If you’re reading this, then you are on a computer or a smartphone. Which means that you already have at least one of the tools necessary for TripIt. TripIt is, as their slogan says, a place to organize your travel. You can use their website or one of their mobile apps (they support iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry, and they have a mobile site if you don’t have one of those).
You start by making a new trip, naming the dates and destination. Then you can choose to make your trip public or private. You can have friends on TripIt, so if your trips are public, your friends can view them. Once you add a trip, you can add different plans on different days. You can add an assortment of things from flights to restaurants to meetings. There’s also a general “activity” category for plans that don’t fit into any other category. When you choose to add a plan, you get to add as much information as you’d like. You can add simple things like time, or you can add more detailed things like confirmation numbers and contact phone numbers. This is great when adding things like reservations.
One of my favorite things about TripIt is their “Itinerator.” Thanks to modern technology, you can email any trip information to [email protected] (once you make an account), and the Itinerator will glean the important facts and put them in as plans in your trip. For example, if you were to email your flight confirmation to the Itinerator, it would not only add the confirmation number, times, and dates, but it may even give you a link to their website to check your flight status or check in online. The only thing downside to the Itinerator is that you should double check all of the information it puts in just in case because it’s not perfect.
The mobile apps are awesome too, or at least the BlackBerry one is. You can see all of your TripIt information right from the app on your BlackBerry, and it syncs with your calendar too. Now if you need any information, like a confirmation number (even the date you booked the reservation!), it’s all right there! I assume that the other mobile apps work similarly if not exactly the same.
Overall, TripIt is an awesome program to put all my plans together, and it’s easy to figure out. Plus the Itinerator’s just awesome! I definitely suggest checking out this website if you haven’t at tripit.com.