DPRT
Depart · by NVWL

A complete walkthrough of every DPRT feature — from your first trip to sharing it with the world.

Type
How-To Guide
For
All users
Read time
~10 min
Status
Current
Overview

What is DPRT?

DPRT (pronounced "depart") is a travel itinerary app built around one core idea: your trip lives on a timeline, and every event shows the correct local time — no matter how many timezones you cross.

Most travel apps store events as date-and-time strings and convert them on the fly, which causes phantom "+1 day" errors, wrong arrival times, and general confusion when your trip spans multiple timezones. DPRT solves this at the foundation. Every event is stored and calculated in absolute UTC time, then displayed in the correct local timezone for wherever that event takes place.

Add a flight from Tokyo to Chicago. DPRT shows your departure in Japan Standard Time and places a clean arrival marker on the correct Chicago day, showing the correct Central time arrival. No mental arithmetic. No surprises.

DPRT is deliberately minimal. There are no hotel recommendations, no discovery feeds, no algorithmic suggestions. It is a precision instrument for people who plan with intent.

The name DPRT follows the NVWL studio naming convention of removing vowels. DPRT = DEPART. The vowels are gone but the meaning remains.
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First steps

Getting started

Open DPRT at dprt.app. On your first visit, a short onboarding walkthrough introduces the key concepts. You can read through it or skip it — the app works immediately either way.

You do not need an account to use DPRT. Create trips immediately and they are saved locally on your device. Sign in later to sync them to the cloud and access them across devices.

Signing in

DPRT uses a one-time code — no password required. Tap Sign In in the menu, enter your email address, and a 6-digit code arrives in your inbox. Enter the code in the app and you are signed in. The code auto-submits the moment you enter the sixth digit.

Your trips sync to the cloud automatically once you are signed in. If you created trips before signing in, they are migrated to your account on first login.

No account needed You can create, plan, and view trips without ever signing in. An account is required for cloud sync and sharing (the link needs somewhere to live in the cloud). Exports are DPRT First features.
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Trips

Creating your first trip

From the main screen, you will see a trip name field and two date fields. Fill them in and tap Depart.

  1. Enter a trip name — anything descriptive works. "Tokyo April" or "Europe Summer 2026" are both fine.
  2. Set a start date — the first day of your trip.
  3. Set an end date — the last day of your trip.
  4. Tap Depart. The planner opens immediately.

The planner shows a timeline for your trip. The date bar at the top shows a tab for each day. The first day is selected by default and the view scrolls to 6am.

Trip limits Free accounts can hold up to 2 trips at a time. You can delete a trip and create a new one whenever you like. DPRT First raises the limit to 5 trips.
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Events

Adding events

Tap anywhere on the timeline to open the event form. It's a single scrolling form — no separate steps to click through. Fields relevant to your event type show automatically as you fill things in.

Name, time, and type

Give the event a name and a start time. Then pick a category from the first dropdown — Travel, Transit, Lodging, Food & Drink, Ticketed Event, Attraction, Self-care, Business, Shopping, or Activity — and a second dropdown appears with that category's specific subtypes (for example, Travel expands to Flight, Helicopter, Intercity Train, Intercity Bus, Ferry; Attraction expands to Zoo, Aquarium, Park, Sightseeing, Museum, Art Museum, and Tour). The subtype you choose sets the event's icon and colour and determines which fields appear further down the form. Business, Shopping, and Activity are each a single-item category — picking the category is enough, since there's only one subtype.

Duration

Duration is entered as hours and minutes. Events must be at least 5 minutes long. Required fields throughout the form are marked with a yellow asterisk.

For Transit-category events (Public Transit, Auto, Walk, Bike), DPRT fills this in for you automatically: once you've set an origin, a destination, and a start time, it looks up a real travel-time estimate in the background and updates the duration on its own. You can still edit it by hand afterward — it's a starting point, not a lock.

