What exactly is ryokko?

ryokko handles the hardest part of travel - planning. Create, plan and manage detailed itineraries in one place, and say goodbye to messy spreadsheets and documents.

How does the magic email forwarding work?

Simply forward your flight, hotel, and booking confirmation emails to a unique email address. Our AI automatically extracts the details and builds a structured itinerary for you in seconds.

Can I access my itinerary offline?

ryokko is an offline-first app. Once you load your trip in the mobile app, your maps, pins, and daily plans are securely stored on your device for full offline access.

Do my friends need to download the app to see the itinerary?

Not at all. You can easily generate minimal, read-only web links or print-ready PDFs of your entire itinerary with just one click. Anyone with the link can view your plans.

When will I get access to the app?

We're launching soon! Secure your spot now, and your invite for 6 free months of Pro will hit your inbox the exact moment our beta opens.

March 21, 20265 min readJeremy

Searching for the best travel planner led me to build my own

travel planningfounder storyproduct

Hey 👋, we are happy to have you here.

Just a quick introduction. My name is Jeremy, and I'm based out of Melbourne, Australia. Today I want to share a bit of a story about why this project exists.

I came to Australia to study in 2016. As an 18 year old, moving away from home to study overseas felt like I was thrust violently into adulthood. Suddenly I had to get a job, file my own taxes, and look through countless piles of paperwork. Whether it was for study or general life admin, doing the mundane work of collecting data and putting it into a systematic format has always been something I dreaded.

When I finally got a job and started earning some money, I thought I could finally afford to go on vacation. My partner and I were in the early stages of our careers. We were transitioning from full time school to full time work, and we were hungry for adventure. We needed something to bring us out of the mundanity of our routine. We decided to go to Japan.

So how did we plan for it? We just wrote all our ideas and bookings down into a Google doc.

Early travel plans scribbled into a Google doc — page 1 — Our first attempt at trip planning. Messy Google doc that we barely looked at once we landed.

Early travel plans scribbled into a Google doc — page 2 — Our first attempt at trip planning. Messy Google doc that we barely looked at once we landed.

It was not pretty. At the time we thought it was acceptable. We did not even think to search for existing apps to help us. But here is the thing. Once we actually started traveling, we hardly looked at this document. The reason is simple now that I look back on it. It was ugly and unintuitive. We did not want to look at it because it added to our cognitive load instead of taking it away.

Scattered spreadsheet with booking details — Over the years the docs multiplied. Separate spreadsheets for cost, itineraries, and plans. None of them talked to each other.

Another scattered spreadsheet with flight and hotel info — Over the years the docs multiplied. Separate spreadsheets for cost, itineraries, and plans. None of them talked to each other.

One fine day in 2025, I was gearing up for yet another overseas trip. I started to realise that I actually dreaded the weekends. I dreaded the fact that I had to spend hours on research. I would open up a hundred tabs with Reddit, Google Maps, and a bunch of blogs that wrote a long winded essay before actually getting to the recommendations I was looking for. Yes, I am fully realising the irony as I write this blog post.

I decided I had enough. I teamed up with a mate of mine to solve this problem.

Right now, ryokko is in development. We are trying to build the best free travel planner app on the market, but we want real user feedback to get it right. We want your stories and your pain points.

What do other apps like Wanderlog/TripIt have that make them easy to use?

What makes them frustrating? What are the specific tasks that take up hours of your time?

What would you gladly pay someone or an app a small fee to handle, just so you can focus on enjoying your weekends?

Email me at hello@ryokko.xyz if you have any stories to share.

Also, enter your email into our list on the site to claim your 6 months free of Pro. Be quick as we have a limited number of spots and it will not be open for long.