Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

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How to Use OneNote for Travel Planning

And now for a peek inside my inner geek – how I use Microsoft OneNote to obsessively organize my travel plans! Have you ever used OneNote for work or school? It’s great for that, but I find it incredibly useful for keeping all of our current and upcoming travel plans neat and accessible. And just one note (ha, pun intended) upfront – I’m not getting paid by Microsoft or anything; I just love OneNote that much!

So first, a quick introduction to OneNote. It’s an application within the Microsoft Office suite that allows you to capture and store notes from your ideas, websites, files, emails, and so on. It’s basically the digital version of a three-ring binder (or a Trapper Keeper for my fellow 80s kids). A notebook holds tabbed sections, and within each section you can have multiple pages.

image courtesy of OneNote

You can type or even write freehand notes in any of the sections of a notebook, and then add items like photos, spreadsheets or graphs to go along with your notes. There’s also an import feature where you can send emails or documents straight into OneNote. This feature especially makes it perfect for keeping track of travel documents. Plus, everything is stored in the OneDrive cloud so all the information in my notebooks syncs between my desktop PC, my Mac laptop, my iPhone and my iPad and that means I always have access to the information. I installed the free software on my desktop PC, and downloaded free apps for the Mac and iPad/iPhone. Oh and yes, I’m a Mac AND a PC! So it’s especially awesome that OneNote plays nicely across all platforms.

I have several notebooks created for various topics. For example, in my Health & Fitness notebook I keep workout ideas, meal plans, and favorite recipes, and in my House Projects notebook I have sections for each room of the house with to-do lists of upcoming projects. But my favorite use for OneNote is for travel planning. I don’t typically use it for small weekend getaways or for trips that we make repeatedly like Colorado, but here’s how I use it for our bigger trips that require more planning.

First, I create a new notebook for the trip and title it by destination and year. This just helps me keep everything for one trip separate and defined. In the photo below, you can see my notebooks along the left-hand side, and the sections for the current notebook (Iceland 2014) are across the top in little colored tab shapes just like sections in a binder.

Throughout my travel planning, I create section tabs to go along with the information that I need to organize. I develop our itinerary by creating a section with a spreadsheet page (I told you – so geeky!). When I receive emails with travel details such as flight info, hotel reservations, and car rental confirmations, those emails get filed away in the trip notebook. Since I use Outlook for email, I can easily organize those emails by clicking the Send to OneNote button and selecting the notebook and section in which I want a copy of the email to appear. If you aren’t using Outlook, check here for instructions on how to send emails to OneNote.

Here’s how it looks when I send an email from Outlook to OneNote (note that I’m “Mr. Susan Marks” for some reason in the email):

Sometimes I keep each of the trip’s confirmations in their own separate sections (e.g., flight, hotel, car rental, etc.), and other times it makes more sense to bundle it together into one section with a page for each confirmation. The organization possibilities are quite flexible, so you can do whatever makes the most sense to you. For our Iceland trip, I have a separate Hotels tab since we’ll be staying in several hotels. I gave each hotel its own page within the section so that I can easily find the information. The next image is an example of a section with multiple pages. Look on the right-hand side and you’ll see pages for some of our outings in Grand Cayman. Some of the sections are email confirmations from things that we booked, and other sections are just my notes on places we wanted to see. Oh, and the Port Authority page is just the cruise ship schedule for the week we were there so I’d know when the beaches might be most crowded.

Other sections I usually create: sites we want to see, website links or articles related to our destination, photo & video ideas, to-do lists, and packing lists. Pages within sections can easily be moved or copied into other notebooks, so I end up reusing my packing lists for trips with similar needs (e.g., beach, ski, adventure, etc.). And when it’s time to pack, I can either use the app to check off the items as I pack, or sometimes I print the page and use it as a paper checklist. Speaking of printing, I’m a huge fan of technology obviously, but I also firmly believe in having a Plan B in the case of tech failure, so I do print several pages in my travel notebook before we leave. For that reason, it’s awesome to have everything gathered in one place so when I’m ready to print, I just have to select the sections or pages that I need to have in printed copy.

I’m admittedly terrible at budgeting, but OneNote could be useful for planning a budget in advance, and then updating an expense tracker spreadsheet while you’re traveling. Something else you can do on-the-road is snap a photo of your luggage claim ticket and attach the photo right into OneNote in case you lose the actual ticket.

