Once a trip is in your library, this guide walks you through every layer of the itinerary — from navigating parts and days to tracking stops as you travel.
The Trip Detail View
Tap any trip in your list to open it. The trip detail view uses a sidebar and detail panel layout:
- Sidebar (left/top): Shows the trip's Parts and, nested under each part, its individual Days. Tap any day to load it in the detail panel.
- Detail panel (right/bottom): Shows the selected content — the trip overview, or a specific day's stops, map, accommodation, and tips.
On iPhone, the sidebar and detail panel stack vertically as a navigation stack. Tap Close (✕) in the sidebar to return to your trips list.
Trip Overview
Select Overview at the top of the sidebar to see the trip-level information:
- The trip's cover photo, if it has one
- Title, tagline, start and end dates, and total duration
- The Sharing section — who the trip is shared with (or who shared it with you), and the Share Trip or Manage Sharing button
- All Accommodations — tap any accommodation to open its detail sheet with address, check-in/check-out, confirmation number, notes, and a map link
- All Transportation segments — tap any segment to open its detail sheet with carrier, flight/train number, departure and arrival times, and notes
The ⋯ button in the overview's toolbar holds the trip's actions: Add Cover or Edit Cover, Export Trip, and Update Trip (replace the trip with an edited JSON file — see Creating Trips). Cover and update actions appear only when you can edit the trip.
Cover Photos
Give the trip, and any of its days, a cover photo. It appears at the top of the trip overview or day view, with the title and date shown over it.
- Open the trip overview or a day and tap ⋯ → Add Cover (or Edit Cover)
- Tap Choose Photo to pick from your photo library, or Choose File to use an image file
- Check the preview and tap Save
On iOS 27 / macOS 27 or later, Sidetrip Pro users can instead tap Generate with AI to create a cover in Image Playground, starting from ideas based on the trip or day. Image Playground must be available on your device. To remove a cover, open the cover editor, tap Remove Cover, and save.
Covers are part of the trip: they sync through iCloud, appear for everyone you share the trip with, and show in CarPlay on iOS 27 or later. They aren't included in exported JSON files, and updating a trip from a file keeps them.
Exporting Trips
You can export any trip as a JSON file to create a backup, share it with someone, or transfer it to a different device or iCloud account. The export menu is located in the trip overview toolbar — tap the ⋯ (ellipsis) button and choose Export Trip.
Export Options
-
Save as File: Exports the trip as a
.jsonfile using the system file exporter dialog. You can save the file to Files, iCloud Drive, or any other location accessible on your device. - Copy to Clipboard: Copies the full trip JSON to the system clipboard. A confirmation toast appears when the copy is complete. You can then paste the JSON into a message, email, or any text field.
The exported JSON uses the same Sidetrip JSON schema (v2.1) as imports — meaning the file can be imported directly into Sidetrip on another device or by another user. Cover photos aren't included in the file.
Common Use Cases
- Backup: Save a copy of your trip before making major changes
- Sharing without iCloud: Send the file to someone who doesn't use iCloud sharing — they can import it into their own Sidetrip library
- Transferring between accounts: Export from one iCloud account and import on a device signed into a different account
- Editing externally: Export the JSON, modify it in a text editor or with an AI assistant, and re-import the updated version
Parts
A trip is divided into Parts — named segments that group a set of consecutive days. For example, a two-week Europe trip might have parts named "London", "Paris", and "Barcelona".
Parts appear as sections in the sidebar, labeled Part 1, Part 2, and so on, with each part's title above its days. They follow the order of the itinerary.
Days
Each part contains one or more Days. Tap a day in the sidebar to open it. The day detail view shows:
- The day's cover photo (if it has one), number, date, title, and summary, with the number of stops and the day's time span
- A progress bar showing how many stops are done (visited or skipped), once you've started the day
- The day's accommodation (if any), shown as a card you can tap for full details. It tells you whether you check in that day, which night of the stay it is, or that you check out that day
- A Map showing all stop locations for that day
- The Itinerary — a timeline of the day's stops with their start and end times, the travel time between them, and any flights, trains, buses, or ferries departing that day, placed at their departure time. If a stop already covers a booking, the booking isn't shown twice
- A Tips section with practical advice for the day (e.g., "Book tickets in advance", "Wear comfortable shoes")
The day's ⋯ menu lets you add or edit the day's cover, show or hide the map, and use Mark All Stops to mark every stop as Visited, Not Visited, or Skipped at once.
Day Status
Each day in the sidebar shows a status dot, derived automatically from the visit statuses of its stops:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Not Started | All stops are still marked as Not Visited |
| In Progress | At least one stop has been touched (visited, in progress, or skipped) but not all are done |
| Complete | All stops are marked as Visited or Skipped |
Stops
Stops are the individual activities and places within each day. Each stop has:
- Name and time (e.g., "Colosseum – 9:00 AM")
- Category (Attraction, Food, Scenic, Transport, or Stay) with a color-coded icon
- Description — context about the stop
- Duration — how long to budget for this stop
- Address and map pin — tap the address or map to open in Apple Maps
- Website — tap to open in Safari
- Opening hours (opens/closes times)
- Cost information
- Phone number
- Transit information — how to get from this stop to the next one, and how long it takes
- Tags — descriptive labels added by the itinerary
- Notes — your own personal notes (editable)
- Visit status badge
Tap Navigate in a stop's detail view to get directions in Apple Maps.
