Travel Organization Question

mouse10031978 · May 2012

First of all, let me just say thank you to all of you who are always so kind and generous with your answers. Our trip to Italy (and our first trip abroad) is quickly approaching in less than a month(!) now, and it is finally crunch time! And please be aware- there will be more questions coming your way!!!

Anyway, a friend of mine recently took a trip to Disney World, and I liked her organization of her travel documents- i.e. itineraries, notes, tickets, recommendations, etc. She split them up into an expandable accordion file folder, labeling each stop (or day) with a tab.

This made it easy to organize, and she knew right where to look for everything they needed for that day. I think an idea like this would really help me out since we are making 5 different stops in Italy over two weeks. I would like to keep all of my Venice, Rome, Florence, CT, and Chianti "stuff" organized in some way- such as a copy of our lodging rental info, train tickets, car rental info, restaurant recs for each city, etc.

Here is my problem. We are only taking hiking backpacks and a small day travel bag. I do not think I will have room for a full-size accordion folder. Can anyone think of a handy way to collect this information, but in a smaller package? I am willing to take something concrete, or I am also open to app suggestions for my iphone that might(?) do the same thing. (We are taking iphones, but data will be turned off, so it would have to be an app that can run without data...)

Any clever ideas? I know someone has had to come up with something to keep organized....right???

Jells2dot0 · May 2012

I always organize my travel docs in a folder in the order of my stops or in the order that I'd need the documentation. You can also place legal stickies, typically used to mark signature blocks, on the first page of each stop.

http://www.staples.com/Post-it-Stickies-Flags-Tabs-Post-it-Stickies-Notes-Flags/cat_CL165756

MDGirl · May 2012

You can still use the other features of the phone without turning on the data. I take pictures of documents (if I don't need the hard copy) or the computer screen, and for restaurants you could just use the notepad.

katiesept24 · June 2012

I just recently used the Tripit app on my iphone for a trip and it was wonderful. All you do is put in your flight number and it pulls up all of the times and information and stores it in the app. Then you can add hotels, car rentals, schedules for each day. It was really helpful to use. I think the app run by AAA but it is free. I would highly recommend it.,

1220winterbride · June 2012

I love Microsoft One Note

marshian · June 2012

This isn't very glamorous or amazing, but for our trip to Peru (just returned) I printed out all our confirmations and then put them in a gallon Ziploc bag. I wanted a way to keep them dry in case our stuff got rained on. We also didn't have much room... used backpacks similar to hiking ones.

In the future, though, I'll probably find a small accordion file or something similar and take that.

TravelingJen · June 2012

For my trips to Europe I always use a soft-cover notebook. Inside the notebook are multiple plastic sheet covers where I organize my hotel confirmation, daily itineraries, pre-booked tickets, etc by city. I only ever carry on my luggage so I too have very little room but the soft cover notebooks take up very little space.

bonjourbelle05 · June 2012

I've used envelopes before...one for each day because when you are done with them you can throw them out and I usually use the one from the 1st day to save ticket stubs, etc that I want.

mouse10031978 · June 2012

HI everyone!

Thanks for the feedback. I think I am going to a drop box on my iphone with digital files and also take a soft-cover notebook with plastic sheets as Traveling J described. Thanks!

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