How to Use Tripsnek

Getting Started

Tripsnek uses a sophisticated algorithm to create optimized European itineraries based on your preferences. The system considers location quality (informed by Rick Steves ratings) and travel efficiency to create a route that gives you the best experience for your time and money. That algorithm is peer-reviewed and published at GECCO 2026 — see the research page if you'd like the details.

To begin planning, you only need two things: a start city, an end city, and the total number of nights. Everything else is optional but helps create a more personalized itinerary.

Creating Your Trip

Required Settings

Start by setting up the basics of your trip:

• Start City: Where you will begin, often the city you will be flying into
• End City: Where you will end, often the city you will be flying out of
• Total Nights: How many nights total you will have to travel

With just these three inputs, you can click "Generate Trip" and let Tripsnek do the rest. However, customizing your preferences will create an even better itinerary tailored to your constraints and interests.

Optional Customizations

Add more cities and customize your experience:

• Required Locations: Add as many must-visit cities as you want with the 'Add Stop' button. Tripsnek will ensure they're included in your itinerary
• Preferred Nights: Set how many nights you'd like to spend in each location. By default, this is treated as a minimum, but you can mark it as "exact" if needed.
• Specific Dates: Set your exact travel dates to receive time-sensitive tips about operating hours and optimal visit times for sights. If specified, you can also set specific dates to be in required locations

Top Menu Options

Four buttons along the top allow you to refine your trip preferences:

Transportation

• Mixed (default): Uses rental cars where they provide the most benefit, avoiding cross-border drop-off fees when possible
• Transit: Uses only trains, buses, and ferries, leveraging Europe's excellent rail network and eliminating the need to drive entirely
• Car: Plans your trip assuming you'll only use a car

Places

Select which countries you're interested in visiting. By default, all countries are available, but you can narrow your options to specific regions.

Pace

• Moderate (default): Tripsnek will try to give you time to experience the best of what every location has to offer, while keeping moving.
• Relaxed: Dive deeper into each destination with more time to immerse yourself in local culture
• Blitz Tour: Get a taste of many locations with efficient, fast-paced travel

Interests

Choose from 16 categories to personalize your itinerary, including natural beauty, cuisine, hiking, wine, museums, charming town centers, and more. Tripsnek will prioritize destinations that match your interests.

Understanding Your Itinerary

Once you click "Generate Trip," Tripsnek creates an optimized route displayed in two views, an editable list-style view and a map view. On mobile the views are accessed separately via buttons along the bottom, otherwise the list view is a sidebar on the left while the map is on the right.

List View

The sidebar displays your itinerary vertically with all the same information: location names, dates, number of nights, travel times, and transportation types.

Map View

The map shows your complete route with color-coded transportation legs. Each location marker displays its Rick Steves rating:

• Must See (yellow): Top-tier destinations worth building your trip around
• Try hard to see (green): Excellent locations that deserve significant time
• Worthwhile (blue): Good destinations if they fit your route
• No Rating (gray): Locations without Rick Steves ratings, including larger cities, transportation hubs and other important places that Rick doesn't cover.

Your Trip Dashboard

Above your itinerary sits a card summarising the whole trip: its name — click it to rename — along with your dates, total nights, and number of stops. Below that is a row of buttons, each showing a live figure for your current itinerary and opening a detailed view when clicked.

• Budget Estimator: Your estimated total trip cost. Opens a full breakdown of where the money goes.
• Weather Averages: The coldest low and warmest high across everywhere you're going. Opens a temperature chart for the whole route. Appears once your trip has dates.
• Time-Sensitive Tips: A count of everything on your trip that depends on timing. This is the most valuable thing Tripsnek gives you after the route itself — see below.

Time-Sensitive Tips

Europe punishes the unprepared. Major sights sell out weeks ahead, train fares climb as departure approaches, and half the museums in a city can be shut on the one day you're there. Tripsnek reads your specific itinerary and dates and tells you exactly where that applies to you. It's split into two tabs.

"Before you go" — what to book, and by when

Everything on your trip worth reserving in advance, grouped by city in the order you'll reach them. Each entry carries a deadline: a real date where one exists ("Book by 14 Mar") with the lead time beneath it, or just the lead time for things that are simply best done early.

• Needs booking now: Anything already overdue or due within a week is pulled into its own section at the top, so nothing urgent is buried.
• Why it matters: Entries are tagged with the actual risk — Sells out, Price rises, or Long lines — so you can tell a hard deadline from a nice-to-have.
• Starred entries are the major sights that sell out or need timed entry. If you only act on a few things, act on these.
• Expand any row for the detail behind the recommendation and a link to the official booking site.

"Day by day" — what's open while you're there

A calendar of your stay in each city, flagging only the days where timing actually changes what you can do. Most days are unremarkable and stay quiet; the ones that matter stand out:

• Your only chance: The single day a sight is open during your entire stay in that city. Miss it and you miss the sight.
• Last chance: Open today, closed every remaining day you're in town.
• On today: Markets and events that only run certain days, and today is one.
• Extended hours: Somewhere open later than usual — useful for stacking a long day.
• Closed: Normally open, shut today. Listed as a footnote so you don't plan into it.

This tab needs real travel dates to work at all. Opening days are days of the week, so until Tripsnek knows your trip lands in Lyon on a Monday, it can't warn you that two of its three museums are closed. If you take one action after generating a trip, set your dates and read this.

Editing Your Trip

Your itinerary is fully customizable. Here's how to make changes:

Quick Edits

• Add or Remove Nights: Use the + and - buttons next to each location to adjust your stay duration
• Add Stops: Click "Add Stop" to include additional cities, they will be initially inserted wherever makes the most sense
• Reorder Locations: Drag and drop cities to change the order of your route
• Remove Locations: Delete cities you no longer want to visit

Advanced Options

Click the three-dots menu on any location to access additional features:

• Change Transportation: Modify how you'll arrive at this location
• Add Daytrips: Include nearby attractions or towns to visit from this base
• Edit Travel Time: Update the estimated travel time if you believe you have more accurate information
• Remove and Avoid: Exclude this location and prevent it from appearing when you regenerate the trip

Regenerating Your Trip

After making changes, click "Re-Generate Trip" to have Tripsnek optimize your route again while respecting your new preferences and avoiding any locations you've marked to exclude.

Managing Your Trip

The top menu bar offers several options for saving and sharing your itinerary:

Save

Keep your trip accessible through the hamburger menu (button top left) even if you close your browser. Create a free Tripsnek account ("Log In" button in upper right) to access your saved trips from any device.

Link

Generate a shareable URL to send your itinerary to friends, family, travel companions or yourself.

Download

Export your trip to Excel for offline access or further customization.