TripRider travel planning app review

TripRider travel planning app review

 

TripRider say they have built an “ultimate trip planning app”. With so many really useful stand-alone apps already available, why do we need another?
TripRider is like a blank notebook and incorporates much of the functionality of other apps. For instance, like Tripit, it allows to keep track of schedules, like Google Maps, it allows to take screenshots of maps and directions, like Evernote, you can keep note of things you’d like to see and do, and like GetPacked, it helps with building a packing list.
In fact the app has so much functionality that it was daunting to get started with it. But the vintage design and user-friendly interface was reassuring.

Features

Packing List

This is organised into 9 categories such as Documents, Clothes, or Gadgets, which turned out to be a useful tool in remembering all the items I needed. I didn’t enter everything at once, but just added items gradually, as I thought of them. Then, on the day of packing, I checked items off the list as I put them in the suitcase.

Wallet

I normally always take a photocopy of my passport and credit card, in case they get stolen. With TripRider, I was able to take a photo of my important documents to store them electronically. I also found that I could password-protect Wallet via the settings and I thought this feature was so important it should have been enabled by default.

Location List

I was able to keep track of places I visited by pinning them onto a map and adding a photo to each location. The problem with this feature is that I didn’t always have internet connection so my iPad’s location feature did not work. But I was able to manually pin the location on the map once I returned to the hotel and connected to free WiFi.

Trip Plan

I am the type of a person who only plans a few “unmissable” attractions and improvises the rest, but TripRider allowed me to add a detailed day-by-day schedule if I wanted to. I added several attractions and used the checkbox to highlight a few of them as “must see or do”, which then regrouped them by date and by place in the Must see and do section. I also uploaded images of maps with directions, so I had them handy even when there was no internet connection for my iPhone’s GPS to work.

Briefing

I used this feature before the trip to check if I have covered everything I wanted to see and if my spending was within the daily budget. I also used it at the destination to keep track of my plans for the day.

Travellers

I was travelling with my partner and we were visiting a friend. TripRider allowed me to add both of them as ‘travellers’. Since they didn’t have TripRider installed, the only way to share my trip with them was to export it into a PDF. One feature I would have liked to see was the ability to collaborate on the same trip — e.g. the person in New York could have automatically updated my trip with her suggestions, instead of emailing me to say that a museum was closed on the day I planned to visit.

Trip Book & Photo Album

Once I was back from the trip, TripRider did a great job in organising my trip into a PDF iBook so I could both, print it and show to friends at home, and share it with my friends on Facebook.

Expenses

I was adding expenses as I incured them (I could even choose different currencies, as we had a stopover in Madrid) and kept track of my spending. The app also allowed me to organise expenses into categories, so I knew exactly how much I was spending on what