There are so many travel planning apps out there. I tried a lot of them and here are some of the most popular ones. I analyzed how well they work and compared them to each other so you don’t have to. Find the best travel planning app for you based on the following:
- User experience and learning curve
- Features and capability
- Price
- Pros and cons
Specifically, this post will compare and review the following apps: TripAdvisor, Travel Mapper, Wanderlog, Tripit, and Roadtrippers.
TLDR; there’s an infographic summarizing the findings at the end. Just keep in mind that this information is accurate as of the writing of the blog post. Prices, features, and functionality may change in the future.
Overview
I want to start by saying that this post will be from the perspective of travel planning, navigating during the trip, and documenting important information before and after the trip. All of the apps mentioned do these things to various degrees.
This post will be less from the perspective of scrapbooking your travels or getting deals on flights and hotels or social media related features.
Also, whenever applicable, I’ll use a rating system of 1 to 5, with 5 being great and 1 being poor, to characterize certain aspects of each app. With that context in mind, let’s get started.
User experience and learning curve
The user interface (UI), the “feel” and “flow” of the app is the first thing a user typically experiences. Complexity, colors, responsiveness, and how components of the app are laid out all contribute to the user’s experience and learning curve. Ideally, it is best to have a great user experience with as little of a learning curve as possible.
TripAdvisor
We all know TripAdvisor as a travel platform that provides reviews and ratings for vacation accommodations, restaurants, airlines, and attractions. It allows users to compare prices, make bookings, and access a travel forum for advice and experiences.
Lesser known is the travel planner that TripAdvisor provides for their users. It is by far the most simple user interface out of the 5 apps presented in this post. You can save attractions, things-to-do, restaurants, and more to your trip and then add them to a specific day in your itinerary. Additionally, you can add comments to each item that you’ve added as simple, unformatted text.
The map is available in both the mobile and browser version of the trip planner app but the browser map isn’t expandable and is limited in size. You can see your locations on the map once you’ve added it to your itinerary.
In both the mobile and browser versions, the UI is clean and uncluttered. If you need a high-level, general itinerary which can be viewable on your phone or computer, the TripAdvisor app will work for you.Here are a couple of screenshots from the mobile app.
Because it is so simple and clean, I’m giving TripAdvisor’s user experience and learning curve rating a 5 out of 5.
Travel Mapper
Travel Mapper is the most popular and highest-rated travel planning app that works with Google Sheets. If you’re familiar with Google Sheets, Excel or spreadsheets in general, learning to use Travel Mapper will be extremely easy. With this app, you can do very detailed planning.
To start, generate a template with Travel Mapper. This will automatically create 3 sheets that are designed and formatted to be an itinerary, a checklist for to-dos and things to bring, and a sheet to record and split expenses.
After that, the user interface of Travel Mapper essentially has two components: 1) a sidebar that shows a map next to the spreadsheet and 2) a popup that houses many of the other powerful features like a drag-and-drop, Trello-like interface for reordering and editing your itinerary and exporting your itinerary to Google Maps. All your activities and places can be seen directly on the map.
If you are not familiar with Google Sheets though, some of the aspects of the UI may be harder to find and it may take some time getting used to. However, the trade off compared with TripAdvisor’s planner is much more functionality.
Travel Mapper is mainly a web-based app and is meant to be used on your laptop. You can still see your itinerary, to-do lists, and costs using the Google Sheets mobile app but most of your planning will be done in a browser. Travel Mapper’s user experience and learning curve is a solid 3 out of 5.
Wanderlog
Wanderlog is a travel planner that is good overall. It works well for road trips, can do detailed planning, imports and organizes information. It allows users to plan in a web browser or using a phone with their mobile app.
The browser and mobile apps are very responsive and fast. The mobile app, despite the limited space, packs a bunch of functionality and you can do everything on it as you can do in the browser. You can see a map with all your activities and places pinned to it with color-coded markers.The app also suggests things-to-do and places to see directly in the app without having to leave it.
However, I do think the mobile app does seem cluttered and any serious planning will need to be done in the browser where there’s much more real estate. Here are a couple of screenshots of the mobile app in action.
Similar to Travel Mapper, the trade off between simplicity in the UI and the functionality and number of features is apparent. As a result, Wanderlog can take some time getting used to. But because of the responsiveness, I’m going to rate Wanderlog’s user experience and learning curve a 4 out of 5.
Tripit
Tripit is similar to Wanderlog in that it is a decent overall travel planner and you can get pretty detailed planning done as well. It has both mobile and web apps and recently, the web app thankfully got a UI upgrade making it much more user-friendly and pleasing to the eye.
