โ† Back to TripPlot

TripPlot user guide

TripPlot keeps one trip in one place: the spots you want to see, the day-by-day plan, the money, and the story of the trip once you're there. This guide follows one trip โ€” Pattaya 2026 โ€” through every screen. Nothing here needs technical knowledge.

Inside TripPlot, Help in the top bar โ€” or the Help button in any panel โ€” opens the part of this guide for what you're doing, next to your work. Tap any screenshot to enlarge it.

Places

Collect restaurants, sights and bars. Search, browse nearby, paste a Google Maps link, or tap the map.

Calendar

Drop places into mornings, afternoons and evenings; see it all in your phone's calendar.

Budget

Planned costs plus what you actually spend, in your currency and the local one.

Journal

Photos, moods and notes each day, with a private link for family and friends.

Agent

Send your plan to a travel agent for a quote, then import their booking back in.

Part 1

Your first trip

From signing up to a planned itinerary โ€” the order most people do it in.

Create an account

~2 min

Go to tripplot.io and press Start planning โ€” free (or tripplot.io/register).

  1. Enter your name, email and a password of at least 8 characters.
  2. Press Create account. You go straight to creating your first trip.

Next time, use Log in. Forgot your password? Forgot password? on the login page emails you a reset link that works for two hours.

Got a personal invite link?Friends and family of TripPlot sometimes get a one-off invite that includes Pro. Open the link and choose a password โ€” the email is already filled in. The link works once, only for that email.
The home page
Create your account

Create a trip

~2 min
  1. On My trips press New trip.
  2. Give it a title (โ€œPattaya 2026โ€) and tap the icon to pick an emoji.
  3. Start typing the destination. Suggestions appear as you type; pick one. TripPlot fills in the country, the local time zone and the local currency โ€” and looks up today's exchange rate for you.
  4. Choose the start and end dates.
  5. More options (optional, editable any time): time zone, home and local currency, the exchange rate, a total budget, and notes.
  6. Press Create trip. You land on the Places page, ready to add your first spot.

Nothing is set in stone: dates, budget and exchange rate can all be changed from the trip's Settings (cog icon, top right).

Free planOne trip at a time and 30 places per trip. Pro removes both limits.
My trips
Destination suggestions

Find your way around

~2 min
Tabs (top bar)Inside a trip: Overview ยท Places ยท Calendar ยท Budget ยท Journal ยท Agent. The highlighted one is where you are.
Bottom bar (phone)The same sections move to a bar at the bottom, in thumb reach. Agent is under the Overview's quick actions.
CogTrip settings: dates, currencies, budget, travel companions, calendar sync, journal sharing, delete trip.
SuitcaseMy trips โ€” every trip with its status and counts.
Your initialAccount: name, home currency, language, password, plan, log out.
HelpHelp for the page you're on, this guide, the iPhone guide and support. Panels such as Add place and Add expense have their own Help button; help opens beside the panel, so nothing you've typed is lost.
Trip bannerUnder the tabs: the trip's name, destination and dates, so you always know which trip you're in. A View only chip shows if you were invited as a viewer.
Round button, bottom rightThe main action for the page: Add place, Add to calendar, Add expense, Write entry. It opens a panel that slides up.

The Overview is the first page of every trip: four tiles (day of the trip or days to go, places saved and visited, items planned, budget left โ€” each is a shortcut), a map of every place, and Coming up, the next few things in your calendar.

UndoDeleted the wrong thing? Every delete shows an Undo button for ten seconds.
The Overview

Collect places

~10 min

Places are your wish-list โ€” restaurants, sights, bars, markets. Save them first; decide which day later. Press Add place. The panel has four tabs:

  • Browse nearby โ€” no list yet? Under the search box tap Food, Cafรฉs, Sights, Museums, Bars, Parks or Markets to see named places around your destination, nearest first.
  • Tap map โ€” press Pick a spot on the map, zoom in and tap a place's icon. A pop-up shows its name, type and hours so you can check it's the right one, then Save place. For somewhere without a name (a beach spot, a friend's villa) choose Name it myself.
  • My trips โ€” copy places from another of your trips.

More options holds the address, website, Maps link and which parts of the day the place suits (morning / afternoon / evening) โ€” that controls the slots offered when you add it to the calendar.

Make a list first. TripPlot works best when you know what you want to see: jot down places from blogs, friends or social media, then search for each one.
Browse nearby
Search

Keep your places organised

~3 min

Each place card shows its category, area, hours and price notes, and:

  • Maps โ€” opens the spot in Google Maps for directions.
  • Add to calendar โ€” next step.
  • Visited โ€” tick it off during the trip; visited places fade on the map and sort to the bottom.
  • Pencil to edit, bin to delete (with Undo). Added by โ€ฆ shows when a travel companion added it.

Filter chips at the top narrow by category (with counts) or show only Visited; the search box filters by name, area or notes. Switch List | Map to see everything on a map โ€” tap a marker to find its card. Map labels are in your account's language wherever the map has a translation (English street names in Bangkok, for example).

