psy_dr

One more thing - I just signed up for communitywalk.com as recommended by 'ParisAmsterdam.' It looks fairly easy so I am going to give it a test run --- just an FYI for anyone doing it, you must register to make your map PRIVATE so it isn't shared publicly online. So far, it looks like it's a free service if you build a non-professional map. I'll let you all know how it goes.

psy_dr

I've had a chance to look into some of the suggested applications and I think that so far I like communitywalks.com the best. Here's a quick review of my experiences:

Maps.google.com: I tried google maps and I'm not finding it as easy to work with as i thought. I'll keep trying to see if I get the hang of it. Any suggestions on how to navigate this site better? I would like to add that I don't want to give up on this site since as 'sanschag' mentioned, the pdf converter application works well & her maps look great.

Nomao.com: seems like a cool concept but for some strange reason if I search for Paris, France it takes me to the french website and doesn't allow me to change the language to English. I'll try this one again when I have more time. If anyone has feedback on this site, please let me know.

MSAutoroute: it sounds like a wonderful site, but I'd rather try the free sites first --- the 60 day trial offer is great, but I'd like to use it for a few months longer than that. If I can't find a free alternative, I will try the trial offer.

SlowTrav.com/gmaps: this seems like a good option, but I believe from what I read that you have to contact the website owners to start your own map & then it becomes a public map. It seemed a bit complicated for me at the moment, so I'll hold off on this site until I try out some others.

Communitywalk.com: So far, so good. Once you sign up, it's easy and you can customize it with your own color-coded markers. It's free if you sign up & don't do the professional maps. I'm going to do a very limited map, with only a few locations highlighted, I'll even add a walking route (which they have the option for) and then I'll print it and see if it works. I'll let you all know.

Thanks again...I've always said this is the best forum for travel tips --- Fodorites are the best!

TDudette

Look at the Eyewitness Travel guides-they do area by area maps with the places of interest noted. I used those as guides and put them on 3x5 cards. This was before iphones. Much easier now.

sap

psy_dr, I'm looking forward to the update about your experience with the communitywalk site as I'm intrigued by it also.

ParisAmsterdam

I'm far from expert at it but here's a map (in progress) to show to people when they ask "Where should I stay in Paris that's close to all the
sites?"

http://communitywalk.com/paris_sites/map/425997

djkbooks

I've been using MSAutoroute (and MSStreet/Trips for USA/Canada) for many years. I cannot imagine planning a trip without it. It is worth every penny. You can keep all your information in ONE file (no lists, no outlines, no spreadsheets...), which you can annotate to your heart's content. You can search for a place, hotel, restaurant, etc., and if found (most are), the address and phone number will be provided. I like to create my own pushpins so I can also include days closed, hours, admission fees, web link, and any other notes. (No numbers with legends, everthing is in a "balloon" note.)

I've tried all those free programs. None do everything you really need and you can't save them to your PC. They are much, much, more time consuming to use.

The licence allows you two copies, so I have a copy on my PC and my netbook. Before leaving home, I just synchronize the files.

Once you've entered everything, you can print neighborhood maps to fold and tuck into a pocket. As mentioned, because I use the buses in Paris, I print a neighborhood area on one side and the same area of the bus routes map with streets on the other. I also print maps for towns (with restaurants, museums, shops, etc., annotated) for day trip destinations.

I probably started my Paris map ten years ago. I add to it ahead of each trip, and while I'm out and about when there. I've used the software for trips to London, Ireland, even Russia. Again, I cannot imagine planning a trip without it.

CaseyMorgan

Another simple trick is to buy a couple good guide books and rip out the chapters you like. Staple, and then just carry those parts on each days trip. Much lighter and easier. I also cut and paste great ideas from this site on to word and create my own articles.

joannyc

Tip for using Google Maps... type in the name of the attraction or address in the Search box at the top of the page. When the result is returned, click on the Save to and select your map.

The Google My-Maps print converter does exactly what I'm looking for! Thanks so very much!!!

joannyc

CaseyMorgan, I photocopy the sections of my guidebooks that I'm interested in and take those. My guidebooks remain in tack for labeling photos when I get home and my load gets lighter along the trip since I can throw out the photocopies after each use.

daveesl

I can't believe nobody put in Open Street Map. This is a "wiki" type project for maps all over the world. They are actually very accurate and display a ton of info. You can export sections to use in documents.

As an example, here is one of central Rome. You'll notice street directions, water fountain locations, restaurants, restrooms, hospitals, pharmacies and much more...

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=41...yers=B000FTFT#

dave

sap

Gawd, this thread is a kick. It's like Travel Geeks R Us. My DH needs to see this so he knows I'm not the only one! I'm collecting links like crazy, here. Thanks guys!

joannyc

Guess I have to admit to being a Travel Geek... I create an Excel file with a worksheet for each city/town that I'll be visiting.

Each worksheet has multiple sections with multiple columns.

The sections cover such topics as:
General Info (such as TI location, Hotel location, etc.)
Sites to See
Restaurants
Shopping
Night Life

Each section has multiple columns to cover such info as:
Site/Restaurant name
General info for the site, food recommendations, etc.
Address
Opening hours and cost

sap

Oh-hoh, Joan! You totally have me beat there. That takes the cake & I love it. I'm stealing the thought. (I was wondering If I'd gone to the extreme with an apartment spreadsheet, but this is an even more fabby idea.)

Frankly, this trip-planning stuff is really an excuse not to do my "real" job.

joannyc

SAP,

LOL! And, now it will get only worse since I will be able to cross-reference my Google Maps sites to my Excel spreadsheet sites... just add an additional column in Excel with the number of the site.

Something that I've had to manually plot out in the past!!!

