An itinerary template is an empty table with good intentions. Whether it helps depends on two things: whether its format matches how you will actually use the plan on the road, and whether you have the material to fill it. This guide compares the templates people copy most (Google Sheets, Notion, Canva, Wanderlog, Excel and the paid downloads on marketplaces) on the parts that matter once the trip starts: can several people edit it, does it work offline, can you print it, and what does "free" leave out. Every fact comes from the company's own pages, read in September 2026, with sources at the end.
One disclosure: MonkeyTravel is our product and it appears in the last section, where the template is the wrong tool.
The short version
- Google Sheets if the plan is mostly logistics and a budget, and everyone has a Google account.
- Notion if you want one living page with the itinerary, reservations, packing list and budget together.
- Canva if the itinerary is something you will print or send as a nice PDF, and you can live with a few watermarked elements or pay for Pro.
- Wanderlog if the plan should sit on a map and friends will edit it from their phones.
- An AI generator if you do not yet know what goes in the boxes: the template is the easy part, and the hours of research it hides are the hard part.
| Free? | Several people edit | Offline | Print or PDF | Built for | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Sheets | Yes, with a Google account | Yes, at the same time | Yes, in Chrome or Edge | Yes | Logistics, budget, times |
| Notion | Free plan; paid templates exist | Yes; free plan allows 10 guests | In the apps, not the browser | Yes, page by page | One page for everything |
| Canva | Free tier; Pro $144 a year | Yes, even without sign-in; guests can't download | No | Yes; premium elements watermarked on Free | Printable, presentable plans |
| Wanderlog | Free forever for trips; Pro $39.99 a year | Yes, view or edit | Pro only | Yes, after logging in | Map-first shared plans |
| Excel (Microsoft Create) | Free templates | With Microsoft 365 | Desktop app | Yes | Spreadsheet planners |
| Marketplace downloads | Paid, roughly $1.50 to $15 on sale | Depends on the file | Depends on the file | Usually printable | Designed one-offs |
Google Sheets: the default for a reason
Google's template gallery has a Travel planner template under Personal, and everything around it is the point: "anyone with a Google account can create in Sheets", "multiple people can work on the same spreadsheet at the same time", and you can "create, view, and edit spreadsheets without an internet connection" once offline access is on, which requires Chrome or Edge. A single file can be shared with up to 600 people and edited from up to 100 open tabs at once, which is more than any trip needs. Printing is File > Print, and File > Download gives a PDF.
What a spreadsheet is bad at is the thing a trip is made of: a day is a sequence with distances and opening hours between the rows, and a grid shows none of that. Sheets is where the budget and the booking numbers should live. It is a poor place to decide what Tuesday looks like.
Notion: one page, and a login for everyone
Notion's gallery lists 1,514 travel templates, 1,002 of them travel planners, and the ones on the first pages are free. A typical free one, "Trip Planner: Itinerary, Budget & Packing List", bundles an itinerary planner, a reservations manager, a budget and expense tracker and a packing checklist on one page, and duplicates into your workspace in one click. Notion's marketplace also sells paid templates ("select Add if the template is free, or Buy"), so read the label before you click.
The limits sit on the free plan and in the sharing model. A free workspace allows 10 guests, uploads up to 5 MB and seven days of page history, and adding any template needs you to be logged in on desktop or web. Pages can be published to "anyone on the web with link" for reading, but people who want to edit need a Notion account. Offline works in the desktop and mobile apps, not the browser, and a database shows only its first 50 rows offline. Export to PDF works page by page; exporting subpages together is a Business-plan feature.
Notion is the best template for a trip you will keep editing for weeks. It is the worst for the friend who "doesn't do Notion".
Canva: the itinerary you would frame
Canva's itinerary page lists 5,825 templates, as documents, presentations, flyers and Instagram posts, and the free tier is real. The catch is the small print on the elements: premium photos and graphics "will have watermarks on your design until they're purchased", so a free download of a template that uses them means buying a licence, upgrading, or accepting the watermark. Canva Pro is $144 a year or $18 a month for one person.
Collaboration is the surprise: you can "share a link that lets anyone edit your design, no sign-in required", though those guests cannot print, publish or download. There is no offline mode. Canva is for the itinerary you print for the grandparents or send as a PDF to a group; it is not where you will change a dinner reservation on the train.
