How do you Fodor folks organize all of the info?
 

I read and read and copy and copy and wonder if anyone had a good way of organizing all of the wonderful info you cull from these boards? One person who forwarded me a list of her favorite creperies had it organized by arrondisement in an excel file--smart!
Just wondering if others have ways of editing and organizing so that you don't have to carry everything with you everyday. Am planning a fairly last minute trip so I've got lots of info thanks to these threads but just lists and lists of retaurants, sites, stores in random order of cut and paste.. Thanks for your thoughts.

I use a 3 ring binder for each trip, small, try to keep it to 1" max size, with dividers for each city. I discard the sheets as I go along.

I love excel. I make extensive workbooks with info organized on different tabs. Then I email it to several of my email accounts that I can access anywhere (yahoo, hotmail, etc.) I print what I think I will need but I can access the rest of my information just by popping into an internet cafe if necessary :-)

OCD will shine beautifully on this thread, hee, hee.

I cut and paste into Word and then give the document the name of said destination. I section each document into possible accommodations, restaurants that might appeal to us, activities, and just general helpful information.

When we decide to book, I go over the document again and edit accordingly. I don't print anything out until we leave.

Sometimes, I bookmark a particular thread if I know I will be refering back to it often.

I have a few desired destinations in the vault (Word). Cannot wait to take them!

Dreaming, dreaming, dreaming ((S))

I print and or copy the information so it's double sided to save space and then GBC bind it for the trip. I have flight and rent car reservations at the front followed by a tab for each one of our bases while traveling. I put the hotel reservation info at the fron of each tab then the touring and day trip info behind it.

I love the fact that you can easily email a thread to yourself. That way I can file it anyway I want. When I travel, I too print out what I need in a flexible binder cover and discard them as I go along.

tiff, I have so enjoyed your last trip report that I have been reading,laughing outloud, and remembering our wonderful times in Italy. I have started my own file (vault) of places you've mentioned to go in Italy, even as I am planning this last minute trip to Paris! I call out to my husband, who now knows your name!, and read sections: i.e. sleeping through the seranade, gadgets for the "sleep" over (but, I ususally have to awake to poke him while he snores so he won't irritate the other passengers, thereby getting no sleep myself). Oh well, it's good to share these trials with others. You are indeed a wonderful writer (and I'm in publishing) and it is delicious to read your words. Thanks for the comments.

I keep a diary, so everything goes in there and, thanks to a photographic memory, I never have trouble finding it. However, now that I have so many, I digitize helpful things in a file on my computer that contains other files, each with a location name. The information is dated, so things that I did in Barcelona in 1999 are alongside 2005 stuff, and all is updated, but not lost.

I always pick up business cards where I go so that I have the informationa and one thing that I absolutely love is to have a map of the area and mark and date where I walk. Those maps are not digitized, but they get glued into the corresponding diaries (I work in from both sides. . . front to back is writing, back to front is glued maps).

When I travel to a new place, I do research, sometimes a lot, sometimes none at all, and I keep it in my head, jotting down names of places and addresses. On the street I occasionally have a map, but mostly it is all in my head.

I keep all the restaurants, cafes, tearooms, and boulangeries in a word file, print it up, staple it, and put that list, along with lists of directions from www.ratp.com, in a carboard portfolio, the kind the elastic wraps around. I try to keep things together by arrondisement, but sometimes I just have too much material. However, I've lost most of what I had, and am starting all over with a new computer. I also carry a small notebook in my purse that has e-mail address, hotel address, restaurant reservations, etc. I like the idea of e-mailing the information to myself and accessing in an internet cafe :-)


Sandy

If I am on a tour, I organize papers by day by location. Take double-sided copies at work to minimize the load.

If by myself, I organize papers by location, like a museum and there is a nice park 2 blocks away.

Also I remember somebody on this forum advised to shrink pages or to use smaller fonts... well... if your eyes are good!

Copy maps from the guidebooks and make notes on the other side.

Air and hotel print-outs go in my purse. Anything else - in the carry-on for first day so I can easily pull it, and the rest is in the suitcase pocket.

Having copies, I don't bring along any books. No worry about damaging them!

I put it all on SD cards, one for each country: maps, guides, Fodor's threads, scans of brochures, spreadsheets for expenses. One card is for airplane and train rides: books, music, games. The computer weighs 5 oz, the chips less than .1 each.

Master records for the entire trip stay in the computer's main store along with the programs to access the other stuff.

FainaAgain has some great ideas.

I follow a reductionist philosophy. I gather articles, references in one big folder for the year before my vacation. As I get nearer to the vacation I segregate by city deleting those items that just do not make the cut.

