How do I plan my trip?

All the ins and outs on planning your perfect trip on Polarsteps.

In this article:

• How do I plan my trip on Polarsteps?
• How can I make changes to my planned steps?
• Who can see my planned steps?
• How can I turn planned steps into past steps once I've visited my destination?

How do I plan my trip on Polarsteps?

We all love the excitement of a new trip coming up! You can now start planning your route with Polarsteps.

How do I plan steps in Polarsteps?

1. Open your current trip or create a new one. Creating a trip is simple, just tap the '+ Add trip' button on your profile page of the app. More information about creating a trip? Click here.
2. Once you have created a trip, go to the Plan tab on the bottom of the screen and tap the '+ Add your first destination' button to start adding planned steps.
3. Find your destination by typing the name in the search bar or choose it by dragging the location selector to the right place on the map and tap the red 'Select this location' button.
4. Congrats, your planned step is now added to your itinerary.
5. You can now open your planned steps to set your arrival date and the number of nights you are planning to stay.
6. You can also start adding notes to your planned steps to save ideas, activities, places to visit, ticket numbers, you name it. You can access these at any time during or after your trip by navigating between the Track and Plan tabs.
7. Now you're all set! You can plan as many steps as you like until you have created your perfect itinerary.

Once you start traveling and arrive at your planned destination, a step suggestion will appear in your timeline on the Track tab. You can add this step to document your trip.

How can I make changes to my planned steps?

We know that plans change all the time so no worries, you can change your itinerary in a heartbeat.

How can I make changes to my itinerary?

There are two easy ways to change the dates and order of the places you want to visit.

1. Drag and drop your planned step to a different part of your route.
2. Tap the step and change the dates in your planned step

Note: We do give you a heads-up if your travel plan is too ambitious for the total number of nights you will be traveling and help you by removing the dates/nights you indicated originally in order to make your plans fit.

Can I add photos and notes in my planned step?

At this moment, you can change the arrival date, the number of nights you are planning to stay at the selected location, and your planning notes. It is not possible to add photos. Once you've visited your planned step, you will see a new step suggestion that allows you to add stories, your favorite photos, and all your activities.

Can I change the name of my planned step?

For now, it is not possible to change the name of your planned step. Once you've visited your planned destination, you can turn your planned step into a normal step the way you are used to. Here, you can change the step name, add your favorite memories and leave your top spots!

Who can see my planned steps?

That's up to you! When you create a new trip that has its privacy set to 'public' or 'my followers', you can select the option 'show planned steps'.

If you do this, your followers can see your route and planned steps for your upcoming trip. Like to keep your plans for yourself while you are still making up your mind on your route? Leave the default settings of your newly created trip as they are.

Only you and any Travel buddies you might travel together with, will be able to see your planning notes.

More information about who can see your trips and the different privacy levels? We've created a simple explanation about that here.

Side note: it is not possible for your followers to leave comments on your planned steps.

How can I turn planned steps into steps when I've visited my destination?

Have you visited the destination from your travel plan? We will automatically turn your planned step into a suggested step, easy-peasy! You can then add your photos, text, and favorite spots before you publish your step to turn your visit into a beautiful memory.

Did you change your plan last-minute? No worries, that happens. We will not turn your planned step into a suggested step if you ended up not visiting the destination, if you've visited the destination on a different day or if you visited the places in a different order than you thought you would. We leave it up to you whether you want to delete your planned step. There are two simple ways to do so if you wish:

1. Swipe your planned step to the left and tap the delete button
2. Tap to open your planned step and delete it using the 'Delete planned step' button

Note: if you do not delete a planned step that you didn't visit, this might cause your travel tracker not to turn the next planned steps automatically into suggested steps. If this happens you can, of course, add a new step yourself to upload your photos, stories, and top spots! Need a brief refresher on how to do that? You can read all about that here.