I’m not exactly what you’d call an early adopter when it comes to technology. My phone is not smart and actually looks a lot like Limited Too dressed up a clamshell. But I have big trips coming up and I need to be organized - especially since I’m now planning for two… my boyfriend Ralph is not exactly known for paying attention to details like flight times or even days.
By way of two red-eyes, Ralph and I will arrive in Ireland in late August for one of my best-friend-forever’s weddings (!!!!). Because I studied abroad in Galway and it will be Ralph’s first visit to one of the most festive, friendly and green countries we've got, we’re going to be making some serious moves in a short amount of time so he can soak it all in.
I recently sat down to start planning, and immediately felt overwhelmed: how am I going to catalogue our reservations, sights to see and bars to booze at without spending hours formatting a Word or Excel document?! And like a gift from God I heard in my head “TripIt.”
I knew of the website, but had never actually checked it out. TripIt, in short, is like my mom planning a Moynihan Family Vacation, but on steroids. Thorough, sharp, accurate, free, and with an inspirational picture included.
What is TripIt? The long answer according to their website, “TripIt turns chaos into order.” The site streamlines all of your separate bookings into one easy-to-read document. All a traveler has to do is “forward their travel confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com. TripIt processes these emails and automatically creates a master itinerary with travel plans, daily weather, local maps, restaurant reservations, city guides and more. With TripIt, travelers can print, access and share their travel plans online, from a mobile device or even in their personal calendar.”
Like every new toy, I’m pretty excited about the service but also don’t yet know its full potential (or experienced its drawbacks). All I know for certain is it felt like magic when I pressed send to their email address and all of my reservation details appeared in perfect order. I also very much liked the fact that you can manually input the address for a random B&B and the site automatically spits out directions to and fro the destination. The Google maps and directions are one of my favorite features so far… since you know, my clamshell doesn’t have GPS.
Check it out! http://www.tripit.com/
