Hundreds of experiences have been organised with Fieldbook—ranging from school tours exploring the Great Barrier Reef, small group adventures in Istanbul, and luxury sailing trips through the Greek Islands. While every tour is unique, they all share one essential element: a carefully designed and well organised itinerary.
With the holiday season in full swing and our customers busy building and running itineraries every day, I’ve been reflecting on how they approach the design and management of their tours. With so much happening, I can’t help but wonder: how do operators use Fieldbook to create and manage their itineraries, and what valuable lessons can we learn from the practices of our most effective users?
Learning from our power users
To answer these questions, I’ve spent the past month reviewing how our “power users”—those who rely on Fieldbook daily and find smart, innovative ways to maximise its potential—approach itinerary building. Observing their tactics has not only revealed clever uses of our platform (including some I hadn’t considered!) but also provided a unique perspective on the strategies and techniques they use to streamline itinerary creation.
This deep dive has helped me uncover early answers to key questions such as:
- Are there common patterns or principles our power users rely on when building their itineraries?
- How do our power users build and organise template libraries to save time and streamline planning?
- What strategies do tour operators use to customise itineraries and deliver tailor-made experiences effortlessly?
In this article, I’ll share the learnings and insights I’ve gathered so far. While these ideas are still evolving, I believe they provide practical value and a solid starting point. While the examples focus on Fieldbook, these principles are universal and can be applied with any system — though I’d argue Fieldbook is the best tool for the job (I might be a bit biased!).
Are there common patterns or principles our power users rely on when building their itineraries?
Tour Operators are experts at curating and designing itineraries. It’s what they do day in day out. I’ve observed some common approaches that our power users follow when building their complex itineraries. These can be distilled into three key tactics:
- No White Space
- Painting Each Day
- Guide the Guide
Let’s dive into each one.
No White Space
In Fieldbook, itineraries are built directly on a calendar, allowing you to see the structure of a tour at a glance. One consistent pattern I’ve noticed among users is the principle of “No White Space”—where every hour on the calendar is filled with an itinerary item.
This doesn’t mean there’s no room for rest or relaxation. Instead, it means every hour is thoughtfully accounted for—even downtime is intentionally built into the schedule. Users often visualise this approach through colour coding (more on that shortly), with shades like grey marking moments of rest, making it easy to communicate the flow of the day while ensuring every moment adds value to the experience.
Here’s an example of an itinerary that uses this approach. It’s based on a real itinerary, but some details have been changed to keep it anonymous.
Painting Each Day
In Fieldbook, the ability to colour-code your calendar is more than just a design feature—it’s a useful way to see the flow of each day at a glance. I like to think of colour coding as “Painting Each Day.” By assigning colours to different types of activities, users can quickly evaluate what a guest’s experience will feel like and make adjustments if needed. For example, transfers might be green, activities blue, and breaks or rest periods grey.
This simple yet effective approach makes it easy to spot patterns and answer key questions, such as:
- Are there too many transfers on a single day?
- Does the day feel disjointed with too many small activities?
- Does the overall itinerary strike the right balance and flow smoothly?
By visualising the itinerary through colour coding, our users can identify and address these issues at a glance. Lisa Marshall discusses this principle further in our recent Fieldstory interview, which you can read here.
Guide the Guide
A great tour doesn’t just happen—it’s brought to life by the guide who leads guests throughout the journey. Guides are central to the experience, and empowering them to lead with confidence and ease is crucial. A well-crafted itinerary should seamlessly serve both the guests and the guide, so everyone has what they need for a successful and memorable trip.
With Fieldbook, you can create and manage guide-specific itineraries seamlessly within the same itinerary used for guests, ensuring alignment and clarity across the entire tour. This approach eliminates the need for separate documents. Our power users often include guide-specific items and tasks directly in their itineraries, ensuring every detail is accounted for and nothing is overlooked.
I’ve named this principle “Guide the Guide.” Common guide-specific tasks include:
- Start-of-day preparations
- End-of-day reviews
- Tips for Guides on each Day
- Behind-the-scenes tasks that ensure everything runs smoothly
Pre-and post-tour days are another example of where this method shines. Whether it’s ensuring a guide arrives early to set up or planning a welcome day before the main itinerary begins, these moments are built into the schedule. By visually representing these tasks, operators can provide a clear, complete picture of the tour’s flow, ensuring that both guides and guests are fully supported throughout the journey.
How do our power users build and organise itineraries to save time and streamline planning?
Repeatability is a feature of successful tours. While each tour may have its unique touches, there are always staples—favourite restaurants, trusted hotels, or signature activities—that operators trust and rely on to consistently deliver an exceptional experience for their guests. How do our power users reflect this in their workflow?
Our power users take advantage of this feature by creating itinerary templates that get them to “80% complete”. These templates include all the core elements, leaving the final 20% for tailoring and personalisation to meet the specific needs of each tour. Instead of starting from scratch, they focus on rearranging and refining the details already on the template.
To implement this “80% complete“ principle, power users create templates—or “packages,” as we call them in Fieldbook—that are easily accessible from their library. These templates are designed with all the essentials in place, making it faster to adjust or remove items than to build from the ground up. Custom and tailor-made tours, however, often require an extra layer of finesse due to the wide array of options and variations they involve. We’ll dive into this further in the next section.
Here are some strategies our power users use to structure their templates and maximise efficiency with the 80% approach:
- Template Library
- Master Tour Templates
- Pro-Forma Documents
- Repurposing Past Tours
Let’s explore each in more detail.
Template Library
Our power users build libraries of templates that they can reuse time and time again. These templates go beyond the standard products listed on their websites. Operators often create variations to reflect commonly requested options. For example, one template might outline a 3-day tour starting in Sydney and ending in Wollongong, while another flips the route to start in Wollongong and end in Sydney.