Place cards
Map view

Build the calendar

~10 min

From a place

  1. On a place card press Add to calendar.
  2. Pick the day and a time of day โ€” Morning (8โ€“12), Afternoon (12โ€“6) or Evening (6โ€“late).
  3. If the place's opening hours are known, each slot says Opens 10:00, Closes 14:00 and so on, and times when it's closed are greyed out. Closed all day? Pick another day, or Add anyway โ€” map hours are sometimes out of date.
  4. Press Add. The card now says In calendar: Tue 29 Sept (evening).

Anything else

On the Calendar page press Add to calendar (or + Add on a day) for an activity, a meal, transport, a flight (airports, flight number, airline, cabin, booking reference), a hotel (check-in and check-out) or a note. Choose a slot, or tick Set exact time. The cost field feeds the Budget's โ€œPlannedโ€ figure.

Add a place to a day

Two views

  • List โ€” every day in order, morning โ†’ afternoon โ†’ evening. Empty days are listed too, so you can see gaps.
  • Day โ€” one day at a time in three columns plus a Timed & all-day box for flights and hotels. The strip at the top shows every day with how many things are planned; use the arrows or tap a day.

Moving things: on a computer, drag a card onto another day or slot; on a phone, use Move. Edit changes details; Delete has Undo. Print gives a clean paper copy; Add to phone calendar on any item downloads just that event.

List view
Day view

Put the plan in your phone's calendar

~3 min

Each trip has a private calendar feed. Subscribe once and every change you make in TripPlot shows up in your phone's calendar โ€” flights with booking references, hotel nights, every activity. Pro feature.

iPhone, iPad or Mac

  1. Calendar โ†’ Subscribe (or Settings โ†’ Calendar sync).
  2. Press Add to iPhone / Mac Calendar. The Calendar app asks to subscribe โ€” tap Subscribe, then Add.

The iPhone refreshes subscribed calendars about once an hour; pull down in Calendar to refresh sooner.

Google Calendar

  1. Copy feed URL.
  2. On a computer, Google Calendar โ†’ next to Other calendars press + โ†’ From URL โ†’ paste โ†’ Add calendar. (Add to Google Calendar tries to open that screen for you.)

Google refreshes feeds every 12โ€“24 hours โ€” a Google limit.

Keep the link privateAnyone with the feed link can see your itinerary. Don't post it publicly.
Calendar sync
Part 2

Money and memories

Budget before and during the trip; the journal during and after.

Budget

~5 min

Four tiles: Budget (pencil to set it), Planned (costs you put on calendar items โ€” flights, hotel, tours), Spent (expenses you log) and Remaining. The bar fills as you commit money and turns red with a warning if you go over.

Two currencies: the AUD | THB switch redraws every figure. The rate beside it (โ€œ1 AUD = 23.442 THB ยท ECB rate ยท 25 Sep 2026โ€) is the published European Central Bank rate from when you created the trip; change it with its pencil.

Charts: Spent by category and Planned vs spent by day. Each has View as table if you prefer numbers.

Budget

Logging an expense

  1. Add expense.
  2. Type the amount (a big number keypad on phones) and choose the currency you actually paid in.
  3. Tap a category, add a short description, check the date.
  4. Tick Add another after saving to keep the panel open for a run of receipts. Save.

Each expense keeps the home-currency value from when you entered it โ€” matching your card statement even if you change the rate later.

Add expense

Journal and sharing

~5 min

Writing an entry

  1. Write entry. The day defaults to today while you're travelling.
  2. Tap a mood under How was it?, add a title and as much or as little as you like.
  3. Optionally choose Where were you? from your places.
  4. Add photos from the camera or photo library, then Save entry.

Framing photos: after picking a photo choose its shape โ€” 16:9 (the default), 4:3 or 1:1. Drag the photo (or use the arrow keys) and the zoom slider to choose what shows; Rotate frame flips a portrait shot. Photos are shrunk before upload, so full-size phone photos go up quickly.

Write an entry
The journal

Sharing with family and friends

In the Journal (or Settings โ†’ Share the journal) turn on the public link. Anyone with it can read the journal, see the photos, a map of your places and a compact day-by-day plan โ€” no account needed. Copy it into the family chat once; they can check back all trip.

  • Turn it off any time; the link stops working immediately.
  • Readers can't change anything or see your budget.
  • A Private / Public chip always shows the current state.

Pro feature; Free accounts keep the journal private.

What your family sees
Part 3

Working with a travel agent

Let a professional price the flights and hotels, then bring their booking back in.

Ask for a quote

~5 min
  1. Open the Agent tab and enter your travel agent's name and email. TripPlot remembers the agent you used last time.
  2. Departing from remembers your last choice; Use my location suggests the nearest airports (โ€œCanberra (CBR) ยท 7 kmโ€). Or type a city.
  3. Set the number of travellers and write a message: budget, cabin class, hotel preferences, must-haves.
  4. Leave Include my places wish-list ticked so the agent can suggest hotels near what you want to see.
  5. Check What will be sent, then Send quote request.

The agent gets a tidy email with your trip, day-by-day plan and wish-list, plus attachments for their own tools; you get a copy. Their reply comes straight to your email. Want a second opinion? Send another.

