How to Plan a Trip Effectively with Friends and Family using TripAdvisor
It is always a great idea to do some research about a place that you are heading to as that allows you to not only utilise your time better, but more importantly, find out whether or not an attraction or restaurant is worth visiting. While most of us have relied on TripAdvisor to check out a hotel or restaurant, many of us do not actually realise that there is a Trips planning tool that lets you save and organise all the great places you find on TripAdvisor. You can use Trips to create a customised itinerary including creating lists of ideas or recommendations, which can be accessed easily using the TripAdvisor app before, during or after your trip.
TripAdvisor is a virtual trove of information when it comes to identifying what to do in a foreign country or even in Singapore - most of the attractions, restaurants, and activities have been rated by plenty of global travellers so you can be sure that you are getting a well-rounded picture of a place you’re looking at. It is safe to say that we typically rely on our family and friends to get word-of-mouth recommendations and TripAdvisor shows reviews of the people you follow first (because they are typically the ones we trust most). Being able to filter through different categories is also crucial in trip planning since you will probably not want to check out five similar cafes back-to-back on a given day.
Creating Public and Private Trips
As mentioned earlier, the Trips feature on TripAdvisor is one that can be overlooked by travellers. Any registered user is able to create public and private trips (which can then be shared with your family and friends) on the platform and this allows you to customise a trip and plan the itinerary on a daily basis. I have personally shared five trip itineraries on my profile and most of them are based on my recent travels. For upcoming trips that I have yet to take, I personally prefer to keep these trips separate for privacy reasons - the easiest way to do this is to create it as a private trip as opposed to a public one. Once I have gone on the trip, I will make it public so it appears on my profile alongside the rest and people can reference them if they like.
Be as Detailed as You Want on your Travel Plans
When you create a trip, you may choose between a fixed duration (e.g. 4-day trip) or inputting the actual days of travel. TripAdvisor automatically populates the days (or dates) of your trip and it allows you to save specific attractions (including hotels, restaurants, and tours just to name a few) to the itinerary - you will then be able to organise and assign them to the day that you want. Take a trip to Bangkok for example, the famous Chatuchak Weekend Market may be open daily but if you wish to experience the energy of the location, you should really only visit it on a weekend - the Trips feature on TripAdvisor allows you to schedule it on a preferred day so you plan everything else around it. Being able to save attractions (and access the reviews and tips that come along with it) and have it handy on the TripAdvisor app is extremely useful when you are on the go. If you are in a restaurant overseas and you do not know how to speak the local language, being able to open the app on your mobile phone and reference the dish you want to try is truly priceless.
Collaborate with Friends and Family to Create the Dream Itinerary for Everyone
Whether you are traveling alone or with friends and family, it is always a great idea to get recommendations from your social circle to plan the perfect itinerary. With the Trips feature on TripAdvisor, you will be able to invite other users to collaborate on your trip - invited users will then be able to see your planned itinerary, make changes or add-in new attractions as he or she deems fit. This feature allows every single member of the travel party to have an opinion and including everyone in the trip-planning process helps to ensure that everyone enjoys the trip!
See it on the Map and Rearrange Them If Necessary
One thing I really like about the trip-planning feature on TripAdvisor is the ability to see everything on the map. It goes without saying that most of us are not extremely familiar with the cities that we are visiting and may not plan the journey between trips properly. For example, on my recent trip to Beijing, I was planning to check out Jing-A Brewpub Xingfucun (a craft beer spot in the city that was highly recommended by some of my friends living there). However, due to poor planning (or lack thereof) on my part, I did not actually realise that the bar was literally situated across from Sanlitun where I was shopping the night before (and was in need of a drink). Now if I had planned this trip on TripAdvisor, I would have noticed how close these two attractions were and this would have allowed me to plan them together for the same night.
Sharing Your Trips with Friends
I love sharing snippets of my trips on Instagram and I tend to post a lot of Instagram Stories during my travels. While I would ideally love to reply to every single message that comes into my inbox, I do miss them sometimes and a lot of these comments are actually questions that revolve around where the place is or what is actually good (at a restaurant). Being able to share these trips using the Trips feature on TripAdvisor will definitely help when it comes to sharing tips and tricks regarding hotels, attractions, and restaurants that I visit. At the time of writing, I have created and I hope to add more to my profile in the year ahead:
This article was created in partnership with TripAdvisor Singapore.
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