And one last handy feature for travel – keeping emergency information all in one spot accessible by all of your devices. You can create a notebook for holding a scanned copy of your passport, emergency contact numbers and addresses, medical information, and insurance information (health, auto, and travel). Of course, just keep in mind that if this info is accessible to you on your phone or tablet it’s potentially accessible to anyone else who finds your unlocked device should you lose it, so you should definitely password-protect sensitive data, which is available as an option through OneNote. It’s comforting to know I could access my documents at a hotel computer or Internet cafe kiosk if I lost my devices on the road.

So what do you think? Will you try OneNote to plan your next adventure, or have you used it already? I’m a huge fan, even if it I can’t slap Lisa Frank stickers all over it like I did with my Trapper Keeper. Let me know if you have questions about OneNote, and happy planning!

June 30, 2014
Photo Friday – D.C. Retrospective

Technically I did blog this photo a long time ago, but it was at the end of an engagement session entry and it’s one of my favorite images of D.C., so I thought I’d give it its own post.

A few years ago when I took this image, I was sitting at a stoplight on Pennsylvania Ave., and I had my camera in the front seat since I had just finished photographing a session in the city. Right before the light changed to green, I noticed the Capitol building in my side view mirror, shining brightly against the deep blue of the dusky evening sky. I grabbed my camera and quickly made one exposure before it was my turn to go. Whenever I see it, I’m reminded of the many times I spent a weekend afternoon/evening in the city photographing my wonderful clients. There may have been traffic (there was), it might have been difficult to find a parking spot (it usually was), and one time President Obama’s motorcade on Rt. 66 might have made me late to a session (it did), but I remember my city shoots in our beautiful capital fondly.

June 27, 2014
Tourist at Home: Capital Bikeshare

A few weeks ago when Chris and I visited the Newseum in D.C., we also tried a couple of new-to-us restaurants. For lunch we had tasty tacos at Taqueria Nacional, which was great for fairly inexpensive Mexican fare, and for dinner we tried Smoke and Barrel in Adams Morgan. We loved their delicious BBQ and smoked meats, and they have a great beer and whiskey selection, too.

Thankfully we walked around the city quite a bit and burned a few of those delicious lunch and dinner calories. We also walked from the Metro to get to the restaurants. But after all that walking on top of the hours we spent wandering the Newseum, my feet were tired! When we exited Smoke and Barrel, I noticed a Capital Bikeshare station, and I knew there was another one close to our Metro stop as well, so I talked Chris into hopping on a couple of bikes for the remainder of our walk back. (Note: We each rode one bike in case that wasn’t clear.)

Here’s how it works: there are a few hundred Bikeshare stations around the D.C. area with several bikes available for rent. You can pick up a bike at any station, and return it to any station. They offer memberships, or pay-per-use options. We swiped our credit card at the self-service kiosk and paid for a single use. We unlocked two bikes, and rode them to the station nearest our destination where we returned the bikes. The bikes were clean, in great shape, and had comfortable, cushy seats. You can see in the photo below that these are sturdy, hefty bikes and aren’t going to win any kind of weight-weenie competition, so keep in mind that they might feel slow and heavy on a bit of an incline. My short legs and I were appreciative of the step-through design, and the adjustable-height seats.

It definitely gave my tired feet a much needed break! And I can see how the bikes would come in handy for a full day of sightseeing – you could easily plan your Bikeshare stations around the monuments, museums, and restaurants. There’s a map for that, and an app for that!

We paid the 24-hour price of $7 each. It seemed just a little pricey since we only needed the bikes for one short ride, but if I understand correctly, we could have used the bikes all day (for a 24-hour period) and each time we unlocked a bike, the first 30-minutes of that ride would be “free.” So if you plan to use them all day, the rate is very reasonable.

There are two potential (minor) drawbacks to keep in mind. First, if you return a bike to a station where all of the spots in the bike rack are full, you have to go to another station to return your bike or else pay for the time beyond your free 30 minutes. They do give you an extra 15 minutes in that situation, but if I was already where I wanted to be, I would be a little annoyed at having to ride to another station. Thankfully when we arrived at the station near our Metro stop, there were plenty of available slots.

Second, it’s important to protect your noggin, but there are no rental helmets (sharing a helmet with everyone else would be a little weird, right?) so you need to bring your own. This was a spur-of-the-moment decision for Chris and me so we didn’t happen to have helmets with us and I wouldn’t imagine tourists would have helmets with them either. It felt weird to ride without one, since we always don helmets when we ride closer to home. Capital Bikeshare does, however, recommend that you wear a helmet and they offer a 10% discount on helmets at several local stores to Capital Bikeshare members, so that’s a nice perk. D.C. is fairly bike friendly with designated bike lanes, but keep in mind that not everyone is familiar with the share-the-road rules, so best to be safe and helmet up if you can.

