Travel Smart: Streamlining the Organization of Your Travel Documents

Ever found yourself buried under a mountain of travel emails and confirmations, unsure of what’s what and where’s where? You're not alone. I'm here to share how I found my way through the chaos of planning a spontaneous trip to Florida. Discover the magic of apps like TripIt and Wanderlog that can effortlessly gather all your travel details into one streamlined itinerary. Imagine never having to scroll through countless emails again—these digital tools not only save time but reduce stress, ensuring you can focus on the excitement of your journey rather than the logistics.

Organizing travel documents doesn't have to be a daunting task. By adopting strategies that fit your personal style—whether it's a trusty spreadsheet or a feature-packed app—you can achieve travel efficiency like never before. I'll share my insights on maintaining backups for crucial documents, a must for international adventures, and how you can transform your travel experience with organized preparation. Plus, revisit past episodes for solo travel inspiration and learn how leaving reviews can help us reach more women ready to embark on their own adventures. Let's make your next trip smooth and rewarding, one organized document at a time.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Organizing Travel Documents for Efficiency
• 10:21 Organize Travel Documents Efficiently

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Have you ever found yourself scrambling to find all your important documents before you go on a trip? Or you arrive at your destination and can't seem to find your confirmation for your hotel because it's lost in the sea of emails that you have on your phone? I have been there and maybe you know someone that has done that. Well, I have some news for you today. There is a way to get all that stuff gathered in one place and feel organized, and that's what we're going to talk about in today's episode. This is Solo Travel Adventures. I'm Cheryl Esch, your solo travel advocate, and I'm here to guide you on your best trip yet. Well, I have actually just experienced that. That is why I'm bringing this topic up.

Speaker 1: 0:56

I am typically a very organized person and I have things saved. I used to actually use a spreadsheet I don't anymore and I would have everything gathered in one place. I had things planned out way in advance and organized and knew where I was going. I would write it out as well, so I knew from day to day where I was going to be and kind of making sure that timing was right. But I just planned a trip and I love to say that I am somewhere between very planned and very spontaneous. So I'm somewhere in the middle. Well, this most recent trip, yes, I knew I was going to Florida and by the time you listen to this, I will already be there. But as I've been planning this week this week only, actually I had my airline tickets. Yes, I purchased them on travel Tuesday, the day after Cyber Monday or Black Friday there and got a really good deal and knew what I was going, but did no planning whatsoever until this week, and sometimes you can get away with that.

Speaker 1: 2:08

But if you're doing, maybe, an international trip, that is not necessarily recommended. There are people that do it and I have done it. When I did my Camino, not everything was planned. Very little was actually planned when I did my Camino, but some things had to be set up right. When I did my Camino, but some things had to be set up right. This is how I felt this week, and I was feeling a bit scattered as well. Um, just this week. These are things that I just did this week I booked my car rental, I booked my accommodations that I needed. Um, I booked my airport parking. Um, and that's about it. It, because I did have my airline already purchased and then I kind of looked at where I was going again, just kind of revisiting that, and so with those bookings that I did, those reservations that I made, I of course started getting emails that oh, here's your confirmation, here's this, and they're kind of all over and my email.

Speaker 1: 3:10

Sometimes it can get a little out of hand, but there are wonderful apps to help keep that stuff organized for when you travel. Now I have two apps and I'm going to recommend both, but one definitely is more superior than the other. I have TripIt, which automatically, when I book a flight, when I do my reservation for my rental car and accommodations depending on what accommodations they do correspond with many hotels, many chains, VRBO. They will automatically, when you have some sort of reservation and you allow that email to also be shared with TripIt, then it goes to that app and that app will have all of it in there. And so right now my TripIt does have my airline, it has my rental car and it has my accommodations. However, it does not. One of the places where I do a lot of my accommodation bookings is actually bookingcom and unfortunately TripIt does not partner with bookingcom where it can automatically download. Now there's a way you can manually do that, but who has time for that? I'm trying to streamline your whole process, right? So there is that.

Speaker 1: 4:38

Now I want to jump to an even better app. Now there's technology out there. Why not use it? It is called Wonderlog. Now with Wonderlog. With Wonderlog, the lovely thing is it will also help you find restaurants nearby. You can use the AI function to help you determine what other things are in the area that you might want to see or visit. And again, it does the same similar thing as TripIt. Where it can. You know you've got your airline download itinerary, your maybe your rental car itinerary, and it puts it all in this app and even makes suggestions for you for depending on where you are.

