Flicx Travel: plan a trip on a map

What Flicx Travel is

Flicx Travel is a page for planning a trip. You say where you want to go, and the planner finds the places, shows them on a map and arranges them into a trip, from where it starts to where it ends.

Where to find itTop bar›Utilities›Flicx Travel

The page has three parts, side by side.

On a phone the three parts are shown one at a time. Use Stops, Map and Planner at the top to move between them.

Please noteThe map is a Google map. If the page says The map is not set up yet, an administrator has to add a map key first.

Look up a place

Type the name of a place in the planner and send it, for example Show me Mysore Palace. The map moves to the place, zooms in and marks it.

A small card appears at the bottom of the map with the name, the rating and the address. It has two buttons.

• View details opens a window with a picture of the place, its rating, address, opening hours, phone number and website. Drag the window by its top bar to move it out of the way of the map.
• Add to the plan makes the place the next stop of your trip.

You can also ask the planner to change the map itself: Zoom in, Show it in satellite view, Show the traffic, Show the whole trip.

Your location and your own places

Ask Where am I? or say from here, and the planner asks your device for its position and shows it on the map. Your browser or the app asks you to allow this the first time. The round button at the top right of the map does the same.

You can also save places of your own under a name, such as Home, Office or a relative's house, and plan with them.

1. Open the place in Google Maps, choose Share and copy the link. A location someone sent you on WhatsApp works too.
2. In the planner, press the link button beside the message box. Its name is Add a location link.
3. Paste the link, type a name for the place, and press Add the place.

The place is shown on the map and appears as a small button above the message box. Click it to see the place again. The cross beside it removes it from your places.

The planner knows your places by the names you gave them, so you can say Plan a trip from Home to Ooty or Find a restaurant near Office. Your places are kept with your account, so they are there on your other devices too.

Ask for a whole trip

You do not have to pick the places yourself. Name a region and how long you have, and the planner chooses the best-liked places there, adds them, and puts them in the order that makes the shortest way.

• Plan a 3 day trip in Coorg from Bengaluru
• A weekend trip round Ooty with places to stay
• Two days in Madurai, temples first

When it has finished, it tells you where the trip starts, where it goes next and where it ends, with the total distance and time. Under most replies it offers a few choices as buttons. Click one, or type what you want instead.

Then change it by asking: Remove the third stop, Put the waterfall before lunch, Arrange the stops for the shortest way, Make stop 2 a Day 1 stop.

Please noteEach message you send uses one Companion credit. See Credits.

Bus, train, flight, car or bike

The box at the top of the page says how you like to travel: Car, Bike, Bus, Train, Flight, Cycle or On foot. Choose one, or just tell the planner: We are going by train. Your choice is remembered for next time.

To go from one town to another, ask for the journey: How do I get from Chennai to Kanyakumari by train? or Buses from Madurai to Palani tomorrow morning. The planner looks it up and tells you:

1. The checkpoint at the start: which railway station, bus stand or airport to go to, and how far it is by road from where you start.
2. The trains or buses it found, each with its name or number, where it leaves from and when, where it arrives and when, and how long it takes.
3. Where you get off, and how far your destination is from there.
4. The same trip by car and by bike, with the distance and time, so you can compare.

Under the reply, each train or bus is shown as a card with every step. The arrow on a card draws that journey on the map. Add ... to the plan puts the station you leave from and the one you arrive at into your trip as stops.

Trains in India. Ask What trains are there from my home to Bangalore? and the planner finds the railway stations nearest each end and lists the trains between them from the railway timetable: the number and name of each train, when it leaves and arrives, how long it takes and the days it runs. If the nearest station is a small one, ask for a bigger one by name: Try from Coimbatore Junction.

Press Where it stops on a train's card to see every station the train calls at, with the time at each. The train's way is drawn on the map in brown, with a dot at each station, so you can tell it from your own trip. The cross on the small label at the bottom of the map takes it off again. You can also ask: Show the route of train 12677 or Does it stop at Erode?.

For a flight, the planner shows the airport near each end and the road to it. See the flights opens a flight search in your browser, because flight times and fares are not shown on this page.

Please noteTrains and buses come from public timetables, which are not complete everywhere. If none is found for your trip, the planner says so. Always confirm the time with the railway or the bus operator, and book with them. The planner cannot book.