By copying I reduce the remaining material to, at most, one page per country, area. I am a big advocate of letting a place come to one and not planning minute-by-minute. For example, I always ask the hotel I am staying at if there are any new (old) restaurants it recommends and then I try them. I visit the tourist bureau for helpful information.

If I am driving I do carry the relevant Michelin map.

Carying a huge folder with four or five annotated guidebooks can be a distraction that actually takes away from a visit. Everyone is different, however, and this is just my opinion forged over much trial and error over the years.

Good luck!

I have special folder with emails of plane and lodging details.

Print out some of these as well as info. on some things I'm going to do and put that in the outer pocket of my bag.

My laptop, which I take, has URLs of various sites. Otherwise, I take a travel book with some pages bookmarked or dog-eared.

I find all this advance preparation more than a month out gets all lost. So the travel book and the laptop lets me look up info again and I play things by ear, especially the last couple of days.

But I wonder if I could pack more in by writing out outlines of itineraries. Or maybe doing things at a hectic pace is overrated.

One thing I was considering was getting one of those free blogger accounts and then write a journal. Not necessarily to share but to have as a record. Then I could upload pics too.

I could write things down in email or word processor but I like the entry format of blogs, which automatically time stamps entries.

Only problem is it could take too much time during the trip and after the trip, I'm not really interested in writing up anything elaborate like trip reports and such.

Like wanderlust5, I also print up what information I want. I use the binding machine at work to make my own binder, separated by tabs for each city or destination. I then rip out each section as I go. Also in the binder is reservation information, maps, tours, etc.

And, like TexasAggie, I also create a document and attach it to an e-mail and e-mail it to myself so that I can access it in event that I lose the binder.

Tracy

Thank you marshacarlin (and a thanks from my DH, anytime his sleep can bring humor to others, he is all for it!)
:S-

I put all my papers (2-sided) into a folder that I hole-punched and throw away as I go along. My husband bought me a PDA to use on my next trip. I have added my Word documents to the SD and will use that to store my journal (he also bought me a wireless foldable keyboard - total weight for both 11 oz.). HOWEVER, until I become comfortable with this PDA and using it overseas I am bringing my paper documents just as a backup. I think once I have a handle on the PDA, can recharge without blowing it up, I'll go paperless (with the exception of the city maps I bring).

Monica ((F))

all great ideas. I guess I need to start tonight culling through my materials, cut and paste them by arrond. then restarants, shops, etc. I too like to just wander and see what happens. HOWEVER, I would somehow love to have a map that has pinpointed on it all of the wonderful little gems that have been recommended here, so that IF i wander in that area, I will be able to say: "look, DH, there is a great place for hot chocolate around the corner, why don't you get some while I go across the street and pick up a piece of cheese and then a necklace!" I'm sure there is some terchnology that would let me do that but I don't know if I can master it by next Wed. Thanks for all of the ideas though. I'm going to get a binder and start copying.

monica and marsha -

I have that map in my Pocket Streets folder, so I go completely paperless, and I have set software pushpins at each address I want it to remember. Then I can open "Paris" and display a list of the pushpins, select one and zoom to it.

Since Pocket Streets alphabetizes the list, I put a code at the beginning of each entry (arrondissements in Paris, 3-digit postcodes in London, etc.) so it will group them by area.

Here are the free maps on the Microsoft site:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobi...mapsearch.aspx

I get lots of ideas from this forum but rarely copy threads word for word.

I use a clear plastic folder for my plane info, hotel reservations, maybe a map to get started. I don't pre-plan shopping or restaurants, so guess I have less to organize than most people here.

What I do once I am there is: pick up free information at the tourist bureau and/or hotel lobby; always carry a 3x5 spiral notebook with me and jot down things that look interesting, or phrases in the local language. That's how I choose my restaurants and find hotels for my next trip. I also use a plastic zippered pencil case (like are meant for 3 ring school binders) and that is where I collect receipts, business cards for hotels and restaurants, postcards, etc. This is handy for future planning or answering questions on Fodor's post-trip.

As does Hercule Poirot, I store and recover from the little gray cells.

The only thing I have printouts for are confirmations for reservations made before leaving home: planes, trains, lodging, special exhibitions (actually the only one ever was for the Turner, Whistler, Monet in Paris) - never restaurants.

Armed with the appropriate Green Tourist Guide and/or Steinbicker DayTrips I'm ready. It's amazing how few changes there are in places of interest. All of the Chateaux in 2002 were still in the same place they were according to the 1988 edition of Michelin's Chateaus of the Loire and you could get to them on the same roads. How strange is that?