Updated November 2026 · Prices checked November 7, 2026
The best travel planning apps, by how you plan
The best travel planning app depends on how you plan. TripIt keeps every booking in one itinerary: forward the confirmation emails. Wanderlog is for building the trip yourself on a map, with friends. Roadtrippers is for road trips, Polarsteps for long journeys, and Highlights, our app, makes the plan for you.
About us, up front. This page is published by Winding AI, Inc., which makes Highlights, one of the nine apps below. Highlights is a good fit for only some of the jobs here, and we say so. Prices come from each app's own site or US store listing, read on November 7, 2026. No one paid to be listed, and there are no affiliate links. More about this page.
Start with how you plan
You book first, then want it all in one place
Flights, hotels and cars from different sites, in one itinerary.
TripIt, or Wanderlog
You research every stop yourself
You like reading, pinning and arranging each day.
Wanderlog, Google My Maps, Tripomatic
You'd rather the plan was made for you
Describe the trip and get days with places to edit.
Highlights, Stippl
You're driving
The route and the stops along it are the trip.
Roadtrippers
It's a long, multi-stop journey
Weeks on the road, and family following along.
Polarsteps
A group plans and books together
Everyone adds ideas; someone books the rooms.
Pilot, Wanderlog
The nine apps compared
Listed by job, not ranked. Prices in US dollars unless marked, as listed on November 7, 2026.
| App | Best for | Free version | Paid | Platforms | Weak spot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TripIt | All your bookings in one itinerary | Forward confirmations; TripIt builds the itinerary | TripIt Pro $49/yr, 30-day trial | Web, iOS, Android | Doesn't suggest what to do |
| Wanderlog | Building a trip yourself on a map, with friends | Unlimited places, live co-editing, booking import, budgets | Pro from $39.99/yr | Web, iOS, Android | You do the planning; Gmail scanning is Pro |
| Google Maps + My Maps | Saving places and custom maps | Everything: lists, custom maps, offline areas | None | Web, iOS, Android | No days, times or order |
| Highlights ours | A plan made for you, shared with a group | Planning with Sally, share link and RSVPs, PDF, apps | Pro $4.99/mo, or $29.99/yr in the iPhone app; ready-made plans up to $5 | Web, iOS, Android | No booking import; friends can't edit |
| Roadtrippers | Road trips and stops along the route | 1 saved trip, 3 stops | Basic $35.99, Pro $49.99, Premium $59.99 a year | Web, iOS, Android | Free plan is tiny; offline maps need Premium |
| Polarsteps | Tracking a long journey, then a printed book | Plan, track, share and relive trips | Plus €29.99/yr or €8.99/mo (App Store from $34.99/yr or $9.99/mo) | iOS, Android | Built for routes over weeks, not hour-by-hour days |
| Tripomatic | Day plans on a map with travel times | Itinerary planner and collaboration | Premium $29.99/yr after a 7-day trial | Web, iOS, Android, Mac | Offline maps and full AI planning need Premium |
| Stippl | An AI itinerary plus budget, packing and documents | AI day-by-day plan, budget and bill splitting | Stippl Pro, $3.99 to $34.99 in the App Store | Web, iOS, Android | Pro prices only shown in the app stores |
| Pilot | Group trips with booking in the same app | The whole app, $0 a year | Services for large groups and businesses | Web, iOS, Android | Built around groups and booking |
Each app, and when to skip it
TripIt: your bookings, organized
Forward your confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and TripIt builds one itinerary per trip, wherever you booked, with times and confirmation numbers, and you can read it offline. That part is free. TripIt Pro ($49 a year after a 30-day trial; $48.99 in the App Store) adds real-time flight alerts, seat and fare trackers, check-in and "go now" reminders, airport maps and automatic sharing with family.
Wanderlog: build it yourself, with friends
You add places to each day, see them on a map with times and distances between them, and reorder. Friends edit the same trip live, like a shared doc. The free plan also imports flight and hotel bookings, tracks a budget and splits bills. Pro (from $39.99 a year on its site; the App Store lists other annual and monthly prices) adds automatic Gmail scanning, export to Google Maps, route optimizing, unlimited attachments and unlimited AI help.