Location and details

For most events, you can search for a location by typing a city, venue, or address. DPRT searches a local airport database first (instant results for IATA codes like LHR or ORD), then falls back to Google Places for everything else.

Transit and Travel events show separate From and To fields instead of a single location — set both to get the auto-duration calculation described above. A Route / Flight No. field near the bottom is optional, since you often won't know it until you've actually looked into the trip.

Use Event Notes (up to 100 characters) for anything you want to remember about this specific event — confirmation numbers, booking references, access instructions, or anything else.

Timezone

For most events, DPRT detects the timezone automatically from the location you entered. You can override it manually by typing an IANA timezone name (for example, America/Chicago or Asia/Tokyo).

For flights and transit, separate Departure Timezone and Arrival Timezone fields appear side by side, each auto-set from the From/To locations. This is what makes DPRT's timezone math work correctly for cross-timezone travel.

Tap Save to add the event. It appears immediately on the timeline at the correct position.

Conflict warning If two events overlap in time, DPRT shows a warning. You can choose to keep both (mark it as intentional) or go back and adjust the time.
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Travel

Flights and transit

DPRT has two movement types, each with distinct behaviour on the timeline.

Travel yellow

Use Travel for intercity and international movement: flights, trains, ferries, coaches, helicopters, and long-distance car journeys. Travel events show an origin location, a destination location, and separate departure and arrival timezones.

When you save a Travel event that crosses a calendar day boundary, DPRT automatically places an arrival marker on the destination day tab. The arrival marker shows the correct local arrival time in the destination timezone. You do not need to add a separate event for the arrival — DPRT handles this automatically.

Day tabs are organised by timezone, not by airport or city. If two stops share the same timezone, they appear on the same day tab. If a stop has its own timezone, it gets its own tab — even if you are still in the same calendar day.

Example: NRT → ORD
Departs Tokyo (JST) 11:00 AM
Duration 13h 30m
Arrives Chicago (CDT) 8:30 AM same day

JST day tab shows departure block
CDT day tab shows arrival marker automatically

Transit sky blue

Use Transit for local movement within a city or region: Public Transit, Auto (car, taxi, or rideshare), Walk, or Bike. Transit events use a single timezone and do not generate arrival markers, since local transit stays within one timezone. Set an origin, destination, and start time and DPRT calculates the duration automatically.

Connection warnings

If you schedule two flights (or ferries, coaches, or helicopters) with less than 45 minutes between the first arrival and the second departure, DPRT shows a connection warning. You can acknowledge it and keep the schedule, or go back and adjust.

Flight numbers For flights, trains, ferries, and coaches, a route or flight number field is available in step 2. This is optional — it appears on the event block in the planner and in exported PDFs.
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Timezones

How timezones work in DPRT

This is the core of what makes DPRT different from other travel planners, and it's worth understanding clearly.

The date bar

The date bar at the top of the planner shows one tab for each day of your trip. Each tab shows the date and the timezone active on that day. If your trip crosses multiple timezones, different day tabs may show different timezones.

Tap a tab to view that day. The timeline below shows all events for that day in the timezone shown on the tab. Time labels on the left side of the timeline also reflect that timezone.

The and arrow buttons at either end of the date bar scroll the tab strip left and right so you can see more day tabs. Tap the tab you want to switch to it. You can also swipe the tab strip directly on longer trips.

Date line crossings

When a flight crosses the International Date Line — for example, Tokyo (JST) to Seattle (PDT) — the arrival calendar date is earlier than the departure calendar date. A flight leaving Tokyo on July 23rd arrives in Seattle on July 22nd.

DPRT sorts day tabs in chronological order of absolute time, not calendar date. The JST departure tab appears first, the PDT arrival tab appears second — even though 7/22 PDT has an earlier calendar date than 7/23 JST. This reflects the actual sequence of events: you depart before you arrive, and the timeline shows it that way.