Hotels, food and fuel on the way

Once the trip has two or more stops, ask for what you need along the route: Find good hotels on my route, Where can we stop for lunch?, Fuel stations on the way. The planner can also look for cafes, EV charging, ATMs and hospitals.

What it finds is marked on the map with smaller dots, as suggestions. Nothing is added yet. Click a dot to see the place, or tell the planner which one you want: Add the second hotel. It is put into the trip where it fits on the way.

To have it choose for you, ask outright: Add a lunch stop and a hotel for each night.

TipOpening hours and prices change. Check with the place before you travel when it matters.

The list of stops

The list on the left is your trip. Between two stops it shows the distance and the time from one to the next. At the bottom it shows the total for the whole trip.

1. To add a place yourself, type it in Add a place at the top of the list and press Enter. Choose Add beside the right result.
2. To change the order, drag a stop up or down, or use its small up and down arrows.
3. Click a stop to see it on the map.
4. The i button opens the details of the stop. The bin takes it off the plan.
5. Click the plan's name at the top of the list to change it.

The colour of a dot says what the stop is: a place to see, a hotel, a restaurant, fuel and so on.

The shortest order, kept for you. Each time a place is added, by you or by the planner, the trip is put in its shortest order again. The first stop stays the start and the last stop stays the end, and the new place takes its place between the others. On a round trip the trip comes back to its start, so every stop after the first can move. If you want another order, drag the stops yourself: your order is kept until the next place is added.

The pointer. When you click a stop, or the planner shows you a place, a pink pin stands over it on the map, so you can see at once which place is meant.

Round trip. If you come back to where you started, press Round trip at the top of the page. The fastest road from your last stop back to the first is added to the map, shown at the end of the list as Back to your starting place, and counted in the totals. The planner also asks you whether a trip is a round trip when it plans one. Press Round trip again to end the trip at its last stop.

Route colours. Each part of the route, from one stop to the next, has its own colour on the map, so you can follow the trip stop by stop. The same colour is shown as a small dot beside the distance in the list. Press that dot to choose another colour for that part. You can also ask the planner: Make the route blue or Colour the way to the hotel pink. Give the route its own colours again at the bottom of the list undoes your changes.

Clear trip at the top of the page takes every stop off the trip, after asking you. The plan keeps its name.

The line between the stops, and the distances and times, follow how you travel. See Bus, train, flight, car or bike.

Please noteIf the road between two stops cannot be found, the stops are joined by straight lines and the list says the distances are straight lines, not by road.

How much fuel the trip takes

Press Fuel at the top of the page and a small panel opens at the top right of the map. It works out how much fuel your trip takes and what it costs.

1. Choose the Fuel: Petrol, Diesel, CNG or Electric.
2. Type your vehicle's Mileage: how many km it goes on one litre. For an electric vehicle it is the km it goes on one unit of electricity (one unit is one kilowatt-hour), and the price is what one unit costs where you charge.
3. Type the Price for one litre, or press Today's price and the planner looks up today's price for the place your trip starts. You can change the figure at any time.

The panel then shows two boxes. One way is the fuel and the cost for the trip without coming back. Round trip is for going and coming back: the trip as planned when Round trip is on, and twice the way out when it is not.

You can also just ask the planner: How much petrol will this trip take? It asks for your mileage if it does not know it, looks up today's price, and tells you the litres and the cost one way and for the round trip. Ask it to hide the fuel panel or show the fuel cost and it does that too.

The arrow on the panel folds it to one line, so it can stay on the map without covering it. Your fuel, mileage and price are remembered for your next trip, on all your devices.

Please noteFuel prices differ from city to city and change by the day. The planner says where its price is from. Check the price at the pump when the cost matters.

Tolls on the way

Press Tolls in the toolbar and a panel opens at the top right of the map, under the fuel panel if that is open.

1. Choose Your vehicle. A toll is charged by the kind of vehicle: a two-wheeler, a car, a light goods vehicle, a bus or truck, and heavier vehicles each pay a different amount.
2. Press Find the tolls. The planner reads the road, finds the toll plazas your trip passes, and prices each one.
3. The tolls are listed in order, each with its name, how far into the trip it is, and its amount. The list keeps one height and scrolls when there are many. Under it is the Total.

Each toll is also marked on the map with a small dark dot. Click a toll in the list to see it on the map. When Round trip is on, the tolls on the way back are counted too.

