Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
Travel has always been a huge part of my life. Whether I’m planning a weekend getaway for a hike or a longer multi-country backpacking trip, I’ve relied on travel apps to help keep things organized. But after years of using some of the best travel apps like Wanderlog, TripIt, making notes in Google Keep or Notion, or even maintaining a pen and paper journal, I realized they all came with frustrating trade-offs. Too many ads, pushy upgrade prompts, opaque subscription models, lack of features, and most worryingly, an always-on stream of data collection and tracking. For something as personal as travel, that’s something I really don’t want. So earlier this year, I started looking for alternatives. I wanted something lightweight, customizable, and private. If it was self-hostable and open source, even better. Turns out, there really is an open-source project for every need. That search led me to AdventureLog, a self-hosted, open source travel tracker and itinerary manager that’s as functional as it is privacy-respecting. I installed it on my Synology NAS with Docker, and it has completely changed how I travel and plan trips. Here’s how.
Planning without the noise
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
The first time I really put AdventureLog through its paces was on a weeklong trip to Prague. It’s a city I’ve always wanted to revisit, not just pass through. So, with one of my favorite bands performing in the city, it made sense to plan a vacation around it. I wasn’t interested in joining pre-planned walking tours or sticking to an optimized route of “top 10 things to see.” I wanted to keep a free-flowing itinerary with some sights I wanted to see, open-ended enough to go with the flow, while keeping track of the smaller discoveries for a future trip. Before leaving, I created a new trip in AdventureLog. I added a rough outline of the week, including basics like arrival times, my Airbnb location, and a few scattered bookmarks of places I’d read about. A tucked-away cafe near Letna Park, a record store in Vinohrady, and a speakeasy bar in the Old Town that only locals seemed to talk about online. What was different this time wasn’t just how I planned the trip, but how the tool I was using actually stayed out of the way. There was no clutter, no offers, no pop-ups, no ad-driven suggestions for other things I might want to do. Just a timeline and a clean map interface.
AdventureLog behaves more like a super-charged travel journal than yet another travel app.
All that might sound like a standard travel planning app, but AdventureLog gets a bit more interesting. It also functions as a travel diary. Each day, I logged entries as they happened. Cinnamon buns for breakfast, a random, unplanned visit to the Klementinum library that felt like stepping into a movie set. Or a long walk by the river. The act of logging things in the moment felt like capturing the flavor of the day, the kind of thing that would usually go in my diary and that I’d never preserve in Notion or a basic checklist. By turning the travel app into a travel journal, AdventureLog has become a tool I use a couple of times a week, versus only when I’m planning a trip. When used to its full potential, AdventureLog can create a personal archive of your trip, complete with notes, places, and impressions. Something few other travel apps can achieve.
Organize, reflect, revisit — All in one place
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
AdventureLog is deceptively simple, but the more I used it, the more I appreciated the depth it offers under the hood. Built with modern tools, it runs fast and reliably even on minimal hardware. The interface is responsive enough to feel like a native app, whether I’m on a laptop or checking it from my phone during a layover.
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