Why this matters If tabs were sorted by calendar date, the arrival would appear before the departure on a date-line crossing — which would make planning confusing. DPRT always puts departure before arrival, regardless of what the calendar dates say.

How events are stored

DPRT stores every event in UTC — the universal absolute time reference. When you view an event, DPRT converts the UTC time to the correct local timezone for that event's location. This means a flight from Tokyo to Chicago will show the correct local time at both ends — departure in Japan Standard Time, arrival in Central time — even though the flight crosses the International Date Line and lands on the previous calendar day.

Why this matters

Most travel apps store times as local wall-clock strings. "10:30 AM" is stored as "10:30 AM" without timezone context. When you cross a timezone, the app has to guess how to interpret that string — and it frequently gets it wrong, causing events to appear on the wrong day or at the wrong time.

DPRT never has this problem because every time is stored with its full timezone context, and all comparisons happen in UTC.

Daylight saving time

DPRT handles daylight saving time automatically using the IANA timezone database. If your trip spans a DST transition — for example, flying into Chicago the day before the clocks change — DPRT uses the correct offset for each specific date. You do not need to think about this.

Arizona and other non-DST zones Some regions do not observe daylight saving time. Phoenix, Arizona uses Mountain Standard Time (UTC-7) year-round and never observes DST. DPRT handles this correctly — events in Phoenix always use UTC-7 regardless of season, while nearby states like Utah and Colorado shift to UTC-6 in summer.
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Events

Managing events

Tap any event block on the timeline to open the action menu. The action menu gives you six options:

  • View DetailsOpens a full summary of the event — all fields, notes, location, times in both departure and arrival timezones for flights.
  • NoteAdd or edit a quick note on this event. Good for confirmation numbers, booking references, or anything you want to remember about this specific event.
  • EditReopens the event form with all fields pre-filled. Change any detail — name, time, duration, location, timezone — and save.
  • DuplicateCreates an instant copy of the event on the same day. The copy has "(copy)" appended to the name. Edit it to adjust any details, including moving it to a different day.
  • Move to DateShows a list of every day in the trip. Tap any day to move the event there instantly, keeping all other details the same.
  • DeleteRemoves the event permanently. This cannot be undone.

Drag to reschedule

You can also drag an event block to a new time without opening any menu. On mobile, hold the event briefly then drag. On desktop, click and drag. The event snaps to 15-minute intervals. Release to drop it at the new time.

Short events Very short events show minimally on the timeline — sometimes just a dot or a single line — since there isn't room for full text at that size. Tap and hold (or hover) to see a quick preview with the name, location, and time, or tap normally to open the full action menu. Switching to List view (see the Planner and List views section) always shows every event's full details regardless of duration.
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Trips

Managing trips

Editing a trip

Tap the edit icon (pencil) in the top right of the planner to open the trip editor. You can change the trip name, start date, end date, and notes.

Date changes are guardrailed — you cannot shrink the date range past an event you have already added. If you try to set an end date before an event that exists on a later day, DPRT will warn you and prevent the change.

Trip notes

The trip editor includes a notes field at the bottom. Use this for anything that belongs to the whole trip rather than a specific event: visa requirements, total budget, hotel confirmation numbers, packing reminders, emergency contacts. Notes are saved with the trip and visible any time you reopen the editor.

Switching between trips

Open the menu (top left) and tap My Trips to see all your saved trips. Tap any trip to open it. Your current trip is saved automatically before switching.

Navigating days

The date bar at the top shows a tab for each day. Tap a tab to jump to that day. The and arrow buttons scroll the tab strip so you can reach tabs that are off screen — tap the tab itself to navigate to that day. On longer trips, you can also swipe the tab strip directly.

Deleting a trip

Open the menu → My Trips → tap the button on the trip you want to remove. Deleted trips cannot be recovered.

