u/bloginfun

Hi everyone, hope you’re doing well.

I’ve been working on a travel planning tool called Fortrip, mostly because I kept running into the same problem when planning my own trips: there’s just too much information everywhere.

Flights on Google Flights, hotels on Booking.com, places saved from Google Maps, restaurants from TikTok/Instagram/Reddit, notes in another app… and then somehow I still end up with 20 tabs open trying to figure out whether the actual itinerary makes sense.

The idea behind Fortrip is pretty simple: put the trip together in one place, compare different routes, hotels, dates and create personal itinerary combinations, and hopefully make it easier to see what actually works before booking everything, and also i have the boking price cheaper than Booking.com.

I’m still figuring out what’s genuinely useful vs. what only sounds useful on paper, so I’d really love feedback from people who actually enjoy planning their own trips.

If you have a minute to try it: fortrip.ai

I’d especially love to know:

• What feels useful?
• What feels confusing or unnecessary?
• What’s missing?
• Would you actually use something like this for a real trip?
• What do you currently use instead?

Positive or negative feedback is totally welcome. I’m much more interested in figuring out what doesn’t work right now than hearing that everything looks great.

Thanks!

I’m that person who over-plans everything — 12 spreadsheets, endless map checks, and way too many 2am “what if something goes wrong?” searches 😂

I recently finished a Vancouver → Banff/Jasper → Toronto road trip. I spent about 3 weeks researching before leaving, and after actually driving the route, I wanted to share the things I wish I had known beforehand.

Trip overview
Distance: ~4,400km
Duration: 12 days
Route: Vancouver → Kamloops → Banff → Jasper → Edmonton → Saskatoon → Winnipeg → Thunder Bay → Sudbury → Toronto
Best season: June–September

One-way rental: things I wish I knew

A Vancouver-to-Toronto rental sounds simple until you see the fine print.

The biggest things to confirm before booking:

1. Unlimited mileage (you’ll use way more than you expect)
2. Cross-province driving permission
3. One-way drop fee included in the quote
4. All drivers added to the contract
5. 24/7 roadside assistance

We compared several companies. Prices changed constantly, but generally:

1. Enterprise had the most convenient locations and was easiest for a long one-way trip.
2. Hertz had a good fleet and smooth app experience.
3. Budget sometimes had cheaper base rates, but fewer convenient locations.

My recommendation: don’t chase the cheapest rental price. For this route, reliability matters more.

Vehicle choice:
A mid-size SUV (RAV4 / CR-V size) felt like the sweet spot — enough space for luggage, comfortable for long highways, and reasonable fuel economy.

📅 Route breakdown
Days 1–2: Vancouver
We stayed close to YVR to make pickup easier.

Food:
Jam Cafe — great brunch
Granville Island Public Market — The Lobster Man

Day 3: Vancouver → Kamloops (~350km / 4 hours)
Beautiful drive through Fraser Canyon.
Kamloops was mainly a practical overnight stop.

Day 4: Kamloops → Banff (~420km / 5 hours): This was when the scenery really changed.

Stops:
Revelstoke
Rogers Pass Discovery Centre

Arriving in Banff feels unreal — mountains everywhere.
Dinner: Bison Restaurant was a highlight.

Day 5: Banff full day
This was one of the best days of the trip.

Morning: Start by 6am for Moraine Lake — parking fills completely by 8am in peak season. Lake Louise is a 25-minute drive from there.

Afternoon: Johnston Canyon hike

Evening:
Vermilion Lakes sunset, Banff Upper Hot Springs

Day 6: Banff → Icefields Parkway → Jasper (~290km + many stops)
Probably the most spectacular driving day. Don’t rush this road.

Stops:
Bow Lake, Peyto Lake viewpoint, Columbia Icefield area, Athabasca Falls

The Columbia Icefield experiences are expensive, so decide based on your budget.

Stay: Jasper
Dinner: The Raven Bistro

Day 7: Jasper → Edmonton (~370km / 4 hours)

Morning:
Maligne Canyon walk
Then a longer drive south. Edmonton was mainly a rest stop before heading into the Prairies.

Day 8: Edmonton → Saskatoon (~520km / 5.5 hours)

The landscape changes dramatically. The Rockies disappear and the endless prairie begins.
Quick heads up: Saskatchewan doesn’t do daylight savings. You’ll jump forward an hour crossing the border — I almost missed my dinner reservation over this.

Dinner: Ayden Kitchen & Bar

Day 9: Saskatoon → Winnipeg (~780km / 8 hours)
The longest driving day. Leave early.

Winnipeg:
The Forks area is a nice place to walk after a long drive. Dinner at the market — fish and chips and chowder are solid picks.

Day 10: Winnipeg → Thunder Bay(~700km / 7.5 hours)
A surprisingly beautiful section.

Stop:
Kenora — great place to stretch and see the lake
Northern Ontario starts here, and the scenery changes again.

Dinner: Bar Italia

Day 11: Thunder Bay → Sudbury (~720km / 8 hours)

Important lesson:
Don’t wait too long for gas. There are long stretches where services are limited.

