Eat, Pray and Love in Rome

Posted on by celiah

When you reach a place in your life where you really need to shake things up, there’s one place that can really help you find some fun: Roma, Italia!

The bestselling book by “Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love“, captured that idea perfectly. When the main character decides her life needs some major shaking-up, she decides to go on a year-long journey. The first stop? The Eternal City! Plnnr.com can help you plan a trip to Rome that will include a lot of eating, praying and loving.

Book cover

Begin by choosing Rome as your destination city. If this is your first automatically planned trip, you can visit my post on how to use plnnr.com to choose dates, “intensity” level, theme, etc. To mimic Elizabeth’s Roman stay, I chose an intensity of “easygoing” and the “culture” theme. You can customize length of stay and luxury level based on your needs.

Once you have those basic guidelines set, you can begin easily customizing your day-by-day itinerary put together by plnnr.com!

Some important stops in Eat, Pray, Love are:

1. The Pantheon

2. Piazza Navona

3. Campo dei Fiori

4. Lots and lots of food and gelato establishments!

These are places we will want to make sure get into our itinerary, so click on “trip profile” to adjust your interests.

Adjusting your settings

Adjust your interests to be weighted heavily on: Religious sites, Museums, Markets, Arts and Galleries. Do this by clicking on each item and then clicking on the plus sign until the font is very large. For other categories, click the minus sign until it has a line through it. This mean that category will not be included in your search!

You also want to make sure that you check both boxes for lunch and dinner. That way plnnr.com will automatically schedule places to eat for you, and of course you can customize the restaurant to your liking. But don’t forget, if your trip is as good as her’s was in “Eat, Pray, Love” you will need to gain at least 10 lbs!

Adjusting your preferences

Plnnr.com offers restaurant options for you, however, two I think would be great for an “Eat, Pray, Love” getaway, are:

1. Sabby’s - located in Campo dei Fiori. They have very friendly wait staff, and amazing pizza. Pizza Funghi (mushroom pizza!).

2. Sale e Pepe – located in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome, which is easily accessible from Campo dei Fiori. This restaurant is very cute and welcoming. You must try the bread!

Next go to select attractions, which is right above the trip profile button you clicked earlier.

Fine-tuning what is and what is not in your itinerary

Here, you can scroll through all the roman attractions and make sure Piazza Navona, The Pantheon and Campo dei Fiori will always be in your itinerary. Do this by clicking on the blue question mark on the right side of the description. Change the blue question mark into the green check mark. This way the stop will always be in your itinerary, no matter what other changes are made.

Telling plnnr.com what you want to see

With these simple steps, you are now ready for your very own Eat, Pray, Love getaway in Rome. Hopefully, you will experience as much life as Elizabeth did while she was there!

Share your own “Eat, Pray, Love” stories here!

Better get going…

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How to plan a perfect trip to Paris using Plnnr

Posted on by plnnr

A trip to Paris can be easy and perfect with the help of plnnr.com. Plnnr automatically plans a day-by-day itinerary for a beautiful vacation in Paris in just five easy steps. Go to plnnr.com and click “get started now” and you will be directed to the first step of your journey.

Plnnr.com works by regularly searching the web for the most up-to-date information. This continuous update ensures that you never have to worry about going to an attraction only to find out it closed down three months earlier. All you have to do is show up; plnnr will do all the work for you! It’s easy and free, let’s get started!

First, pick Paris as your destination.

Plnnr lets you pick a city to visit: Paris, London, Barcelona, San Francisco and more

Next, pick when you will arrive and the number of days you will be there.

Easily choose the length of your trip with plnnr

You will now need to pick a theme for your vacation. For most people, it will be a first-time stay, but if you know that you want to have a certain type of trip, then choose accordingly (outdoor trips are some of my favorites!)

You can plan for an easygoing, active or a vacation with kids using Plnnr

The “Intensity” of the trip will determine how many attractions you see per day, what time you wake up and what time you get back to the hotel at night. If you are taking a long trip, you can choose a less intense trip. If you only have a few days, you might want to pack in as much as possible.

Plnnr let's you specify how busy you like your schedule - from easygoing to very extreme

Finally, you will choose a luxury level from one to five stars. Three stars is the most popular choice, and plnnr.com can help you find the perfect hotel for your needs using ­­­­Hotels Combined.