Trip limit Free accounts hold up to 2 trips. You can delete a trip to make room for a new one at any time. DPRT First holds up to 5 trips.
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Timeline

Planner and List views

A view toggle sits in the lower right corner of the planner whenever a trip is open. It switches between two ways of seeing a day:

  • Planner — the timeline view, with each event proportional to its duration.
  • List — every event for the day as a plain chronological list, each with its full name, location, and time always visible. Useful for a packed day where the timeline gets crowded.

In Planner view, very short events (15 minutes or less) automatically compress to fit — a short event may show as just a dot, or a single line of text instead of the full block. Tap and hold (or hover, on desktop) a compressed event to see a quick preview with its name, location, and time without opening the full action menu.

Either view shows a small link on any event that crosses into a different timezone — tap it to jump straight to that event's arrival day and timezone tab.

Arrows pinned to the left and right edges of the screen move to the previous/next day tab. They grey out and stop responding at the very start and end of your trip.

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Sharing Free

Sharing your itinerary

DPRT can generate a shareable link for any trip. Recipients can view the full itinerary in their browser — no account, no app download required.

  1. Open the menu → Share.
  2. Toggle sharing on. A unique link is generated for your trip.
  3. Tap Copy to copy the link to your clipboard, then share it however you like — message, email, group chat.

The shared link always shows the current state of your trip. If you update the itinerary after sending the link, recipients see the latest version next time they open it. The link is live, not a snapshot.

To stop sharing, toggle sharing off. The link immediately stops working for anyone who tries to open it.

The shared page includes an Add to Calendar button so recipients can import your itinerary into their own calendar app without needing DPRT.

If a trip crosses timezones, a dropdown in the top right of the shared page lets the viewer choose how times are shown: Local time (the default) shows each event in whatever timezone it actually happens in, and View as [timezone] converts every event into a single timezone — the one the trip started in. A small +1 or −1 appears next to a converted time whenever it lands on a different calendar day than the one it's grouped under. This dropdown only shows up when the trip genuinely spans more than one timezone.

Live vs snapshot The shared link is always live — it shows the current state of your trip. PDF and calendar exports are point-in-time snapshots. If you change your itinerary after exporting, the exported files will not update. Export again to get the latest version.
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Exports First

PDF and calendar export

PDF export

Exports your itinerary as a clean, DPRT-styled PDF. Each day is laid out with its events, times, locations, and notes. Useful for printing, carrying offline, or sharing with people who prefer a static document.

To export: open the menu → Export PDF. On mobile, the native share sheet opens so you can save to Files, email it, print it, or share it via any app. On desktop, the PDF downloads directly.

The PDF is a snapshot of your itinerary at the moment of export. If you change your trip afterwards, export again to update it.

Calendar export (.ics)

Exports your itinerary as an .ics calendar file compatible with Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook, and any other standard calendar app.

Each event in the exported file carries its own timezone information. A flight from Tokyo to Chicago will appear at the correct local time in both your Japan and US calendar views — because the timezone is stored per event, not per calendar.

To export: open the menu → Export Calendar. On mobile, the native share sheet opens — tap your calendar app to import directly. On desktop, the .ics file downloads and can be double-clicked to import.

Like the PDF, the calendar export is a point-in-time snapshot. If you update your itinerary, export again to get the changes into your calendar.

On mobile On iPhone, after tapping Export Calendar, tap the .ics file in the share sheet and choose Add All to import all events into your default calendar. On Android, open the downloaded file with your calendar app.
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Account

Account and sync

DPRT works without an account. Trips are saved locally on your device and available immediately, even offline.

Sign in to add cloud sync. Once signed in, your trips are saved to the cloud and accessible from any device where you sign in with the same email address.

Signing in

Tap the menu → Sign In. Enter your email address and tap Send Code. A 6-digit code arrives in your inbox. Enter it in the app — it submits automatically when you type the sixth digit.

Signing out

Menu → your email address → Sign Out. Your trips remain on the device after signing out. Cloud sync pauses until you sign back in.

