Create a Detailed Itinerary for Your Vacation Using the Scout Site
A few months ago, two friends and I took a trip from Las Vegas to Denver. Our mission was to visit national parks and maybe a few hot springs on the way. It was a mission that ultimately succeeded, but involved sending a number of Google documents back and forth during the planning stages.
My friend Sarah, for example, was our guru in the park, she figured out which parks we should visit and which hikes we should take there, and she drew up a great document with maps and information about each of them. My friend Claire explored the best hot springs on our itinerary, and I was in charge of finding us the best accommodations and places to eat.
We all created our parts beautifully, but when it came to connecting them, it was not so easy. Scout is the site that could change all that.
The site allows you to create a shared trip itinerary, but in a simple and intuitive way. While you can use it for something like our trip, this tool is really useful when you are only planning a trip to one city.
Each route begins with a simple listing of what you want to do. For example, I have a friend who is visiting San Francisco next month and he has already told me that he wants to check out the usual tourist stops like Alcatraz, Pier 39 and several museums.
Scout starts you off with a map of your destination and lines that only allow you to enter the places you want to visit. As you enter a destination, the site will also fetch Google Maps for the city for it. For example, when I added Alcatraz to the Points of Interest list for my friend’s trip, the site not only automatically filled in that line as I typed it, but also put a pin on the map where Alcatraz is located. You can also invite your friends to add their own must-have items.
The idea here is that you can make a final list of places, see where they are in the city, and then build a route that takes those places into account. When you’re traveling in an unfamiliar place, it’s easy to accidentally plan a trip that zigzags through the city for no reason. This way you can see what makes the most sense.
You can also let everyone list their hopes and dreams. On our trip, Claire really wanted to go to the hot spring baths on the side of the mountain. It looked amazing, but we thought it was too unusual. As we drove, we were looking for a place to rest, and the hot spring was a few miles from where we were.
Tapping on a pin on the map displays things like opening hours, address, and phone number. There is also a place where you can add notes. For example, you can add a note to a restaurant about who suggested it or what you should order there.
Once you’ve created lists of everything you want to do, a separate page allows you to drag and drop those items onto the ideal multi-day itinerary. The site will then display your suggested route on a map so that you can see any unintended traffic incidents and, in theory, map out the ideal route.