Keep the overview simple
Open a trip and quickly see the destination, dates, people, ideas, plan, and what still needs attention.
Origin
Why I built Awaii
I built Awaii because planning a trip with other people should not feel like managing a messy project across group chats, screenshots, links, notes, and half-made decisions. It should be simple to start, useful without setup, and ready when you need it.
The problem I kept running into
Most trips do not start as a finished itinerary. They start with a few ideas, a possible weekend, a hotel link, a restaurant someone saw, a place someone wants to visit, and a group chat where everyone is trying to keep up.
That is fine at the beginning. But after a while, the important details get buried. The booking link is somewhere in the chat. The hotel room details are in a screenshot. The dates were discussed, but not everyone remembers what was decided. Someone suggested a place to stay, someone else found another option, and suddenly the plan is spread across too many places.
I wanted a calmer way to keep the trip together from the beginning, before everything was locked in.
I tried a lot of travel apps first
Before building Awaii, I downloaded a lot of travel planning apps. Some were useful, but most did not quite fit the way I wanted to plan with my wife, friends, or a small group.
Some felt too focused on a finished itinerary. Some were packed with pop-ups, upsells, accounts, or heavy planning features before I had even decided where we were going. Others were good for one person organizing everything, but did not feel collaborative enough for the early stage of planning.
I did not want another complicated trip management tool. I wanted something lightweight: a simple shared place where a trip could take shape naturally.
It needed to feel low friction
One of the things I cared about most was making Awaii easy to start using. You should not have to create an account, set up a workspace, invite everyone, or answer a long onboarding flow just to explore a trip idea.
Awaii is built so you can start planning a personal trip without an account. You can create a trip, save ideas, shape a simple overview, and see whether the app fits the way you plan before committing to anything.
Accounts only become necessary when you want to collaborate. Even then, the goal is to keep the barrier low: someone can join as a guest, view the trip, participate, and understand the plan before deciding whether they want a full account.
Awaii is also offline-first, because trip planning does not always happen in perfect conditions. You might be on a train, in an airport, walking around a city, or checking the plan while the connection is unreliable. The trip should still be available when you need it.
What I wanted Awaii to do
Save ideas without committing
Collect places, stays, restaurants, transport, notes, and links before deciding what actually belongs in the plan.
Make basic decisions together
Help a group choose practical things like when to go, where to stay, and which options are worth keeping.
Stop losing important links
Keep booking links, hotel details, notes, and trip information connected to the trip instead of buried in chat.
Start without an account
Create a personal trip, save ideas, and explore the app before signing up.
Collaborate when ready
Accounts are only needed for shared trips, and guests can still join, view, and participate before committing.
Offline-first by design
Your trip stays available when the connection is unreliable, whether you are planning at home or checking details while traveling.
Stay lightweight
Awaii is meant to feel calm and easy to return to, not like another system the group has to manage.
The hotel link problem
One of the clearest examples is something simple: checking the hotel booking.
You remember someone sent the link, but not when. You scroll through the group chat. You find a message about the hotel, but not the actual booking. Then someone asks whether there are enough beds, whether breakfast is included, or whether the booking is refundable.
That kind of detail should not require searching through a long conversation. It should live with the trip.
Awaii is built around that idea. The chat can still be where people talk, but the trip needs its own shared home: a place for ideas, decisions, booking details, notes, expenses, and the plan itself.
Not every trip needs a strict itinerary
I also did not want Awaii to force every trip into an hour-by-hour schedule. A lot of good trips are partly planned and partly open.
Sometimes you only need to know the dates, the stay, a few must-do ideas, and the rough shape of each day. Other parts can stay flexible until you arrive.
That is why Awaii separates ideas from the plan. You can keep options around without turning everything into a commitment. When something becomes real, you can add it to the itinerary. Until then, it can stay as an idea the group can see, discuss, and compare.
A shared place for the messy middle
The part I care most about is the messy middle of planning: after someone says “we should go somewhere,” but before the trip is fully decided.
That is where most travel tools feel too rigid, and group chats feel too temporary. Awaii sits between those two things. It gives the trip enough structure to stay clear, but keeps it light enough that people can contribute without feeling like they are managing a project.
The goal is not to replace every conversation. The goal is to make sure the important parts do not disappear inside the conversation.
What Awaii is becoming
Awaii is still growing, but the direction is simple: make shared travel planning feel calmer from the first idea to the final plan.
It is for couples, friends, families, and small groups who want one place to collect ideas, make decisions, keep track of bookings, and understand where the trip stands.
I built it because I wanted that for my own trips. A simple overview. A shared plan. A place where nothing important gets lost.
Plan your next trip in Awaii
Download Awaii on iPhone and give your trip one calm place from the first idea.