Oh, if my employer only knew how much time gets devoted to vacation planning! ;-)

nygvic

bookmarking

Bugler

bookmarking

ruthruthruth

Hhmm...I wonder if anybody in this world just wings it? What's a tiny bit irritating to me is when I spend hours and hours researching, and looking for a good map, and then I pull into a port or city and the best map ends up being the one given out at the Tourist Information center (or given out on your cruise ship by a TI rep)! The map may only show a limited area (Old Town, downtown, or whatever), but it's usually pretty detailed, big enough to read, and show pictures of the major attractions - kind of like DK Eyewitness maps, just a lot bigger and lighter! For some places in Germany, I've gone to web sites to see if I can get a copy mailed (free or paid for), but that option doesn't seem to exist much!

Anyway, Travel Geeks carry on! I'm loving this thread!

europeannovice

I also used google maps. I went to get directions and typed in as many addresses of a specific geographical area that I wanted to explore and then printed it out with the map so it printed the map and the walking directions of how to get from point A to point B and C etc.

For instance, I typed in how to get from Musee Orsay to Musee Rodin and then to Invalides. It prints the walking directions with the map so you can see the streets. If you know of a particular restaurant then just type in the address as well. The get directions tab doesn't work to show you what is around the area like supermarkets or bakeries unless you have the address.

I love what TOD did though. That sounds like a great idea.

Indigo5

Hi PSY_dr,
I don't think I can contribute anything to this thread but I have definitely learnt a lot! Right now I'm researching Switzerland and my family thinks I'm overdoing it. After reading this interesting discussion, I'm comforted by the fact that there are so...... many people out there, passionate about travel and take "doing their home work" seriously enough to spend so much time on planning. Thanks again for this thread. I'm loving it.

AlessandraZoe

You Be My People!

I just my husband this thread this morning, and peering over my shoulder he said, "OMG--you mean there are other people like you?"

I've often designed Google Maps to provide directions for my websites, etc. but have been less than happy with detailed print-outs for vacations (there always seems to be something that doesn't print right). Therefore, I will be eternally grateful for the My Maps print converter (http://maps.taurich.org/cgi-bin/print-kml.cgi).
listed by sanschag. Thank you, thank you.

I intrigued by the www.communitywalk.com service, and I'm also going to try the MSAutoroute.

I've been slowly changed what I do given new technology (I added use of Kindle docs this trip with really good reviews from the family members), but some things remain the same--my life still pretty much depends on an Excel file and a nice, fresh 3-ring binder for each trip. I am going to test drive some of your wonderful suggestions, though, for my next trip.

Standard for me now is to save all my reservations on file in an Outlook folder, and I update my Outlook Calendar at the same time. I just export the Outlook stuff into an Excel spreadsheet right before I leave and format it into a good readable doc. A stripped-down version is left with our office administrators and our next-of-kin person.

Any email attachments are also saved on my computer in a sub-folder of my master Trips file (example: My Documents/My Trips/ Venice 2009).

Here's where I'm still "old school." Although I shouldn't, I still print out confirmations and such(duplex printing though) to put in the master trip binder. When trying to remember "Did that reservation include VAT?" it is just so much easier to flip through the trip binder than to go through computer files.

Actually, my master trip binders basically consist of clear plastic sleeves into which I can group related materials easily. If I have three airline confirms for, say, one day, all three would go in the same plastic sleeve. Copies of boarding passes end up in the same sleeve. Train tickets go together in a sleeve. You get the idea. It's just so easy to put all this stuff in trip order.

Right before the trip, I go through the binder sleeve by sleeve and "pull" the vital stuff out and distribute those sleeves among family members so that each person is carrying one part of the trip. As we travel, receipts from the hotel stay plus any restaurant receipts for that time period end up going into the same sleeve the hotel confirm.

After all my charges at trip end are reconciled, I get rid of most of the paper and reuse the plastic sleeves for my next trip binder. The master binder is usually recycled, too, but trip essentials are put either in a clear large envelope or in a thinner binder to act as a reference tool for friends or for future trips (and ruthruthruth, I can tell you that a lot of these reference binders include TOURIST INFORMATION CENTER maps, which end up being invaluable).

Right before the trip, I also upload vital documents to a Gmail site so that just in case we need anything (passports jpgs, etc), one computer connection is all I would need as my safety net.

For my trip restaurant info and things like that, I used to cut sections of guidebooks out and put those chunks into the plastic sleeves. I now tend to collect more up-to-date info online pre trip and gradually copy/paste items by city, etc onto Word documents I create for the trip (e.g., Venice Restaurants, Recommended Venice Sites). Since January, I have taken that one step further. Yeah, I still print out hard copies of my final self-assembled material (again duplex printing) and put those condensed pages in the master binder that's been plopped onto the kitchen table as sort of a pre-trip reading guide for family members (they have a lot of required breakfast reading. What has really changed is that I also now send my "guidebook" to myself in data form.

Last spring, that trip info was sent to my smartphone. I could, for example, see my passport in color if need be. But the fact remains that the display, no matter how clear, is tiny. This summer, I sent all my trip stuff to my Kindle, and I'm so pleased!!!!

The latest Kindle2 software update makes searching rather easy, and PDF files display much better. Since everyone in my family has a Kindle, I could suddenly share info almost as easily as if we all had laptops. On the way to Avignon, I just told the family members to read the doc "Restaurant Recommendations" on the train, and by the time we got there, they had come up with their preferences. If they had any question about which hotel we were going to by Day Four, it was right there in the Kindle on the PDF I made of the Excel trip spreadsheet. My mother, who did not go on the trip, used her Kindle to follow our trip itinerary every day.

Anyway, I certainly am bookmarking this thread for posterity. Your ideas, as usual, are fantastic, and again, I am so grateful for this board.