Question to the experienced travelers: How do you keep your travel notes and guide books organized for your trip? I have planned my first trip to Italy (without a travel agent) and through this great website and Fodorites' help have compiled a tremendous amount of information about places to go, restaurants, local info I don't want to forget. How do you put all this information into a format that will be really helpful when you get to your destination? I had planned to copy relevant pages of my guide books--but as I look through them--it seems I may need most of the info. Any help, thoughts, comments would be most appreciated!

Three ring binder - soft 1", or a "report cover" or 3-pronged portfolio. <BR> <BR>I have a daily itinerary, with info for each day: restaurants, brief description of sights, whatever. I have all pertinent fax/wire/written confirmations in the binder. When the day's over, the stuff gets thrown out. <BR> <BR>If you've done your planning well, you want need to bring much with you. <BR> <BR>You don't need a list of fifty restaurants in each arrondissement of Paris - 3 or 4 is enough; if you are calling ahead for reservations, you need maybe 6-10 hotels to contact, not one hundred. Most sights have maps and informational brochures; no need to bring guidebook info.

On my recent trip to London, I had a basic itinery so I made index cards for each day with directions, opening times, costs and any other information concerning the day. When the day was over, I put the card in my journal to help write my experiences for the day.

Topping, hoping to attract more suggestions... some of us need all the help we can get!

I take a folder or envelope with loose pages of email confirms (hotel and car), printouts of web pages, printouts of Word documents (I tend to cut and paste from this forum and elsewhere and then edit something with just what I am interested in), and copies of guidebook pages. (I know some people tear up guidebooks to make them easier to carry, but I spent too much time in libraries as a child to be able to do this!) My plan is to discard these pages along the way, as they are reproducible at home if I want them back. I have lately been putting info into my palm pilot, but haven't perfected that yet! <BR> <BR>I have been less successful at keeping track of restaurants or stores I wanted to find, but I tried something new on my last trip that worked pretty well. I created an itinerary on a spreadsheet that listed (reading across) date, lodging, towns and sites I expected to see that day, restaurants I had considered. This helped to remind me that a specific restaurant was only possible to go to on a specific day (since this was a driving trip), and also to make sure that I didn't forget a special site. <BR> <BR>Depending on how much you feel you need to bring, I would suggest keeping e-tickets, receipts, confirms, etc, separate from general travel info. I would be very much afraid of misplacing something important.

Our technique is to print out lots of stuff and heap it on the livingroom floor in a pile with all of the guidebooks. The cats regularly resort everything for us using their zen like wisdom. What info that is left over for us to find is our itinerary. Our latest addition to the family has a penchant for earmarking her favorite pages in the guidebooks. She thinks Provence is tastier than the Loire Valley. Perhaps she is right.

Great suggestions so far! Keep them coming.

Rand -- I think our cats are related!!

i bring one travel book and if i get additional tips/info, i write that directly into my single travel book. I try to write it in the appropriate section. Such as, if the travel book addresses stuff in multiple european countries, and i got a good tip for a restaurant in venice, then i flip to that section of the travel book, check to see if it is listed. if it is listed, then i put a star next to it. if it is not listed, i will hand-write it in. It is that easy.

I extract info and put them on one 11x14 sheet of paper, 2 sided, using 6 point font. This has all attraction hours, prices, numbers, all pertinent train schedules planned and alternate - in case I want to take an earlier or later train, hotel info for even a 4 week trip. I have taken pages out of books, but when it is time to use them, I found extracts much easier to reference. I also carry city info, one ziplock bag per city, to review the next day's itenerary the night before. I do not need to carry this ziplock bag full of info since all the transportation info to get to the attractions, type of ticket to get, hours, etc are on my 11x14 2 sided sheet. <BR> <BR>Restaurants: I keep a very small list as the recommended restaurants seem to be always away from we end up during the meal times. I use a rule of thumb and it usually works well: find restaurant full of local business people type. Avoid restaurants with retired people or students only. Restaurants full of only tourists may be ok in tourist location, but I avoid them at place I expect to see more locals.

Just as above, I designate which guidebook is going to be my "Bible" when I travel. I research as much as I can, <BR>compiling computer files on each destination. Some of the pages from my files will go with me, particularly on restaurants,in a folder, along with my maps, tickets, passes, etc. <BR>Other tidbits of info from other books and sources I write into my primary "bible" guidebook, on the appropriate page. <BR>For example if my 'bible" has an entry for a particular church, and if I read in another book that the 3rd stained glass window from the left has something special in it, I make a note in my bible where that church is mentioned to look for the 3rd window from the left, and why. <BR> <BR>I also do a grid for each city, one or two pages to take with me. <BR>Across the top are column headings Mon, Tues etc for each day that I will be there. <BR>Under each day I indicate any fixed <BR>appointments or reservations--e.g., <BR>Mon 3:00 pm Scavi tour, or, Tues,dinner 8:30 pm Chez Moi. <BR>Down the left side of the grid are row headings for each site/sight that I want to see, in approximate order of location so that places near each other are listed together, along with metro stops. Inside the grid <BR>I indicate what the opening and closing hours are. For example,for Paris, <BR>Tuesday will indicate that the Louvre is closed all day but it will also indicate what the Orsay Museum's hours are. <BR>If I don't want to traipse all over town every day, this helps me to concentrate on a particular area per day so I can be more efficient. <BR>The other thing as others suggested is to prioritize before you go. You may have information on 50 restaurants in Rome, but you're only going to have time for at most 5 of them. Take information <BR>with you on the 10 that interest you most, ranging from snacks to dressy dinners, but not more than that. Or write the info into your guidebook. If you're interested in one because someone said it has a great view, make a note of that so that when you get there you'll remember why it interested you. <BR>Of course, anyone who travels with a laptop or personal organizer doesn't have to carry all the pages and books with them.

