January 4th: Ms. Faux's Favorite Trip Planner - Sygic Travel

This is a FAUX FAVE...

So Ms. Faux is planning another trip with her best friend Ms. MJ.  This year's destination, Ireland, Scotland and England (London to be specific).  

So when I started looking for things to do for this trip, you know that I went to my previous favorite planning site TripOMatic.  Except one thing was different... it is now Sygic Travel.  I'm assuming they were bought by Sygic, but not really sure, however it is the same type of interface that TripOMatic offered when I went to Auckland, New Zealand and Sydney and Melbourne, Australia.

So what is it?

It is an interactive website that helps you to plan your trip to wherever you are going.  Though I probably am only speaking to a very small area of this website's capabilities, here is what I like about it.  Also known as... What does Ms. Faux think?

Well I took a lot of this from their website and added what I think (in bold).

1.  To start simply type in a city.  Fill out the time of your travel (optional) and your hotel (also optional).

2.  You then can go to their recommended itineraries or list of places that you want to visit or simply start looking at the map of your city.

3. You can see all the places you might want to visit on the map. They are also visible in the sidebar. As you move the map or zoom in, the list automatically updates. If you zoom out enough, you will see destinations instead of places. Click them to view the attractions.  This app or website plans days in 12 hour intervals.

4.  If you’re looking for a particular place, you can use the search field above the map to find it. You can search for attractions, hotels, tours or addresses.

You can also filter places by their categories above the map. If you wish, you can filter the places further by tags after you select a category.

5.  You can add a place straight from the map, or you can click on it to read more about it, then click the plus button to add it to your trip plan. This will add the place to the current day you are working with. You can change the day above the map.  I love this option because you can learn about things in the area you are visiting that you may not know about.  Know however that Ms. Faux has usually done her research with Rick Steves YouTube channel and TripAvisor.com, amongst many other books and searches.

6.  If you want to save a place for later, click the heart icon instead to add it to your Favorites.

If you want to add more destinations to your trip plan, use the search field. Type in the name of your next destination and hit Enter. The map will be moved to your next destination and you can start adding places from it to your trip plan.

The favorites tab is my favorite and generally what I do.  I mark everything I want to see and then filter it and start planning my trip.  This way I can see what sights are closest together so that I can plan my individual days.  I have found it is best to have this planned before you visit somewhere so you don't waste time.  Another good way to look at this is through GoogleMaps.com.

7.  For your itinerary... You can switch between days in your itinerary in the menu above the map. When adding places to your itinerary, you always add them to the day that is currently set as active.

You can open each day to see its detail and also see the route between those places. Once you open the day, you can easily add more places to it from the map.

When you add a place, Sygic Travel automatically reroutes your itinerary and recalculates the travel estimate for the day. On the top you can see that the day starts to fill up.

8.  Save your trip by creating an account, or by logging in if you already have one. You will be able to access your trip later and also, each change you make to your trip automatically syncs across all your devices and the web.

After you're done with adding activities to your trip, you can download a neat PDF guide of your trip. Click on the Trip Overview button in the right corner above the map, then switch yourself to the Print / Download / App tab to find the option.

If you have a smartphone, don’t forget to download Sygic Travel mobile app before you go. Once you sign in, it will automatically sync your trip and allow you to follow and edit your itinerary on the go. With Sygic Travel Premium, the app will work even without Internet connection.

9.  The greatest thing, if you are planning with other parties is that you can share this itinerary between parties.

I know it is hard to really explain the brilliance and ease of this app/website, but seriously it has streamlined the way I travel.  Having been to most of Europe, many islands in the Carribean, New Zealand, Australia, Across the USA, etc..., etc... I have found many of my favorite ways to do things and this website is brilliant.