SF Trip Planner

What is SF Trip Planner?

SF Trip Planner is a free, open-source interactive trip planning tool for San Francisco that combines event listings, curated spots, and safety information on a single map. It’s built to help you decide what to do (and where to go) by viewing everything together instead of cross-referencing multiple sites.

The core idea is one planning workspace: you can see where events are, check when they conflict, overlay a live crime heatmap on the streets around your plans, and then turn the results into an itinerary you can export to a calendar.

Key Features

• One interactive map for events, spots, and crime: Events and your recommended spots appear on the same map, with a crime layer you can toggle.
• Color-coded map pins by category: Event pins and different spot types (e.g., cafes, nightlife) are displayed using distinct colors to help you scan the map quickly.
• Conflict detection for scheduled events: If you have overlapping events at the same time, the overlap is highlighted before you commit.
• Curated spot list imported and tagged by category: Spots are displayed alongside events, filtered by categories like “eat,” and visible in the same geographic context.
• Live crime heatmap overlay: A heatmap can be toggled on to visualize recent incidents at the block level using publicly available data sources.
• Day planner with routes and prioritization: Drag events/spots into a time-grid view; routes between planned stops update automatically with time estimates, and the planner includes a “days remaining” countdown.
• Export to iCal/Google Calendar: After planning, export the itinerary as an ICS file or sync directly to Google Calendar.

How to Use SF Trip Planner

Start by exploring the map layers to see what’s happening in your target area and when. Use the event and spot pins to identify nearby options, and toggle the crime heatmap to check the surrounding streets for recent incidents.

Next, build your itinerary in the day planner by dragging events and spots into the time-grid. If events overlap, the planner highlights conflicts so you can adjust. Review your route timing as routes update between stops.

When your schedule is set, export the itinerary to iCal/ICS or sync it to Google Calendar so your plan is available on your phone.

Use Cases

• Plan a Tuesday itinerary without tab-hopping: Search across events and recommended spots in one map view, then drag the best choices into a day planner for a structured schedule.
• Check whether two evening plans overlap: If you’re considering two events at the same time on the same day, the planner highlights the overlap so you can pick one plan.
• Choose dinner near your next event: Filter curated spots to “eat,” select the one closest to your upcoming event, and incorporate it into your time-grid itinerary.
• Evaluate walking routes at night: Toggle the live crime heatmap to see blocks with recent incidents, then choose restaurants and walking paths that avoid higher-incident hot spots.
• Spot packed vs. empty days in a month view: Use the calendar view to see event counts per day, then jump into day-level planning and export the month’s plan to Google Calendar.

FAQ

• Where does the crime heatmap data come from? The page lists multiple publicly available sources, including SFPD Crime Maps, Safemap Interactive Heatmap, SFPD Crime Dashboard, and CivicHub live reports.

• Can I toggle safety information while planning? Yes. The crime heatmap overlay can be turned on and off while you view events and spots on the map.

• How does itinerary building work? You drag events and spots into a time-grid day planner. Routes between planned stops update automatically and include time estimates.

• What can I export after planning? You can export the itinerary as an ICS file or sync directly to Google Calendar.

• Is this tool open source? The site describes SF Trip Planner as free and open source.

Alternatives

• Dedicated calendar-first event planning tools: Calendar apps or event planners that organize dates/times but may not combine safety overlays or map-based block-level incident visualization.
• Map-based travel lists (restaurant/attraction collections): Tools that manage spots and neighborhoods (often from bookmarking or map lists) typically don’t highlight event conflicts or layer crime data on the same planning view.
• Standalone crime mapping dashboards: Using official or aggregated crime dashboards alone can show incident patterns, but it generally won’t consolidate events, curated spots, and itinerary export workflows in one place.
• Travel itinerary builders without integrated event feeds: Some itinerary tools focus on drag-and-drop scheduling and routing, but may require separate steps to collect events and safety context.