TripPlot user guide

Go to tripplot.io and press Start planning — 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.

1. On My trips press New trip.
2. Give it a title (“Pattaya 2026”) 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 — and looks up today's exchange rate for you. If you just type the place without picking, TripPlot looks it up when you save and still sets the currency and time zone (a time zone you chose yourself under More options is kept).
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. The local currency follows the destination while Use the destination's currency is on; turn it off to choose your own (say, US dollars in Cambodia).
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). Change the destination to another country and the local currency and rate follow it; a message offers Undo for 10 seconds. Undo keeps the old currency and stops it following the destination. Expenses you already logged keep their amounts.

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 — each is a shortcut), a map of every place, and Coming up, the next few things in your calendar.

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

• Search — type a name (“Hilton Pattaya”, “Jazz Pit”). Results come from OpenStreetMap, near your destination. Pick one and the name, address, area, category and often the website and opening hours are filled in. Check them, then Save place.
• Browse nearby — no list yet? Under the search box tap Food, Cafés, Sights, Museums, Bars, Parks or Markets to see named places around your destination, nearest first.
• Paste link — found it in Google Maps? Share → copy the link → paste. TripPlot pulls out the name and location.
• Tap map — 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 — 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) — that controls the slots offered when you add it to the calendar.

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

• Maps — opens the spot in Google Maps for directions.
• Add to calendar — next step.
• Visited — 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 … 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 — 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).

From a place

1. On a place card press Add to calendar.
2. Pick the day and a time of day — Morning (8–12), Afternoon (12–6) or Evening (6–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 — 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 “Planned” figure.

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

iPhone, iPad or Mac

1. Calendar → Subscribe (or Settings → Calendar sync).
2. Press Add to iPhone / Mac Calendar. The Calendar app asks to subscribe — 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 → next to Other calendars press + → From URL → paste → Add calendar. (Add to Google Calendar tries to open that screen for you.)

Google refreshes feeds every 12–24 hours — a Google limit.

The Flights tab collects the ways you could get there and back (and trains, buses or ferries during the trip), so you can compare them side by side before you book. On a phone, open it from the Flights & stays card on the Overview.

1. Search. Search for flights fills in your airports, trip dates and cabin, then opens Skyscanner, Google Flights, Momondo or Cheapflights with that search ready. Several airports near your destination? Tap the one you want under Fly into.
2. Add an option. Add an option (or Add it as an option under the search). Choose Return, One way (getting there or coming home) or During the trip, the airline and cabin (Economy, Premium economy, Business or First), then each flight: from, to, date, times and flight number. Add a connection adds a stopover. Leave the airline blank and it's filled in from the flight number (QF → Qantas).
3. Price. Type the total you'd pay, in your home or the local currency.
4. Got a quote from your agent? Import an itinerary and choose Options to compare (see Import): their flights land here next to the ones you found.

Pick, and see the difference

Each option shows what picking it would do: “A$420 more than Jetstar · Return · leaves A$2,700”, or a red warning if it would take you over budget. Pick this option makes it your choice: it goes into your Calendar (every flight, with times) and into Planned on the Budget page. Picking a return ticket replaces any other way there or home; picking a one-way “getting there” leaves your way home as it is. The line at the top shows what's still open: Getting there and Coming home.

Flights already in your calendar (typed in the calendar or imported as booked) are listed under Already in your calendar.

The Stays tab is your short list of hotels, apartments and hostels. Add every one you're considering, then pick one for each part of the trip.

1. Find some. The Booking.com, Trivago and Expedia buttons open a search for your destination and dates.
2. Paste the link. In Add a stay, paste a link from Booking.com, Trivago, Agoda, Expedia, Hotels.com, Trip.com or Airbnb: the name, dates and site fill in, and the hotel is found on the map near your destination. On a phone: Share → Copy link in the booking app.
3. Or type the name. Matches near your destination appear, nearest first; choose one to add its address and map pin.
4. Add the price you saw: the total, or Per night and TripPlot multiplies it by the nights.

Each card shows the dates, nights, price per night and the budget difference against your current pick. Pick this stay makes it your choice for those nights (another stay for the same nights is unpicked), puts it in your Calendar and in Planned. A line at the top counts the nights that have a stay and lists the ones still open, handy when you move between cities.

Four tiles: Budget (pencil, or Set your budget: type it any way you like, “5000”, “5,000” or “A$5,000”, then Save), Planned (what you have picked or put on the calendar but not paid yet: flights, stays, airport transport, tours), Spent (expenses you log, and anything marked paid) 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 (“1 AUD = 23.442 THB · ECB rate · 25 Sep 2026”) is the published European Central Bank rate from when you created the trip or last changed its currency. Press ↻ to update it to today's ECB rate, or the pencil to type your own. The ECB doesn't publish every currency (Vietnamese dong, Cambodian riel, Lao kip, Myanmar kyat…); for those, type the rate once.

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

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 — 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.

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 (“Canberra (CBR) · 7 km”). 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.

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

1. Import itinerary — 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 — lines such as “Flight QF2310 CBR-BNE 03/07/2026 08:50-10:30 PNR IPAJQY”.
3. Preview import. Each flight and hotel is marked New, Duplicate (already in your calendar — unticked for you) or Outside trip dates (tick Extend trip dates to fit if the agent moved your dates).
4. Choose Add these as: Booked puts them straight into your Calendar; Options to compare adds the flights as one option on the Flights page and each hotel on the Stays page, next to what you found yourself, with their budget impact.
5. 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 — and in your phone's calendar feed.

Trip Settings → Travel companions: enter an email, choose a role, press Invite.

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 ✕ next to their name. Inviting companions is a Pro feature.

Planned the same city on your own?

In the shared trip, Places → Add place → 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.

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

Founding members: sign up by 30 November 2026 and your first year of Pro is free — it's automatic. Account shows the date it's free until. After that Pro is A$29 a year.

Give 50%, get 50%: Account has your referral link and code. Tap Copy link or Share and send it to friends. They get 50% off their first paid year of Pro. Until 30 November 2026, each friend who signs up with your link and starts planning a trip gives you 50% off your second year: refer two and it's free. Account shows how many have counted so far. Friends who join later count when they first pay. Friends can also type your code under Have a referral code? when they sign up.

Lost your iPhone or iPad? Under Advanced on the Account page, Lost my iPhone → Sign out of the app everywhere signs TripPlot out on every device, for security. Your trips stay in your account; sign in again with your email and password.

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 → Add to Home Screen. It opens full-screen like an app.
• Android (Chrome): ⋮ → Add to Home screen / Install app.