The Ultimate Travel Itinerary and Planner (GS)

Description

• All-in-one trip planning spreadsheet.
• Build a day-by-day itinerary with times, durations, events, weather, travel details, and auto-calculated end times and map links.
• Plan estimated costs by category, compare options with cost research, and track actual expenses to see real-time budget performance.
• Stay organized with a built-in to-do list (auto-highlighting completed tasks).
• Manage locations with auto-generated map links, log daily weather that flows into the itinerary, and keep everything connected through automated formulas.

Video Demo

How to use

Sheet: Overview

1. Overview of key information provided throughout the spreadsheet — such as Start and End Dates, the Number of completed tasks, and transactions.

   

2. Moving further down in the sheet, we see a breakdown between the budget versus the actual expenses made. As you’ll notice, the information and charts provided in this sheet are auto-populated, based on data gathered from the other sheets.
   
   

Sheet: Itinerary Summary

1. Here is a general summary view of the travel itinerary, providing the dates, the listed times, events, weather, and any pertinent notes. The information displayed is gathered directly from the Budget and Itinerary sheet.
   

Sheet: To-Do List

1. As you check off each line item, the rows will be highlighted automatically to help signal that the tasks have been completed.

   

Sheet: Travelers

1. Provide any key details for each of the travelers in your party. You can limit the size of the list, as needed.
   

Sheet: Locations

1. List out the various locations you will be commuting to and from throughout your trip. After listing the address, the corresponding Link to view the location on the map will be auto-populated. This list of locations can be used to help advise you as you build out the detailed itinerary later on.
   

Sheet: Weather

1. Fill out the weather details for each day of the trip. The essential columns to be filled are the Date, Symbol, and Temperature.
   
   If this information is filled in, you’ll find that it will be referenced in the itinerary view. If helpful, you can also use the description columns to detail any weather notes that may be referred to later on.
   

Sheet: Cost Research

1. Compare pricing between the different services and offerings, and any other data that might be helpful for comparison analysis. It is divided into sections, including food, activities, lodging, and travel.
   
   Use the “Selection” column and mark rows with an “x” to highlight the selected entries, as shown. This feature can be used to narrow down your options for consideration.
   

Sheet: Cost Categories

1. Break down your trip expenses into clear categories, which will help make tracking the budget and actual costs much easier.
   
   What’s listed here is an example of commonly used categories, but you can adjust these labels, accordingly.
   

Sheet: Budget & Itinerary

Here we chart out the budget and travel for each day of the trip.

1. Let’s first look at the table down below, where we’ll be filling in the details of each day. We can start by entering the Date.
   
   In the subsequent rows, we can work through each column and fill in the details for each event.
   
2. We have the start time and the duration of each event. You’ll notice that the end time here is auto-populated by adding the duration to the start time.

   
   We can list the event name and input the estimated cost for the event. (We can use the cost category here to help in our budget review later on.)
   
   You’ll also notice the brief weather summary is displayed here. (This is gathered from information that we would input in the Weather Tab.)
   

3. We also have a section to input the traveling details well. The link to view the map and directions will be auto-populated, accordingly.
   
4. After working our way through each day, we’ll can revisit the top of the sheet, where it lists the total budget estimates and summary of the budget costs per category.
   
   You’ll notice there’s an extra table for “Additional Costs”. This can be used to list costs that are not already listed in the day to day Itinerary Costs that are shown in the table below. This will help us account for all costs projected for the trip.
   

Sheet: Actual Expenses

1. This sheet can help us track each expense that was incurred throughout the trip.
   
   
2. When we look back to the Overview sheet, we can see how the budget costs compare to actual transactions made for the trip.