Trip planning, tested
How to plan a city trip that actually fits the hours you have — plus honest comparisons of the apps and spreadsheets people use to do it.
TripIt reads a flight to track it. Owlio reads the same flight to size the day. Where each wins, what TripIt Pro costs as of September 2026, and why a single-city trip may need both.
An evening flight leaves hours between checkout and the airport, and where the bags sit decides whether they are yours. How to size the gap, store the luggage and fit one real thing into it.
Monday is the usual museum closing day, and the famous exceptions are exactly the museums people travel for. How to check a trip's weekdays before the headline sight disappears.
Your phone already names landmarks and famous paintings for free. How to use what is built in, when a dedicated scanner earns its place, and why the name is the cheap part.
Every city has one thing that decides the shape of three days, and it is rarely walking distance. How to find it before choosing any sight, and what to do with the thing that will not fit.
Google Maps will route nine stops by distance and knows nothing about a ticket window. What it genuinely wins at, where it stops being a planner, and how to turn saved pins into days.
A late landing is decided by three closing times: the last airport train, the hotel front desk and the last kitchen. What to check before flying, and why the next morning pays for the night.
A spreadsheet will hold eleven stops on a Tuesday without ever mentioning that eleven stops do not fit. Where spreadsheets beat apps, where they cannot help, and which to use for a short city trip.
A flight landing at 16:40 does not give you a day. How to work out the real hours at each end of a short city trip, what fits in them, and which planning tools actually ask.