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Pinterest has proven its usefulness for a mountain of things: wedding and party planning, blog management and bookmarking, marketing promotions, menu and recipe organization, outfit inspiration… the list goes on and on. One of my favorite ways to use Pinterest is to organize and plan vacations.

I’ve always been the travel planner (in fact, the best job I ever had was planning events and weekend trips for international students studying in the states), maniacally planning out every detail. Whether it was herding a group of 12 college students to a business conference, heading up an Alternative Break trip, or even a weekend trip with Sixx – there was an itinerary to be made. I don’t mean to make myself sound like some vacation drill sergeant – I’m great, I promise! – but everyone has had those trips where you’ve had the “oh, we’ll figure it out when we get there” mentality… and then left feeling like you hadn’t actually done anything. I like to have ideas on vacations, and since I’m a visual person, Pinterest has really helped me organize my ideas.

You can use Pinterest to manage a list of restaurants you want to try, bars you love, or to help narrow down what hotel to stay at. Pinterest now lets you add locations to your pins by clicking Add a place, so if you notice that many of the attractions you want to check out are in the same area, it can help you figure out where to stay. You don’t even have to go out of your way to find and input addresses – just type the name and city in the native search bar.

I started a board to keep track of the places I want to check out on my visit to Nashville later this summer. When you have your board completed, it shows you where all your “must see” places are in proximity to each other, like a visual premeditated Foursquare (another favorite travel app of mine.)

This would be a really fun way to get your family and friends out on a race route to cheer you on – plot out some coffee shops or bars where they can enjoy a beer, step outside to wave signs for you, and then move on to their next point! Pinterest also allows “hidden” boards and collaborative boards – great for planning with a large group or a surprise outing. If you’re interested, here’s a board for Chicago I did a few years ago (before the map capability!) and the Nashville one I’ll be adding to over the next weeks. While you’re at it, follow me on Pinterest!

How do you use Pinterest?