I’ve recently returned from about a year of constant travel. During my travels, I planned most of it on my own using a few custom planning forms I’ve developed over the years, as well as a few basic tools. However, after researching the current offerings of travel planning tools on the internet, I now know that there’s a bunch more out there that would have made my job a lot easier.
Out of my research, here are five great adventure travel planning tools that will make strategizing your next journey much easier:
- Bon Voyaging
Avid traveler and entrepreneur Nikki Cohen’s brand new Bon Voyaging tools provides you with an online interfaces tailored to research, explore, plan, and organize your next trip. I was involved in the feedback and testing process of the app, and I love the unique multi-pane design, as well as PDF printout view of your completed journey, complete with background and graphics customizations.
- Outbounding.org
A Reddit for travel geeks, this is my go-to list for new travel ideas. Community submissions get filtered and discussed, and the cream floats to the top. It’s very very difficult for me to browse this site without getting a serious case of wanderlust. View my own profile.
- TripIt
My personal standby favorite for automatically keeping track of logistics details is TripIt. Simply forward your travel booking confirmation emails to a special email address, and all of your travel details are extracted and consolidated into a unified timeline. The info syncs to a mobile app, and is available for offline viewing when you’re looking for your confirmation number while checking in at the airport, franticly looking up your departing train’s platform number, or wondering how many more miles you need to travel before you go platinum. - Pinterest Place Pins
New tools are just great, but what about making the most of what you already use? Chances are you already have a Pinterest account, and might already use it to collect shopping items, design ideas, etc. Now, you can save travel ideas with the new Pinterest Place Pins. From Pinterest: “Place Pins were designed to combine the beautiful imagery of a travel magazine with the utility of a map online so you can share it with friends. You can access them from anywhere on your smartphone, too, which means you can find new places on the go and even get directions! Place Pins also include extra details like the address and phone number right on the Pin so you can easily pull up useful info on a weekend adventure or before a night out.”
Pinterest Place Pins in action - Roadtrippers
Aimed squarely at developing road trips within America, RoadTrippers features a super compelling UI, with an extensive places database, as well as lots of pre-made guides. As soon as RoadTrippers expands its scope to all of the Americas, I might use it to plan my dream road trip from Denver to Usuaia…
Ps.. Looking for some personal help planning your next adventure? Drop me a line.