Template - How We Use MeisterTask for Trip Planning

Channing Kelly

I thought I would share how we use MeisterTask for trip planning. We create a project such as "Japan 2023" (for our last trip) and then each day is a column and we add in anything needed for that day — flight information, hotel details, tickets, etc. as individual tasks for the day. It's a great way to see your trip at a glance. I usually attach PDFs of confirmations as well so that if we end up someplace without internet we still have what we need offline. Hope this might be useful for you too!

Joerg Koper

Hi Channing 👋🙂

I like simple but extremely useful projects like these. Well thought, looks awesome and the offline-argument, related to PDF tickets etc. makes absolutely sense. Thanks for sharing 👍️

Best, Jörg

Miša Hennin

Hey!

Thanks so much for sharing this 😁. Anna shared a similar template a while ago:

https://community.meister.co/discussion/915/project-board-template-city-trip-planning-tourism

It's interesting how you've both approached it differently. Yours seems very organisational and focused on successfully getting from A to B, while Anna's is more about places to visit once in a new city.

I hope you enjoyed Japan!

Line Møller Jensen

This is a really great board because of how simple it is and yet has a lot of value while you are underway. The MeisterTask mobile app is great for this!

I am actually travelling to Japan in a few months for 3 full weeks. Any locations or sights you can recommend to me? :)

Channing Kelly

Well clearly I didn't do a good enough look to see if someone had already posted this idea! Thanks for surfacing those other boards, they include some additional ideas I'd like to incorporate.

@Line Møller Jensen we really enjoyed Gora for a little mountain town just outside of Tokyo that's known for it's onsen — a nice last stay before heading to the airport. We stayed at https://www.ihg.com/hotelindigo/hotels/us/en/hakone/hkhhg/hoteldetail and it was great — thought he most expensive of our trip. The restaurant was absolutely delicious.

I found Hiroshima to be very moving and the town was charming. I preferred Kyoto over Tokyo — we could have roamed for days! Wish we had made it to Okinawa but our trip was too short. It's a flight but I hear it's really lovely.

If you haven't already decided to get the Japan Rail pass definitely do that — but you have to buy it in advance so you would need to look at that soon. Aim to make some rail reservations the minute you pick up your passes because prime times can book up swiftly. When you use the rail pass you have to feed both the main pass and the trip pass through the turnstile — not just the trip pass. We were so confused!

We found renting a wifi jetpack to be a good value against our travel mobile plan, though if you have esim capability on your phone you might also be able to add a better data plan for your trip that way. I set up a Suica card on my phone for subway fares and that was super convenient. I think they currently have a shortage of the physical cards and so that may be the only option — though there are about ten card options for subway fares and some of them also work on vending machines. And oh my gosh the vending machines!

If you love dishware you should bring an extra suitcase and bubble wrap just to take some home. I fell in love with the whimsical nature of a company called Natural 69 https://natural69-hasami.co.jp/ and wished I could go to their factory store in Nagasaki, but did not make it that far. Their department stores are super fun — check out Hands https://info.hands.net/en/ for all kinds of cute items. And the fabric. I could spend hours in the fabric stores . . .

Well, have to get back to work, but hope you have a great time! Here are a couple snapshots from my trip and that dishware.

Japan - 6.jpeg

Japan - 7.jpeg

Japan - 11.jpeg

Japan - 15.jpeg

Japan - 16.jpeg

natural69.jpg

Line Møller Jensen

Wow @Channing Kelly ! Thank you so much for the detailed recommendations, it sounds (and looks, lovely pictures, you've got a good eye!) like a great trip to Japan!

We will definitely take this in to consideration. We were definitely planning on getting the rail pass, and we are already exploring what to do for our phones / Wi-Fi, so these tips are gold! We are also definitely planning on bringing an empty suitcase! My husband, in particular, is quite a gaming, anime, etc. nerd, so I am expecting loads of merch, he wanted to get Japanese CDs and everything else, so we will need the extra space ;)

Thank you again for taking some time out of your work day to provide me with all of this, I'm even more excited about my trip in 2 months! 🎉