How do you keep track of your travel ideas?

Hey guys - my friends and I have been making plans to visit a few cities in the USA. We've created a handful of whatsapp groups to keep track of restaurants to visit, tourist sites to see, etc, but are looking for a tool to be a bit more organized. I've looked at a few tools like TripAdvisor (not bad, but it's less designed to compile ideas and moreso designed to save and eventually buy tours), Wanderlist (half-assed at best), and TripIt (also not bad, but moreso for creating solid itineraries than any kind of idea storage).

What do you guys use? Are there any niche apps out there that could store location-specific notes on restaurants and sites and tours and hyperlinks and all that fun stuff?

I have a Samsung phone so these days I use Samsung notes and make separate notes for my destination with food and sightseeing suggestions listed. Before I used a sticky notes app which did a similar thing.

I don't think it is necessary to purchase an App or anything similar. For many years I save information on my computers. On my old Mac I had Yellow Sticky notes, on my Windows computers I had Notepad, on my Chromebook I have Text. All came free with the computers.

If I have information that I want to save I put it on one of these free apps that come with a computer. I delete old info update the new information and click save.

I also save information in my email folder section. Less user friendly but available anywhere I can pull up my email account. (Send email to myself, then save it.) Every now and then I weed out old stuff not needed and create a new updated "Note" that I save. I use a separate email for current flights and hotel information. Delete old info and save newer info in a new email folder.

I have never even considered this a problem. But I come from a time when there were no computers and therefore - no apps. All my information was printed in books or written on paper. In those days travel agents were helpful in making reservations and getting tickets and they got their pay from hotels and airlines..

If I am traveling by car or on our sailboat, I trace out the route on a map or chart. Sometimes in the past I printed a road route out, but this was less than satisfactory and I can now save it on my phone. Sometimes I would have the AAA do a triptik for me and I rely on their travel guides to find places that are interesting to visit. In the past I carried a separate gps with me (both in the car and on the boat), but now for the car my phone is enough. We still carry paper maps and charts. For a trip in the USA, I can't recomment AAA enough (American Automobile Association)

For hotels in other countries, I generally use booking.com. For hotels in the country where I live, I use google maps to figure out where I want to stay and then book direct with the hotel so I can get points. I am not interested in boutique hotels. It doesn't matter to me that I am not staying in an interesting hotel and I don't really like big city hotels. I want a clean comfortable room (accessible), free parking, free wi-fi and a good free breakfast.

One of my daughters put Whatsapp on my phone, and I did use that to get in touh with a guide in Quito that she recommended. But that's the only time I have used it.

Right now I have an folder in my email for each trip. All the information on flights and hotels is stored in that folder. Also all the emails between me and travel companions.

For instance when I went to Paris with my granddaughter, I asked her what she particularly wanted to see. She was not interested in Versailles or the Louvre so we didn't go to Versailles (I have been twice) and I went to the Louvre by myself while she visited the catecombs. I booked a walk on the left bank through a website I found.

This visit was before a river cruise and booking a cruise, I always use a travel agent (it doesn't cost anything to do that) and have that agent also get tours etc. for me. I do not use Viator except to get an overview of what is available or might be interesting. For obvious reasons, I don't use TripAdvisor because I started with Virtual Tourist in 2002 and have never forgiven TripAdvisor for getting rid of VT

Incidentally, except for once in a lifetime visits to Famous restaurants, I have never found that it worked to try to figure out what restaurants to eat at. No matter what I have planned, when it comes to a time when we want to eat, it works better to just look around where we are to see what's available and go and eat there - rather than trying to travel to a previously picked restaurant.

[ Edit: Edited on 30 Jul 2023, 17:39 GMT by greatgrandmaR ]

Try using Travellers point trip planner. https://www.travellerspoint.com/planner/ it might come in handy.

I saw an article in the paper which purported to be apps to organize travel. One was Tripit. One was an airline schedule ap, one was using an app to get the best prices on hotels. I didn't think they were very helpful. Just 5 different apps for different aspects of travel. No coordination