Have you ever heard someone say “I need a vacation after that vacation?” It’s probably because the most stressful part of travel is the actual traveling: nobody likes the stress of getting to their bus, boat, or plane on time. Tracking all of your departure info is also a big hassle. However, there’s a cool app that can help you to sync your travel plans into a single place with very little effort on your part. It’s called TripIt, and if you’re planning a Spring Break excursion or just a weekend getaway, this handy app could reduce your travel headaches.

What is it and what does it do

Main Functionality

TripIt “automagically” takes all your trip details and creates one truly helpful itinerary that’s there when and where you need it – on your iPhone or iPad, sync’d with your calendar, and online at tripit.com. You can also share your travel plans with friends, work colleagues, and family so that everyone’s on the same page.

Pros

• Simple to set up your itinerary details: just forward all of your flight, rental, and hotel confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com (You can also auto import your trip details from Gmail or Google Apps)
• Super fast and simple sign-up process
• Tracks both upcoming and past trips
• Track friends and business colleagues you want to network with
• Instantly recognizes reservations from 3,000+ booking sites: beyond just flights, rental cars, and hotels, it will recognize cruises, restaurants, concerts and more

Cons

• Can only track rewards points and rewards program info in the Pro version (subscription based, costs nearly $50)
• Ad-supported (but you can download a 99 cent version of the app with ads removed)
• Autoimport only works for Gmail/Google Apps users

Discussion

Two things got me really excited about TripIt: the idea of an app that automatically builds my itinerary from disparate emails, and the sheer number of awards TripIt has received over the years. It won a Webby in 2011 for Best Mobile Travel App, and also got accolades from Travel + Leisure’s “Best Travel Websites & Apps” list in 2011. It has a whole host of other big name awards under its belt dating back to 2008.

Organizing your trip has never been this easy. I think it’s a really inspired choice to have the app also recognize event confirmations like concerts, making this a great tool for building a comprehensive itinerary.

Not only is the core functionality great in TripIt, but the app interface itself is very simple to navigate. Even the banner ads aren’t terribly obnoxious. The one gripe I have is that from what I can tell (and from what other users have said), there isn’t much benefit in shelling out the big bucks for a Pro subscription. It doesn’t seem to do all that much, really.

Conclusion and download link

The next time you are planning a trip, try out TripIt and see how much easier it is to organize all your trip info into one convenient package. It’s the rare app that is a blend of both great concept and great execution, and I won’t plan a trip without it.

Price: Free

Version reviewed: 3.9

Requires iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad, iOS 5.0 or later

Download size: 10.5 MB

TripIt on Apple App Store