How to Use Travel Mapper in Google Sheets
Matt - January 4, 2023
Travel Mapper is a Google Sheets add-on for organizing a multi-day or multi-city itinerary in a spreadsheet while seeing destinations on a map. Start with the free Google Sheets travel planner and itinerary template, add your trip details, and use the map and editing tools when you want more help reviewing the plan.
The Economy Class template is free and can be used for unlimited trips. New users can try the full First Class add-on features for seven days, including map view, Google Maps autofill, drag-and-drop itinerary editing, itinerary email, and Google My Maps export. Install Travel Mapper from the Google Workspace Marketplace when you are ready to try those features.
What You'll Learn
- Generate the free Travel Mapper template in Google Sheets.
- Add itinerary stops, dates, costs, notes, categories, and links.
- Use First Class tools for map view, drag-and-drop editing, itinerary email, and Google My Maps export.
Planning Your Trip
Generate a Template
Open a Google Sheet, then select Extensions → Travel Mapper → Start Here → Generate Template. If Travel Mapper is not in the Extensions menu yet, install the add-on from the Google Workspace Marketplace and reopen Google Sheets with the same Google account.
Use View Map to reopen the sidebar map after closing it. The Help menu includes support options if you run into a problem.
Click Generate Template to automatically create the Travel Mapper template for your Google Sheet. You'll have the option to choose a Sample Template or an Empty Template. Choose Sample to get familiar with an example itinerary in Travel Mapper and Empty when you're ready to plan your own trip.
As you're working through the steps above, be sure that you're signed in to Google Sheets with the same account that you used to install Travel Mapper.
For account and template setup help, see the Travel Mapper FAQ.
Template Layout
Notice that the template consists of the following tabs:
- How To
- A quick place to reference a demo video and the FAQ.
- Itinerary
- Where the activities of your trip are scheduled with associated details like cost and category.
- Check List
- Your Packing and To-Do lists in one place to checkmark what's complete.
- Split Costs
- Track everyone's expenses to square up on who owes who. Scroll down on this tab to see the How To instructions.
- Backdoor Data: This tab supports Travel Mapper processing. You do not need to edit it, and it should not be deleted.
To the right of the spreadsheet is the integrated map, which can be closed by clicking the x and reopened from the View Map menu option.
Adding Your Activities
There are three ways to add an activity to your trip in the Activity column (E) of the Itinerary tab.
- The Add Place button (formerly Add Activity) on the side map
- This will auto-populate the Activity, Location, and (when available) Link columns on the Itinerary tab. It will also plot the activity on the map.
- The Add Place button (formerly Add Activity) in the Edit Trip view
- This will auto-populate the Activity, Location, and Link (when available) columns on the Itinerary tab.
- See activities on the larger map by clicking View Map on the left of the Edit Trip view. Click Update Map on the smaller side map to see the activities added from within Edit Trip.
- Type your activity into the Activity cell on the spreadsheet.
- Think of this like a Google Maps search where the first result is what will be plotted on the map.
- If you were to type "visit Aunt Jayne" into Google Maps, it would not know where you're referring to on the map. For activities like this, use the Location column (F) to put the location address (Aunt Jayne's address) to correctly plot it on the map.
- Click Update Map on the smaller side map to plot activities added this way.
Fine Tuning Your Trip
You've got most of your activities added to your trip - now it's time to finalize the dates, times, categories, costs, and other details. There are two ways to edit these details: the Edit Trip view and the normal spreadsheet cells.
Edit Trip, Drag-n-Drop
Most users find this to be the most enjoyable way to edit their trip. The Edit Trip view is similar to a Kanban board where each activity is a card that can be moved between days or other activities.
If you have activities on your Itinerary with no dates you'll see an Activities Without Dates column on the left. These can be dragged into date columns or left where they are. Drag each activity where you want it to finalize your schedule.
Within each activity card, you can edit the name, time, cost, category, link, address, and notes. You can also check the Do Not Map box for any activities that you don't want plotted on the map. If the card has a location, clicking the pin icon on the top right will open the location in a new Google Maps tab.
On the bottom of each card, you can delete an activity from your trip or delete the date by moving it to the Activities Without Dates column.
After making edits to your trip, be sure to click the Save button at the bottom for the spreadsheet to reflect these changes once you exit out of the Edit Trip view. Click Update Map on the side map to reflect the latest changes after exiting Edit Trip.
Alternatively, clicking the View Map icon within Edit Trip will automatically save your changes and show them on the larger map.
Normal Spreadsheet Editing
You can also edit your trip in the traditional manner of editing each cell on the spreadsheet. This may be preferred when you want to copy-paste the same category onto many activities, or duplicate an activity by copy-pasting the full row.
Add dates by typing them in using the date/month/year format and edit dates by double clicking the date cell and using the calendar pop-up.
As previously mentioned, you can enter the address for an activity in the Location column (F) if the activity alone does not result in the proper pin location on the map. You can also choose Do Not Map from the dropdown.
You can ignore the "Invalid" message that pops up when hovering over a Location cell with an address filled in. This is a byproduct of having the Do Not Map dropdown option.
Edit categories of each activity by choosing from the dropdown in the Category column (J).
Using the Map
An integrated map enables better trip planning by helping to visualize all your activities and ensure the order of your activities makes sense given their locations.
Using the various ways to add activities covered above, you'll have a map of pins representing your trip on the smaller side map as well as on the larger map within Edit Trip. Hovering over each pin will provide the date, time, cost, link, and corresponding row number for that activity on the spreadsheet.
Check activities by day or by activity with the map filters on the side map.
While On Your Trip
If you want to review or edit the trip from your phone while traveling, the Travel Mapper web app works in a mobile browser.
Email Your Trip Summary
Email a simple and organized summary of your trip to stay on track on the go. Each activity includes links you've added and a Google Map link to help you navigate your destination.
Import Your Trip to Google My Maps
Additionally, use Google My Maps to help you navigate while on the go. Your Travel Mapper itinerary can be exported from your Google Sheet and imported to Google My Maps so you can see all your activities on a mobile map.
Economy and First Class
Economy Class
Economy Class is the free Travel Mapper template. You can generate unlimited templates and keep using the spreadsheet for itineraries, packing, costs, and notes. It does not include the add-on's map view, Google Maps autofill, drag-and-drop editor, itinerary email, or Google My Maps export.
First Class
First Class includes the full Travel Mapper add-on feature set. New users can try these features free for seven days, including map view, Google Maps autofill, drag-and-drop itinerary editing, itinerary email, and Google My Maps export. After the trial, the basic Economy Class template remains available without a subscription.
Start with the free Google Sheets template, then install Travel Mapper when you want to try the map-powered add-on features.
