Website & Mobile Updates

 
Mobile Interactive Trip Demo 16 March 2025
There is now an Interactive Trip Demo that can be accessed from the Mobile Trip Profile logon page.

The trip can be accessed by anyone without having an account and being logged in to highlight some of the available trip features.  Once you are logged in to your account, you can add the trip to your account on the Trip Tracker page for both Mobile and Public trip profile access.  Once added to your tracker, additional functionality will become available such as Photo Timeline viewing and Offline Maps for locations download tracking.

The trip has been created for a journey from London to Paris and then on to Strasbourg France.  From there, you will travel to various locations in Switzerland before returning to London from Zurich.  Activities have been created below the different locations along with a Day Trip to Chartres from Paris.  Activity and locations groups have been created as well as activity checklists at some locations.

The Trip Demo allows new and existing users to view some of the features that would be available when using the Mobile Trip Profile during a trip.
 
Business Expenses 18 February 2025
The General Alerts settings for Activities have been updated to include a Business Expense option.

To assist with tracking business expenses, you can now mark each activity cost as a business expense and review all the expenses on the Trip Cost Report.

General Activity Alert - Business Expense can now be set in the General Alerts section on the Activity Details Page.
The Trip Cost Report has been updated to display the Business Expense icon next to activities that have the option selected.  You can also select to display only activities that have the option selected.
The Mobile Trip Profile - Edit Activity page has been updated to allow entry of the Activity Cost and a quick select checkbox to set if the cost is a Business Expense.
 
Mobile Apps & Websites Page Updates / Mobile Travel Tools 9 February 2025
The Mobile Apps & Websites page has been updated with useful travel related website links that do not require an app to be downloaded and installed.  The page also includes a list of useful travel apps with links that do require download and install.

The Mobile Trip Profile has now been integrated with the Mobile Apps & Websites page. On this page there is important emergency government contact information, website links, app download links, Google Image Search & Language Translation Help and access to your saved AI Trip Assist searches when logged in.

The new Mobile Travel Tools page
Link to the Google Image Search & Language Translation Help page
Your saved AI Trip Assist searches when logged in.
 
New Activity Icons 2 February 2025
Canyon
Gorge
Waterfall
 
AI Travel Assist 22 January 2025
Implementation of AI Travel Assist Searches utilizing Google Search Labs, Microsoft Copilot and Bing.

Google Search Labs and Copilot use Generative AI to search different data and generate results based on your request criteria.  Generative AI is a work in progress and search results may not be available for all searches, but will continue to improve over time.

If you receive helpful and informative results, you are able to save your search parameters for future reference.

The Mobile Trip Profile has been updated to reference saved searches and with a single click, you can select a saved search and view the results using any of the search methods.
 
Major update & enhancement release - 3 January 2025  
At the end of Q4-2024 we completed the development of several enhancements slated for release in early January of 2025.

The primary focus was to support Day/Side Trips at the location level with full website and Mobile Trip Profile integration.  For these changes, several other areas of functionality needed to be enhanced as well.  Changes include modification to the Travel Planner and Activity Groups to provide full integration with the Mobile Trip Profile.  Location Groups were introduced allowing the grouping of similar locations along with flagging locations as Day/Side Trips.  All related Help Pages have been completed with examples and procedures on adjusting arrival dates when creating Day/Side Trips.
A Day Trip is when you travel to one or more locations that are close enough to make a round-trip within a day, but does not require an overnight stay.
A Side Trip is when you travel to one or more locations with an overnight stay, before returning to your base location.
A Base Location is where you are staying and plan to depart and return for a Day or Side Trip.
Activity Groups
Activity Groups have been in place for some time, but we have updated the help pages to better explain the procedures for defining and assigning groups to activities.  The help pages for 'Day Trips as Activities' have also been updated explaining using groups for Day Trips.  
 
Location Groups
Location Groups have been introduced allowing you to define a group with a title and highlight color.  Once a group has been created, it can be assigned to your locations.  You can also flag a group as a Day/Side Trip so that Day/Side Trip indicator will display with the group title and highlight color to indicate the location is a Day/Side Trip.

The Trip Builder pages and the Mobile Trip Profile have been updated to display the group title and highlight color, making it easy to see related locations and the locations that are Day/Side Trips.
 
 
Day Trips / Side Trips
The ability to handle Day Trips and Side Trips at the Location Level has now been completed, offering full website and Mobile Trip Profile functionality.  Previously Day Trips were only available at the Activity Level, with limited functionality.