Google Maps and My Maps: free, and already on your phone
Save places to lists in Google Maps, or build a custom map in My Maps with your own icons, colors and photos, or from a spreadsheet. Friends can view or edit a My Map, and your maps show up in the Google Maps app. You can download an area for offline use (not in every country).
Highlights: the plan made for you our app
Highlights starts from a sentence ("4 days in Lisbon in May, food and views") or a link you paste: a TikTok, Instagram or YouTube video, a Google Maps list or an article. Sally, the balloon guide in the app, turns it into days of real places with photos, Google ratings and opening hours, in about a minute. You change it by asking her, or long-press a stop to move it to another day.
On the trip, the app's Today view shows the next stop, how far it is and one-tap directions; trips work offline with their photos; on iPhone the day sits on the Lock Screen; and you get reminders a week and a day before you leave. Friends get one link and answer Going, Maybe or Can't go in the browser, with no app or account.
Planning is free. Pro ($4.99 a month, or $29.99 a year in the iPhone app with a 7-day free trial) adds Sally's best planner, which researches the web first and double-checks the plan, plus every ready-made city and event plan (up to $5 each on their own).
Roadtrippers: the drive is the trip
Roadtrippers plans a driving route and finds stops along it, from attractions and hiking trails to campgrounds, with RV routing in the US. The free plan saves one trip with three stops. Basic ($35.99 a year) allows 20 stops, Pro ($49.99) 50 stops plus collaboration, and Premium ($59.99) 150 stops, offline maps, live traffic and Autopilot, which plans the trip from a few questions. Annual plans start with a 7-day free trial.
Polarsteps: plan the route, then track it
Polarsteps puts your trip on a map, tracks your route automatically (Polarsteps says typically under 4% battery a day) and lets family follow along. Planning, tracking and sharing are free; afterward you can order a printed Travel Book. Polarsteps Plus adds 3D maps, step stats and more travel buddies, with 20% off books on the yearly plan.
Tripomatic: a day-by-day planner with maps
Tripomatic builds a day-by-day itinerary from millions of places with photos and opening hours, estimates travel times between stops, and lets friends collaborate through a link with view or edit rights. Premium ($29.99 a year after a 7-day trial) adds unlimited AI planning, offline maps, PDF, GPX and KML export, and weather for your dates.
Stippl: AI plan, budget and bookings in one app
Describe a trip and Stippl's AI writes a day-by-day itinerary, with stays, a budget tracker that splits bills, packing lists, documents attached to each day, a journal and trip videos. The app is free; Stippl Pro's page lists "AI planning · offline maps · no ads", and the App Store lists it from $3.99 to $34.99.
Pilot: a group trip, planned and booked together
Pilot is free ("$0/year"): friends add ideas to one trip, see itineraries on a map, store bookings and documents, and use it offline. You can book stays and activities in the same app, and a view-only link shares the trip. Pilot says it's paid for by optional add-ons and services for large groups and businesses.
Is TripIt or Wanderlog better?
They do different jobs, and plenty of travelers use both.
| TripIt | Wanderlog | |
|---|---|---|
| Getting bookings in | Forward emails to plans@tripit.com, free | Import free; automatic Gmail scanning in Pro |
| Deciding what to do | Not its job | Add places to days on a map |
| Planning with friends | Pro shares your plans automatically | Live co-editing, free |
| Flight alerts | Real-time, in Pro | Not listed on its Pro page |
| Paid plan | $49 a year | From $39.99 a year |
Book first and travel a lot: TripIt. Plan first, especially with friends: Wanderlog.
Good alternatives to TripIt
- Wanderlog imports bookings and also plans the days, free.
- Pilot stores bookings and documents for a group, free.
- Flighty is for flights only. Pro ($59.99 a year, free on your first flight) adds 65+ flight alerts and imports trips from email, your calendar and TripIt.
