The
Travel Planner is a valuable part of
your trip planning, allowing you to track estimated
arrival and departure times, the amount of time you
plan to spend at each
location and the travel
time and mode between locations. Icons provide quick links to maps as you travel between locations.
When it
comes to traveling to multiple locations,
you may have a mix of arrival and
departure times that are fixed, along with others that can be
adjusted on the fly as you travel. For
example, flights, ferries and some
high-speed or specialty trains may have set
departure and arrival times. In fact,
some trains require that you purchase a
specific seat on a specific train.
Typical train travel is very flexible
allowing you to take any train you like and
occupy any available seat.
If you are traveling by car, you will be setting
your own departure and arrival times.
Whatever your mode of travel may be, the Travel
Planner provides a convenient way to
track all your travel plans and provides
calculated information to keep you on
schedule.
It does take a
little planning and thought, but once you get the hang
of it, you will find that you can enter all you
travel plans in a matter or minutes.
For
travel that is not set-in-stone, simply
enter your best guess for your planned
arrival, departure and duration of travel.
By entering this for each location, you will
see your travel plans begin to take shape
and once they do, you can make informed
decisions on how to adjust your schedule to
create an
itinerary you are happy with.
Throughout the website and on your mobile
device, the
icon will be linked to Google Maps
for each location. The
Travel
Planner uses the
icon linking the current location to
your next destination providing single click
access to display routes and travel duration
between the two locations. It is
important to enter location names so that
Google Maps can interpret them
correctly.
See the
Mobile Trip Profile - Travel Planner
page for information on how to use and
access the Travel Planner page with the
icon.
Travel Planning Display |
The
vertical color coded bar to the
left of each location represents
same day travel. The
Red and Green colors are also synced with the arrival and
departure dates at for each
location. The colors
alternate when the date changes
making it easy to see
all the locations you plan to
visit on a single day.
In-between
each location, you will see the
current location linked to the
next location; for example:
Denver
London. Clicking
the arrow will display Google
Maps showing the route between
the two locations with travel
times. This will assist
you with entering the travel
duration when departing from the
current location. |
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Travel Planner
Icon Definitions & Functionality |
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Time Indicator |
Indicates the arrival or
departure time has not been set |
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Location Map |
Displays
Google Maps allowing you to use your
phones GPS to navigate from your
current location to the
selected location |
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Location Photos |
Displays
Google Photos for the selected location |
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Location News |
Displays
Google News for the selected location |
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From-To Location
Map |
Displays
Google Maps showing the routes from
the selected location to the next
location in your itinerary |
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Trip Profile Display |
Goes to the
Trip Profile display for viewing the
activities at the selected location |
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Top of Page |
Jump to the top
of the page |
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Edit |
Select to edit
each location and enter the
arrival/departure times, travel mode
and duration |
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Activity |
When building
the travel time between locations,
you may select the transportation
mode such as train, car, etc. |
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Select 'Update'
to save your changes. You will
stay in 'Edit Mode' where you may
continue to make changes until you select 'Done' to exit
'Edit Mode'. |
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Editing a Location |
Select
to edit each location. The
example below shows the edit
screen where you may select or
enter your travel information.
The checkbox, when
checked next to the
arrival and departure times
indicates that the time applies.
If not checked, the time will
not apply and be part of any
travel time calculations.
There may be times when you
simply do not know when you plan
to arrive or depart and would
rather not set a time.
You may also
enter a comment helping to
explain your plans and provide
additional information you need
to remember. |
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Travel Mode Stats |
On the
Travel Planner page, you will
see several stats showing the
travel modes you have selected
for your trip along with the
amount of time you will be
traveling using each mode.
The display also gives a
breakout of the amount of daily
travel time you have planned.
During the planning phase of
your trip, this information may
help you
adjust or balance the amount of
time you plan to travel each
day. |
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Showing all travel
modes with the total
travel time and
average travel
time/day excluding
air travel. A
special breakout
eliminating 'air' as
the most common
departure and return
to your home
destination is also
shown. |
You may select a
specific mode of
travel to. In
this example, the 'Car'
travel
mode has been
selected to show the
total amount of time
you will be
traveling by car as
well as the average
travel time/day. |
This display shows the amount of combined
travel for each day of the trip
making it easy to see heavy and
light travel days. |
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