How to Plan a Trip with TravDraft

Most people already know how to book a trip. You find a flight on Google Flights, pick a hotel on Booking.com or Airbnb, rent a car if you need one, and you're done.

The harder part usually comes earlier.

Before you book anything, you are probably juggling ideas. Maybe Mallorca, maybe Dubrovnik, maybe a road trip through the Dolomites. Each option has different flights, different hotels, different routes, and a different travel budget. You open tabs, take screenshots, and maybe start a spreadsheet — and you still have not decided which trip is actually worth taking.

That is the stage TravDraft is built for. It is not a booking platform. It is a travel planning workspace where you organize research, compare complete trip ideas, build itineraries, and make a decision before you spend money anywhere else.

Here is a practical walkthrough of how I use it.

Step 1: Create a Trip Project

Start with a trip project. A project represents the decision you are trying to make — not a single destination, but the question itself.

Good project names are broad:

• Summer Vacation
• Family Trip
• Bachelor Party
• Honeymoon
• Weekend Getaway

If you are deciding where to go this summer, that is one project. If you are planning a separate ski weekend later in the year, that is a different one.

Each project groups every option you are seriously considering for that same decision. That keeps your travel planning focused instead of mixing unrelated ideas into one messy folder.

Step 2: Add Trip Options

Inside your project, add trip options — one for each destination or route you want to evaluate.

For a Summer Vacation project, your options might look like this:

• Mallorca (flight trip)
• Dubrovnik (flight trip)
• Dolomites Road Trip (road trip)

Each option becomes its own trip plan with its own flights, lodging, transport, costs, and itinerary. You are not committing to any of them yet. You are just giving each idea a proper place to live.

When you create an option, choose whether it is a Flight Trip or a Road Trip. That changes which tools TravDraft emphasizes later — flight tabs and an Explore view for fly-in destinations, or a day-by-day itinerary builder for road trips.

Step 3: Add Trip Context

Before you fill in prices and routes, it helps to describe what kind of trip you want. TravDraft calls this trip preferences for AI suggestions.

You can note things like:

• Family-friendly
• Scenic views
• Relaxed pace
• Nature
• Budget-conscious
• Good for seniors

You can also set pace (relaxed, balanced, or packed), travel style (family, adventure, culture, and others), and who is traveling — adults, children, seniors, mobility notes.

None of this is required, but it pays off later. When you ask TravDraft for AI suggestions, it uses this context to recommend places that actually fit the trip — not just generic tourist stops.

Step 4: Research Anywhere

TravDraft does not replace the tools you already use for research. I still check:

• Google Flights for airfare
• Booking.com or Airbnb for places to stay
• Rentalcars when I need a car
• Google Maps for routes and drive times
• Travel blogs for local tips

The workflow is simple. Research somewhere else, then bring the useful numbers back into TravDraft.

For each trip option, open the relevant tabs:

• Flights — routes, dates, and prices you found
• Lodging — hotels or rentals with check-in dates and nightly rates
• Transport — trains, rental cars, airport transfers, or fuel estimates

You are building a realistic picture of what each complete trip would cost. TravDraft does not pull live prices for you. You enter what you found during research, and the app keeps everything organized in one place.

That separation is intentional. Booking sites are great at selling one piece of a trip. TravDraft is where you assemble the full picture and compare whole ideas.

Step 5: Compare Your Options

Once you have two or more options with dates and costs filled in, the real work begins: deciding.

Mark the options you want to evaluate with the Compare toggle. TravDraft opens a trip comparison panel that puts them side by side.

For each option you can see:

• Total cost — flights, lodging, and transport combined
• Cost per day — useful when trips have different lengths
• Duration — how many days you are away
• Trip type — flight trip vs. road trip

This is where trip comparison gets useful. A road trip to the Dolomites might look more expensive than a week in Mallorca — until you notice it runs longer and the daily cost is actually lower. Or maybe the flight trip wins on total budget but loses on the kind of experience you wanted.

Comparing complete trips beats comparing browser tabs. Tabs show you one hotel or one flight at a time. They do not tell you which trip gives you the best value for your travel budget and your time.