Dinner: Kelseys Original Roadhouse

Day 12: Sudbury → Toronto(~400km / 4.5 hours)
Celebration dinner: Gyubee

____________________________________________________

Approximate budget (2 people)

Rental + one-way fee: ~$1,200 CAD
Gas: ~$800 CAD
Hotels: ~$1,800 CAD
Food + activities: ~$1,300 CAD

Total:
Around $5,000–5,500 CAD
____________________________________________________

One thing I learned:
Planning a cross-country Canadian road trip is almost a full-time job
I had maps, hotel tabs, restaurant lists, weather checks, gas planning, and park information everywhere. It worked, but it also made me wonder:

Has anyone found a genuinely good trip planning tool for long road trips?
Most apps seem built for city breaks, not routes where you need to think about fuel stops, driving fatigue, weather, remote areas, and realistic timing.

Curious what people here use — apps, travel planners, tools, or even old-school spreadsheets? Would love to hear your recommendations.

Hey everyone!

Thanks a ton for all the recs on my last post asking about multi-city trip planning tools. A lot of you kept mentioning the same handful of apps, so I decided to test three of the most recommended ones myself on the exact same route to keep it a fair comparison:
Wanderlog, Fortrip AI, and Petrelvoyage

Test route: Paris → Brussels → Switzerland

TL;DR Wanderlog = best for organizing and saving trips, Fortrip AI = best for route review & optimization, Petrelvoyage = best for map visualization if you already have a solid plan.

Here are my thoughts:

Fortrip AI https://fortrip.ai/

This one was the closest match to what I was personally looking for.

It asks for more info upfront than the others — things like budget, dates, group size, and general preferences. At first I thought it was a little excessive, but the end result felt way more personalized because of it.

One feature I really valued was being able to upload an existing itinerary and have it audit the whole plan. It flagged things like inefficient routing, overly tight schedules, and issues with the order of cities.
To me that was more useful than just getting a generic generated itinerary. A lot of people already spend hours researching their trips — sometimes you just need someone to sanity-check if your plan actually works logistically.

The hotel price comparison was also a nice surprise. Some rates I saw came in lower than what I found on other sites, though I haven’t gone through a full checkout yet so I can’t speak to the booking experience end-to-end.

A couple things I didn’t love:
The free trial felt pretty short. I would’ve preferred more time to fully explore the features before being pushed to upgrade.
Also, generating a full itinerary took longer than Wanderlog. Not a dealbreaker for me since the output was more detailed, but it was noticeable.

Wanderlog https://wanderlog.com/home

Wanderlog was probably the easiest one to pick up and start using.
It’s fast, the interface is clean, and it does a solid job of consolidating your whole trip into one place. I liked how straightforward it was to add places, restaurants, hotels, and activities.

The downside is there’s still quite a bit of manual work involved. When you’re juggling several cities, inputting every detail yourself can get pretty time-consuming.
It also feels more like a trip organizer / travel journal than a full-on planning assistant. The community features are really nice if you like saving trips and sharing ideas, but personally I was more focused on route logistics and practical planning.

Petrelvoyage https://petrelvoyage.com/

This one still feels like it’s early in development.

The map view is its strongest point. Once you have all your destinations loaded in, seeing everything laid out visually is really helpful, especially for trips with lots of stops.

The downside is it feels a lot less flexible than the other two. It works best if you already have most of your itinerary figured out, not so much if you’re still brainstorming destinations and figuring out how to connect them.

The Google Maps sync was a nice touch though. Having all your saved spots ready to go on your phone when you’re actually traveling is super convenient.

They’re all built for slightly different types of travelers:

• Wanderlog → great if you want to organize, document and save your trips
• Fortrip AI → useful if you want help sanity-checking routes, optimizing logistics, and comparing options
• Petrelvoyage → handy if you already have a plan and mainly want clean map visualization

I don’t think there’s one perfect app for everyone. It really depends on whether you’re still in the brainstorming phase, actively building out logistics, or just organizing a finished plan.

If there are other trip planning apps you think are worth testing this same way, drop them below. I’m curious what else people are using!

I first came across the Masai Mara on a travel blog a month ago and pretty much immediately added it to my bucket list. I finally made it there, and honestly, the sunrise balloon ride was one of those experiences that actually lived up to the hype.

I spent 3 nights near Sekenani Gate in the Masai Mara. I flew into Nairobi first and then took a shared matatu, which took about 6 hours to reach the Mara area.

I stayed at a basic campsite and spent the days doing game drives. One morning I also did a sunrise hot-air balloon flight. We met the crew at 4am, and it was much colder than I expected before sunrise. They gave us hot cocoa while they were getting the balloon ready.

The weather was almost perfect that morning — some light clouds, but very little wind. Once we got up in the air, the sunrise came through the clouds and we could see zebra and wildebeest below us. The flight lasted a little over an hour, followed by breakfast out on the grass.

The whole trip cost me roughly $2,000 including transport, accommodation, game drives and the balloon ride. Definitely not cheap by normal standards, but the Masai Mara was more doable than I had expected.

Would I go back? Absolutely. I’d probably stay longer next time.

