Advanced Travel Planning System (Notion Template, Coda & Airtable)

Templates

Apr 3

You can find three versions of this Travel Planning system depending on the platform you prefer:

Notion
Coda (coming soon - be the first to know by joining the waiting list)
Airtable (coming soon - be the first to know by joining the waiting list)

If you're unsure which platform to choose, I recommend Notion. It offers the most user-friendly interface, generous pricing for personal use, and abundant learning resources.

One of the first questions you may have is: does this work offline? No, it doesn’t work offline because the system is built in Notion, which currently doesn’t work offline (though this feature was announced in development at last year’s Make With Notion conference).

Then you may ask: “So why would I use this system? When I travel, I often don’t have internet access.” Here is the answer to that from my perspective and what many people I have worked with in the past years have done consistently when traveling the world:

If your phone supports multiple sim cards, buy an e-sim in advance of arriving at your destination. This is part of the travel checklist included in this product that I have developed and refined over the past 3 years of my travels. I have been using Airalo, though there are also other similar apps you may use.
Always save tickets and other important files in a dedicated Google Drive folder. Keep the Google Drive app on your phone and enable offline mode when saving your files. Here is how to do that. Any other equivalent service with offline mode works just as well (e.g., Dropbox, or simply the default files app on your phone).

This system helps you plan and track travel destinations in advance, organize resources, comply with the 183-day residence rule across countries, maintain travel notes, manage packing lists and pre-journey checklists, and create a record of your travels. You centralize all your efforts in one single place, reduce cognitive load and time spent preparing for trips.

I have been building and refining this system for myself and other clients over the past 3 years, and I have found it very valuable particularly for significantly reducing the cognitive load often associated with preparing for travels—ensuring everything needed is packed, complying with legal regulations, selecting accommodations, and all the other energy-consuming micro-decisions involved with travel preparation. I thank Dan, CEO of high-quality wool clothing brand Unbound Merino, for recently helping me improve the system.

This system is especially valuable for frequent travelers and digital nomads who want to minimize travel preparation time and stress. While it requires initial data entry—which may feel like extra work at first—this represents a classic "short-term pain for long-term gain" scenario. The upfront effort of entering your travel data pays off through reduced time spent preparing, less uncertainty, and a growing treasury of travel knowledge that enhances your future journeys. As you continue using the system, its value compounds over time.

Now, onto the system overview and walkthrough videos for each platform. For any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Notion template

System Structure

The core of the system is Locations — the places you visit. Each location has a dedicated template featuring a travel checklist (which you can customize using instructions in the Usage Guide), linked Flights, Accommodations, Experiences, and properties that show the Location's Status, Country, and selection Criteria (based on the Location Selection template). It also includes a summary of all associated costs.

The dashboard features a table at the top showing all upcoming weeks within the next year. You can link Locations to specific weeks, allowing you to plan where you'll be during any future period. There is a certain sense of relief in planning a bit in advance sometimes, especially if you've been traveling extensively and the appeal of spontaneous adventure has faded, or if you need stability while working remotely.

After choosing your destinations, you can plan either one location at a time or multiple locations simultaneously. You can research and save flights, accommodations, and experiences into the system. To quickly capture items from the internet into your databases, use the official Notion Browser Extension or Flylighter for Notion, the Airtable Web Clipper for Airtable, or the Coda Browser Extension for Coda.

There can be two phases to capturing content into the system: First, a "brain dump" phase where you research and save all suitable items. Second, the organization phase, where you arrange content, set item statuses, and complete bookings. This creates a clear workflow that reduces mental strain when switching between research (exploratory) and execution (focused).

Along the way, you can track costs for all items, with total costs per location displayed clearly on both the dashboard and individual Location pages. The dashboard (front page) features quick action buttons and charts that help you visualize important data such as the remaining days per Location in the current year (for 183-day rule compliance), Country and Location statistics, and a searchable list of Travel Resources. This resource list comes pre-populated with useful content and can be expanded with your favorite resources over time.

Watch the videos below to understand more.

Notion template