How Treader works: from a blank map to the day itself

Treader is a free trip planner built on one idea: a trip is days, each day is an ordered list of stops, and the map draws whatever the list says. The people, the money, the AI and the checks all hang off that list.

Plan the days and stops

Start a trip from the trip menu with a name and, if you know them, dates. Without dates the trip starts as Day 1, and Add day in the Days menu adds the next. The plan has no save button: edits save as you make them and follow you between devices, and if two people edit different stops at once, both changes survive. A deleted trip waits 30 days under Deleted in My Trips before it goes. (Create your first trip)

• Stops come from the search bar or from the map itself, which shows what is in view as you pan. Every gap between two stops is a leg with a travel estimate, and each leg can be walked, cycled, driven or ridden on transit. (Add stops and discover places)
• Days have names, an insight row (how heavy the day is, what it will cost, the forecast) and, on Pro, a one-tap Optimize that cuts backtracking. Press B for the board: days as columns, plus the Ideas pen for the maybes, which everyone on the trip sees and a public page never shows. (Shape your days)
• Flights, ferries, trains and buses are one entry that becomes two linked stops, and a flight lands on the right day across time zones. (Add flights to your trip)
• What you already have arrives by paste: a link, a screenshot, a list of places or the day-by-day answer a chat model wrote, and on Discovery an airline email or a hotel PDF comes back as flights and stays. Tick what lands. (Paste anything)
• A hike or a ride imported from a GPX or KML file becomes a stop shaped like the trail, timed at walking pace from distance and climb. (Route-shaped stops)
• Notes live under Plan in the main menu, with templates and chips that pull a trip or a place into the page. (Take notes that know your trip)

The planner is two views of one plan: the itinerary panel lists, the map draws, and they stay in lockstep. ⌘K opens a command palette that reaches every view, trip and day and the main actions. On a computer the header starts quiet: Browse, Messages, Today and the Trip hub join it once a trip of your own has three stops, or straight away on a paid plan or a trip you joined. (Find your way around)

Share the trip and plan together

Share an invite link and whoever opens it sees the live plan and joins with a free account, as an editor or view only. Editors add, move and remove stops; viewers watch it change. Your plan sets the editing seats beside yours, 1 on Free, 3 on Pro and 10 on Discovery, and viewers never take one, so nobody needs a paid plan to come along. Your garage, your Travel Data vault and your Scout chats stay yours. (Invite people to a trip)

• Not sure when? A date poll sends one link, the group ticks what works with no account, and the trip is made on the dates that win.
• Every shared trip has its own chat in the right-side dock, so decisions get made next to the plan they change.
• Split costs on Pro: log who paid what and Treader works out who pays who in as few payments as it can.
• One album per trip, filed by the day each photo was taken and seen only by the people on the trip, and a recap link that shows just the photos the owner picks.
• A public page for the plan at its own link, with your budget, costs and Ideas stripped out before it is built, and a calendar feed for the people who live in their calendar.
• The order that works for a group, from the date vote to the settle-up, is in How to plan a group trip.

Ask Scout, the AI assistant

Scout is the assistant in the Chat tab of the right-side dock, or behind the bottom switcher on a phone. It does not invent places: every suggestion comes from a real search near the day you are working on and arrives as a card you can drop onto the plan. Ask it to move dinner or drop the market and it answers with the exact changes, which happen only when you tap Apply changes, and Undo takes them back; on Pro you can let them apply on their own. Free includes 15 Scout messages a month, Pro 100, Discovery unlimited within fair use. (Meet Scout)

Check the trip before you go

Treader reads a lot about a plan, and Trip check gathers what it finds into one list at the top of the Trip hub: a stop that will be shut on the day you visit, an outdoor stop that runs past dark, rain over an outdoor stop, a tight flight connection, a night with no bed, a budget tipping over. Each row carries its fix. It is free on every plan and only speaks when it knows something. Opening hours come with the places Scout suggests on every plan and with every place on Pro.

• A trip budget on Pro sets one ceiling and reads planned spend against it; typed prices beat estimates, so the total firms up as you book.
• A packing list on Pro is built from the trip itself: its length, the forecast, your stops and how you travel, with shared gear listed once for the group.
• Fuel and the road: save your car once, pick it for the trip, and each long drive, up to 12 a trip, is checked for fuel and charging along the way and for any posted height, weight or length limit it would not clear. The cost estimate is Pro; the checks are free.
• The last train home on Pro checks the end of service against a late day that rides transit back to the bed.
• On Discovery, Travel Data keeps your bookings, documents and wallet in one private vault and flags a passport that expires too soon for a country the trip lands in.
• The whole sequence, from the date to the departure gate, is The trip planning checklist.

Today mode and the offline map

Today mode shows the day you are living against the clock: what is now, what is next, how far behind the plan you are, the conditions, and a pocket guide to the country's money, plugs and emergency number. On Pro it can push the rest of the day from now when you are running late and move outdoor stops around a rain window.

For the places with no signal, Pro saves the trip's map on your phone with a read-only copy of the plan, and downloads the whole trip as one file that opens in any browser. Every plan can print a trip or save it as a PDF, and the guides print the same way.

What each plan is for

• Free plans whole trips of up to 7 days, with one editor beside you, 40 photos a trip, 15 Scout messages a month, and every check above that is not marked Pro or Discovery.
• Pro, $4.99 CAD a month or $49.99 a year, stretches a trip to 30 days, seats 3 editors and 400 photos, gives Scout 100 messages a month, and adds the offline map and pack, Optimize, the budget, packing, split costs, the fuel estimate, the last train and live flight status.
• Discovery, $9.99 CAD a month or $99.99 a year, includes everything in Pro plus 60-day trips, 10 editors, 1,000 photos, unlimited Scout within fair use, the Travel Data vault, flight claims and campground watches.

The full menu, how to change plans and what happens when you stop paying are in Plans, pricing and billing. On a paid plan, friends you refer earn you up to 3 free months of Pro, and exporting or deleting your account takes a minute and asks nothing back.

Start here

• Create your first trip → A plan in under a minute, with or without dates. /docs/create-your-first-trip
• Find your way around → The planner layout, the dock, map styles and every shortcut. /docs/find-your-way-around
• Replay the guided tours → Six short tours over the real app, any time. /docs/guided-tours
• Save a guide to read later → Every guide prints cleanly to PDF for the trailhead. /docs/save-guides-offline

Common questions

Is Treader free?

Yes. The free plan plans whole trips of up to 7 days with the map, stops, flights, paste, Trip check, Today mode and one editor beside you. Pro adds trip length, seats, photos, Scout volume and offline; Discovery raises each limit again and adds Travel Data.

Does Treader work on a phone?

Yes. Treader runs in the browser on any phone and can be added to the Home Screen. The planner, Today mode and the guides are built for a phone first; Pro's offline map needs the Home Screen version on iPhone so Safari keeps the files.

Can I plan a trip without knowing the dates?

Yes. A trip without dates starts as Day 1 and takes more days as you add them, and a date poll can pick the dates with the group first.

Who can see my trip?

Only you and the people you invite, unless you publish it or share one of its links: an invite link, a recap or a calendar feed shows its part of the plan to whoever holds it. A published page shows the days, stops and route and never your budget, costs or Ideas.

Does Scout make up places?

No. Every suggestion comes from a real search near the day you are planning, and nothing changes on the plan until you tap Apply changes, unless you have turned on automatic apply on Pro.