Build a trip planner app for days, bookings and budget

The four parts of a trip

Itinerary: Days in order, each with timed or untimed items: a museum at 10:00, lunch somewhere near the old town, the train at 16:42. Items can be dragged between days.
Bookings: Flights, trains, hotels, car hire and tickets, each with the provider, the reference, check-in and check-out times, the address as text, and a note. These are what you need at a counter with no signal.
Budget: A planned amount per category (stay, transport, food, activities) and a running list of what's been spent.
Ideas: A list of places you might visit, not yet on a day, so the itinerary stays realistic.

A today view that shows only the current day, the next booking and its reference is the screen used most on the road.

Working without maps and live data

Apps built with Anticode have no network, so they can't embed an interactive map, fetch opening times, check prices, show the weather or look up flight status. A good travel planner app works around that rather than pretending:

Addresses as text that you can copy into your maps app, and ordinary links to a map service written into the item. Links open in a new tab.
Times you enter from your booking confirmations, with time zones noted per item so a flight across zones doesn't confuse the day.
Exchange rate you type in. Record spending in the local currency and convert using a rate you set, labelled as yours, not live.
A simple drawn day map if you want one: places as dots on an abstract layout, not a real map.

The upside is reliability. Once the planner is open, it keeps working in airplane mode and in places with no data, and installed to the home screen it has an offline fallback (test that before you travel), which is exactly when you need your hotel's address.

Budget and spending

Planning a budget and tracking spending are different jobs. The plan sets amounts per category before you go; the log records each spend with a category, an amount, the currency and who paid. Show remaining budget per day ("62 left today") rather than only a trip total, because that's the number that changes behaviour. If a group is travelling, the bill splitter handles settling up between people; a trip planner usually needs only a running total.

Describing it to Anticode

"An itinerary planner for a two-week rail trip through Italy. Days with timed items I can drag between days, a bookings section with reference numbers and check-in times, an ideas list, a budget by category with a spending log in euros converted at a rate I enter, and a Today screen with the next booking. Packing checklist. Saves on this phone and works offline. Clean, editorial design with a warm accent colour."

If you're planning for a group, a group trip website can share the schedule with everyone and collect RSVPs, while the planner stays with the organiser. Tour operators should look at the tour operators page instead: they need bookings from customers, not a personal planner.

What it can't do

No live maps, prices, availability or weather. No network means nothing live.
No booking. It can't search or book flights or hotels; it records bookings you've made.
No importing confirmation emails. It can't read your inbox. You type or paste details in.
No shared editing. Travel companions each have their own copy. Agree that one person keeps the plan, or share a printed or exported version.
No location. It can't use your phone's position to show what's nearby.

Questions people ask

Can a trip planner app hold PDF tickets?

Not as files from your email. It can hold the reference numbers and details. Keep the tickets themselves in your airline or rail app, or your phone's files.

Will the holiday planner work abroad without roaming?

Once it has loaded, yes, and everything is stored on the phone. If you install it, test opening it in flight mode before you leave.

Can I reuse it for my next trip?

Ask for multiple trips with a trip switcher, or an archive. Old trips stay on the device until you delete them.