Planning a trip is a multi-step process that demands a lot of attention. From staying on top of flight deals to keeping track of itineraries, trip planning isn’t something most of us do in one day. In fact, it tends to be an ongoing ‘project’ that gets built in bits and pieces, often during breaks from work, in the evenings and on the go.
In this series, we’re going to talk about the way we’re accustomed to planning a trip and the Evernote way of planning a trip. We’ll cover the planning process, as well how you can use Evernote during your trip and after you return.
The Old Way of Planning a Trip
Depending on the kind of trip you’re going on, planning starts with a grain of an idea and evolves from there. Most of us are used to checking into a number of websites to monitor flight deals, often emailing dates, times, and prices to family members and friends with whom we may be taking a trip.
When we’re reading an article online or in a magazine, we’ll often also email it, or cut it out and give it to our trip companions. Long email strings become even longer as we discuss potential departure and arrival times, places to stay, museums to visit, restaurants to try and car rental options.
Once we have finally gotten to the ‘booking’ part of the trip, we start saving and sharing plane tickets, printing out restaurant reviews, making copies of our passports (if we need them), writing down phone numbers in notebooks and stray pieces of paper and making packing lists. Some of these documents are handwritten, some of them are printed out, some are ripped out of books and magazines, and some of them are swimming somewhere in our inbox.
Before we even get to the airport, we have to think about all of the different places everything is saved, if it’s accessible to us on our phone and whether we’ll have an Internet connection where we’re going.
The Evernote Way
Planning a trip is made easier with Evernote in a number of ways:
- Clip ideas from websites as you come across them. For example, reading about a hip restaurant in New York City? Clip the page and save to your New York Trip notebook — tag with the destination and type (restaurants, for example). Do the same with itineraries suggested by your favorite travel blogs and reviewers. [Download the Web Clipper for your browser of choice].
- Clip flight options and save them to Evernote, email them directly from Evernote to your travel companions for feedback. Update your flight selections in Evernote so that you never have to refer back to long email chains.
- Create a shared trip notebook that you can update and share with friends. Drop in your itineraries, plane tickets and hotel confirmation numbers, destination ideas, as well as scanned copies of all of your passports. Premium Evernote users can allow others to edit notebooks, so you can plan your entire trip together in one shared notebook [see Introduction to Sharing].
- Take pictures or scans of travel books, travel accessories and clothes you might want to consider buying later.
- Save your packing list in Evernote. Take it with you when you’re out shopping for trip necessities. Check off items as you purchase them.
- Create a ‘Don’t Forget’ notebook or tag and make sure all images of items you’re bringing with you are tagged. Before you head out the door, search for this notebook or tag and make sure you’ve got everything you need.
- Take photos of your immunization cards if you’re traveling abroad. In case anything were to happen, you’ll be able to instantly pull up health records for a doctor to see. Take pictures of any prescription medications.
These are just a few ideas. We’d love to hear about the ways you’ve used Evernote to plan a trip. Share your tips in the comments and stay tuned for the next installment of the series: how to get the most out of your trip with Evernote.
Evernote Travel Series
- Travel Series: Planning a Weekend Getaway with Evernote, Plus Outdoor Tips from Weekend Sherpa
- Using Evernote for World Travel – Travel Series