Using DPRT on multiple devices

Sign in with the same email address on each device. Trips sync automatically when you are online. If you make changes offline, they sync the next time you have a connection.

Managing your subscription

If you're subscribed to DPRT First, the menu shows a Manage Subscription option. Tapping it takes you straight to wherever you actually manage the subscription — the App Store's subscription page, Google Play's subscription page, or a Stripe billing portal, depending on how and where you signed up. From there you can update payment details, change plans, or cancel.

Deleting your account

Email support@nvwl.app to request account deletion. All account data and cloud-stored trips will be deleted within 30 days.

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Subscription

DPRT First

DPRT First is the paid tier, at $2.50/month. It unlocks features that go beyond basic trip planning.

  • 5 tripsHold up to 5 itineraries at once, up from the free limit of 2.
  • Cloud syncTrips sync across all your devices automatically.
  • PDF exportExport any trip as a print-ready PDF.
  • Calendar exportExport any trip as a timezone-aware .ics calendar file.

Upgrading

Open the menu → Upgrade to First. Or tap any First feature — the upgrade prompt appears automatically. Complete the purchase and your features unlock immediately.

Grandfathered pricing

If you subscribe during the launch period at $2.50/month, that price is locked in permanently as long as your subscription remains active. If you cancel and resubscribe later, the then-current price applies.

Restoring a purchase

If you reinstall DPRT or switch devices, open the menu → Restore Purchase. Sign in with the same email address used when you subscribed and your First access is restored automatically.

Cancelling

On iOS: Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions → DPRT → Cancel. On Android: Play Store → Subscriptions → DPRT → Cancel. Cancelling stops future renewals. You keep First access until the end of the period you have already paid for.

Free tier The free tier is genuinely useful. Two trips, full timezone math, drag-and-drop scheduling, Planner and List views, and all event types. The only things behind First are cloud sync, 5 trips, and exports. Sharing is available to all signed-in users.
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Connectivity

Offline use

DPRT is designed to work without an internet connection. Every trip is saved locally on your device as you work. You can create trips, add events, edit, drag and reschedule, and view your full itinerary entirely offline.

Your changes are saved locally as you work and sync to the cloud automatically when your connection returns.

Features that require a connection:

  • Sign in (requires email delivery)
  • Location search (requires Google Places API)
  • Cloud sync
  • Opening a shared link

Everything else — creating and editing trips, viewing your itinerary, exporting PDF and calendar files — works offline.

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Pro tips

Tips and shortcuts

Plan the flights first

Start your trip by adding your flights. Once the flights are in, DPRT knows which timezones are active on which days, and subsequent events default to the correct timezone automatically.

Use the arrival marker as an anchor

When a flight creates an arrival marker on the destination day, that marker tells you when you land. Add your hotel check-in, first meal, or transfer right after it — the timeline makes the sequence obvious.

Duplicate recurring events

If you have the same breakfast spot every morning, or a daily transit between hotel and venue, add it once then use Duplicate in the action menu for each subsequent day. Then use Move to Date to place each copy on the right day.

Switch to List view on dense days

If you have a day with many short back-to-back events — airport transfers, check-ins, meetings — switch to List view using the toggle in the lower right corner. Every event shows its full name, location, and time regardless of how short it is.

Trip notes for the whole picture

Use the trip notes field (edit icon → notes) for everything that applies to the whole trip: total budget, accommodation confirmation numbers, visa requirements, emergency contacts, packing reminders. Keep the event notes for event-specific details.

Share before you finalise

Because the shared link is always live, you can share your itinerary with travel companions early — even while you are still planning. They will always see the latest version when they open the link.

Export at the last minute

Because PDF and .ics exports are snapshots, export them as close to your departure as possible, after you have finalised all the details. That way the exported files reflect your actual plans.

Use 24-hour time if you prefer

Open the menu → Switch to 24-hour to toggle between 12-hour (AM/PM) and 24-hour time display. The setting applies throughout the app and is saved between sessions.

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