Month: June 2019

Many of you know we have been quietly working on our first full-function Pebblar mobile apps. Well, I am excited to announce that we have finished them! Both iOS and Android versions are now available for download.

This marks a major milestone for us as it is the only itinerary planning app available where you can build, edit, and track itineraries for any type of trip with as much detail as you’d like.

For our fellow DIY travelers, it means you can now plan and update a full itinerary on the go!

So this is how Pebblar mobile app works:

1. Add your cities and city dates
   
2. Add your wishlist of places under each city (restaurants, hotels, sights, activities, events etc)
   
   
3. Date each saved place to your itinerary
   
   
4. Preview your itinerary (in either list or map view) and you are done!

We are very excited to finally unveiling this as we truly hope this will completely change the way we plan our customized travel itineraries. We would to get your feedback! 

Until next time,

Nan 

I have seen many people on Google and Quora asking How do I plan a travel itinerary?

For example (source: Google search):

Based on what I have read, everyone I have talked to and my own experiences, I think most DIY travellers’ trip planning process looks somewhat like this:

1. Pick a general direction (e.g. a country or specific region)
2. Do your pre-trip research – which cities/towns to hit, what is there to do, where to eat and stay etc
3. Put together a wishlist and pin them on a map
4. Work out how long it takes to travel from A to B and how long you need for each place and sort these details into a day-by-day itinerary
5. Once you can confirm your travel dates, book everything or at least the key items (e.g. flights, hotels, the must-go sights and restaurants).
6. Save down booking details and documents and keep fine-tuning your wishlist and trip itinerary

*Sometimes some people book their flights and hotels first then work out the details which is perfectly fine too.

So how does Pebblar make your planning process easier?

Disclaimer: we don’t do offer content or booking. There are already many well-established platforms for recommendations, reviews and booking e.g. Instagram, Youtube, Tripadvisor, Hotels.com, Expedia, Kayak, Skyscanner, the list goes on, plus the good old fashioned family and friends! We really don’t think people need another platform.

Step 3, 4 & 6 is where we come in. So basically, Pebblar is your one master tool to store and share all your trip research, booking details and itinerary!

With all the technological advancements we have today, most DIY travelers are still switching between Google Maps and Microsoft Word. It is messy and inefficient. It is even worse with group trips when you have to collate everyone’s inputs and keep everyone updated, especially if it involves people from different parts of the world.

Pebblar has combined the core functions of Word and Google Maps into one collaborative map-based workspace, so you and your friends can now map out all your trip ideas and create a detailed itinerary in one place and in real-time. Then, when people are on the trip, all their trip information would be in one place (Pebblar mobile apps) accessible anywhere even without internet.

Hi Everyone!

Sorry we have been so quiet over the last few months, we have been busy working on some very exciting new functions.

As you all know, Pebblar’s goal has always been to become the tool for anyone who likes to plan their own trip itineraries – no matter the trip type or how complicated they are. Over the last couple of months, many of our users have emailed us and told us that they have been looking for a tool just like Pebblar. There is simply nothing more rewarding than that.

While we continue to make Pebblar faster and more stable, we also want to take it one step further – real-time collaboration no matter how many people are travelling together or where they are in the world.

I still remember the old days when I used to get together with friends to map out our trip on a big paper map (like the picture below). It was always a lot of fun.
 

Nowadays, with friends and family all over the world, it is hard to get everyone in the same room. We want to recreate that same “in-person” planning experience, even if people are not in the same place or even time-zone.

That is exactly what we have been quietly working on in the background – group trip planning in real-time. With the help of cloud infrastructure, you and your friends can now collaborate on Pebblar no matter where they are in the world.

As part of our real-time collaboration capability, we have planned a suite of real-time collaboration functions, including:

1. Trip Buddies’ online status (already available);
2. Multi-user real-time editing (already available);
3. Real-time notification (to be released in late June/early July); and
4. Real-time commenting under each city place (to be released in early July)

We firmly believe that planning a trip isn’t the painful part, the painful part is having to use Excel. While most existing “trip planning” tools chose to focus on automation and suggested itineraries, we want to focus the DIY travelers and give them a place to coordinate any place, with anyone, at anytime.