an airport map would go a long way in knowing the lay of the land.
Alas we come together and the snapping of photo’s has begun! Could our trip planner all in one support the sharing of photo’s too? We surely must be dreaming now!
Back To Our Original Question…
So back to our original question, just what ARE we looking for in this perfect app? If our group could wave a magic wand, we would ask for one app that does the following:
Priority #1 – Group Organization:
- Consolidate and organize travel details for our group of seven
- Create a master itinerary that can be shared with family, friends, and associates
- Co-create a grocery list for all of us work from
- Make individual packing lists that everyone could share
- Work from a common trip calendar app
- Upload photos to be shared
- Incorporate business-related details
Priority #2 – Inform & Push Resources:
- Receive real time flight alerts
- Download airport maps
- Highlight points of interest along the way eg. hikes, road tripping routes, places to visit
Priority #3 – Map Destinations:
- Map out driving directions based on booked destinations
Priority #4 – Streamline Expense Reporting:
- Upload receipts for our group, tag who paid for what
- Upload receipts and mark as reimbursable business expenses
- Export expenses to an expense report
Does Our Perfect Trip Planner All In One Exist?
With our needs identified and research conducted, we conclude that there are a host of single-purpose apps
While multi-purpose travel apps are few and far between, there are a host of single purpose apps that meet our multi-faceted needs when used in conjunction with each other. Below are such apps that would check a number of our boxes.
TripIt
Check out any review of “best travel apps” and you will find TripIt on the list! This app organizes reservations and creates master itineraries that can be shared with friends and family. Users simply forward reservation confirmations to be automatically added to a master itineraries.
While TripIt may not suit our group needs from a broader perspective, it does auto-sync with calendar apps such as Apple iCal, Outlook, and GooglePlay. Available on both iOS and Android, TripIt has a free version or you can upgrade to a TripIt pro subscription and access additional features.
RoadTrippers
Ah, the great open road! If you enjoy road tripping as much as me and my friends, you may find RoadTrippers a handy app! Enter where you want to start and finish and in short, discover destinations along the way.
Available on both iOS and Android, RoadTrippers offers a free version or you can upgrade to a RoadTrippers Plus subscription. The paid option allows you to plan longer trips, collaboratively. Furthermore, you can select from a list of offline maps to explore while off the grid.
Sygic Travel
It would sure be helpful to map out day-by-day itinerary details as a group or in support of my solo business trip. Sygic Travel could just do the trick!
The free version of this app catapults driving details by displaying itinerary information on a map. To this end, since we will likely be going to remote locations with spotty service, the ability to download maps ahead of time would put our mind at ease!
In addition to offline maps, Sygic provides readymade travel guides for over 10,000 locations. Upgrade to Sygic GPS Navigation to stay apprised of traffic, find the best parking spots, and avoid speeding tickets.
There is, however, a ray of aloha sunshine to this story!
New App On The Block – GOeConcierge!!
Released in 2021, GOeConcierge is a multi-purpose travel app created by our team of travelers, for the traveler. Designed to streamline organization, collaboration and expense reporting, this multi-purpose, sassy app combines the power of 3 apps in one.
To get started, create your first suitcase and you are off to the races! To organize your suitcase, adding receipts, confirmations, and other pertinent information is easy as snapping, uploading, and tagging accordingly. Once tagged, items are seamlessly scanned as a way of populating output documents such as a Master Itinerary and Expense Report.
Need to track, log, and expense mileage? Yep, you guessed it, it does that too!
And how about group collaboration? The ability to co-manage suitcases, along with built in communication features such as chat, creating lists, and assigning tasks, makes this ideal for individuals and groups alike. You can be certain that we will be field testing this baby during our Hawaiian adventure!
Try this ‘new app on the block’ free for 14 days or choose from a number of subscription options.
Don’t Just Take Our Word For It…
There are a myriad of apps out there and to find alternatives for TripIt, RoadTrippers, and Sygic GPS, simply head to the independent software marketplace, SaaSHub.
Likewise, the following articles highlight many of the top trip planner apps:
- TOP 8 trip planning apps 2020: Best trip organizers for your smartphone – Addevice.io
- The 9 Best Planner Apps of 2020 – The Balance Small Business
- Vacation soon? Use These Best 14 Trip Planner Apps in 2020 – Lynchberg
- 30 Essential Travel Apps Every Traveler Needs – The Points Guy
- 12 Best Travel Planning Apps 2020 – Traveling Lifestyle
- 25 Travel Apps That’ll Help You Save Money – O The Oprah Magazine
Regardless of the journey you are on, cheers to your success in staying organized, connected, and reimbursed! It’s a big world out there, stay curious.
We’re Curious … How You Are Preparing For The ‘New Normal’ Of Travel?
As the hospitality scene comes out of it’s post-COVID slumber and re-awakens as a redefined industry, just what will the ‘New Normal’ of travel look like?
Our team at GOeConcierge is interested in your opinion. What do you think the ‘New Normal’ of travel will look like and how will these anticipated changes impact you? If you have dusted off that wheelie bag, dipped your toe in and tested the waters, what have your experiences been so far?
