With the many handy features of the Calendar app, you can receive alerts, invite others, set repeating events, and so much more. One specific feature that is convenient for making it to your events on time is the Travel Time feature.
You can certainly create two event alerts that are flexible enough to remind you ahead of time. But the Travel Time feature works to let you know when you need to leave for the event. And when coupled with the location of the event, it’s even more powerful.
To use this feature for new events, open the Calendar app on your iPhone, and create the event.
Using Travel Time without a Location
Tap Travel Time for your new event.
Enable the feature on the next screen by moving the slider to green.
Select the travel time to your event location from five minutes to two hours.
Tap the arrow on the top left to go back to your event.
When you don’t include the location of your event, you can still take advantage of the Travel Time feature if you already know how long it will take you to get there.
Using Travel Time with a Location
Tap Travel Time for your new event.
Enable the feature on the next screen by moving the slider to green.
Tap Starting Location to enter where you will be traveling from with either a specific address or your Current Location.
You will then see how long it should take you, both driving and walking. So, you can pick your travel time accordingly.
Select the travel time to your event location.
Tap the arrow on the top left to go back to your event.
If you enter a location on the event creation screen, this is when the Travel Time feature is especially handy. You’ll be notified when you need to leave and travel to and from exact locations.
Using Travel Time for Existing Events
You can add the Travel Time option to events that you have already created as well. Open the Calendar app and tap the event.
Tap Edit on the top right of the Event Details screen.
Select Travel Time.
Enable the feature on the next screen by moving the slider to green.
Select the travel time to your event location. If you entered a location when you created the event, you can enter a starting location. You will then see the estimated travel time for walking and driving so that you can pick the travel time accordingly.
Tap Edit Event on the top left to go back.
Tap Done on the top right to save your changes.
Once you add Travel Time to a new or existing event, you will see it displayed on your calendar screen for that event.
How to change the mode of transportation for your event
First, make sure you fill in an exact location (full address) in your calendar for your destination.
Then tap travel time and toggle it on. Then choose a starting location instead of the default travel times.
Again, enter an exact address as your starting location or choose from your favorite and saved locations.
Once you enter a starting location, you should see options populate for car, walking, and public transportation.
Location field not showing any addresses and/or the address is blank?
First, make sure you turned on your iDevice’s Location Services for Calendar.
Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Calendar. Check that it’s set to While Using the App
If that’s already set, swap to another setting like Never or Ask Next Time and then swap it back to While Using the App.
Back in your Calendar app, type in the destination address first before adding any destination address.
Travel time needs both addresses to calculate your travel time from your current location to your next location.
Get There on Time with Travel Time
The Calendar app Travel Time feature might be just the ticket to getting you where you need to go on time. Which features of the Calendar app for iPhone do you find the most helpful? Let us know in the comments below!
Sandy worked for many years in the IT industry as a project manager, department manager, and PMO Lead. She then decided to follow her dream and now writes about technology full-time. Sandy holds a Bachelors of Science in Information Technology.
She loves technology– specifically – terrific games and apps for iOS, software that makes your life easier, and productivity tools that you can use every day, in both work and home environments.
Her articles have regularly been featured at MakeUseOf, iDownloadBlog and many other leading tech publications.
Any idea why Apple chose not to include an option in the calendar to type in a known travel time, nor to copy the time shown in Apple Maps as travel time, and most frustratingly, not be able to have travel times over 2 hours?
I regularly drive to destinations 2½ hours away, or more. I’m positive I’m not the only one, and it it shouldn’t be rocket science correct this.
Thanks for this really useful ‘how-to’ guide on how to add travel time to the Calendar app. We have a product called Emma.ai that adds accurate travel plans automatically to appointments, directly into a Google calendar that may be helpful for some of you looking for this function.
The actual “Travel Time” option no longer appears when i set up a calendar meeting. It did a week ago and have no idea why it doesnt now. I have checked friends phones and some have it and some dont but we dont know how to actually get the option back?
We just tested it out and it’s working on our devices. Not sure why your isn’t.
We suggest you close all your apps, restart, and then update your iOS if an update is available.
