Do you travel a lot, or are you the type of person that needs to plan out every aspect of your travel itinerary? If either of these two things apply to you then Knapsack is something that you’ll want to check out. The feature list for this application is everything you need. I wish I had it on my last Euro trip, and it’s going to become quite a useful application moving forward.
The first thing that sprang to mind was how well laid out the application is currently and how quick it is to enter new information to your trip itinerary as well as checklists, and some other things. It gives me some confidence that the application is going to seriously help me manage my trips in the future.
Export/Sync to iCal
One of the other things that this application does very well is integrate itself with iCal. You can add all your trip details, time sensitive dates, and other info right into iCal. That’s pretty huge considering the application currently lacks a mobile device application for the iPhone. If I can get my information on my phone easily, then this application becomes much more useful to its users.
iCal syncing is a must, and KnapSack takes care of it nicely.
Export to PDF and printable formats
Call me a caveman, but sometimes having access to a hard copy of your itinerary is a lot easier to use. Rushing between flights or spending time on the beach doesn’t really bode well for your iPhone. Printing out your itinerary as a fail safe is always a good idea, and you’ll be thankful that Knapsack included the ability to print off a well laid out itinerary.
Two possible improvements
Knapsack is very well laid out currently, and they’ve pretty much incorporated anything one would want in a travel planner. There is one thing that could be a little better integrated however.
The map section of the application is pretty non-existent. They offer a world view of a map that lets you zoom in to the locations that you might be travelling to, but they do not give you street view access. There’s no way to get quick directions to your hotel or to an airport. That’s a pretty big oversight. I’m not sure why they’ve not included it, or if there’s an particular reason why the Google Maps API wasn’t utilized here, but I think Google Maps inclusion in the app would really add to KnapSack’s utility. It would help me not only plan my trips a little better, but it would also help me get last minute notes on route to that museum I wanted to see.
The final improvement would be an iPhone app. I know this really lies outside the criteria for a good desktop utility, but I couldn’t help imagine how much easier travel life would be if Knapsack was syncing its database to my iPhone. It might already be in the pipeline, and if it’s not, I’d highly recommend the Knapsack team considers it.
Knapsack comes in at 39.95, and it’s worth every single penny if you plan a lot trips.
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