TravDraft also highlights a Best value badge on the option with the lowest cost per day (when costs and dates are filled in). It is a starting point, not the final answer — but it helps cut through the noise.

If you are planning with a partner or friends, this is usually the moment the conversation gets concrete. "The Croatia option is cheaper overall, but the road trip gives us three extra days and more places to see." That is a decision worth making with real numbers in front of you.

Step 6: Build the Itinerary

For road trips, the Itinerary tab is where a destination idea becomes a realistic plan.

You build the route day by day:

• Stops — cities, viewpoints, trailheads, lunch towns
• Distances — kilometers between stops (TravDraft can autofill these when place coordinates are available)
• Driving time — how long each leg takes
• Overnight stays — where you sleep each night

The stats bar at the top tracks days covered, overnight stays, total distance, driving time, and an estimated fuel cost. That last number is rough, but it helps you sanity-check a road trip against a fly-in alternative.

You can also spot gaps in your route — days with no connection between stops — and fix them before you book anything.

Flight trips work differently. Instead of a day-by-day drive plan, you get an Explore tab for mapping out places to visit around your arrival city. The idea is the same: turn a destination name into something you can actually picture doing.

Step 7: Generate AI Suggestions

Once your route or destination is sketched out, AI can help fill in the details.

For road trips, use Suggest on any itinerary leg. TravDraft recommends points of interest along that day's drive based on your route and trip preferences.

For flight trips, open the Explore tab and ask for suggestions at each arrival city.

The suggestions respect the context you added earlier. A family-friendly road trip through the Dolomites might surface castles, lakes, and easy scenic viewpoints. A relaxed culture-focused trip to Dubrovnik might lean toward old towns and coastal walks.

Examples of what you might get:

• Castles and ruins along a mountain pass
• Scenic viewpoints worth a short detour
• Lakes and swimming spots for a summer trip
• Small towns for a lunch stop
• Family-friendly attractions that do not require a full day

You pick what fits, add your own places, and ignore the rest. The AI is a starting point for itinerary planning, not a script you have to follow.

Step 8: Share the Plan

Trip planning is rarely a solo activity. You are often coordinating with a partner, family, or friends.

When a trip option is ready for feedback, use Share by email on that option. TravDraft generates a trip report you can send to up to 15 people, with an optional note.

The report can include:

• Trip dates and destination
• Flights, lodging, and transport details
• The full itinerary or explore plan
• Total cost and cost per day
• Expense splits and who owes what

That beats sending screenshots in a group chat or maintaining a shared spreadsheet nobody updates.

Everyone sees the same complete picture — itinerary, costs, lodging, transport — before anyone books a single thing. Feedback gets easier because the discussion is about a real plan, not half-remembered prices from last week's tab.

Step 9: Choose and Book

When one option clearly wins the comparison, mark it with Book this trip. It gets a Booked badge and becomes the selected option in your project.

That label means you have made the decision inside TravDraft. It does not book anything for you.

Actual booking still happens where it always has:

• Airline or Google Flights for flights
• Booking.com, Airbnb, or direct hotel sites for lodging
• Rentalcars or local rental companies for cars

TravDraft is where the decision happens. The booking sites are where the transaction happens.

If plans change, you can clear the booked status and compare again. That is normal — better to rethink before you pay than after.

Research Anywhere. Decide in TravDraft.

If this workflow sounds familiar, it is because most travelers already do something like it. They just spread the work across tabs, notes, and spreadsheets that do not talk to each other.

Once you've done your research, TravDraft keeps everything you need to decide in one place:

1. Create a trip project for the decision you are making
2. Add trip options for each destination or route
3. Enter costs from your own research
4. Build itineraries for road trips or explore plans for flight trips
5. Compare options side by side on total cost, cost per day, and duration
6. Share a trip report with the people who need to weigh in
7. Mark the winner with Book this trip
8. Book the flights, hotels, and cars on the sites you already trust

You do not need to change how you research. You just need a better place to decide.

If you have a trip in mind — even a rough one — that is enough to start. Create a project, add your first option, and see how it feels to plan without the spreadsheet chaos.