The easiest way to plan a trip with friends: one shared folder

Every group trip starts with energy. Someone posts "we should actually do Lisbon this year" in the chat, five people reply with flames, and within an hour there are thirty links, three voice notes and a poll nobody finished. A week later, the best ideas are buried under memes and "what dates work for you?".

The problem isn't your friends. It's that a group chat is built for talking, not for collecting. Ideas need somewhere to live where they stay put, stay sorted and can be compared. This guide shows how to run a whole group trip from one shared folder, from the first idea to the last night out.

Why is planning a trip with friends so hard?

Group trips fall apart in familiar ways. If any of these sound like your last trip, you're not alone:

• Ideas are scattered. Links live in the chat, screenshots in camera rolls, and saves in four different Instagram accounts.
• One person does everything. The organiser ends up copying every idea into a note, which is tiring and slow.
• Nobody can see the options side by side. It's hard to compare three restaurants when they're two hundred messages apart.
• Decisions drag on. Polls go unanswered and the quietest people never say what they'd like.

The fix is simple: one place for ideas, separate from the place for chatting.

What should a group trip planner do?

Whatever you use, a good shared trip planner needs to handle a few jobs:

1. 1Let everyone add ideas from wherever they find them, on their own phone.
2. 2Keep the original post, so you can see why something looked good.
3. 3Sort ideas into food, things to do, nights out and places to stay.
4. 4Make it easy to react, comment and agree.
5. 5Work for people who don't want to install anything new.

That last point matters more than it sounds. There's always one friend who won't download another app.

How do you set up a shared trip folder?

We'll use anoli here, a free iPhone app that saves posts from Instagram, TikTok and any website into folders. Sharing a folder with friends is part of anoli Pro, which is £10 a year. If you've read our guide to planning a trip from your saved posts, this takes it a step further for groups.

Make the folder

1. 1Create a folder named after the trip, for example Lisbon, May.
2. 2Add a cover photo, colour or emoji so it's easy to spot on your home screen.
3. 3Inside it, make a few smaller folders: Eat, Do, Drinks, Stay. Folders can sit inside folders, so the trip stays in one place.

Invite your friends

1. 1Open the trip folder and tap the ⋯ menu.
2. 2Choose Share and send the link to your group chat.
3. 3Friends tap the link to join. Anyone with the link can also view the folder on the web, so the friend who refuses new apps can still see everything from a browser.

Once someone has joined, everything either of you saves into that folder lands for both of you. No forwarding, no copying links into a note.

Tip: post the folder link in the group chat once and pin the message. Then whenever someone shares a link in the chat, reply "pop it in the folder" instead of discussing it there.

How does everyone add ideas?

This is where a shared folder beats a shared note. Your friends don't have to type anything or copy links. When they see a place on Instagram or TikTok, they tap Share and choose anoli, then pick the trip folder.

It works with any app that has a Share button: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, X, Reddit, Safari and other browsers. The original post stays attached, so if someone saves a rooftop bar from a reel, the reel is right there for everyone to watch, with video controls to pause and scrub through it.

Friends who plan on a laptop can use the Anoli Chrome extension to save a page in one click, and it appears on their phone.

Notes make ideas useful

Ask everyone to add a quick note when they save something. A few words turn a pretty video into a plan:

• "Need to book a week ahead."
• "Only open Thursday to Sunday."
• "Cheap, good for the first night."
• "Best at sunset, 20 minutes from the old town."

Notes, captions and creators are all searchable, so later you can type "sunset" and find every idea that mentioned it.

How do you decide as a group without endless polls?

Every save in a shared folder has reactions and its own conversation. Instead of one giant chat thread, the talk about each place sits on that place. You can see at a glance that four people loved the seafood spot and one person has a question about price.

For bigger decisions, use Decide together from the folder's ⋯ menu. Everyone swipes on the saves, and you see which ones the group likes. It's a fair way to choose where to eat on the first night or which day trip to do, and it gives quieter friends an equal say.

Tip: run Decide together on a smaller folder, like just Eat, rather than the whole trip. Ten options is a fun swipe. Eighty is homework.

Planning the days

Once the ideas are in, turn them into a rough plan. You don't need a minute by minute itinerary. Most groups do well with one anchor per day and plenty of free time.

1. 1Look at your saved places on a map in the app to see which ones are close to each other.
2. 2Group nearby places into days: old town and the viewpoint on Saturday, beach and seafood on Sunday.
3. 3Add a note to each anchor with the day it's planned for.
4. 4Set reminders on anything that needs booking, so the person responsible gets a nudge.

This is also a good moment to agree on money. A shared folder isn't a bill splitting tool, so pair it with something like Splitwise or a simple shared spreadsheet if your group likes to track costs.

What are the alternatives for planning a trip with friends?

Plenty of groups get by with other tools, and some are better at specific jobs. Here's a fair look.

WhatsApp or iMessage groups

Good for: chatting, quick questions and voice notes. Everyone already has it. Not good for: keeping ideas sorted or comparing options later.

Google Docs or Sheets

Good for: detailed itineraries, flight numbers and costs. Very flexible. Not good for: collecting posts from Instagram and TikTok, since everything has to be pasted in by hand.

Google Maps shared lists

Good for: pins on a map and directions once you're there. Not good for: keeping the reel or video that made you want to go, or chatting about each place.

Dedicated itinerary apps

Good for: bookings, confirmations and day by day schedules. Many are excellent once plans are fixed. Less good for the messy early stage of collecting ideas from social media.

A shared folder in anoli

Good for: the collecting and deciding stage, where most group trips get stuck. Everyone adds from their own phone, the original posts stay attached, and you can react, comment and vote in one place. Many groups use it alongside a chat and a map, not instead of them.

Who does what?

Shared folders make it easy for everyone to contribute, but it still helps to agree on a few roles at the start, so nothing falls through the gaps:

• The booker handles flights and accommodation, and adds confirmations as notes in the folder.
• The food person keeps the Eat folder tidy and runs Decide together for the big dinners.
• The money person tracks shared costs in whatever tool the group prefers.
• Everyone saves ideas, reacts to others and adds notes to anything they've checked.

Rotating roles on each trip keeps it fair, and it stops one person quietly doing everything.

During the trip

On the trip itself, the folder becomes your guidebook. Open it when you're deciding where to go next and everything your group was excited about is there, with notes like "book ahead" and "cash only". If someone discovers a great place on the day, they save it to the folder so everyone knows where to meet.

Mark places as done as you go. It's surprisingly satisfying, and it helps on the last day when you want to squeeze in the best thing you haven't done yet.

After the trip

Don't delete the folder. It becomes a record of where you went and what you loved. Next time someone asks for recommendations, send them the link. And if the same group plans another trip, duplicate the habit: new folder, one link, everyone in.

If you're planning a city you know well, the same approach works for nights out at home. Our guide on keeping a list of London restaurants from TikTok shows the local version.

Start your trip folder

Make the folder, send one link and ask everyone to put their ideas in it instead of the chat. That single change takes most of the stress out of planning with friends.

You can get anoli for iPhone and iPad, free to start with no account or card. See what people think on our reviews page, or have a look around the anoli home page first. If you get stuck setting up sharing, the support page can help.