Checkins and Timeline
🏕️ Check-ins and Timeline
Section titled “🏕️ Check-ins and Timeline”Overview
Section titled “Overview”Your Timeline is the chronological story of your vanlife. While the app tracks your driving and spending automatically, a Check-in is your way of manually saving a specific location—like a breathtaking wild camping spot, a free Aire with a stunning view, or a paid campsite with a hot shower you’ve earned.
How It Works
Section titled “How It Works”Whenever you park up somewhere you want to remember, open the Trips Dashboard and tap the + Check In button.
The Check-in Wizard will let you log:
- Location Name: (e.g., “Cliffside Parkup overlooking the ocean”).
- Place Type: Choose from the five types below—each one gets its own colour and icon on your map so you can tell your stops apart at a glance.
- Rating: 1 to 5 stars.
- Photos: A hero image from your camera roll to capture the moment.
- Journal Notes: (e.g., “Great 4G signal here, but very windy at night!”).
Once saved, this Check-in is dropped onto your Unified History Map and added to the chronological Timeline of your current Expedition.
The Five Place Types
Section titled “The Five Place Types”Every Check-in belongs to one of these types. They’re deliberately focused on the spots vanlifers actually stay—and each one appears as a distinct coloured pin on your map so your history is readable at a glance.
| Type | Map Colour | Best used for |
|---|---|---|
| 🗺️ Unspecified | Grey | Anything that doesn’t fit the others—a viewpoint, a mechanic, a water fill-up |
| 🌲 Wild Camp | Green | Off-grid, free overnight spots in nature with no official designation |
| 🚐 Free Aire | Teal | Official designated van/motorhome parking areas at no cost |
| 🚐 Paid Aire | Red | Official aire-style areas with a nightly fee |
| ⛺ Campsite | Indigo | Formal, managed campsites with reception and facilities |
Pro tip: Use the Services grid when logging to record exactly what each spot offered—electricity, water, showers, waste disposal, and more. This makes every stop searchable later, so you can find your best-equipped stops in seconds. See Check-in Services and Journaling for the full breakdown.
The “Stow to Whiteboard” Trick
Section titled “The “Stow to Whiteboard” Trick”Did you find a great spot, but notice the van needs a repair while you’re there? You can use voice or the UI to link a Whiteboard Task directly to a Check-in, so you always remember where an issue happened.
Common Questions
Section titled “Common Questions”Are my Check-ins private? Yes. Unlike public apps like Park4Night, your Check-ins in Vanlife Assistant are 100% private and stored in your personal iCloud database. You can save your secret, untouched wild camping spots without any worry of them getting crowded!
Can I log a Check-in without cell service? Absolutely. The offline engine will grab your raw GPS coordinates immediately. Once you drive back into cell service, the app’s geocoder will silently update the Check-in with the correct street address, town, and country name in the background.
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting””The location of my Check-in is slightly off.”
Section titled “”The location of my Check-in is slightly off.””If you are deep in a forest, GPS accuracy can drop to a 50-metre radius.
- Open the Check-in from your Timeline.
- Tap Edit.
- Tap the mini-map to open the Flexible Location Picker.
- Simply drag the pin to the exact spot you parked and hit save.