Both versions of the app are uncluttered and show all the information clearly. Adding activities, or what Tripit calls “Plans”, is very simple and obvious.
You get to choose many types of plans to add and each one presents you with a different set of input fields to fill out. For example, if you are adding a restaurant into your itinerary, you can input the cuisine type, party size, and hours of operation. For lodging, you can enter the number of rooms booked and a description of the room.
The only nitpick I have of tripit is that you can't reorder the items in your itinerary easily. Unlike the other apps where you can drag and drop to change your itinerary, you can't do that with Tripit.
The straightforwardness and simple color scheme of the layout makes Tripit super easy to use and learn. Also, it has a great UI except for that reordering issue. So, I’m rating the user experience and learning curve a 4.5 out of 5.
Here are a couple screenshots from the mobile app.
Roadtrippers
Roadtrippers is an app that is slightly different from the rest as it is focused on road trips. It also has both a mobile and web version of the app. You can do decently detailed planning and the items you can add to your itinerary are referred to as “waypoints”.
The browser version predominantly shows the map and the route that your road trip will take. Within this map, depending on how you’ve set your filters, can show you all the options and locations spanning sights, campgrounds, gas stations, overnight parking and more. This information shown is just enough to give you a good idea of what it is but not enough to overwhelm you with data. As you want more and more detailed information, you can click through to get the UI to get it.
This is also how the mobile version works. The app is very good at showing you the minimal information so it is not cluttered. If you want to read more or input detailed information, it’s just a few taps away.
Both the mobile and browser based apps are fast and responsive as well.
Because of these reasons, I’m rating Roadtrippers’ user experience and learning curve a 4.5 out of 5.
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Features and capability
Now, let’s talk about each app's features and overall capability. This should answer questions like how well does the app help me plan? How many powerful features are there? Does it save me time? How does it keep me organized? Etc. I’ll take a look at each apps ability related to:
- Suggestions and recommendations
- Map utility
- Organization of information
- Automation
- Sharing and collaboration
TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor doesn’t necessarily suggest things directly in their trip planning user interface but they do have a vast collection of all travel-related activities, points of interest, tourist attractions since that’s the business they are in. You'll be able to search for these activities and points of interest based on location.
They all have super informative reviews and relevant information to the specific attraction. However, you can’t easily see those things on the map with your current itinerary. You can only see them on the map AFTER you’ve saved it to your itinerary.
The map is decently sized in the browser and covers the entire screen in the mobile app.
You can insert your own notes and places from TripAdvisor into your itinerary but that’s about it. You cannot hyperlink web pages or videos. You cannot categorize itinerary items. And you can’t add locations on the map that aren’t already a part of TripAdvisor’s places.
Similarly, for automation, all of TripAdvisor’s places will automatically plot on the map; however, for locations not in their database, you would not be able to plot those on the map. This includes airports, Airbnbs, and more.
You can easily invite people to view or edit your itinerary with a link that TripAdvisor provides.
Overall, because of some of the limitations of TripAdvisor, I give it a 2.5 out of 5 to rate its features and capability.
Travel Mapper
Travel Mapper does a decent job of suggesting things directly in the map but is limited to restaurants from Yelp and points of interest using Google reviews. However, this still allows you to easily see how specific things you may want to do are located relative to whatever is in your current itinerary. And you can add them with one click.
Travel Mapper has two maps: 1) a smaller one on the side that complements the spreadsheet and 2) a large one that shows in a popup. Both of them can be maximized. Markers on the map can be filtered by day and category as well.
Travel Mapper shines with respect to organizing and logging information. You can add hyperlinks to web pages and YouTube videos. You can plan out every detail if you like, from the time of activities to adding detailed notes to adding location information for any item in your itinerary. You can also categorize your activities, and they will be color coded on the map. You can also make a detailed budget and split costs with friends after the trip has ended.
Automation with Travel Mapper also saves you a lot of time. For almost any location you can think of, Travel Mapper will automatically find the address and plot it on the map as long as you have the place’s name. You can also get a relevant website and other important information for that location as well.
It’ll automatically generate the Google Maps directions for you when you’re planning so you have an idea of how long it takes to get from one place to another, and you know how to order items in your itinerary relative to each other. One of the most powerful tools is being able to export your itinerary to Google Maps to then be used on your mobile phone while you are on the trip.
You can easily share your trip with others via email or share the itinerary spreadsheet using Google Sheets sharing capability. All you need to start collaborating is a Google account.
Travel Mapper capabilities are very powerful so I’m rating it a 5 out of 5.
