The best app to plan a trip with friends

Most friend trips don't fail on the destination. They stall earlier: nobody knows who is free when, the poll gets lost under two hundred messages, and the one person who books everything ends up chasing money for months. A good app for group travel has to fix the coordination, not just store a list of places.

• Everyone can join from a link, without installing anything.
• A way to find dates that suit the whole group, not just the loudest person.
• A fair way to decide where to go: suggestions plus a vote.
• A shared plan for the days, visible to everyone.
• A ledger for shared costs that works out who owes whom.
• One chat for the trip, so decisions don't get lost in other groups.

Create a group and share the invite link on WhatsApp, Telegram, by text or as a QR code. Everyone marks the days they are free on a calendar, and 4trips shows the windows where most people overlap; the organizer then locks the dates.

Each person fills in a short survey: budget, interests, pace and notes. From that, 4trips suggests a few destinations with a reason for each and an estimated budget, the group votes, and the organizer confirms the winner. Nothing is decided for you by the AI.

Next comes a day by day itinerary written for your group and dates, with times, estimated costs, a map of every stop and suggestions for getting there and where to stay. You can ask for changes in plain words ("day two is too packed") or swap a day for a rainy one.

During the trip, anyone can log an expense in any currency; it is converted at the European Central Bank rate of the day, balances update straight away, and 4trips suggests the fewest payments to settle up. Tickets and booking confirmations can be uploaded so they are in one place for everyone.

There is no native app yet: 4trips is a web app that works in any mobile browser. It doesn't book flights or hotels itself; it links to Skyscanner, Booking.com and Trainline for that. Expenses are split equally among the people you pick, so uneven splits by amount or percentage aren't supported. And it doesn't work offline.

If you want ready-made ideas first, start from one of the sample trips, like 7 days in Split and the islands or 3 days in Prague, and copy it into your group with one click.