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Organizing a trip, AD 2025

English Vacation Travel Amsterdam Nederlands

I’m about to leave for the Netherlands. I’ll spend a few days there with my family. It was a coincidence: Amsterdam wasn’t on my bucket list, but I’m very happy to be going.

While organizing the trip, I found myself using some tools and services I hadn’t expected and had never used before for this purpose. I’m listing them for future reference and to assist anyone passing through.

– I organized my entire trip using structured notes on Notion: flights, accommodations, bookings, things to do, costs, suitcase, travel itinerary, tickets, and vouchers. Everything about my tour is in the notes and will be for the foreseeable future1. It was the app that allowed me to track, highlight, retrieve, change, and reorganize information better and faster than any other. I will use it again. Start shaking, Bear.

– I’ve booked experiences on Civitatis and GuruWalk, especially the “free tours” (already done in Prague, Paris, and Dublin in the past). Very nice, quick ways to immerse yourself in a new place for the first few days, and enjoyable to do with interested and curious children.

– To decide what clothing to bring with us, I often used the Skyline webcams to see what people were wearing on site. There are several in Amsterdam, but they’re practically everywhere. Even in Caserta.

– ChatGPT, plus2. I didn’t expect it, and I didn’t imagine organizing a trip with practically zero online searches on DuckDuckGo or Google. For every suggestion, piece of information, or note, I had the source returned and consulted or saved it. It was a positive surprise, a game changer for my online activities. For this kind of thing, it seemed much more mature, and as much as I might think I was late to the game, I realize that until a few months ago the results weren’t at all reliable, while today they are a little more so3.

– YouTube, not so much for the cities as for the attractions to do in Efteling. It was a wonderful time sharing and planning with my daughter.

– A Lonely Planet always at hand, never missing.

How will my travels change in the coming years?

  1. Notion isn’t a “file-first” application, but it allowed me to export everything to Markdown. Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t. ↩︎

  2. I purchased the Plus version, sharing it with three other people on Gams Go, which I highly recommend (link with referral, thanks!). It allows you to share subscriptions, including those for streaming platforms, and save a bit of money. With ChatGPT, you can save up to a third of the monthly cost. ↩︎

  3. For example, I asked for suggestions on what to pack—by comparing average temperatures for the period with the forecast for the days I’ll be traveling. It was very interesting and definitely helpful. ↩︎