Wanderlog
A lot of users enjoy getting suggestions on where to go on a trip. The app that does this the best is probably Wanderlog. They provide relevant suggestions for individual activities, places to see, restaurants, etc. directly in the map as well as in the itinerary. They also suggest things from YouTube and TikTok to give you more context in your research. And finally, they have comprehensive guides and itineraries generated by fellow travelers.
The maps are also designed well and you can filter the markers to show your itinerary by day, they are color coded, and the information is nicely displayed.
Wanderlog can organize information similar to Travel Mapper with as much granularity as you want.
The automation offered by Wanderlog is also very good. It will automatically scan your Gmail and import pertinent items to your itinerary. It will optimize routes for you so that itinerary items are clustered together. It can also export your itinerary to Google Maps but the last time I used this feature, it was slightly buggy and did not work every time.
Finally, sharing is easy but requires your friends to also have Wanderlog.
For these reasons, I’m rating Wanderlog a solid 4.5 out of 5.
Tripit
Tripit’s capabilities are somewhat limited. It doesn’t have a map that shows all the places in your itinerary at once. It doesn’t have much automation capabilities aside from getting the address of a location. It doesn’t have any recommendations in the app.
The best feature of Tripit is its ability to organize detailed information ranging from what type of cuisine a restaurant serves to the email address of a specific point of contact. Another good feature is that you can export your itinerary to your calendar using an .ics file.
As for helping you navigate on the trip, Tripit does have features to alert you about travel updates like terminal changes, flight delays, etc., provides you with airport maps, and generally, guides you to get to where you need to go. This is something that Tripit does that stands out from the other apps. However, in my opinion, it’s not really worth it unless you are completely new to traveling.
Overall, I rate Tripit a 3 out of 5 for features and capability.
Roadtrippers
Roadtrippers’ recommendation engine is very good. They have blog-like guides similar to Wanderlog and can find the best places to visit near your route directly on the map. A lot of the relevant information is there and is easy to digest.
Roadtrippers map has a very cool feature that suggests places along the route of your road trip within a certain specified radius. If you select locations on the map, the map will reroute your trip to include it automatically. The map is comprehensive, and you can see your entire itinerary on the map as well.
You can organize your itinerary with decent detail by adding notes, arrival date, links, and more but it lacks categorization and color-coding.
In addition to the map feature mentioned previously, Roadtrippers automates other things like calculating the distance between waypoints in your itinerary, populating addresses and phone numbers automatically, and even helps you estimate the gas needed.
You can share your trip with others using a link but to invite collaborators, they will need a Roadtrippers account to contribute.
Overall, Roadtrippers functionality and capability is very good but it is narrowly focused on road trips which makes it incompatible for a lot of international travel planning. I rate it a 3.5 out of 5.
Price
The price of these apps range from being free to requiring an annual subscription. Let’s start comparing each of these apps starting with the free one.
TripAdvisor
The TripAdvisor travel planner is completely free. It doesn’t have ads either. However, if you are using it to plan, the app mostly limits you to using TripAdvisor’s large database of suggestions for your itinerary. It’s in their interest to funnel you to book these activities, lodging, and other stuff through them. This does restrict the design of the planner and is probably what drives the functionality of it.
Travel Mapper
As a Google Sheet add-on, Travel Mapper provides template itinerary, checklist, and “split cost” sheets free, forever. These sheets are well designed, copyable for future travels, and fully functional. For example, the “split cost” sheet comes with all the formulas necessary to split costs for up to 6 travelers and does all the math for you so there’s no confusion who owes what at the end. Sharing, collaboration, and offline access is free as well since this works with Google Sheets.
There’s a free trial period for all the premium features of the add-on including the following:
- Using dynamic maps to plot all your places filtered by day and category
- Search automation that finds places automatically by name and then populating the address and link to your itinerary
- Drag-and-drop interface for easy itinerary reordering and editing
- Exporting your itinerary to Google Maps for easy navigation on your trip
- Sharing a formatted itinerary via email that has Google Maps links embeddable for each location
- Seamless integration with the spreadsheet. For example, clicking a marker on the map will highlight the activity in your spreadsheet
After the free trial period, Travel Mapper offers subscriptions as low as $1 per month (billed annually) to have access to the premium features.
Wanderlog
Wanderlog’s planner is free to use in the mobile and browser apps. This includes the suggestions and recommendations, using the map, organizing your information, search automation, and budgeting.
The premium features that you have to pay for include:
- Attaching unlimited documents to your itinerary
- Exporting your itinerary to Google Maps
- Ability to optimize your route for time efficiency
- Automatically importing items from your Gmail
- Offline access
Paying for the subscription will set you back $49.99 per year billed annually or $5.99 per month billed monthly.