Wanderlog: the template that is already a map
Wanderlog is less a template than a planner with the template built in: places on a map, days in a column, a budget with expense splitting for groups, and guides you can pull places from with an "Add to trip" button. Wanderlog says trips "will remain free forever, for as many trips as you want to plan", and on the web "you can start planning a trip without creating an account". Friends join with view or edit permission. Printing needs a login ("simply log in and open your trip plan", then "Print this trip"), and offline access on mobile is a Pro feature, at $39.99 a year, along with route optimisation.
If the plan should live on a phone and change while you travel, Wanderlog is the strongest of the four templates. It still assumes you arrive with the list of places. For a longer look, see Wanderlog vs Mindtrip and our Wanderlog alternative guide.
Excel, and the paid downloads
Microsoft's template site now lands on the Copilot page, but the Excel catalog still lists a free Family travel planner workbook you can "save, print, or share as a PDF". It is a spreadsheet with the same strengths and blind spots as Sheets, minus the frictionless sharing unless everyone is on Microsoft 365.
The paid templates on marketplaces such as Etsy are mostly Canva or Sheets files with nicer typography: on the day we looked, first-page listings ran from about $1.49 to $15.39 on sale, with list prices up to $38.30. You are paying for design, not for a different kind of tool, and you should check which app the file needs before buying.
The problem a template cannot solve
Every option above hands you the same thing: rows to fill. The rows are not the work. The work is knowing that the museum is closed on Mondays, that the two places you put on the same afternoon are 40 minutes apart, and that a day with seven stops is a day with four stops and three regrets. A template does not know any of that, and a blank template on a Sunday night is why so many trips get planned in a group chat instead.
That is the case for generating first and templating second. Across the 558 live trips on MonkeyTravel at the end of September 2026, 86% of days carry three to five activities, because the generator sequences a day the way a person can actually walk it. You get the day-by-day plan in about thirty seconds with no account, edit it by chatting, and then take it into whatever template you like: export it to your calendar, print it, or copy the rows into your Sheet. If you would rather start from a finished plan for a common trip, the trip templates page has ready-made itineraries you can copy and change.
Use the template for what it is good at, the budget and the bookings, and let something else fill the days.
How to choose
- A weekend with friends: Wanderlog, or a generated plan your friends can vote on.
- A long trip with many bookings: Notion for the page, Sheets for the money.
- A gift or a printed handout: Canva, budgeting a couple of dollars for licences.
- A family road trip in Excel: the Family travel planner is free; put the driving times in the first column.
- You have dates and a destination and nothing else: generate first, then pick a template for the parts that need typing.
FAQ
Is there a free travel itinerary template? Yes, several. Google's Travel planner in the Sheets gallery, the free trip planners on Notion's marketplace, Canva's free itinerary documents (with watermarked premium elements) and Microsoft's Family travel planner for Excel are all free to copy.
Which itinerary template is best for a group? Google Sheets for simultaneous editing with no setup, Wanderlog if the plan should sit on a map and be edited from phones, Notion if everyone will accept an account. Canva lets guests edit without signing in but not download.
Can I use these offline? Sheets works offline in Chrome or Edge once you turn it on. Notion works offline in its apps, not the browser. Wanderlog's offline mode is Pro only. Canva has no offline mode. A printed PDF works everywhere.
Google Sheets or Notion for a trip? Sheets if the plan is numbers and times. Notion if you want the itinerary, reservations, packing list and budget on one page and you will keep editing for weeks.
Do I need Canva Pro for an itinerary? Not for the template itself. You need Pro or a per-item licence only when the template uses premium photos or graphics, which are watermarked on the free plan.
What if I don't know what to put in the template? Generate the itinerary first, with a tool that knows opening hours and distances, then move it into the template you prefer. That is the order that saves the evening.
Start with a full day-by-day plan instead of an empty grid: plan a trip on MonkeyTravel. No account, no card, about thirty seconds.
Data: MonkeyTravel figures are our own, counted on 30 September 2026 across 558 live trips, 3,862 days and 14,684 activities; no personal data involved.
Sources
- Use Google Sheets templates; Sheets product page; sharing limits; work offline; download a file
- Notion travel templates; Trip Planner: Itinerary, Budget & Packing List; finding templates on Marketplace; Notion pricing; use pages offline; export your content; sharing and permissions
- Canva itinerary templates; Canva pricing; premium elements; collaborate with anyone
- Is Wanderlog free?; Wanderlog Pro; Wanderlog FAQ; add friends to plan together; print your trip; offline access; add a place from a guide
- Free planner and tracker templates for Excel
- Etsy search: travel itinerary template, prices read 30 September 2026