Day/Side Trips are an important part of defining a trip.  You may plan to leave your Base Location for a day or even a night away before returning to your Base Location.  These Day/Side Trips are handled differently as they disrupt the sequential departure/arrival dates of a typical trip.

We have created a simply way to adjust your location departure and arrival dates, allowing you to insert Day/Side Trips anywhere in your itinerary.  The implementation of Location Groups also helps to define and identify Day/Side Trips.
 
 
Travel Planner
The selection of the travel mode and travel duration between locations has been removed from the Travel Planner, making it easier to set the departure and arrival times of your locations.  As it's typical to create an activity defining the trave mode and duration for travel between locations, requiring the entry of travel mode and duration on the Travel Planner was not necessary.

The Initialize Travel Planner page has been enhanced to better handle the initialization of departure times and arrival times between locations based on your transportation type activities.

The Mobile Travel Planner page has been removed as the information is now fully integrated with the Mobile Trip Profile.  On current travel days, time at a location, remaining time at the location and graphs will now automatically display.  Current day activities will also display the same information.
 
 
Mobile Trip Profile
Using the Mobile Trip Profile, you can now select a specific Location Group to display.  You can also display the 'Entire Trip' and 'Main Trip' locations.  The 'Main Trip' includes all locations that are not flagged as Day/Side Trips.
The Route Map icon will now show for any transportation activity such as train, car, gondola, etc.  It will be linked for travel from the current location to the activity title text.
Locations assigned to a Location Group will display with the location group title highlighted with the group color.  If the location has been flagged as a Day/Side Trip, the indicator will also be displayed.  
 
Activity Duration Report
The report shows the total duration of each activity by location. A specific activity can be selected to view the locations where the activity has been assigned. The report will also display the total duration of each activity as well as a breakdown of the 'Average Duration per Usage-Day' and the 'Average Duration per Trip-Day'.

The report is helpful for reviewing the amount of time, or duration that you plan to spend on each activity.  Based on the duration, you may decide to adjust your trip to spend more or less time on certain activities.  For example, you may decide to adjust the number of locations you plan to visit, based on how much time you would spend traveling between those locations.  You only have so much time on your trip, so maybe spending less time traveling and more time in certain locations may make more sense.
 
 
Activity Alert Icons
New activity alert icons have been added, helping you know when you may or may not bring your backpack into an area or site.  We have also added the 'Free' alert icon to flag activities that have free access or entry.
Backpacks Allowed
Backpacks Not Allowed  
Free Access/Entry  
 
Help Pages
Help Pages for Activity Groups have been updated to expalin the different ways to create a Day Trip at the activity level, along with the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

Help Page for Location Groups to define Day and Side Trips have been completed and fully explain the process for creating and assigning the groups.

Help Page complete for the Activity Time Report.

The Help Pages for Trip Nights/Dates have been updated to explain in detail how to adjust dates forward and backward to handle arrivals and departures at locations for Day/Side Trips.

Help pages have been implemented as a guide to help you create Day and Side Trips.

The Travel Planner help pages have been updated to show examples of manually setting location departure and arrival times.

The 'Initialize Travel Planner' page has been updated with detailed information on using the initialize process.
 
 
Updates for the previous year: 2024
 
New Activity Type September 2024
New Tips: Selfie Sticks and Charging / Data Cables
-We did some research on different sticks to give you some ideas of what to consider when it comes to using Selfie Sticks with your smartphone, Traveling Light and a comparison with tripods and cameras.
-We have also added a page on USB Cables for your Smartphone and other devices.
 
 
Selfie Sticks        Charging / Data Cables 
 
New Activity Type Augest 2024
Due to recent requests, Champagne has now been added to the list of Activity Types for selection.  
  Activity Icons & Definitions 
'Jump to Location' sections display 'Day Trips' in lists Augest 2024
To provide a quick view of the locations that have 'Day Trips' assigned, the 'Jump to Location' sections of the Trip Master, Trip Summary and Mobile Trip Profile pages have been modified to display 'Day Trips' that have been assigned to the locations.  
Google Image Search & Language Translation July 2024
Update to the main Mobile Profile page to include a link to a new page providing high level information on how to use Google Image Search and Language Translation.  These are two very helpful Google features that may come in handy during your travels.  From the page, there is a direct link to Google to easily access the features.
Mobile Blogging & Mobile Photo Upload Q2 2024
Mobile Trip Profile - Premium Services: Apply to any trip to access Mobile Blogging (Trip, Location & Activity levels) and Mobile Photo Upload (Trip Activities).
See how Premium Services integrate seamlessly with Mobile Features 
   Mobile Blogging
   Blog Review & Edit
       Mobile Photo Upload
   Activity Photo Timeline