Speaker 1: 5:25

Now this there is a free version, which doesn't give you as many of these options, and then there is the paid version, which I highly recommend. I just did the paid version recently. I was operating more on that free version for a while, but I realized the paid version, which is $39.99 per year in the app store. That's US dollars. It's definitely worth it if you travel a lot, because it's pulling everything together into one place, and so some things that you can actually do in the wonder log app upload any attachments of, say, receipts or your confirmations. It also allows you to set a budget, so you can set a budget of how much you want to spend. There's places for notes. You can make even multiple lists. If you have the paid version and you can share your itinerary TripIt, you can also share it as well, and you can share it with somebody that maybe you want them to know where you are and what you're doing if you're traveling solo or if you are traveling with somebody. A great way to share with them as well.

Speaker 1: 6:44

Now maybe you're a little old school like me and I. Actually I do both. I use the app, but I also love to sort of as a backup, and I totally recommend, especially if you're traveling internationally, you need backup documentations. That means you need somewhere, somehow you need to copy your passport. I like to make a photocopy and put it in my money belt so it's safe and it's not floating around. Somewhere you could also snap a picture of it. However, there is sometimes that would be like a third backup right, because maybe you lose your phone or you lose power your phone and you can't access that. So I like having physical paper copies. And so how do I organize my paper copies? Well, I do Old school. I print out my confirmations and maybe I even just write down on a piece of paper my airline confirmation number, right, so that I have it if I need to look it up. Airline confirmation number, right, so that I have it if I need to look it up.

Speaker 1: 7:59

I put any kind of maps or, for this particular trip, I have some national park information and I have it in a folder. So I have a little folder. It's little, it has a flap, so it kind of Velcros shut and have all my stuff in there and I'm going to take that with me. Most of it is in the app, however, a little backup. I'm also a very visual person and you might laugh. My son laughed at me when I told him this week I'm going to AAA, which if you live in the US you know that that's a travel agency. It's a kind of an auto place that most people in the back of the day would have memberships to. It has some perks it does. I actually got my discount on my rental car through them, but I went into the actual location.

Speaker 1: 8:39

No-transcript. Ask for a Florida map because I am a visual person. Yes, I can look at that on my phone or use my GPS, but I really want to see that, the whole state. Since I'm going to be traveling quite a bit of the state, I wanted to visually see it and it's hard to do that when you're looking at that on your computer or on your phone, to really get a visual, a very spatial orientation to where you are. And I don't know just bringing this up, I did not, although those that live in the US and remember back in the day, if you did go to AAA, often you were giving what was called a trip tick. Now this is a map where you tell them where you're starting and where you're ending and they will actually, instead of giving you like a big map of, for example, we used to travel from Pennsylvania to say, you know North Carolina, and we would get a triptych which would only show, instead of getting a map for Pennsylvania, west Virginia, virginia, um, what am I missing here into North Carolina, we would get a trip tick that would only highlight the route. That was part of our trip and it was like this little coil bound. It was usually usually in a vertical like narrow thing and let it flip like a little flip pad, right? And if you if you remember these I did not get one of those just because I'm going to be traveling around pretty freely, don't have a really exact set way that I plan to go, but that's where, of course, my paper map and my GPS will come into play.

Speaker 1: 10:21

Now I hope on your next trip that you do not feel scattered, that you will go to this app or you will find a system that works for you and that you could gather all your stuff in one place. Maybe you are an Excel spreadsheet type of person and that works for you. I encourage you to go ahead and make sure you're putting everything in there, organize it in a way where you could also upload and add. I love the app because you can upload attachments or you can send that email to the app where it keeps that, stores that information. It highlights your itinerary. I'm loving it right now and it's helping me feel more organized, especially on such a short notice.

Speaker 1: 11:08

I just got started really planning this week only, and you know there are some of us that are born planners and maybe this is not an issue, but maybe you've never tried either one of those apps. Remember I said, tripit is one, but WonderLog is a little more savvy. It's got more options, at least in my opinion. Or you're old school and you want to print everything out? Well, keep it organized, maybe in a folder in some way that you will not lose it, and have backups for some of those important documents, such as your passport or maybe a driver's license, if that's what you need for your travels.

Speaker 1: 11:52

Sisters, I hope this has helped you feel more confident in getting more organized in your planning stages for your travels, and if you can't decide where to go, I'm going to send you back again to episode 118, where I take you through, like how to pick a place, and then there's even episodes slightly before that where I give ideas on some popular destinations that are really booming in 2025.

Speaker 1: 12:22

Sisters, I want you to get out there and have that adventure. I would love to reach more women, and so I'm asking that you would leave a review. When you leave a review for the show, it helps to bring the show higher up in SEO and it helps it be more accessible, easier to find for women that might be just Googling. You know solo travel women and I'm hoping and praying that they find me here and you can help with that. As a regular listen, you can go and leave a review for the show and this will get us higher up in those rankings and get more reaching more women, of traveling solo and discovering what that can do for your confidence, your courage and just that general transformative experience that you will have as a solo traveler.