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Trip Planner Overview:
Planning & Research, Bookings and
other trip actions |
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Planning & Research is the first step when you are
considering travel to a new destination. In
this phase, you will be writing down all the
locations you may want to visit, along with
transportation options and location activities.
Once you have decided on your
trip locations, create a new trip on your
My Trips page then proceed to the
other areas where you will enter your Main Trip Details, Locations,
Activities, Nights, Departure Date and other information.
After you trip information has
been entered, prioritize the activities that required
the activities that required
Booking. As
you complete each activity booking, track the information on the booking details
pages.
When you have completed
entering your trip details, you should print your
trip from the Trip Summary / Print Preview
page and bring it with you as a backup.
Configure the information you want to access using
the Mobile Trip Profile
and the information that will display on the
Public Trip Profile
if you will be sharing your trip with others.
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Trip
Planner Example |
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See an actual trip on our
Trip Planner Example page. Here we walk you through an
example of planning a trip to a primary
destination including two day-trips and an
overnight excursion.
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Trip Planner: Planning & Research |
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The planning and research phase may be
the most important part of your trip. This where you
discover where you want to go and what you want to do.
Keep in mind that depending on your trip, it may take weeks
to finalize your trip details. Take your time and
don't rush so you do not overlook something. During
this phase, you will note
details such as locations to visit, transportation and travel time
between locations as well as the activities you want to
experience. You will also estimate the amount of time
you think you will require at each location to accomplish
all you plan to see and do.
More details are available in our
Pre-Travel Research Area to
help with researching your trip.
See our
Planning & Research page
for a detailed example of how to starting planning a
trip.
Trip Planning &
Research is an interactive process. You can begin
entering your trip information into the Trip Planner
at any time. You will be constantly adjusting
your locations, activities, dates and times until you have
created the trip that works for you. Helping to guide
you through the process, we have listed
the steps to follow in a logical order to get you started.
It's important to note that you may update any of your trip
details at any time, although once you begin making actual
bookings tired to a specific date, changes will become more
restrictive.
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Trip Planner Steps |
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1 |
My
Trips |
Create a
new trip or select and edit existing trips. |
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2 |
Trip Details |
Set the main trip details and how you want to
share your trip with others. |
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3 |
Locations |
Select the
countries and enter the locations you plan to visit. Several quick-access icons allow you to easily view information about each location.
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Location attractions map |
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Location photos |
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Location news |
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Location info |
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4 |
Activities |
For each of
your locations, enter your planned activities
such as Accommodations, Transportation, Attractions and Other
Activities. |
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5 |
Nights & Departure
Date |
Set the trip
departure date and the number of nights required
at each location to accomplish all that you plan
to see and do. |
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6 |
Manage Booking
Priorities |
Manage the
priorities of the activities that require
booking so that you can book the most important
activities first. |
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7 |
Booking Details |
Track the
booking details for each of your activities. See our
Booking page for
more information on entering your booking details. |
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8 |
Travel Planner |
Set the
amount of time you plan to stay at each location
and the travel time,
transportation type, departure and arrival times
between locations. |
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Additional Trip Planner Features |
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Location Activity Groups |
Create Activity Groups for each location allowing you to group related activities together. Color coding provides an easy way to recognize related activities. |
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Trip Cost Summary |
The total cost of your trip broken down by location and activity. |
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Trip Sharing |
Share your trips with friends and family. |
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Mobile Trip Profile |
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Once you
have finalized your trip,
use your Smartphone to logon to our mobile
website using your same
account id and password to
view your trip using the
Mobile Trip Profile.
On your My Trips
page, you must configure the
Mobile Trip Profile to display
as well as set the
information you want
available to you during your
trip.
The Trip Sharing page
allows you to
control whether or not
other members can access
the trip's Mobile Trip Profile on
their mobile device when
they are logged in to their
account.
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Public Trip Profile |
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If you
plan to share your trip with
others, on your My Trips
page, you must configure the
Public Trip Profile to display
as well as set the
information you want
available to others.
To share
the
Public Trip Profile with
others, access the Trip
Sharing page when your
trip is selected. On
the page, you will be able
to send others a personal
email invite to view your
trip.
The Trip Sharing page
will also allow you to
control whether or not
others can access
the trip's Public Trip Profile.
It is not necessary to be
logged in or a website
member to view public trip
profiles.
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Print your trip |
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Before
your departure it's very
important to print your trip
from the Trip Summary
page. For a well
defined trip containing maps
and booking information, it
is invaluable to bring a
back-up copy of all your
information should something
happen to your phone.
From the Trip Summary
page, select the Print
Preview link. From
that page, simply print your
trip in a nicely formatted
version. |
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Download your trip for offline viewing |
Before
your departure, using the
Mobile Trip Profile on
your Smartphone, select the
icon to view the entire trip
in an expanded view.
In this
view, select your Smartphone
option to download and save
the page. This will
give you an offline
backup copy on your mobile
device of your entire trip
itinerary; including photos.
Having an offline copy will allow
you to access all your trip
information
even when you do not have mobile service or an internet
connection.
See our
Mobile Trip Profile - Expanded page
for detailed information on
downloading and displaying your trip
offline.
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