My wife and I search through internet, travel books and threads from this forum. We then go city by city, town by town that we will visit and develop information for each, including top sites, times, cost etc, restaurants, etc. <BR> <BR>She then writes the notes on regular notebook paper, since my writing is gibberish. I then take them to the copy machine and reduce to a small, but readable size. <BR> <BR>We then place them in a small binder, and carry the little, very little binder in her small backpack during our trip. Thsi way we do not have to lug around travel book(s), yet we have the information. <BR> <BR>Tom

I can't tell if the previous posters were kidding or not. I used my palm pilot for the first time when I traveled in April and found it to be really helpful. Just make sure that you back everything up on your computer (hot sync) and print it out so if the Palm dies or you lose it you will have a hard copy.

I used to do what Greg does. Type everything up (or cut and paste from the Internet) on one sheet of paper, 6 pt. type (including postcard addresses, etc). Then print it out double-sided...make a couple of copies for various suitcase pockets in case one gets lost. I'd have one guide book and then a small notebook for notes throughout and a separate 5 x 8" envelope for stuff I collect along the way. <BR> <BR>This trip I'm taking my PDA for the first time. Hadn't thought of printing out the stuff in case the PDA charge dies. Thanks, Ilene!

I've been doing what Tom is but have been cut & pasting into Word. We have a print shop at work and I will put in booklet format (51/2 x 8/12 folded) to take w/me. I have many restaurants listed but plan on using them only as a reference in case I run across one that we'd like to try (except for the special ones that we'll reserve ahead of time). Typing in 9 pt. font (w/reference names in 6 pt.) <BR> <BR>DFW 8/9/01

This last trip (Ireland, London and Paris) I used a "Omni Assignment book" <BR>spiral notebook-about 8" long by 5" wide <BR>(small so it fit in my purse but large enough to write in all my info.) <BR> <BR>It has a small pocket in the front that I kept large post-it-note sheets with titles at the top of each sheet). <BR>Then, on the first page of the notebook I wrote in all the flight info. and then I labeled a page for each day with where we would be and where we were staying withe ph. #, e-mail addresses and web sites. I also wrote down recommendations on places to eat and what I wanted to see/do that day. <BR> <BR>At the back of the notebook I wrote what things I wanted to buy, and also made a list of who I needed to bring things back for (xxx for watching dog). <BR>I also wrote down addresses of friends for postcards and e-mail addresses if we hit a cyber cafe. I had a list of family phone numbers in case of emergency. <BR>I also had pages to write my travel notes. <BR>Then, I just keep the whole notebook to reflect on my trip later. Its fun to read that stuff years later-its amazing how much I had forgotten on earlier trips and now I am glad that I have it written down. <BR>Patti <BR> <BR> <BR>

I myself try to incorporate much of what has already been said. They are all excellent guidelines. However, in addition to this, I videotape just about all the highlights of a vacation and when we get home I obviously look at the tape and sometimes take additional notes from my own tape which I incorporate into a trip report. Not only do I get the correct spelling of maybe a French or Italian restaurant but I also recall easily the emotions of the moment! <BR> <BR>Hope this helps. <BR> <BR>Bob

I think it's sometimes possible to become overloaded with information. <BR>I start with one main guide book, go through and underline (in pencil) anything that looks of interest. <BR>I then have an exercise book, with one day allotted to a page. On the relevant day's page, I will jot down flight or other travel details, name and address of accommodation, and basic details of any sights, activities etc. I am interested in. I will put relevant contacts at the back, such as tourist offices, where you can always pick up the latest local info en route. <BR>I like to leave enough space to add some notes as I go, then my planner doubles as a journal.

I created an Excel spreadsheet that listed everything in alphabetical order that was further sorted by tube stop. It really helped to see the most in a short period of time (6 days!).

If I am taking a guide book with me for the day, I use post-it notes to quickly bookmark relevant pages. <BR> <BR>Most often I had small "redwelds" to hold papers for each city--I throw out the materials I brought with me (most often copies of guide books and printouts from web sites) and put things I obtained in that city (brochures, maps, receipts, other items that I do not have at home) into the Redweld. That way at 9 AM when the guide is banging on the door, screaming that the driver is downstairs waiting for both of us, I don't have to scramble to find papers for the day.