Planning trips can quickly become a disaster. Whether you're traveling alone or with a group, you still have to keep track of plane tickets, hotel reservations, and your basic day-to-day itinerary. The trade off might be worth it, but getting there can sometimes cause a little stress. Fortunately, iOS apps like TripIt can help you manage all of the nitty gritty details and let you focus on what's actually important: the trip itself.
>> TripIt Account (Free or Paid)
>> TripIt iOS application [iTunes link]
You can either log in to TripIt with an individual account, or hook it up to your existing Google account. The latter is more convenient if you have Gmail, because then TripIt will grab your itinerary from your email without you having to worry about doing so.
If you opted to input the trip manually, here's how: Once you log in, create a new trip by selecting "Add Trip" from the left-hand sidebar. 
On the new page, enter in your trip details, such as the destination, start and end dates, travelers, and the purpose. When you are finished, click the "Create Trip" button.
Most online travel sites send you an email confirmation when you book a hotel, flight, or rental car reservation. With TripIt, you can forward these emails to plans@tripit.com, and the service will automatically add the information to your TripIt account. TripIt can also automatically detect things like airlines, flight times, confirmation numbers, hotel names, and more.
If you will be traveling with multiple people, it may be beneficial to add travelers to your trip. This will enable the other people in your party to log in to their account and see the details that you have added to your trip. 
To add travelers to your TripIt trip, click the trip title in your account, and then find the "People and Sharing" sidebar. Click on the Update button. On the new page, click the "Invite more people" link. From here, you will be able to enter an email address of the person you wish to share the trip with, and type a short message to them. You will also be able to choose whether or not they can edit the trip details, or select that they are travelers on your trip; you can also add them as a TripIt connection so that they can see your future public travel plans. When you're done adding details, click the Share button to send the invitation.
The TripIt iOS application [iTunes link] is a great traveling companion. It gives you all of the information available in your existing TripIt account, except in an easy-to-use iPhone or iPad app that's always with you. 
No need to print off any of your travel details, simply log into the TripIt iOS application, and all of your trips will be listed under the "Upcoming Trips" section.
From the iOS application, you can add plans to your itinerary by tapping the plus (+) button within a selected trip, and then tapping on the type of plan that you want to add. All changes made within the iOS application are instantly synced with your online TripIt account.
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Peter Olfe
January 23, 2012 at 3:54pm
I love TripIt. It is so handy to have all of your reservations in one app.
But what about all of the other places you want to visit that don't require reservations?
For that there is the near2there service. near2there gives you easy ways (mobile and PC) to capture all of the places you want to go to, gives you maps and directions, and, if you forget, reminds you when you are near to a location. Available on iTunes.
