The Complete Trip Planning System: Notion, Maps, and Calendar
Build a trip planning workflow in Notion that shows your destinations on a map and syncs your travel dates to any calendar app.
Trip planning lives in three dimensions: where you're going, when you're going, and what you'll do there. Most people scatter this information across a dozen apps and browser tabs, then spend the week before departure frantically trying to piece it all together. There's a better way.
A single Notion database can hold your entire trip. Every destination, every date, every reservation, every half-formed idea about that coffee shop someone mentioned on Reddit. The trick is making that information useful outside of Notion, where you actually need it: on a map when you're navigating an unfamiliar city, and in your calendar when you're trying to remember what day you fly out.
One Database, Multiple Views
Start with a database that captures both location and time. Each entry represents a place you want to visit or something you need to do. The title is the place or activity. Add a Place property for the location and a Date property for when it's happening.
That's the foundation. From there, add whatever makes sense for your trip. A category property helps you filter by restaurants, activities, hotels, or transit. A status property tracks what's booked versus what's still tentative. A notes field holds confirmation numbers, opening hours, and the insider tips you've collected.
The same database serves multiple purposes depending on how you view it. A calendar view shows your schedule. A map view shows your geography. A table view lets you sort and filter everything at once.
See Your Trip on a Map
Geography matters when you're planning a trip. Two activities that look fine on a list might be an hour apart in reality. A restaurant recommendation loses its appeal when you realize it's nowhere near anything else you're doing that day.
Connect your trip database to Notion to Maps and suddenly your planning has spatial context. Every destination appears as a pin. You can see at a glance which days are logistically tight and which have room for spontaneity. You might notice that your Thursday is packed with places on opposite ends of the city while Wednesday has nothing planned near your hotel.
This is when you start rearranging. Drag activities between days in Notion, and your map updates to reflect the new plan. Keep iterating until the geography makes sense.
Once you're happy with the plan, grab the shareable link. Now you have a map of your entire trip that works on your phone, no app download required. When you're standing on a street corner trying to remember where you're supposed to be, pull up the map and tap for directions.
Get Your Dates Into Your Calendar
Here's where most trip planning systems fall apart. You've built this beautiful database in Notion, but your calendar still shows a blank week. You're going to miss that flight because you forgot to add it to the app that actually sends you reminders.
Some people manually copy every date from Notion to their calendar. This works until you change something, at which point your calendar is wrong and you've forgotten that it's wrong.
A better approach is to keep your calendar automatically synced with your Notion database. Notion to Calendar connects your trip database to Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook, or whatever you use. When you add a flight to Notion, it appears in your calendar. When you move dinner from Tuesday to Wednesday, your calendar updates. When you cancel that museum visit you were never that excited about, it disappears from your schedule.
The sync runs automatically, so you can keep planning in Notion without thinking about your calendar. The calendar just stays current.
The Day Before You Leave
The night before a trip, most people enter a mild panic. Did I book that thing? What time is the flight? Where's the hotel again? They dig through email confirmations and half-remember conversations and hope they haven't forgotten anything critical.
With this system, the panic is optional. Your calendar shows every time-sensitive commitment. Your map shows every place you're going. Your Notion database holds all the details. Everything lives in three places that actually make sense for how you'll use the information.
Pull up your map and mentally walk through the first day. Pull up your calendar and verify the times. Open Notion if you need confirmation numbers or addresses. You're not reconstructing your trip from scattered fragments; you're reviewing a plan that already exists in usable form.
Sharing With Travel Companions
If you're traveling with others, the system scales naturally. Share your Notion database with your travel companions and everyone can add places they want to visit. The map updates for everyone. The calendar sync means everyone's phone knows when the group has commitments.
No more "I thought you said 2pm" conversations. No more "wait, where are we meeting?" texts. The information exists in a single source of truth, and everyone has access to the views that matter to them.
After the Trip
The database doesn't lose its value when you get home. Those places you loved become recommendations for friends who visit later. The restaurants that disappointed you get notes so you don't forget. The hidden gem you stumbled onto gets added to your personal map of the world.
Over time, you build a collection of everywhere you've been and everywhere you want to go. Each trip adds to a database that makes the next trip easier to plan.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I plan a trip in Notion without dates for some activities?
Yes. Not everything needs a date. Places you want to visit "sometime during the trip" can exist in your database without a specific date. They'll appear on your map but won't clutter your calendar. Add dates when you decide, or leave them flexible and figure it out on the ground.
How do I handle multi-day activities like hotel stays?
Use Notion's date range feature. Set the check-in and check-out dates, and the entry spans multiple days in your calendar view. Your calendar will show the full duration of the stay.
What if my trip spans multiple cities?
The same system works across any geography. Add a "City" property to filter your map by location when you need to focus on one area. Your calendar shows everything regardless of where it is.
Can travel companions edit the shared database?
Yes, if you give them edit access in Notion. For view-only sharing, use the map link from Notion to Maps. They can see everything and get directions without being able to change your plans.
How far in advance should I start planning in Notion?
As soon as you have a trip in mind. Even a single entry with just the destination and rough dates gives you something to build on. Add places as you discover them, refine dates as you book things, and watch the trip take shape over time.