Common variations include:
- Standard Itinerary: (e.g., Ultimate Sydney Fieldtour)
- Duration Options: (e.g., Ultimate Sydney Fieldtour in 3, 4, or 5 days)
- Route Options: (e.g., Ultimate Sydney Fieldtour Reverse)
- Budget Variations: (e.g., Ultimate Sydney Fieldtour Luxury vs. Standard)
Each template contains everything needed to run the tour, from itineraries and supplier details to essential travel information. Many operators traditionally manage this by saving all the files in a single folder that gets copied and reused for each trip. Fieldbook streamlines the process by organising everything within a single workspace, making access and updates far simpler and more efficient. For example, updating one part of the system—such as changing a schedule—automatically updates related details in supplier reservations and guest itineraries, ensuring consistency across the board.
The real power of these templates lies in their flexibility—they’re designed to evolve. After completing a tour like The Ultimate Sydney Fieldtour, feedback from guides or operators can be used to refine the template. For example, if a guide reports that a restaurant on the itinerary no longer meets expectations, the template can be updated with a better option. A note for future guides can also be added, ensuring the change is communicated and seamlessly implemented.
Master Tour Templates
Many operators take this concept a step further by creating “master tour templates.” These templates include key elements like meals, preferred pickup and drop-off times, guide instructions, and terms and conditions but leave room to customise details as needed. It’s a practical way to avoid starting from scratch while remaining flexible enough to meet the unique demands of each trip.
Pro-Forma Documents
One effective tactic I’ve noticed among tour operators is their use of pro-forma documents—pre-designed templates that are nearly ready to send and only require filling in a few details for each tour.
These templates eliminate the need to worry about layout or design and instead allow operators to simply fill in the gaps. They also ensure that all stakeholders—whether guides, suppliers, or guests—have the information they need.
Common examples of pro-forma documents include:
- Emails to confirm arrangements with suppliers
- Rooming lists for accommodation vendors
- Meal lists tailored to dietary needs
- Sales brochures for prospective clients
- Guide itineraries to share with guests before departure
- Guest itineraries to brief guides about the group
Using pro-forma documents reduces repetitive work and minimises the risk of overlooking important details. Fieldbook takes this a step further by providing ready-made pro-forma templates that are automatically pre-filled with data drawn directly from the system.
For instance, when sending a request to a supplier, key details—like dates, times, and the service needed—are pulled directly from the itinerary, ensuring accuracy and saving even more time
Repurposing Past Tours
When planning a new tour, operators often start by revisiting similar tours they’ve run before. This is common for operators of custom tours, where a recently created itinerary often aligns closely with a client’s request.
These past tours provide a proven foundation, allowing operators to duplicate the itinerary and make adjustments, such as updating dates, swapping activities, or tweaking reservations to meet the new group’s needs. This approach saves time and ensures the successful elements of previous tours are carried forward.
Frequently reused tours can be saved as packages in a library for future use. Fieldbook simplifies this by letting operators clone tours, keeping all key details intact while allowing for quick customisation. You can also create and store packages in an organised library, making it easy to search, access, and maintain consistency across seasonal or recurring trips.
What strategies do tour operators use to customise itineraries and deliver tailor-made experiences effortlessly?
Tailor-made tours are inherently time-intensive, requiring a level of personalisation and customisation unique to each client. So how do tour operators strike the balance between offering bespoke experiences and avoiding the inefficiency of building every tour from scratch?
From observing our power users, the answer lies in using flexible templates designed with a variety of options—such as alternative activities or routes—that can be easily tweaked and mixed to create a customised itinerary. This is a clever approach as it allows operators to deliver high levels of personalisation while maintaining efficiency.
The guiding principle is simple: it’s far easier to remove or rearrange options than to build them from the ground up. Representing all customisable elements on a single itinerary not only reduces the mental load but also streamlines the planning process. By starting with a framework filled with pre-set “building blocks,” operators can quickly adapt and tailor tours to meet specific needs.
I like to think of this as an à la carte menu—limited options that can be mixed and matched to create endless possibilities.
Here are a few examples of how this works in practice:
- Stacking multiple activity options on the itinerary
- Having alternative days on the itinerary
- Different supplier options for a single activity
Let’s dive into each one:
Stacking multiple activity options on the itinerary
Operators often include multiple options for a single activity, such as hiking routes, lunch spots, or sightseeing stops. These options are stacked within the itinerary, making it easy to hide or remove choices based on guest preferences.
Alternative days on the itinerary
For multi-day tours, operators may include alternative days in the itinerary. For example, one option might feature a beach day, while another is centred around visiting a national park. Having both alternative days preloaded makes it easy to select the day that is most relevant to the customer.
Different supplier options for a single activity
To account for availability, some operators list multiple supplier options for key activities, like lunch or transportation. They can make provisional bookings with all options and confirm the final choice once availability is clear. This way, they always have a backup plan without delaying the process.
Deciding what options to include on an itinerary requires thoughtful consideration. Start by asking: What do guests request most frequently? Are there recurring patterns in their preferences? Can these patterns be captured in a single itinerary to make customisation faster and more intuitive? By incorporating these options into your planning process, you not only simplify your workflow but also make customisation a natural and seamless part of the guest experience.
Final Thoughts
These strategies are just the beginning. As more power users uncover clever ways to leverage our platform, I’m sure there will be even more insights to share. What I’ve outlined here represents a handful of the key practices I’ve observed so far, and I look forward to sharing additional tips and tricks in future articles as we continue to learn from our users.
While these ideas were inspired by how Fieldbook users work, the principles are universal and can help anyone looking to streamline their tour planning and deliver outstanding experiences. For Fieldbook users, these strategies are seamlessly integrated into the platform, making them easy to implement and act on.
