Photos and Text by Wribbn Guest Blogger: Emily Hope Dobkin, Founder & CEO of BETTERISH
March brings the return of a lightness: daylight savings, the season of spring, and for those who are lucky: a Spring Break.
Confession Time.
I don’t have a spring getaway planned this year, but I’m here to tell you if you do: start organizing it with a Wribbn List.
At the end of the last year, I somehow managed to travel to six different cities within a two month time span, coast to coast: Portland, New Orleans, NYC + Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Detroit and Denver (where I live).
Here’s the thing:
I’m not a person who schedules every second of my trip. I really don’t spend a ton of time researching or planning. Honoring spontaneity is big for me when I travel. I find three to five key things I’ve got to see/do/eat, then plan to do A LOT of wandering from point A to point B, averaging walking 8–12 miles a day when visiting a city. It’s often wandering in the in-betweens that I find my favorite things. I love finding the yummiest, quirkiest, most colorful, and most charming parts of every city I visit…even if I’m there just for a few hours. And that’s where I have found myself opening the Wribbn app: to keep track of every hole-in-the-wall + stumbled upon gem that maybe Lonely Planet can’t exactly offer.
At this point, I’m up to nine Wribbn lists dedicated to cities I’ve explored.
Here’s the biggest benefits I’ve found in creating travel lists using the Wribbn app:
PLANNING + ORGANIZING
Before traveling to an actual place, I find myself keeping notes of the possibilities to explore whether that be in my email, the Notes feature on my phone, a google doc or post-it notes. With Wribbn, I can not only store it in one spot, but easily organize it into categories. Usually my travel lists range from categories like, “Parks & Neighborhoods,” “Coffee Shops,” “Arts & Culture,” “Eats,” “Shops & Thrifts.”
Traveling with friends or family?
Another major perk: these lists can be collaborative, so you can invite your people to co-create a list with you, or sometimes it is just nice to share with them to keep them up to date.
ARCHIVING
As much as I’d like to think I’ll have time to make an album or scrapbook-of-sorts of my travels: I don’t. Life goes on pretty quickly after returning home. Wrapping up my lists after a trip has actually given a similar sense of closure I think making an album or scrapbook used to fulfill for me. But what’s better, is that what I put in my lists isn’t final. I can keep adding and adjusting as needed. For instance, I was in New Orleans last December and already have the itch to go back, so as I read about new places and things popping up in the Big Easy, I continue to add it to my New Orleans list.
RECOMMENDATIONS + REFERRALS
Being an avid traveler, I do get asked for tips and recommendations for the places I’ve lived or ventured to. I can’t stress enough how easy it now is to just send people a direct link to my Wribbn lists. I remember last summer someone was visiting Denver when I was out of town and asked me for a list of recommendations. Needless to say: putting that all together in an email was a cumbersome process. Out of all of my lists, my travel ones remain my most shareable and spread-worthy.
Interested in what my travel lists look like on Wribbn? Check them out through these links:
Wribbn Guest Writer:
Emily Hope Dobkin, Founder & CEO of Betterish
Emily is a hybrid of a community organizer meets arts educator meets creative entrepreneur. Twisting together craft, play, and reflection, her work with Betterish is about producing innovative experiences that nourish creativity, encourages social connection, and fuels empowerment.