- Rome2Rio isn't an organizer, but it answers "how do I get from here to there" by plane, train, bus, ferry or car.
How to make your own travel itinerary
- Fix dates and bases. Where you sleep each night decides what fits in a day.
- Book the fixed parts (flights, rooms, timed tickets) and forward every confirmation to TripIt or Wanderlog.
- List the few things you won't miss, then add places near each one so each day stays in one area. Google Maps lists or My Maps work for this.
- Order each day on a map so you don't cross town twice, and check opening hours for the day you'll be there.
- Share it with whoever's coming, and keep a copy that works offline.
If steps 3 and 4 are the part you'd skip, a planner such as Highlights or Stippl drafts them from a sentence, and you edit from there.
Questions people ask
What is the best free travel planning app?
For bookings in one place, TripIt's free version. For building a trip yourself with friends, Wanderlog's free plan. Google Maps lists and My Maps cost nothing at all, and Pilot lists its whole app at $0 a year. If you want the plan made for you, planning in Highlights is free.
Is Wanderlog actually free?
Yes for the core: unlimited places, the itinerary and map, live collaboration, importing flights and hotels, and budgets with bill splitting. Wanderlog Pro, from $39.99 a year on its site, adds automatic Gmail scanning, export to Google Maps, route optimizing, unlimited attachments and unlimited AI help.
Which app makes the itinerary for me?
Highlights and Stippl both turn a short description into a day-by-day plan, free. Tripomatic Premium and Roadtrippers Premium add AI planning to their paid plans, and Pilot has a free AI itinerary builder. TripIt doesn't plan; it organizes what you booked.
What is the best app for a road trip?
Roadtrippers, which plans the route and finds stops along it. Its free plan allows one saved trip with three stops, so most road trips need Basic ($35.99 a year) or more. Wanderlog is a free alternative: it allows unlimited stops and shows times and distances between them.
What is the best app for planning a group trip?
Wanderlog if everyone wants to edit the itinerary, Pilot if the group also wants to book together, and Highlights if one person plans and the others just need to see the plan and RSVP from a link with no app or account. Wanderlog and Stippl can also split costs.
Can I use Google Maps as a trip planner?
Partly. You can save places to lists, build a custom map in My Maps and download areas for offline use, all free. It won't put places into days with times or an order, so pair it with an itinerary app.
Do I need a paid travel planning app?
Usually not. Free versions cover planning for most trips. Paid plans earn their keep for frequent flyers (TripIt Pro's real-time alerts), long road trips (Roadtrippers' stop limits) and offline maps abroad (Tripomatic Premium, Roadtrippers Premium).
About this page
Published by Winding AI, Inc., the company that makes Highlights. Highlights is one of the nine apps. It's a planner that makes the plan for you, which is only one of the jobs people mean by "travel planning app", so for most rows of the table another app is the better pick, and we've said which.
How we chose. We started from the apps that Google's top results and AI Overviews for "best travel planning app" and "best trip planner app" named on November 7, 2026 (TripIt, Wanderlog, Google Maps, Roadtrippers), added planners people often compare with them (Polarsteps, Tripomatic, Stippl, Pilot), and added Highlights.
How we checked. Features and prices come from each app's own site, pricing page, help pages or US App Store listing, read on November 7, 2026. We give no scores or star ratings. Prices change; write to support@winding.ai if one is out of date.
How we make money. From Highlights Pro and paid plans, and from commissions when someone books a hotel or flight through a link inside Highlights. Links to Highlights from this page carry a tag saying you came from here; other links carry no affiliate code.
Highlights: highlights.ai · App Store · Google Play · Instagram · TikTok · X. Highlights also compares free itinerary planners.
Sources, read November 7, 2026
TripIt Pro and App Store · Wanderlog Pro and App Store · Google My Maps, lists, offline maps · Highlights Pro · Roadtrippers memberships · Polarsteps Plus and App Store · Tripomatic Premium · Stippl site and App Store · Pilot pricing · Flighty pricing.