Just got back from 7 days in Thailand split between Phuket and Bangkok, so figured I’d share the rough itinerary in case anyone’s planning a similar beach + city trip.

June was hot, humid, and a bit all over the place weather-wise. Phuket still gave us beach time and a boat day, but I definitely wouldn’t go in expecting perfect dry-season weather every day. Bangkok somehow felt even hotter, especially in the middle of the day, so early starts and random AC breaks helped a lot.

I flew in from Singapore, and Thailand honestly felt easier and more relaxed than I expected. Bangkok traffic was awful, but the city itself surprised me in a good way — greener than I expected, great food, good malls, and just generally very easy to spend time in.

Day 1: Landed in Phuket

Kept the first day very light. Checked into the hotel, walked around a bit, grabbed dinner, and called it a night. Definitely the right move after the flight and the heat.

Day 2: Karon Beach + Banzaan Fresh Market

We stayed around Karon and I’d stay there again. Good beach for doing absolutely nothing, easy place to sit out in the sun for a while, and the area had enough bars and places to grab a drink at night without feeling too chaotic. It also felt pretty convenient for boat trips.

That night we went to Banzaan Fresh Market, which was probably my favorite food stop in Phuket. You pick your seafood downstairs and then take it upstairs to have it cooked.

Definitely negotiate a bit. The first number usually isn’t the final number.

Once you’ve picked everything out, you can tell them how you want it cooked — garlic, curry, spicy stir-fry, steamed, whatever. Our whole seafood meal came out to around $120 total. Not dirt cheap, but for the amount of food and the whole experience, I thought it was worth it.

Day 3: Racha Island

We picked Racha Island because we didn’t want one of those super packed island-hopping days where you’re rushing through five stops. It was still really sunny and really hot, but the water was gorgeous and the scenery was exactly what we wanted.

There are a ton of tours depending on how active you want to be. Snorkeling, diving, fishing, swimming, beach time — pretty much all the usual sea stuff is easy to book.

Even so, it still takes a lot out of you. You’re in the sun for hours, on and off boats, moving around more than you think, and by the end of it I was completely done. Bring sunscreen, sunglasses, a hat, and a dry bag. Motion sickness pills too if you need them.

Day 4: Slow morning in Phuket, then flight to Bangkok

Really glad we didn’t plan much for this day. Slow breakfast, packed up, one last walk, then flew to Bangkok.

The contrast hit immediately. Phuket felt slow and easy. Bangkok felt loud, fast, hotter, and packed with food everywhere.

Day 5: Grand Palace + Wat Pho + Wat Arun

Did the usual riverside temple day.

Worth doing, but honestly it’s a lot in the heat. Grand Palace takes longer than people think, and the dress code is stricter than a lot of other temple sites. We started early, which helped.

My take: Grand Palace and Wat Pho are the main priorities. Wat Arun is beautiful, but I think it works better as a shorter add-on later in the day if you still have energy.

Day 6: Food, shopping, massage, night market

This ended up being one of my favorite Bangkok days because we didn’t force it too much. Malls, cafés, random street food, massage, night market, repeat.

Bangkok is really good when you leave a little room to just drift around, eat, cool off somewhere, and head back out later.

Day 7: Last meal, then airport

Kept the last day simple. One more proper Thai meal, a bit of shopping, then headed to the airport.

Bangkok traffic is no joke, so I’d leave earlier than you think you need to. Depending on where you’re staying, the trip to the airport can be completely fine or take forever.

A few things I’d do the same:

- stay around Karon if you want beach + easier boat access

- keep the day after a boat trip light

- leave Bangkok a little loose instead of scheduling every hour

A few things I’d be careful with:

- don’t underestimate June heat

- don’t assume Phuket weather will be perfect every day that time of year

- don’t rent a car unless you’re really comfortable driving there

Overall I thought Phuket + Bangkok worked really well for 7 days. Phuket gave us the slower beach part of the trip, and Bangkok gave us food, temples, shopping, and city energy.

Thailand felt very easy to travel in overall. Great food, friendly people, and pretty smooth logistics most of the time.

Only thing I genuinely hated was Bangkok traffic.

Would absolutely do this route again — I’d just leave even more buffer time in the schedule next time.

I’m building fortrip.ai — an AI travel planner for people who love planning trips… until it becomes 47 tabs, screenshots, Google Maps pins, hotel links, spreadsheets, and a small emotional crisis.

The main focus is helping travelers save money before booking — not just by finding cheaper hotels, but by comparing routes, hotel areas, dates, transport costs, and overall trip flow.

Right now I’m mostly building for independent travelers and multi-city trips, where changing the order of cities, dates, or hotel areas can make a big difference in total cost.

Who are you building for?

Drop your link below. I’ll try to give honest feedback if I can.

Walked along the Seine, had coffee at a sidewalk café, and yeah… I get the Paris thing now.

It’s touristy for a reason. The city really does have these little romantic moments everywhere.

Some OC photos from a walk in Vancouver. I marked the locations on the photos. Most of them were taken around parks and lakes on a clear afternoon. The best part was how close the water, trees, and city all felt.