Managing Travel Information
Since childhood I have always had a passion for computers and everything related to computer science. His love of travel, however, I came much later but with such force that I hope you join me for a lifetime.
In the last 7 years I have tried to travel as soon as I emerged the slightest chance, and since the beginning I had only to a travel guide more or less conventional destination. I’ve always had the need to gather more data, especially experience as credible and independent as possible, and contrasting points of interest I wanted to visit with the experience of other travelers.
Preparing a trip
I particularly like the vision of the destination shown by visitors from other cultures because they see it from different perspectives and with different nuances to ours, so I’m always looking for experiences and views expressed in other languages, mainly English-, and incorporate that interest me my custom travel guide.
I also prepare information related to the history of fate, the monuments and neighborhoods to visit, alternate routes, schedules, etc., Often based on personal experiences of previous travelers. At the end I can eliminate a lot of material, format and origin very different, I have to categorize and ‘package’ in some way to consult as simple and flexible as possible during the trip.
Technology and travel
Given my sympathy for the technology, I began assembling the information in digital format, preparing a simple website for trip descriptions, maps and photos. The web then transferred to a PDA (any of the fantastic series of Palm Tungsten PDAs) or one of the first tablet Nokia, which back in 2006 were a novelty, at that time had no netbooks, and notebooks were too heavy- . It can be said to pack all this information cost me a few hours, spread over the nights of the week before the trip.
Then once at the destination, check my personal guide to digital was not always entirely practical: the device is not used to have a screen big enough to be comfortable to read out continuously from the pocket or backpack was not as agile in the world, and then had to be always aware of the level of the battery.
However, there were times that this digital assistance was invaluable to me as when I arrived on a night of autumn 2004 in Vienna and found that, inexplicably, my hotel was closed for renovations. There was only a sign showing the address of another hotel that would take care of guests. With a PDA with full level I approach the new Vienna hotel without too much trouble. On another occasion, I forgot I left the paper guide to London in the first leg airline seat, so thanks to my little guide alternative was sufficiently informed that I could go to the sites.
Preparing for travel information
However, as the years have passed and the experience, the truth is I’ve been simplifying my system enough to manage travel information. And each time is less than technological.
Today, what I do is to print on individual sheets each block of independent information I’m sure I’ll need to consult at any time of travel. I fold the pages in half, and write in pencil rather large what they are responding (‘flying trip’, ‘hotel reservation’, ‘plane around hotel’, ‘Cologne Cathedral’, etc.). These roles place them in a handy place for my bag, and I have ordered at any time by probability of use. Those not used to this day, I leave you saved in the hotel.
My traveler information cards
A real example. If I travel to London, I print this information, each point in a paper folded in half and labeled in pencil to identify:
Outbound flight, reserve.
Schedule and information for Stansted Express Stansted – London.
Map of the destination station (Liverpool Express), detail of the bus station (map) and itinerary of the trip to the hotel.
Hotel reservation.
Information on each point of interest I want to visit. If such is the British Museum, printed street map and mark it the nearest underground stations. I will also schedule the museum, and a list of rooms to visit.
Map of where I have more or less expected to start the return journey (for example, Metro Station Euston Road if the last visit is the British Museum).
Details of train from the airport.
Return flight reservation.
Try the information is concrete, with large print texts, maps occupy as much space as possible. Highlight important points and those soil leave blank for latest scores. The blocks of information must be well structured and above all have to be quick to detect at a glance.
Then as I said will order these papers in order of need to use and place them in the backpack. Having the information in this way is convenient to me forever. I find it very simple to locate a paper, then I can save without too ruthlessly into a pocket, is easy to read in any situation and we should not see the battery level and scrolling on a screen. Still, I carry a ‘safety stand’ digital with more or less the same information, for when unforeseen circumstances:
In the mobile application I have the excellent Métro, with all public transport routes that will visit major cities. In giant cities like London, is a priceless resource.
In the mobile (or ipad) took screenshots of the maps, also keep pdfs of reservations and all the information that I printed. All this digital information centralized in Evernote, excellent service through which I can access my information from any computer anywhere in the world with Internet access.
This combination of analog and digital information it has worked very well from the beginning, and now three years will not only modify the system. For me there is nearly frictionless and I have the best of both worlds: accessibility and practicality of analog, storage capacity and versatility of digital. Furthermore, the return journey I can take this information to write 3viajesaldia.
And you, How do you organize your travel information?
Credit to: Manuel