Plnnr uses partner sites to find the best accommodation to fir your trip.

Plnnr will now automatically generate your itinerary for a trip to Paris. The Itinerary will be presented in a day-by-day layout, each day represented by a different color line on the map.

Plnnr uses smart algorithms to find the perfect itinerary matching your wishes

To help ensure that plnnr knows what you want to see, click on the “trip profile” tab and you will be able to adjust your preferences.

Plnnr lets you customize every trip according to your own desires

When your trip profile shows up, you will be able to further customize your itinerary. If you enjoy amusement parks, you can make them more prominent in your whole itinerary. If you dislike galleries, you can remove them completely from your search. When you update your profile, plnnr.com automatically adjusts your itinerary. For example, if you remove galleries from you search, plnnr will remove any galleries it added to your itinerary, never to be seen again! If you are unsure if you would like to visit an attraction, you can click on it and plnnr will give you the option to review several different descriptions of the stop in a new window.

Use smart tags to filter and customize itineraries on Plnnr

On your itinerary, each item will have a blue circle surrounding a question mark on the right side of it. When you click on the circle you will be given the option to tell plnnr whether you like the stop or not. For example, most people will want to make sure they see the Eiffel Tower. When you click on the circle, choose the green check mark. This will tell plnnr to keep the Eiffel Tower in your itinerary, regardless of other changes made in your itinerary.

If you decide you do not want to visit an attraction choose the red “x” and plnnr will automatically remove that destination, and change your itinerary accordingly.

Plnnr lets you specify what attractions are a must see, or should be avoided

Go through each day of your trip and tell plnnr which destinations you for sure want to see and which ones you can do without. Plnnr will rearrange your trip in a way that requires the least amount of travel and the most time seeing destination sights.

Whether you want to see every church or every park, plnnr.com will plan your ideal itinerary for free. You will get a wonderful, customized, current trip to Paris. Start your trip right away, with plnnr.com!

Better get going…

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Plan a trip to the islands near San Francisco

Posted on by PlnnrWriter
Marin County, California

Ayala Cove, California

Want to plan a day trip to Alcatraz? Plnnr.com just got even better.

Thanks to a minor modification in our trip planning algorithm, it is now possible to plan trips to islands as in the case of traveling to San Francisco. The new “entry point” feature enables the correct representation and driving directions of routes on the map.

Routes that have an “entry point” are marked as a dotted line on the Plnnr.com map.

Example: you plan to go to Angel Island, San Francisco. Because the island is surrounded by water with no direct car accessibility (you will need to use a ferry), Plnnr.com will plan your trip to an entry point – in this case the ferry’s docking area from peer 39. Because the peer is not the actual attraction, Plnnr.com also takes into account the time you will need from the entry point (the peer) to the actual attraction. This ensures that you get the optimal time planning as well.

Going to San Francisco? Do it the right way, do it with Plnnr.com!

Ayala Cove

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Plnnr.com is dynamic!

Posted on by PlnnrWriter
Plnnr builds your itinerary dynamically

Plnnr builds your itinerary dynamically

Planning your trip or vacation can be very time consuming. You have to read through touristic information, check hotel bookings and put together the attractions and routes you want to go through while you travel. The advantage with Plnnr.com is that you get your trip plan all on one page (your computer screen). Plnnr.com will present attractions and trip routes all in one place for you to view.

In addition, you can tell Plnnr.com, which attractions you like more and which you like less. Attractions you like will be added to your daily routes and the ones you are not interested in, will be eliminated from the routes. For that Plnnr.com will automatically recalculate your daily routes to adjust them to your personal customization.

An example: Let’s assume that you plan a trip to Paris (select your city from the Plnnr.com wizard). Let’s also assume that this is your second time to Paris. This time you will want to concentrate on all the things you didn’t have time for on your last visit. What you can do is, for instance, tell Plnnr.com that you are not interested in seeing the Eiffel Tower because you’ve already visited it. Plnnr.com will take the Eiffel Tower off your itinerary and change your daily route accordingly by adding a new attraction to your itinerary to replace the one that you were not interested in.  This recalculation of route will only take few seconds.

