The Future of Travel Planning: Why I’m Trading My Spreadsheets for Visual Timelines

I used to be "the spreadsheet person." You know the type—the one with color-coded tabs for flights, museum hours, and dinner reservations. But honestly? It felt more like a second job than a vacation. As we head further into 2025, the way we digest travel information is undergoing a massive shift.

The Problem with Lists

Traditional travel planning is list-based. "Go here, then here, then here." But life (and travel) doesn't happen in a bulleted list. It happens in time. The biggest frustration I’ve always had is realizing that the three "nearby" spots I picked are actually three hours of walking apart when you factor in the crowds.

Enter the Visual Timeline

This is where AI-driven visual timelines, like the ones we're seeing in apps like City Hacks, change the game. Instead of a wall of text, you see your day mapped out. It’s a subtle shift, but a powerful one.

When you see your 10 AM coffee and your 2 PM museum tour separated by a clear, icon-based gap, your brain instantly understands the rhythm of your day. It’s intuitive, it’s fast, and quite frankly, it’s a lot more fun to look at.

Wait, is AI Taking the Soul Out of Travel?

I get asked this a lot. My answer? No. It’s doing the boring part for you. By using AI to handle the "how do I get from A to B" and "what’s open on a Monday," you actually free up more mental energy to actually enjoy the destination.

The future of travel isn't about robots telling us where to go. It’s about smart tools that visualize our options so clearly that we can make better, more spontaneous choices once we get there.