Close an app
1. On an iPhone or an iPad with no home button from the Home screen, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and pause slightly in the middle of the screen
2. On an iDevice with a home button, double-click the Home button and swipe right or left to find the app that you want to close
3. Swipe right or left to locate the app you want to close
4. Swipe up on the app’s preview to close it
5. Repeat for any open app
So somehow I pinned the wrong address at some point and now the default starting point for my travel time is wrong and I can’t figure out how to change it to the correct address so that I can automatically tap the correct address as the starting point.
Obviously I can just retype the address or say use current location but it’s just something that really really bugs me.
Is there a way to make travel time pop up every time I schedule something? Using travel time is great but there are too many steps and I use it on all my appointments.
What I really want to do is be able to add a travel time that is not in the pre-canned list. Specifically, 45 minutes. For a number of places I go, 30 minutes is too short, 1 hour is too long.
How do I edit the list of default travel times to reflect what I know about my local environment.
Also, I’m often in locations where cell service and location services DON’T work. You city-slickers just don’t get it. So I can’t use the estimated travel time from a mapping function when in those locations.
I want to be able to just MANUALLY edit a travel time with a value I know from experience is more correct than the default choices.
(Note that both Google and Apple mapping functions often have erroneous routing info as well as estimated travel times due to their lack of local knowledge. As has been observed in the past, “mapping is hard”.)
Does “current location” mean it is constantly updating the travel time as I move, or is it merely my location at the time of creating the event?
Hi! When I create a calendar event and share it with someone, they are able to see event but not the travel time. How can they see travel time?
Trouble is, iOS won’t allow travel times > 2 hours. Bug?
Any idea why Apple chose not to include an option in the calendar to type in a known travel time, nor to copy the time shown in Apple Maps as travel time, and most frustratingly, not be able to have travel times over 2 hours?
I regularly drive to destinations 2½ hours away, or more. I’m positive I’m not the only one, and it it shouldn’t be rocket science correct this.
I need some travel times greater than 2 hrs. Why is travel time limited to 2 hrs?
Thanks for this really useful ‘how-to’ guide on how to add travel time to the Calendar app. We have a product called Emma.ai that adds accurate travel plans automatically to appointments, directly into a Google calendar that may be helpful for some of you looking for this function.
The actual “Travel Time” option no longer appears when i set up a calendar meeting. It did a week ago and have no idea why it doesnt now. I have checked friends phones and some have it and some dont but we dont know how to actually get the option back?
Hi Paul.
We just tested it out and it’s working on our devices. Not sure why your isn’t.
We suggest you close all your apps, restart, and then update your iOS if an update is available.
Close an app
1. On an iPhone or an iPad with no home button from the Home screen, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and pause slightly in the middle of the screen
2. On an iDevice with a home button, double-click the Home button and swipe right or left to find the app that you want to close
3. Swipe right or left to locate the app you want to close
4. Swipe up on the app’s preview to close it
5. Repeat for any open app
So somehow I pinned the wrong address at some point and now the default starting point for my travel time is wrong and I can’t figure out how to change it to the correct address so that I can automatically tap the correct address as the starting point.
Obviously I can just retype the address or say use current location but it’s just something that really really bugs me.
HI Katie,
The calendar app pulls data from Apple Maps, so check out your locations there.
Is there a way to make travel time pop up every time I schedule something? Using travel time is great but there are too many steps and I use it on all my appointments.
What I really want to do is be able to add a travel time that is not in the pre-canned list. Specifically, 45 minutes. For a number of places I go, 30 minutes is too short, 1 hour is too long.
How do I edit the list of default travel times to reflect what I know about my local environment.
Also, I’m often in locations where cell service and location services DON’T work. You city-slickers just don’t get it. So I can’t use the estimated travel time from a mapping function when in those locations.
I want to be able to just MANUALLY edit a travel time with a value I know from experience is more correct than the default choices.
(Note that both Google and Apple mapping functions often have erroneous routing info as well as estimated travel times due to their lack of local knowledge. As has been observed in the past, “mapping is hard”.)
I can’t seem to figure out how to change the mode of transportation for the travel time option in my iPhone calendar.
It comes up with the walking figure icon automatically.
I want it to be set on driving, not walking.
I have already gone to settings/maps/preferred transportation and set it to driving.
Please help!!
Hi Linda,
First, make sure you have an exact location (full address) in your calendar for your destination.
Then tap travel time and toggle it on. Then choose a starting location instead of the default travel times.
Once you choose a starting location, you should see options populate for car, walking, and public transportation.
Hope that works for you!
Liz