Its overwhelming – Air, trains, cars, hotels, BnB’s, but trip planning is made easier with the right tools – Evernote and Wunderlist help whip it all into shape.

Objectives.

1. A place to store information, AND be able to find it when you need it
2. Lists and reminders of what is left to do and what has been completed
3. Be able to access all of this offline, with everything backed up and easily recovered if needed

Evernote as your control center

If you are not familiar with Evernote follow the link and check it out. Just think of it as an electronic notebook on steroids.

First I set up a notebook for the trip. This becomes the storage place for everything. Web screen clips of places to visit, potential hotels, info on travel, etc. It all goes here. It is important to set the notebook up so it is available off-line. That way you can access it from your iPhone or iPad even if you have no access to wi-fi or phone coverage.

Next I create a table in Evernote (this is one time where the table works better than a spreadsheet) for the trip. This will be the control center it should look something like this.

Date, you could add day of the week if it helps. Sleep city, I always enter the city where I will be sleeping, needing accommodations. You want enough info for this to be useful, but simple enough to no complicate. The underlined green entries are links to other Evernote pages that have the details I will need when traveling. From this table I can access hotel, flight, car confirmations that were emailed. You simply forward the email to Evernote, place in notebook, and copy and paste the link into the table. This table also keeps you from missing a detail, if there is an empty cell, you can enter a task box to remind you.

 With the Evernote notebook and control table you can access anything you need from iPhone, iPad, or computer. And any changes made are automatically synced between all three. I even put screenshots of maps and ground views of locations into notes to be referenced while traveling.

 Wunderlist to track the tasks

Evernote has the feature to create to-do lists, and reminders, both of which I use. But for a project like a trip I like an interactive task list and Wunderlist is about as good as they get, simple but powerful enough.

I create a project list for the trip. Now there is a place to enter everything that comes to mind. With Wunderlist you can even place notes and have sub-tasks. You can have reminders and quickly see not only what you have left to do but what you have completed.

This is Wunderlist in its compact view.

You can also share and email lists to other travelers.

Planning a trip has a lot of details, the key is to keep them all in one place, use reminders, and have them secure and accessible for the trip.