Free, or about $20 a month
Planning with a chatbot
Very good at the shape of a trip. Structurally unable to tell you what changed last week.
Better than us when: Your trip is simple and flexible, and being wrong costs you an hour rather than a day.
Alternatives
Ways to plan a family trip
Six ways to fill the days on a trip that is already booked, and then the one we sell. Four of the six are free or close to it, one costs a few dollars, and one can cost more than we do. Every card says when that option beats paying us, because on plenty of trips it does.
Commission, plus fees
Using a travel agent
They are paid commission on what they book. You booked it yourself, so the work left is the part they charge for.
Better than us when: You have not booked yet, especially a cruise or a package, where their work can cost you nothing.
Free, and your evenings
Doing it yourself
Most families plan their own trips and most do it well. What the work costs, and who in the house pays that cost.
Better than us when: You enjoy it, or you already know the place. Handing it over would take something away.
About $1 to $25
Buying a template
A layout, often a good one, containing nothing about the place you are going. That part is still your evenings.
Better than us when: What you are missing is a tidy place to put the plan, not the plan.
Free, mostly
Using a trip planning app
Excellent containers. Forty saved pins is still forty decisions nobody has made, and none of them checked.
Better than us when: You want to plan it yourself and share it with the family as you go.
Free
Asking a parent group
The highest-trust source there is, and the one most likely to be out of date. How to ask for a better answer.
Better than us when: You need the local read rather than a plan. Nothing else gives you that as well.
$99 to $299, once
A researched guide
One questionnaire in, one private guide out. Built for your family, every place checked against your dates, on your phone within 24 hours.
Better than the six when: the trip is booked, the place is unfamiliar, there are small children, and you get one shot at the week.
What every one of them has in common
None of them checks anything against your dates. That is not a criticism, it is what they are. A chatbot answers from what it absorbed, an app holds what you put in it, a template holds what you type, a group tells you what was true when they went, and doing it yourself means the checking is yours. The work is the same work in every case. The only question is who does it.
If the answer is you, we have written down exactly how: the four checks is the method, checking that a place is open is the one that catches the most expensive mistakes, and the rest of the writing is free.