The Best Trip Planner & Itinerary Apps
Trip planning apps turn scattered confirmation emails into one itinerary, map your stops and share plans with travel companions. Road trip planners find detours and attractions along the way. Most work offline once the trip is loaded.
What is the best trip planner app?
Wanderlog is the most complete free trip planner: you build day-by-day itineraries on a map, import reservations from your email, track a budget and plan together with friends in real time. TripIt takes the opposite approach: forward your booking confirmations and it builds one master itinerary automatically, with flight alerts in the paid version. Polarsteps plans routes and then tracks your trip automatically, creating a map and travel journal you can turn into a photo book.
How do I plan a road trip?
Roadtrippers is built for road trips, finding attractions, restaurants and quirky stops along your route and estimating fuel costs. Furkot plans long drives in detail, scheduling overnight stops and driving hours per day. For European driving, ViaMichelin adds toll costs and routes.
How do I make a travel itinerary?
- Fix the non-negotiables first: flight dates, events and pre-booked tours.
- Group sights by neighbourhood to cut travel time.
- Plan no more than two or three major things per day.
- Add travel time between places, including getting to and from stations and airports.
- Leave a free half-day every few days for rest, weather and discoveries.
Do I need a paid trip planning app?
Not for most trips. The free versions of Wanderlog, TripIt and Polarsteps cover itineraries, maps and sharing. Paid upgrades add offline maps, flight alerts, route optimisation and unlimited exports, which are useful for complicated multi-country trips or frequent business travel.
Tips for planning with friends
- Use a shared planner so everyone can add ideas in one place.
- Agree a budget early and track shared costs with Splitwise.
- Vote on must-dos, then plan free time for everyone to do their own thing.