Plnnr.com is a real time saver! So what advantages can Plnnr.com offer?

  • Quick adding/eliminating of attractions to/from your itinerary.
  • Automatic recalculation of your daily tours.
  • Plnnr.com will present your whole trip on a single screen – you will not have to skim through a book for it.

We wish you a pleasant trip!

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Washington is now Available

Posted on by plnnr

There have been many changes to Plnnr lately, and even more are coming soon! Among our plans we have trip-sharing, Facebook integration, smarter trips, and many more.

In the meantime we are working on adding cities, and our latest addition is Washington D.C.. As the seat of the federal United States government, there’s a lot to see there, and Plnnr can definitely help you around. So check it out, and be sure to tell us what you think: whether it’s a missing monument, inaccurate opening hours, or maybe just that everything worked just as it should have, we want to hear it!

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Trip itinerary generator engine testing

Posted on by Imri Goldberg

A few days ago, we found a bug in our trip itinerary generation engine. We wrote a test suit to reproduce that bug, but then we decided to go deeper. As plnnr.com generates trips according to trip preferences, why not generate the trip preferences with a fuzzer, and then check if the planning algorithm chokes on them? While fuzzing is usually used to generate invalid input with the goal of causing the program to crash, in this case we’ll be generating valid input with the goal of causing the planning algorithm to fail. This way our planning algorithm will only get better with more testing.

Read more about the technical details at algorithm.co.il

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The delicacies of the Marais – an afternoon in Paris

Posted on by Nina Black

I am lucky enough to call the Marais home, and although I am undoubtedly biased it is one of my favourite areas to explore in Paris. ‘Marais’ literally means ‘swamp’ and the area used to be an underdeveloped quarter full of monasteries and markets. It has retained a village like atmosphere, largely untouched by the Hausmannian architecture that dominates the rest of the city. It’s as trendy as Brick Lane in London but far more central and picturesque. On Sundays the whole quartier is pedestrianised making it a perfect area for strolling and sampling its many culinary delights. I spend a lot of my time pushing through the crowd or Velib-ing around the narrow streets in search of the perfect snack or the ideal vintage buy from one of the many ‘friperies’. It’s easy to plan a trip to the Marais as it’s busy every day of the week, whereas some areas of Paris shut down completely on a sunday.

The Rue des Rosiers, the heart of the Jewish quarter, should be the first stop on the itinerary for foodies. This Sunday I headed straight to Chez Marianne, a bakery-cum-restaurant, which is known to serve the best strudel in town. The houmous platters are also unmissable and there is always a queue out the door in the evening – be prepared to wait and gaze at the pastries before you get to eat. It’s worth the build-up, I assure you.

For a quicker bite, try L’As du Falafel just down the road – my favourite place for a fast dinner. “L’as” translates as ‘the very best’ and any Parisian you speak to will immediately confirm this to be true. Endorsed by Lenny Kravitz, this Falafel paradise is always packed, especially on a Sunday, but extremely good value and an unforgettable dining experience. I am often accosted by the friendly but extremely persisent owners who persist that it is the best falafel in the world and this may just be the case.

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Arc de Triomphe encapsulated – a must in your paris trip plan

Posted on by Nina Black

Paris is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and an amble down the majestic Champs Elysees is a great way to take it all in. Today I decided to take in the quintessential view of the city using the plnnr itinerary.

The iconic Arc de Triomphe on Place Charles de Gaulle is the most famous Parisian momument after the Eiffel Tower. This grand arch recalls French military glory from the days of Napoleon up to victories in the Second World War. Every evening an eternal flame is lit above the tomb of the unknown soldier When I visited hordes of tourists gathered around from the ceremony; people from all over the world united at in a poignant event which should not be missed.

Revamped in 2008, the museum was very impressive – make sure you incorporate it into your trip plan. It explores the 200 year history of the arc through appealing interactive displays. Don’t miss the breathtaking views from the roof at night, the eight lane roundabout nicknamed the Etoile giving a sense of the might of the city as it spills out into the suburbs. I was struck by the contrast between the history of the momunent and the striking modernity of the scene, with the lights of La Defense shining in the distance.

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