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Plan a trip

The trip planning checklist, from idea to departure day

A trip planning checklist in the order it happens: dates and people, flights and beds, the days, budget, passports and insurance, packing, the day itself.

7 min read Updated 4 questions answered
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Planning a trip is a short list of decisions in a sensible order: when and with whom, how you get there and where you sleep, what the days hold, what it costs, what paperwork it needs, and what could still go wrong. Start at the top, or jump to the step you are stuck on.

1. Dates and people

  • Pick the dates with the group, not for them. A date poll sends one link, everyone ticks what works with no account, and the trip is made on the dates that win.
  • Start the trip anyway if the dates are open. An undated trip starts as Day 1 and takes more days as you add them; only the forecast and the opening-hours checks wait for real dates. (Create your first trip)
  • Invite the people going as editors or viewers from the share panel: editing seats beside yours, 1 on Free, 3 on Pro, 10 on Discovery, and viewers never take one. They see the plan; the documents in your Travel Data vault stay yours. (Invite people to a trip)
  • Know your trip length. Free plans a trip of up to 7 days; Pro, $4.99 CAD a month, stretches it to 30, and Discovery, $9.99 CAD a month, to 60. A month on the road is a Pro decision to make now, not on day eight. (Plans, pricing and billing)

2. Getting there and where to stay

  • Log the flights first. One entry becomes takeoff and landing on their right days across time zones, and everything else drags around them. Ferries, trains and buses log the same way. (Add flights to your trip)
  • Paste the confirmations on Discovery: an airline email, a hotel PDF or a screenshot comes back as flights and stays to tick, and files itself in Travel Data. On Free and Pro the paste says what it found, and you log the flights by hand. (Paste anything)
  • Put a bed on every night. A hotel or a camp stop at the end of each day is what Trip check reads when it warns about a night with nowhere to sleep, and what the last train home check needs to know where home is.
  • Book what sells out before you plan around it. Park campsites and permits open months ahead on a schedule, and the beds decide the route more than preference does. (How to get a campsite in a popular park)

3. The day-by-day itinerary

  • Collect stops from the search bar and the map, then send each one to a day. (Add stops and discover places)
  • Read the day before you fill it. The insight row says whether the day is Comfortable, Packed or Over-stuffed, and each leg between stops carries a travel time. (Shape your days)
  • A hike or a ride is a line, not a point. Import its GPX or KML file and the stop is shaped like the trail, with a walking-pace duration from distance and climb. (Route-shaped stops)
  • Start from a chat if you like, then let Treader check what it could not know. (Plan a trip with ChatGPT or Claude, then make it real)
  • Keep the rest in Notes. Booking logs, day sketches and wishlists live there, under Plan in the main menu, with chips that pull in a trip or a place. (Take notes that know your trip)

4. Money

  • Set one ceiling for the trip and watch planned spend against it as stops get prices. Typed prices beat estimates, so the total firms up as you book. Pro. (Set a trip budget)
  • Split as you spend. Log who paid what and Treader works out who pays who in as few payments as it can. Starting a split is Pro; anyone with edit access joins in. (Split costs with the group)
  • Driving? Cost the fuel. Save your car once and pick it for the trip; the estimate and the fill-ups are Pro, and the fuel-and-charging check on each long drive, up to 12 a trip, is free. (Plan fuel and check the road for your car)
  • Decide how you will pay abroad before the first ATM. (Keep your money safe abroad)

5. Paperwork

  • Passports and entry rules. A passport that is valid on the day you fly can still be too close to its expiry for the country you land in: the Schengen area asks for 3 months past the day you leave it (checked September 2026). Each country page in Travel advice by destination lists its passport rule and any visa or pre-travel authorization. On Discovery, Trip check tests the passports in your wallet against the rule of each country your flights land in. (Keep your travel documents in a private vault)
  • Buy travel insurance before you leave. Your provincial or territorial health plan may cover none, or only a small part, of medical care abroad, even on a day trip to the US. (Travel insurance)
  • Know your rights before the airline tests them. (When your flight goes wrong)
  • Read the scams once, at home, where they are obvious. (Travel scams and how to spot them)

6. The week before

  • Run Trip check and clear the list: a stop shut on your day, an outdoor stop past dark, rain over an outdoor stop, a tight connection, a night with no bed. Free on every plan; the shut-stop row needs opening hours, which come with the places Scout suggests on every plan and with every place on Pro. (Trip check)
  • Build the packing list from the trip itself, with shared gear listed once for the group. From three days out, Trip check counts what is still unticked. Pro. (Build a packing list from your trip)
  • Take the plan offline. Pro saves the trip's map on your phone and downloads the whole trip as one file; every plan can print it or save it as a PDF.
  • Put it in your calendar, live or as a file. (Put the trip in your calendar)
  • Plan the first night before wheels-up: the route to bed, cash, data. (Arrive like you live there)

7. The day itself

Today mode shows the day you are living against the clock: what is now, what is next, how far behind you are, the conditions, and a pocket guide to the country. On Pro it re-times the rest of the day when you are late and moves outdoor stops around a rain window. Document your room before you unpack, and afterwards pick the photos for the recap.

Guides in this section

Common questions

How far ahead should I start planning a trip?
Book the things that sell out on their own schedule first: park campsites and permits open months ahead, six months to the day for most Recreation.gov campsites, and for Parks Canada in launches that ran park by park from 20 January to 12 February in 2026. Plan the days around what you got. Everything else can wait until the dates are set.
What should a trip plan include?
The dates and who is coming, the flights and the beds, an ordered list of stops per day with the travel between them, a budget, the documents you need to enter each country, and a list of what could still go wrong. Treader keeps all of those on one trip.
Can I plan a trip before I know the dates?
Yes. Days are numbered until dates are set, and a date poll can pick them with the group first.
Is the checklist different for a road trip or a hiking trip?
The order is the same. A road trip adds the car to the money step: fuel, charging and the posted limits on each drive. A hiking trip adds permits to the beds step, since they open on their own schedule like campsites.

Tip

The trap is filling the days before the beds are booked. The campsite or hotel you actually get decides the route, so book what sells out first and plan the days around it. The travel organizer page shows the whole list on one trip.