Stop Categories
| Category | Typical Use |
|---|---|
| Attraction | Sights, museums, landmarks, tours |
| Food | Restaurants, cafes, markets, street food |
| Scenic | Viewpoints, parks, gardens, nature walks |
| Transport | Flights, buses, trains, airports, stations. When a transport stop matches one of your bookings, it shows that booking's type (for example, Flight or Bus) |
| Stay | Checking in, waking up at, and returning to your accommodation |
Trips created before the Stay category was added list their accommodation stops as Transport. To update them, import the trip again with the latest prompt, or ask the AI Trip Assistant to change those stops to Stay.
Visit Status
Visit status lets you track your real-time progress through the day as you travel. Tap the circle next to any stop on the day's timeline (or the status badge in the stop's detail view) to cycle through the four states. To mark a whole day at once, use ⋯ → Mark All Stops.
| Status | When to Use |
|---|---|
| Not Visited | Default — you haven't been here yet |
| In Progress | You're at this stop right now |
| Visited | You've completed this stop |
| Skipped | You decided not to visit this stop |
Status updates are saved immediately and sync via iCloud. If you later update your trip from a new import, any stop whose ID exists in both the old and new data retains its visit status.
If you don't use In Progress, turn off Settings → Stops → Enable In Progress State. Tapping a stop then cycles between Not Visited, Visited, and Skipped.
Personal Notes
Every stop, accommodation, and transportation booking has a Notes field for your own use. Open its detail view and tap the Notes area to add or edit text. Use notes to record:
- Your impressions ("Absolutely worth the early start")
- Practical reminders ("Book skip-the-line tickets online beforehand")
- Changes you made on the fly ("We had lunch here instead — excellent pasta")
Notes are part of the trip. If you share it, everyone with access can see them, and people who can make changes can edit them. Updating a trip from a new import replaces notes with the ones in the file.
Accommodations
The trip overview and individual day views show accommodation information. Tap any accommodation card to open the full detail sheet, which includes:
- Name and accommodation type (hotel, hostel, Airbnb, apartment, camping, resort, guesthouse, or other)
- Address and map pin, with a Navigate button for directions
- Check-in and check-out dates, number of nights
- Confirmation number
- Website link
- Your personal notes
Transportation
The trip overview lists all transportation segments, and each day's timeline shows the ones departing that day. Tap any segment to open its detail sheet, which includes:
- Transport type (flight, train, bus, ferry, car rental)
- Leg (outbound, connecting, return)
- Date, departure and arrival times
- Origin and destination
- Carrier, service/flight number, vehicle details
- Duration
- Your personal notes
Day Map
Each day view includes a map with a pin for every stop, labeled with the stop's name, and a dashed line connecting them in order. Pins show either the stop's number or its category icon, depending on Settings → Map → Map Pins. Pinch and drag to zoom and pan, and tap a pin to zoom in on that stop. Tap the location button to center the map on where you are. To hide the map, tap ⋯ and choose Hide Map.
Opening the Current Trip at Launch
Turn on Settings → Trips → Open Current Trip at Launch to skip the trips list while you travel. When one of your trips is happening today, Sidetrip opens it when you launch the app. With Open Today's Day also on (the default), it opens straight to today's day; turn it off to open the trip overview instead.
- Archived trips are skipped
- If several trips overlap today, the one that started most recently opens
- It happens when the app launches, not when you switch back to Sidetrip from another app
- Opening Sidetrip from a share invitation shows the trips list instead
Apple Watch Companion
Sidetrip Pro includes an Apple Watch companion for quick reference while you travel. On watchOS 11 or later, you can browse active trips, parts, days, and stops, review progress and tips, and open accommodation or transportation details. While a trip is in progress, an Up Next card shows your next stop. See Apple Watch for details.
Open a stop to review its time, duration, address, cost, hours, phone number, website, notes, tags, and transit information. You can also change the stop's visit status from the Watch when you have permission to edit the trip. A read-only shared trip displays its status without edit controls.
The Watch companion is designed for itinerary reference and status tracking. Create or import trips, edit itinerary content, view maps, start navigation, manage sharing, and use AI features in the iPhone, iPad, or Mac app.
Navigating on iPhone vs iPad/Mac
iPhone
The trip uses a stacked navigation style. Tap a day in the parts list to push the day detail view onto the stack. Use the back button to return to the parts list.
iPad and Mac
The trip uses a split view with the sidebar always visible on the left. Select any day in the sidebar to load it in the detail panel on the right. On Mac, you can resize the sidebar by dragging the divider.