You can also ask the planner: What are the tolls on this trip? If it does not know your vehicle it asks, then tells you how many tolls there are and the total, with the list under its reply.

If you change the trip, the tolls are cleared, because they were for the trip as it was. Press Find the tolls again.

Please noteThe amounts are estimates for payment by FASTag. For vehicles other than a car they are worked out from a car's toll by the national highway fee rules. The rate at the plaza is what you pay, and a return on the same day is often cheaper. Two-wheelers pay no toll on national highways.

Trip expenses

Every trip has a ledger of what it cost. On the left of the page, above the stops, press Expenses.

1. Choose a category: Fuel, Tolls, Stay, Food, Tickets, Parking, Shopping or Other.
2. Choose the date, type what it was for and the amount in rupees.
3. Press Add. The expense joins the list, and the total at the top changes.

At the top you see what the trip has cost so far and how much went on each category. The bin beside an expense removes it.

You do not have to type fuel and tolls yourself. In the fuel panel and the tolls panel on the map, press Add to the expenses and the figure is written down for you.

You can also tell the planner: Lunch was 450 rupees, We paid 1,200 for the room, What has this trip cost so far? Flicx Companion can do the same from anywhere in the app: Add 300 for parking to my Ooty trip.

The expenses are kept in an ordinary sheet called Trip expenses, in the Travel plans project, with the expenses of all your trips in it. You can open it under Sheets, total it or make a PDF of it.

What the trip needs

Press Needs on the left of the page for a list of what to take and what to do before you go. Tick each thing when it is ready. The bar at the top shows how much is done.

Press Suggest for this trip and the planner works the list out for you: the papers to carry, checks for the vehicle, how much to recharge the FASTag with for the tolls, how much fuel to fill, cash, medicines, and things to pack for the place you are going. It does the same when it plans a trip for you. Things it added carry a small spark.

To add something of your own, type it in the box, choose a category and press Add. The bin removes one.

The list is kept in a sheet called Trip requirements, in the Travel plans project.

Start the trip, save it, and add it to your calendar

Three buttons at the top right of the page take a finished trip further.

You can also ask the planner: Open this trip in Google Maps, Add this trip to my calendar on 12 July, Remind me about this trip tomorrow at 6 in the morning. It asks for your yes before it adds anything.

When the planner suggests places, each one is shown on the map as a small label with a picture of the place and its name. Click a label to see the place and add it.

Every plan is a sheet

Your trips are kept as ordinary sheets, in a project called Travel plans. Each trip is one sheet, with a row for each stop: its number, the place, what kind of stop it is, the day, the address, the distance and time from the stop before, the rating and your notes.

Press New plan at the top of the page to start another trip. The trip you were working on stays as it is. A new plan gets a sheet of its own as soon as it has its first stop, so a plan you start and leave empty leaves nothing behind.

The Plan button beside it shows which trip is open. Press it for the list of your trips, each with its number of stops, its distance and its day. If you have many, type in Find a plan to find one by name.

Trips opens a dashboard of all your trips. At the top it shows how many trips you have, the stops and distance planned, and what is coming up. Below, each trip is a card: click it to open the trip, use the date box to say which day the trip is, and the bin to delete a trip you no longer want. On the right, the Travel timeline lists the trips that have a day, the ones coming up first and the past ones after. Press Trips again to go back to the map.

The sheet is written again after every change you make on the page. Because it is a sheet, you can open it under Sheets, share it, export it, or ask Flicx Companion for a PDF of it.

Please noteChange the stops on the Flicx Travel page, not in the sheet. The page writes the whole sheet again each time, so a row you change by hand in the sheet is written over the next time the plan changes.

Common questions

Is my chat with the planner kept? Yes. Each plan keeps its own chat, so when you open the plan again, on this device or another, the conversation is there to carry on from. Reset chat at the top of the planner clears the conversation. Your trip and its stops stay as they are.

Does it book hotels or tickets? No. It finds places and plans the route. You book with the hotel yourself.

Can I plan a trip without the planner? Yes. Add places with Add a place and arrange them in the list. The map and the distances work the same way.

How many stops can a trip have? As many as you like. A route by road is drawn for up to 27 stops. Past that the stops are joined by straight lines.

Where did my trip go? Open the list at the top of the page and choose it. It is also a sheet in the Travel plans project.