Guide · 6 min read

Travel itinerary: the digital alternative to the PDF

For years the PDF was the standard tool to deliver a travel itinerary to the client. It worked, but today it’s the wrong way: heavy, awkward to read on the phone and impossible to update. In this guide we look at why it’s worth switching to a digital itinerary, i.e. a simple link that opens on the phone, and how to create one in a few minutes.

Why the PDF no longer works

The PDF was born for paper, not for travel. Here are the five problems every advisor, and every traveler, knows well:

1. 1It’s heavy and slow. An itinerary with photos, vouchers and tickets becomes a file of several megabytes. Slow to download on a weak connection, and sometimes rejected by email.
2. 2It opens badly on the phone. The PDF is laid out in A4 format. On the phone, where the traveler actually looks at it, you have to zoom and scroll sideways to read. A frustrating experience.
3. 3It doesn’t update. Change a time, a hotel or a flight? You have to redo the PDF and resend it. And the client, meanwhile, is left holding the old version.
4. 4It gets lost. It ends up at the bottom of an email inbox or in the Downloads folder, mixed with a thousand other files. The moment you need it, at the airport, it can’t be found.
5. 5It’s static. No maps to open with a tap, no weather, no navigation. Just text and still images: the client has to look up everything else by hand.

What a digital itinerary is

A digital itinerary is a web page that opens with a link, no app and no login. The traveler taps the link (on WhatsApp, email or wherever you prefer) and sees the trip day by day, in a format designed for the phone: times, stops, addresses with the map, daily weather, attached documents and packing list.

It updates in real time: if you change something, the client immediately sees the new version at the same link. And they can forward the same link to whoever travels with them (spouse, kids, adventure companions) without anyone having to install anything.

Want to see all the ways to deliver it (WhatsApp, email, QR) and how to keep it private? Read how to share an itinerary without an app.

PDF and digital itinerary compared

How to create and share a digital itinerary

You don’t need to know how to code or build a website. With a tool like GateAway it takes four steps:

1. 1Create the trip. Open a new itinerary with the client, the dates and the destination.
2. 2Add days and stops. By hand, importing an Excel, or letting the AI structure days, times and descriptions from your raw notes.
3. 3Attach documents and info. Vouchers, tickets and boarding passes; maps and weather are added automatically, and you can create the packing list.
4. 4Share the link. You send a private link via WhatsApp or email. The client opens it on the phone and takes it with them on the trip.

Want to see what it’s like from the client’s side? Look at a sample itinerary: it opens the way your traveler would see it on the phone.

Frequently asked questions