Index

Welcome to the Trips module — the digital memory bank for your vanlife adventures.

Whether you are logging a quick weekend getaway or a multi-year pan-American expedition, this module tracks where you’ve been, how high you climbed, and the incredible spots you slept along the way.

Because vanlife takes you off the grid, the entire Trips engine is built to work offline. It will securely record your GPS coordinates and cache your check-ins, syncing everything to your iCloud map the moment you find cell service.

🧭 Getting Started & Planning

Expeditions are the “chapters” of your vanlife story. Start here to understand how they work and how to create your first one.

👉 Trip States - Future, Active, and Past Expeditions (Understand how the app behaves before, during, and after a trip.)
👉 Creating a Trip (Expeditions) (Tutorial: create an expedition, set dates, and add expedition context for smart gear suggestions.)
👉 Van Fleet Assignment (How trips are linked to your vehicles, and how the Fleet Manager works for multi-van owners.)

🗺️ Route Planning & the Spots Vault

Plan your journey before you set off — multi-stop routes, weather intel, and van-aware spot discovery. These tools live in the Spots tab, but are a core part of how you plan expeditions.

👉 The Trip Planner & Route Builder (Build multi-stop routes with driving time, fuel estimates, per-stop ETAs, the Scout tool, and navigation handoff.)
👉 The Spots Vault (Browse your location database on a live map, filter by amenities and van size, and save new spots.)
👉 Route Conditions (Weather and solar forecast for your departure point and next stop before you set off.)

🎛️ The Dashboard & Live Tracking

When you are on the road, the Dashboard is your command centre.

👉 The Trips Dashboard (A deep dive into the Journey, Flag, and Schengen cards.)
👉 The Compass and Records Card (Live compass, distance to home, directional bounds, and your all-time personal records.)
👉 Pre-Flight Checklist (Smart safety checks — including live HomeKit sensor status — that gate your Driving mode.)
👉 Drive Recorder (How background offline tracking and Black Box recovery work.)
👉 Schengen Calculator (Real-time 90/180-day tracking powered by GPS, check-ins, and your financial ledger.)
👉 Border Crossing Detection (How the app silently detects country transitions in the background.)

🗺️ Your Expedition

The Trip Detail View is the richest screen in the app — your interactive map, travel feed, statistics, and photo gallery all in one.

👉 Trip Detail View (The sticky map header, Travel Feed, statistics, Smart Notebook gallery, Spending Sheet, and floating check-in button.)

🏕️ Memories & Journaling

Forget manual data entry. Let the app write your journal for you.

👉 The Magic of Check-ins - Automated Journaling (A deep dive into the AI Vision and photo-matching engine.)
👉 How to create a Check-in (Tutorial)
👉 Checkins and Timeline (The five place types, map colours, and how check-ins build your Travel Feed.)
👉 Check-in Services and Journaling (How to log facilities like grey waste, free electricity, or showers for future reference.)
👉 Check-in Detail View (Hero photo, weather snapshot, journal, photo gallery, Travel Day drive stats, and the embedded day map.)
👉 Postcard Generator (Turn any check-in into a shareable postcard in three styles: Cinematic, Journal, or Badge.)

🗺️ Maps & External Data

Bring your hikes, bikes, and external data into your van’s timeline.

👉 Unified History Map (Your entire trip history on one interactive map — filter by date, country, or expedition.)
👉 GPX Import (Import routes from Strava, Garmin, Polarsteps, and more — with auto-splitting and waypoint conversion.)
👉 Elevation chart (The continuous altitude silhouette stitched together from every drive in your expedition.)

Troubleshooting & Settings

If your map isn’t updating or your background tracking has stopped, your phone is likely blocking the app.

👉 Permissions Explained (Specifically, the “Always Allow” location permission.)