Tripit
Tripit’s travel planner is completely free to use so you can organize your information, locate the places in your itinerary, share your itinerary, and export it to your calendar at no charge.
The premium features that require a subscription payment include:
- Tracking your bookings and flights to alert you of updates in real time
- Notifying you of when better seats or airfare becomes available
- Helping you navigate by providing up-to-date terminal info, searchable airport maps, walking directions to gates, ride-share, and more
Tripit’s subscription costs you $48.99 per year.
Roadtrippers
Roadtrippers’ travel planner is free up to 7 waypoints. That means you can add 7 places to your itinerary and Roadtrippers will map it for you. This is pretty limited as typically road trips are more extensive than 7 locations. You can still access their suggestions and locations for free.
With the premium version of the app, you get:
- Adding up to 150 waypoints in your trip
- Tools to help you find overnight parking and other information for RVs
- Collaboration with friends and family
- No ads
- Improved map styles and live traffic display
- Offline access
- Deals
Using the premium version requires an annual subscription of $35.99 per year (billed annually) which calculates out to $2.99 per month.
Pros and cons
Finally, let’s talk about the pros and cons and the takeaways for each app considering all the mentioned information above.
TripAdvisor
The two biggest positives of TripAdvisor’s travel planner is that it is completely free and that it is super easy to use. It also includes a map to display your itinerary locations.
The downside is that it is not great for detailed planning. You can’t add locations other than what’s in their database to the map. This includes airports, Airbnbs, friend’s places, etc. You can add notes, but you can’t categorize anything or add hyperlinks.
Travel Mapper
One of the biggest advantages of using Travel Mapper is that it’s built into Google Sheets. This makes it inherit all sharing, offline access, customization, history tracking capabilities of Google Sheets. If you make a mistake, just undo the mistake or roll the spreadsheet back to a previous version. Don’t have internet? The Google Sheets mobile and browser apps have offline access all for free.
Another positive of Travel Mapper is its extensive capabilities. It helps you save time by automating a lot of things. It has a built-in map so you don’t have to spend time switching back and forth between Google Maps and whatever travel planner you’re using. You can email yourself (and others) the itinerary with Google Map links to navigate on your trip and much more.
The main disadvantage of Travel Mapper is, ironically, also related to it being an add-on for Google Sheets. For those unfamiliar with spreadsheet apps, there’s a bit of a learning curve. The layout and user interface of the app is limited to what Google Sheets add-ons provide and due to its design, it may take some time for users to get used to. Also, most of your planning will be done in a browser as Google Sheets add-ons don’t work with the Google Sheets mobile app.
Wanderlog
Wanderlog is an overall good travel planner and has a lot of good free functionality. If I had to pick between TripAdvisor’s travel planner and Wanderlog’s free features, I would choose Wanderlog. Despite some clutter, the UI of both the mobile and browser apps are fast and feel smooth. Another advantage is that, like Travel Mapper, the app is very capable in automation, organizing detailed information, displaying that information, and saving you time.
The main disadvantage is that it is the most expensive option out of all the apps reviewed. The other potential negative is that Wanderlog does generate revenue from affiliates. This may drive design decisions for their app that funnels you to booking lodging or flights through their channels and not serving you completely as a travel planning app.
Tripit
Tripit is capable in detailed planning and similar to TripAdvisor, has a very simple user interface. You don’t need to spend too much time getting spun up on how to use this app. The free aspects are all related to travel planning.
I think the biggest negative to Tripit is that it lacks a good map for viewing your itinerary. Also, I found it difficult to reorder my plans.
Roadtrippers
Roadtrippers is very capable in detailed planning and has great, informative suggestions from a large database of places. The premium features are very helpful for RV owners, and the map makes looking for things to do along your trip really easy.
The negative is that it’s not a general purpose travel planning tool as it is hyper focused on road trips. Obviously, this may or may not matter to you and could be perfect if you’re planning a road trip. But if you’re planning a non-road trip, you would have to use another app in addition to having a subscription with Roadtrippers.
Wrapping up
The comprehensive summary of this post can be compiled into the easily-digestible infographic below. Every app has its benefits and drawbacks. It is up to you to decide what is important to you and what you are willing to pay for.
If you’re looking for a good overall planning tool and willing to pay, Wanderlog is a decent option. If you’re a hardcore RV-er and looking to ride off into the sunset in retirement, Roadtrippers is the best choice. For Google Sheets users and/or getting the best bang-for-your-buck, Travel Mapper is the travel planner app for you. Looking for a free solution? Use TripAdvisor or Tripit. What do you think?
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You can try Travel Mapper for free and get 10% off using coupon code GIYLOGHE! Check out this video to see all the features in action:
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