Ask for a quote

Import the agent's itinerary

~5 min

When the agent replies with a booking, don't retype it:

  1. Import itinerary โ€” drop an airline e-ticket PDF, a hotel voucher PDF, or the agent's .xlsx / .csv on the box. (Scanned PDFs have no text to read; paste the email text instead.)
  2. Or Paste text โ€” lines such as โ€œFlight QF2310 CBR-BNE 03/07/2026 08:50-10:30 PNR IPAJQYโ€.
  3. Preview import. Each flight and hotel is marked New, Duplicate (already in your calendar โ€” unticked for you) or Outside trip dates (tick Extend trip dates to fit if the agent moved your dates).
  4. Untick anything you don't want, optionally Replace existing flights, then Import.

Flights and hotel nights appear in your Calendar with times and booking references โ€” and in your phone's calendar feed.

Import itinerary
Part 4

Together, account and phone

Plan with others

~3 min

Trip Settings โ†’ Travel companions: enter an email, choose a role, press Invite.

Companion (default)Sees the plan, places, calendar and journal, and can add and edit places. Never sees the budget, expenses or item costs; can't change the calendar, journal or settings. For friends coming on the trip.
EditorCan change places, calendar items, expenses and the journal. For the partner you're planning with.
ViewerSees everything except settings; can't change anything. For a parent who wants to follow along.

They get an email with a link; without an account they create a free one with that email and the trip is waiting. Remove someone with the โœ• next to their name. Inviting companions is a Pro feature.

Planned the same city on your own?

In the shared trip, Places โ†’ Add place โ†’ My trips, choose your trip, tick places, Add (places already there are skipped). Later, editing one of those places in your own trip offers Update in Group trip too, and adding a new place offers Also add to Group trip. Nothing changes in the shared trip unless you tap.

Trip settings

Account and plans

~2 min

Tap your initial (top right) for Account: name, home currency, language (Chinese, Japanese and Spanish are coming), password, and Log out.

FreePro
Trips1 at a timeUnlimited
Places per trip30Unlimited
Calendar, budget, journal, agent quotesโœ“โœ“
Phone calendar syncโ€”โœ“
Share the journal by linkโ€”โœ“
Invite companionsโ€”โœ“

Online payment is coming soon; until then early users are upgraded by hand โ€” email support@tripplot.io.

The API token on the Account page is for developers; the iPhone app signs in with your email and password, so you don't need it. Never share it โ€” Regenerate token if you think someone has seen it.

Account

On your phone

~3 min

Everything works in a phone's browser: search for places while you're standing outside them, snap a photo straight into the journal, log a taxi fare before you forget it. The tabs move to a bar at the bottom, and money is entered with a big number pad.

  • iPhone (Safari): Share โ†’ Add to Home Screen. It opens full-screen like an app.
  • Android (Chrome): โ‹ฎ โ†’ Add to Home screen / Install app.
TripPlot for iPhone & iPadThe app (coming to the App Store) adds what a website can't: it works with no signal and uploads later, puts today's plan in a widget and a flight countdown on the Lock Screen, and makes the journal a two-tap job. See the iPhone & iPad guide.
Overview on a phone
Add expense on a phone
Help

Tips & shortcuts

Undo is everywhere

Deleted the wrong thing? Ten seconds to tap Undo.

Set a place's slots

Mark a jazz bar โ€œevening onlyโ€ and it's never offered for a morning.

Big money on the calendar

Put costs on flights and the hotel to see them against your budget before you go; use expenses for the small stuff.

Quick actions

The Overview's quick actions open the right page with the add panel already open.

Keyboard

Escape closes any panel; the โœ• or tapping the dark background does the same on touch.

Status

Planning โ†’ Booked โ†’ Active โ†’ Done in Trip settings is just for you; it shows on My trips.

Dark mode

Follows your device setting automatically.

Print

Calendar โ†’ Print gives a clean paper backup without buttons.

Questions

Is my data private?

Yes. Trips are visible only to you and the people you invite. The journal is private unless you turn on the public link, which you can switch off any time. See the privacy page.

Can I use TripPlot for a trip that's already booked?

Absolutely โ€” that's how it started. Add your flights and hotel to the calendar (or import the agent's booking), then build the fun around them.

Why can't search find a place I know exists?

Search uses OpenStreetMap, which is excellent for sights, hotels and most restaurants but can miss brand-new or very small venues. Use Paste link from Google Maps or Tap map instead. (The iPhone app also searches Apple Maps.)

Does changing the exchange rate change my old expenses?

No. Each expense keeps the home-currency value from when you entered it. The rate is used for new expenses and the currency switch.

My phone calendar hasn't updated.

Subscribed calendars refresh on a schedule (iPhone about hourly, Google up to a day). Pull to refresh in the iPhone Calendar app.

Can two people edit at the same time?

Yes. Changes save instantly; if you both change the same item within seconds, the last save wins โ€” refresh to see the other person's changes.

How do I delete a trip or my account?

Trip settings โ†’ Delete trip removes the trip and everything in it (you're asked to confirm). To delete your account, use the iPhone app (Account โ†’ Delete account) or email support@tripplot.io.