The Trips section turns the initial idea for a journey into a detailed plan. A trip can be divided into days, with organised stops, activities and transfers, estimated timings and recorded expenses.
Personal trips and editing tools require sign-in. Open registration is not available yet, so access to these tools is being expanded gradually.
What a trip contains
A trip may include:
- a title and general description;
- a fixed or relative start date;
- a base currency;
- an ordered sequence of days;
- places from the public catalogue;
- personal waypoints;
- planned stops and activities;
- transfers between stops;
- time at each location;
- expenses;
- routes displayed on the map.
The editor is divided into several areas:
- General — the main trip settings;
- Days — the order and settings of individual days;
- Plan — stops, activities and transfers;
- Reports — summary information about the trip;
- Locations — every place and waypoint used by the trip;
- Map — the spatial view of the journey.
Planning by day
Places can be assigned to days, reordered or kept in a separate list until their place in the itinerary has been decided.
The same place can be visited more than once. Map Portal does not duplicate the underlying geographic object: each visit is a separate occurrence connected to the same place.
Stops and activities can be moved between days. If a change affects existing transfers, the planner warns the user before applying the new order.
Each stop can include its expected duration, planned activities and related expenses.
Personal waypoints
Not every useful coordinate belongs in the public catalogue. A trip can include a personal waypoint for:
- a possible overnight stop;
- a meeting point;
- a group assembly point;
- a parking area;
- an intermediate coordinate;
- a location that has not yet been verified.
The waypoint can be placed directly on the map, assigned to a day or left in the unassigned list. It remains part of the personal plan and is not published automatically.
Transfers and routes
A trip leg connects two neighbouring stops. The planner shows their direct distance and, when a route has been saved, its road distance and estimated travel time.
A route can be:
- calculated along the road network;
- drawn manually;
- edited directly on the map;
- saved as a separate revision;
- applied after reviewing the result.
A calculated route first appears as a preview. Cancelling leaves the existing route unchanged; confirming saves the selected geometry.
Route calculation currently focuses on driving. Walking, cycling, off-road and other specialised profiles belong to the project’s future development.
Time and daylight
Map Portal takes time zones into account and can show the planned timing of stops and transfers. A trip day may include calculations for:
- the start and end of the schedule;
- dawn and sunrise;
- sunset and evening twilight;
- total daylight.
If a time zone or another required value is unknown, the system does not invent a result. It clearly shows that the calculation is unavailable.
This is useful when planning mountain roads, sunrise and sunset photography, ferry crossings, border crossings and long driving days.
Expenses
The plan can include fuel, accommodation, food, transport, tickets, permits, excursions, shopping and custom expense categories.
Amounts in different currencies are not added together without conversion. The user can define rates relative to the trip’s base currency, allowing Map Portal to display an estimated total while retaining the original amounts.
Reports group expenses by day, stop, activity and transfer.
Planning your first trip
- Create a trip and choose its main settings.
- Add the required days.
- Find places in the public catalogue or add personal waypoints.
- Assign the stops to days.
- Add activities, durations and expenses.
- Calculate or draw the routes between stops.
- Review the entire journey on the map.
- Use reports to estimate the schedule and budget.
Map Portal is under active development, so individual interface elements may change. Current limitations and future directions are described on the Project Development page.