Tell Plnnr.com where you’re going, when you’ll arrive, how long you’ll be there, and what your activity and luxury preferences are, and, seconds later, you’ll have a customized itinerary, including a hotel and a map of where to go and what to do for every day of your trip:
I tested Plnnr using Amsterdam, a city I’m pretty familiar with, by asking for a 2-day whirlwind itinerary. Plnnr suggested the centrally-located Amsterdam 4 Holiday Inn Bed and Breakfast, along with stops at the Resistance Museum, the Botanical Gardens, the Anne Frank House, Westerkerk, and the Historisch Museum — all good choices.
Some options were too touristy for me — like, say, Madame Tussauds’ Wax Museum — but with just one click I was able to decline these stops and, better yet, tell Plnnr, “Never, ever suggest stops like this one.” (Plnnr complied by replacing the wax museum with the Rijksmuseum — a much better choice.)
In addition to where to go, Plnnr tells you how to get to where you’re going (in my case, by walking), how long the trip will take (in general, stops along my route were no more than 10 to 20 minutes apart), and how long to spend there (usually 20 minutes for architectural stops, and about 90 minutes per museum).
You can customize Plnnr’s output further by indicating any must-see stops or specific hotels of interest. Based on my first-hand knowledge of Amsterdam, I’d say Plnnr’s 2-day itinerary for the city was both practical and thorough: a good sampling of what someone with limited time should do and see.
These days, thanks mostly to TripAdvisor.com, it’s not hard to generate a very good list of the twenty or thirty must-see attractions in any destination. What’s hard — particularly when planning a short visit to a new city — is understanding where the best sites are, how much time each site deserves, and how to move most efficiently from site to site (all while keeping each site’s hours and days of operation in mind). That process can consume hours or even days of research … and Plnnr, remarkably, can take all these factors into account and produce customized plans with just a few clicks of a mouse.
For now, Plnnr can only generate itineraries for 20 cities (from Amsterdam to Washington DC), so if you’re headed somewhere exotic, you’re on your own. But for people sticking to beaten path (the European capitals, the great American cities), Plnnr looks like a good option for generating detailed travel plans with a minimum investment of time and effort.
Add comment