Next weekend, I’ll be hopping a plane with five of my closest friends and traveling to New York City for the very first time. I am so excited! One of the most fun parts about any trip is the planning that happens before actually leaving. In the case of my upcoming spring break plans, we did a lot of collaborative planning to make sure we would cover a lot of activities we were interested in. I’d like to share some of our favorite planning tools for this group trip; even if you’re not leaving on a vacation anytime soon, it’s still fun to plan out future travels!
One of the coolest ways we planned out activities was using a shared Google Map. I didn’t even know that was a thing until my friend emailed us all with a shared link. Everyone can drop pins in different categories on a map of where you’re going. This makes it easy to visualize all the activities you want to do, and lets you do them in clusters based on location. Pretty handy if you ask me!
Another tool that’s been helpful in planning a group trip has been Google documents and Google sheets – to keep track of activities, day by day break downs and shared expenses. Even if you’re not going with a group, having all your activities and budget in the cloud makes it easy to keep track of important information.
If you’re a little unsure where to start planning activities in the city/state/country of your choice, one fabulous discovery tool is Pinterest. Type in the name of your destination and be swept away with photos, planning guides and blogs devoted to making sure you have a good time at your final location! Along with finding relevant pins, be sure to see if there are any user comments for any further recommendations.
One other super important tool (not necessarily for planning) for group trips is Venmo. Venmo is an app that lets users directly pay other users with money from their bank accounts. One person covering the dinner bill? Venmo them your $15 share instantly. No cash or checks involved.
Finally, in anticipation of all the glorious restaurants in New York City, Yelp has been our handy companion in looking for great, well reviewed food on a budget. We’ve established a few eateries we can’t wait to check out, and it’s nice knowing the place you’re eating at has been well received by others! If you’re craving something specific, Yelp will help you look at the best restaurants of that type closest to you. It’s magic, really.
So those are a few tools that are making my upcoming trip easier. Do you have any favorite online tools for making your vacations smooth and memorable?