You spend hours (and possibly hours and hours and hours) planning and booking the perfect trip for yourself and your travel client. Don’t you want to create a travel itinerary that’s as magical as the trip will be?

Of course. But here’s the thing. Lots of run-of-the-mill itinerary templates are either a.) a snooze-fest with no design b.) cannot be customized to your travel agency brand or trip c.) don’t reflect your knowledge and expertise or d.) take too much time.

HAR is here to resolve that issue with an itinerary template that is free, customizable, beautiful, professional, and easy to use. So whether you're a traveler, a travel advisor, or want to become a travel advisor, we have a solution. 

We’ll walk you through a quick comparison of itinerary templates vs. itinerary builders, chat about what model works best for whom, and how to use travel itinerary templates.

Travel Itinerary Templates vs. Itinerary Builders

When thinking about an itinerary template vs an itinerary builder, it’s kind of like comparing a garden hose to a full drip irrigation system. 

Sure. There are a lot of fancy pants itinerary builders out there. Here’s how it’s different from an itinerary template (the short version).

A travel itinerary template is a static travel planning document where you plug in all your wondrous travel details, DIY style. 

An itinerary builderis a dynamic travel planning (and quoting) app where it can auto-populate supplier info & images, has mobile capacities (usually), branding & co-branding, domain masking, sync with CRMs, and other fun doodads that a travel itinerary template does not have.

Itinerary builders come with other features like CRMs, quoting tools, mobile apps, payment processing, and literally too many features to mention here. (Luckily, you can refer to our itinerary builder comparison chart). When thinking about an itinerary template vs an itinerary builder, it’s kind of like comparing a garden hose to a full drip irrigation system. 

If you only have a small hobby garden or flower bed or two, a hose will do (this is your itinerary template). If you have a garden so large or so complex you could feed four families or start a bouquet CSA (community supported agriculture), you’ll need an irrigation system to automate that watering (itinerary builder programs). 

Our goal with HAR’s itinerary template is to offer a free and simple travel itinerary template that still looks professional.

7 Reasons to Use a Travel Itinerary Template:

So why a travel itinerary template? Why wouldn't gravitate toward the shiniest of itinerary-building programs? There are a few reasons why you might use a travel itinerary template (as opposed to an itinerary builder):

1. Travel itinerary templates are free

It's hard to argue with a $0 price tag, especially if you’re just starting up as a travel advisor. Maybe you're not ready to take on yet another monthly expense at this point, or perhaps you just want to use it for your personal trips. An itinerary template is a great option. 

2. There's little to no learning curve

If you can do basic cut and pasting, you can use a template without having to invest time in learning a full-fledged technology program. Sometimes our brains are tired, okay?

3. They're great if you're only making a few one-off itineraries

If your itinerary planning volume is low (whatever that means to you), a template can get the job done just fine for free and you don't need to invest $30/mo or feel like you need to relearn a tech  

4. You can delegate it

Do you have an intern you're working with from a local university? Do you have a bright but bored teen in the summer who needs to stay busy? If so, maybe creating travel itineraries is something you can delegate and you'd rather not pay for a program if you don't need to.

5. Your TRIP-PLANNING-LOVING client CAN USE IT

Okay, so you planned every flight and transfer and hotel. You booked it. You invoiced them. You sent them the documents they needed. Maybe your services end there and that's okay. 

If that's the case, you can always offer your clients a travel itinerary template that is branded to your agency, so they can fill it out to their heart's content and include things such as restaurant reservations and day trip ideas themselves.

6. You hate (or love/hate) technology

I know travel agents whose CRM consists of manilla file folders, literal pieces of printed paper with client info (with which to fill said file folders). And you know what, it works great. If you don't want any extra tech, a travel itinerary template may be just the thing.

7. You often book the same/ or similar itinerary

If you frequently book similar trips, you can create a template for each type of your most common packages. All you need to do is update the dates & flight info and viola, you're done.

Limits of Travel Itinerary Templates

Travel itinerary templates are great (especially HAR’s), but they have limits. Here are some of the limitations of a travel itinerary template. 

1. Time (IS IT ON YOUR SIDE?)

They take a long time. How do I know this? Because I am not a designer or travel advisor and I made one. If you’re a swift typer, fast designer, or enjoy the rhythm of updating images and info, you're gold. But at the end of the day, using a template is going to take a heckuva lot more time to create than it would if you're using an itinerary builder.

2. They're static

No bells. No whistles. No flight updates. No push notifications. No group collaborations or products that suppliers automatically import into your itinerary. It can be clunky. What you see is what you get.

Ultimately, comparing a travel itinerary template to a travel itinerary builder program is like comparing apples and oranges, or (to abandon clichés and continue the garden metaphor) a garden hose to an irrigation system. 

Not sure which is best? The good news is that HAR’s itinerary templates are free, and most (if not all) itinerary builder programs have a free trial. So you can experiment!

HAR's Free Travel Itinerary Template

At long last, HAR’s free itinerary template. It’s the best template out there in my (not so) humble opinion. It’s well-designed, thorough, and set up to amplify your trip-planning expertise with features most templates don’t bother with (e.g. points of interest and dining recommendations and room to add notes to help your knowledge shine). It’s free, flexible, and professional-looking. Win, win, win.

If you want more instruction, keep reading. I’ll break down the steps and dig deeper into the nitty gritty of getting your template rebranded and redesigned!

How to Customize Your Travel Itinerary Template

If you don’t have one already, you’ll need to register for a free Canva account to use our template. If you are burying your face in your palms at the prospect of adopting yet another tech program, hear me out. 

While I’m not a technology-phobe per se, I’m not one to invest tons of time in learning a program I don’t think I’ll use often. We’ve had older (and frankly less attractive and slower) iterations of this template using spreadsheets. I assure you this travel itinerary template is easier, faster to adapt, and way more professional. 

Having a logo and a few gorgeous images at the ready is extremely helpful as well! After you get your Canva account set up and the images you desire, here’s how to customize your template. 

NOTE: A free Canva account does note provide an image library (sad face). However, you can upload images of your very own! Here’s where you can free (and fabulous) images to use for your design!

Prefer it written out? We’ve got you covered.

Step by Step Instructions on Customizing Your Travel itinerary Template

1. Sign up for a free Canva account or log in to your existing account
2. Subscribe to get your very own Travel Itinerary Template
3. When you click to access the template, here is what you’ll see. Click “Edit Template” (free Canva offers 4 free brand templates)

1. Rename Your Template
2. Rebrand Your template: I’m not going to go deep into sophisticated Canva redesign. If you want to get real fancy, you can check out Canva’s massive library of design tutorials.
3. Delete Ad & “Sharing is Caring”
4. Address
5. Agency Name
6. Brand color
7. Images >>> Hot tip! Create different templates for different trips & destinations so the images reflect what trip they’re going on. 
8. Duplicate template for multiple trips

If you were getting excited about the trip while you were putting it together, you are doing something right! You’ll have a great infrastructure for your template. 

The rest you will customize by individual trip. Here’s just a few notes on that. 

1. Change out all the content
2. Treat the cover page as a “trip at a glance.” This is a great teaser if you want to create a quote, but not share every detail about the trip. 
3. Use the notes to let your expertise shine (template offers examples of this)

Questions? We've Got You Covered.

If you find these steps a little cumbersome, check out the travel itinerary builder comparison chart to see if that's more your jam.

If you give the template a test drive and/or a facelift, give me a holler! I'd love to see how your itinerary turns out or how you like to tweak yours a little differently. Drop me a line a hello@hostagencyreviews.com or submit a comment below!

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in Aug. 2019. It was updated and republished on date listed above!