wco81

So as I was planning to fill up my TripIt itinerary for an upcoming trip, I realized that I'm doing the same research that I did years ago when I visited many of the same places.

I've been using TripIt for a couple of years, not so much for flight tracking but for building up an itinerary that I can access before, during and after the trip. Though I wonder how far back they will archive previous trips. It may be worth archiving them yourself, since you can't depend on a free service which also happens to be a startup.


The other thing I realized is that I just do all this homework before trips but don't document the trip itself. I haven't been particularly interested in writing up TripAdvisor reviews or writing a blog.

But there's really no judgement or appraisals of the places I've visited, other than in my mind and memories. So is there a quick and easy way to do some of these things?

Like rate hotels and restaurants, even enter a brief summary, attach pictures. I've been using Evernote Food for awhile and that does let you do log your meals pretty easily. I've mostly been taking pictures though. It would be useful if they had a means to upload this info. to TripAdvisor or some other travel site, if you wanted to. Or maybe export to a format that a blogging site like blogspot.com could automatically format and publish.

TripIt could be a good starting point but obviously their business model is to upsell the paid version of their service, not to enable journaling.

I don't know if they provide APIs to outsiders to import/export the data from the itineraries its users build up. Nor whether most TripIt users are building up detailed itineraries (beyond having the flight and hotel info auto-populated) or whether TripIt is the most popular service for this kind of activity.

Or whether popular travel sites like TripAdvisor would work with a different service like TripIt to allow customers to send data back and forth between the services.

Maybe it wouldn't be that popular an activity. TripIt and most other travel services have hooks to Facebook and other social networks and sharing plans may be the extent of what most travelers should communicate about their travels.

Or has anyone been using software which lets you collect this kind of data -- ratings or notes, judgements of places you've visited?

ross123

Can't help you with most of that but my earliest trip with TripIt was March 2009. That is when I started with them so they have everything I have done. I don't know if it will go on forever, but we will see.

I have since stopped using them and moved back to Tripcase. This is mainly because the iPhone app for TripIt is very slow for me with the latest application update --- prior to that it was pretty solid. It seems more interested in loading the adverts than the data and the app is unusable until it loads. I know its a free service and I would shell out the $50 if I was sure it was fast.

I have used other apps that use the TripIt API to get the data and have paid for them so that might work out as well. There might be some like

http://www.silverwaresoftware.com/TravelTracker.html

they use the API so the data is available from TripIt and then can store additional information above that, they may be able to help and provide you what you are looking for. they've been accomodating to me with features in the past (not sure why I am not using them anymore. Note that each module costs (such as the app, then adding TripIt integration, then expenses, etc).

wco81

Thanks for the pointer. That seems more GPS-centric, like it tracks your miles and locations.

More practical for people who want expense reports easily generated and so on.



I guess most apps. are going to be geared for business travelers, not for the leisure travelers who write up trip reports and such.

ross123

I was thinking of the TravelTracker screenshots that have a link for a photo album and notes that attach to the trip.

wco81

Thinking more about it, TripIt could just add more fields or different event types and let you rate the hotel, restaurant, activity right in the app.

When you import an event, it asks you to rate how good the import was. So they could have something similar for venues, maybe let you attach pictures and enter some summary.

Then be able to export just that info. or even upload the review right to TripAdvisor or similar service.

But TripIt seems mostly focused on up selling you to their Pro service for latest updates on flights. For leisure travel, that info. really isn't as critical as the business traveler who has to fly all the time.

wco81

I was looking for info about hiking trails for an upcoming trip and found a couple of sites where people had logged their runs, bike rides and other physical activities.

One was mapmywalk.com and the second was everytrail.com. They both make apps for tracking some activity with GPS, to record the distance and other details. They let you take pictures and embed them on your activity or trip.

Everytrail.com lets you embed videos as well. Some members of those sites are using them to record car trips, because the distances covered couldn't be done on foot or even on bikes in the times indicated.

So I searched travel journal on the App Store and there are several apps, like Trip Journal, Travelpod, Travel Log, Travel Guide and Journal and others. They seem to all let you take photos and notes that you would upload to their sites (requiring accounts). Then you can also share on FB, Twitter or wherever.

I downloaded an app. called Triposo, because it was suppose to offer free guides. But it too has a journaling feature.

So I would assume these wouldn't produce some longer form blogs or entries. Just an easy way to build a map of the places you went to, with photos and notes embedded for a given place. That might be enough for most people. Surprised at how many services there are for this.

Thing to be wary is to upload a lot of content and then the service goes under or they stop archiving your content after a certain amount of time. Most of the apps. are free so probably ad-supported? I didn't see a sign of a pro version.

Anyone use these kinds of apps? I guess if you can print them out or save to a PDF, there wouldn't be as much concern about your content disappearing.

ckaray

If anyone likes being an early adopter for new tech stuff, I've designed a travel journal system you can try.

Its in private beta right now, but if you request an invite I'll send ya one.

Its called Pictoura.com

Let me know what you guys think.

HockeyCoachBen

FYI - I sent you a PM about this.

boerne

me too