Bottom line: I’d use Capital Bikeshare again! It was super easy and convenient, and I think if we planned to use the bikes more often than just once in a 24-hour period, the cost would definitely be worth it.

June 23, 2014
Photo Friday – Summer Sightings

Happy day-before-the-first-day-of-summer! This week’s photo is from a 35mm film scan – I took the image sometime in 2002 when I was living and working in Maryland. I can’t even remember exactly how I found this huge sunflower (I used to drive around frequently looking for anything to photograph) or if a friend found it and alerted me, but I remember being obsessed with sunflowers at the time. If I remember correctly it was just on the edge of someone’s farm property, so I don’t think there was trespassing involved. Obviously my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I’m pretty sure I went back to the location more than once, and on one trip I went with a couple of co-workers/photography friends to see it. A giant sunflower-sighting was practically an event for budding photographers! (No pun intended on the “budding” bit.) The sky that day was completely clear, and when I crouched down looking for an interesting, uncluttered angle, I liked the way the cheerful yellow leaves contrasted with the sky. I took a few photos at various angles using a polarizing filter, and I ended up liking this one the best. The polarizer made the sky look so rich, and in addition to that, the print processing came out extra saturated. I love the way the final image turned out and it always reminds me of summer!

June 20, 2014
Hawaii 2003

I recently spent some time with my scanner and digitized a few more of my favorite 35mm film prints from my first time traveling to Hawaii waaay back in 2003. It was such a fun trip, so I definitely wanted to give it some space here on the blog! Chris was working at a conference in Honolulu for a week in June that year, so I was able to tag along and enjoy my first visit to Oahu. I filled the week with restful days at the pool at the Sheraton Waikiki and did plenty of sight-seeing. We rented a car and drove around the whole island when Chris had time off. When he was working, I explored Pearl Harbor and the Byodo-In Temple. (For some reason I can’t find the handful of photos I took at the USS Arizona Memorial, but it’s definitely worth a visit.)

Here’s one of only a few photos of me from the whole trip – we were at the Hard Rock Cafe Honolulu. Doesn’t Chris look thrilled to be posing for a photo?

Hiking to the top of Diamond Head is one of the first things we did on the island. I highly recommend this hike if you’re up for a bit of exercise! It’s a short hike, but the 0.8 miles to the summit are steep and strenuous, with stairs, switchbacks, and tight crawlspaces. Good sturdy shoes are a must, and some people chose to bring flashlights although we didn’t. The little tunnel was short enough that you could illuminate it with a cell phone if needed. Your reward awaits at the top – stunning views fit for a postcard, so bring your camera!

The Byodo-In Temple is one of the most peaceful places I’ve ever visited. The grounds were immaculate and wonderful to photograph. Non-commercial photography is allowed without a permit, and the website even offers suggestions for the best time of day to photograph: “The best time to take photos of the temple and grounds is in the morning when the sun is still in the east.” The temple is a work of art, as is the Buddha statue inside. Before entering, I happily rang the bon-sho bell (or “sacred bell,” pictured below in the small structure), said to bring happiness, blessings, and a long life.

Sadly we didn’t spend much time in the water on this visit. I got completely spooked by a sign posted on Waikiki beach one day that warned swimmers not to enter the water due to the amount of jellyfish swarms! So of course in my head, that meant Hawaii = death by jellyfish. The sign was only posted one day, but I didn’t want to take any chances. I think I’ve made good strides towards getting over that fear, and I’d like to go back one day. (Of course, if the sign was posted again I certainly wouldn’t jump into the water, but I’d go in another day.) I hear the snorkeling is awesome! Plus I would love to see Maui.

Chris and I did explore other beaches, even if we didn’t swim.

This last photo is what happens when you hand a stranger your 35mm film SLR and ask him to take a photo of you on the beach. To be fair, properly exposing a sunset and people in the foreground is one of the toughest shots to get right, and I should have dialed in the settings for him. He actually made me super nervous because he approached us and offered to take the photo, but once the camera was in-hand, he kept backing up and backing up a little bit more. It turned out he just didn’t know how to use the zoom lens, but I thought for sure he was going to run off with my camera once he had some distance from us. Thank goodness for kind, honest people.

It was a gorgeous sunset though, and I still love this photo!

June 18, 2014