Hi there! Welcome to the brand spanking new Vagabond Column. My name is John O’Nolan, and I’ll be your host on a weekly basis as I set off around the world, working and writing as I go along. The point of this little corner of Travelllll.com is to share essential tips for the quintessential travel blogger on the road. These will be bite-size articles ranging from product reviews to quick tips for getting online in an unknown location.
Keep Yourself Sane with TripIt
Today, I wanted to take a quick look at a little service called TripIt. A stupendously useful little app which I’d highly recommend not just to travel bloggers, but to anyone who does any degree of regular traveling.
The premise of TripIt is simple: It manages all of your bookings (flights/hotels/car rentals/events) in a single online account, which is constantly synced with your mobile phone. The really clever part is that it’s all completely automatic. You set TripIt up to monitor your inbox, and whenever you receive a booking confirmation email, it automatically imports all of the information into your TripIt account and creates a customised itinerary for your trip.
No more digging around in your handbag (or manbag) for those confirmation numbers and reference codes. Just fire up your iPhone, look up the details, and even get a map to where you want to go. It’s that simple. There are also various social features which allow you to share your upcoming travel plans directly through Tripit, or via Twitter and Facebook.
TripIt is completely free, but they also offer a pro service which does clever things like monitoring your upcoming flights for you and emailing you with any gate changes, delays, or cancellations – often before the information even reaches the airport monitors. If you choose to shell out for a pro account, you can also manage all of your ‘air miles’ accounts in one place and keep track of how many points you’re racking up across all your different club memberships.
Why Should You Try It?
For the long term traveller, TripIt cures headaches. It centralises all your most critical information and makes it very easy to find the details you need while on the road.
Personally, I’m pretty bad at organising my travel… or rather: I’m pretty good at organising my travel and then losing everything and anything related to it. TripIt makes more difference to my life on the road than anything else – because it makes it easier. If you haven’t tried TripIt before, check it out over on TripIt.com – you can find me on TripIt here.
Are you a TripIt user? What other services like this make your long-term-travel life easier? What else would you like to see me cover in future columns? Let me know in the comments!
Post Revisions:
- 30 October, 2011 @ 18:19 [Current Revision] by John O'Nolan
- 25 October, 2011 @ 8:27 by Alastair McKenzie
- 24 October, 2011 @ 20:36 by John O'Nolan
- 24 October, 2011 @ 20:25 by John O'Nolan
- 24 October, 2011 @ 20:24 by John O'Nolan
- 24 October, 2011 @ 20:16 by Alastair McKenzie
Tripit is my #1 travel app on my iPhone. I have no idea what #2 is.
TripIt is a great application which I’ve been using for the last couple of years. One thing I’ve noticed, however, is that if I construct a detailed trip itinerary on the web version and add details later (e.g., updated train trips with Deutsche Bahn in Germany), those details are not listed on the mobile version. It’s odd, but certainly not a show-stopper.
I’ve used TripIt for a couple years now. I love that I can forward confirmation emails and they are automatically inserted into the trip. So handy!
I have liked my free account with TripIt, so easy to keep track of things w/ email connection and nice to see where my friends are around the world. But if I had the paid account and could ditch AwardWallet to keep track of everything with one app – I’d be singing the praises of TripIt just like this.
I would literally be a lost soul without TripIt. It stops me from missing flights and getting lost in dark cities across Europe. TripIt is tres awesome.
We have been using TripIt for a few years now and it’s instrumental for keeping hotel stays, car rentals and dinner reservations straight. The integration with Google calendar on my Droid is an extra bonus. (Love Gary’s comment above!)
I’m using Tripit for the first time right now for a trip in November to New York. So, far, I’m liking it.
Love love love TripIt! I use it for all my trips. :)
I’ve been using the free app for a couple years and love how my itinerary is automagically created when I forward my confirmation(s). I’d like to try out the paid version, particularly as a way to track my miles.
Tripit has saved me at many a UK border crossing (which have become increasingly difficult lately) — I pull out my iPad and say, “LOOK! PROOF THAT I’M NOT STAYING HERE FOREVER!” Since I usually don’t have a way to print, it’s invaluable having it all online, in one place that I can access on my netbook, iPad or iPhone. I have a few different miles accounts, so I’d love to experience the paid version so I can keep all of THOSE in one place!
Loving TripIt! I’m currently using it to organize my trip to countries across 3 continents. Amazing.
Love TripIt! Wouldn’t travel without it.