Export a single Polarsteps trip as GPX or Markdown

1. Log in at polarsteps.com on a laptop or desktop, click your name in the top right corner and choose Account settings.
2. Scroll to "Download my data" in the privacy section, click "Download a copy of your data", then "Start My Archive", and enter your Polarsteps password.
3. Wait for the Polarsteps email with the download link and unzip the archive of every trip on the account.
4. Open user_data > trip, find the folder of the one trip you need, and read its locations.json in a JSON reader.
5. Convert those coordinates to GPX yourself, with a script or an online converter. Every new request builds the archive of the whole account again, even when you need one trip.

Export my Patagonia trip as a GPX file for Komoot and a Markdown journal, without the photos.

1. 01

   Find the right trip

   The agent calls list_trips with status past and matches your words against trip names and dates. When "Japan" and "Japan 2024" both fit, it shows both and asks which one before exporting anything.

2. 02

   Choose the format from your goal

   A route for Komoot, Garmin or Google Earth means gpx. A journal for Obsidian or a notes app means markdown. A backup that keeps everything means json. Two goals mean two export_trip calls, one per format.

3. 03

   Leave out photos unless asked

   include_media stays false by default, because a long trip with hundreds of photos makes a large zip. The agent turns it on only when you say you want the pictures too.

4. 04

   Save the file before the link expires

   The agent downloads the file right away and saves it where you said. If the link has already expired, it runs export_trip again rather than reporting a dead link.

5. 05

   Flag trips that are still running

   For an ongoing trip with no end date, the export holds only the steps so far. The agent says so in its report, so you know to export again after you get home.

Trip: Patagonia (4 Dec 2025 to 19 Jan 2026), 41 steps, 3,870 km
Saved: ~/Trips/patagonia.gpx (route, 41 points)
Saved: ~/Trips/patagonia.md (41 step stories, 18,400 words)
Photos: not included, ask again with photos for a zip
Planned steps without a date: none

• Polarsteps cannot export a trip to PDF; the help center answers that question with "You cannot do this right now".
• The Polarsteps "Download my data" archive is JSON for everything except photos, so you need a JSON reader to open it, and Polarsteps support does not help with the data after you download it.
• Inside the Polarsteps archive, each trip has its own folder under user_data > trip, with photos sorted by step, locations.json for the coordinates and trip.json for the step texts.
• On polarsteps.com, "Download my data" asks for your password after "Start My Archive", and the archive arrives as an email link, not as a direct download.

Every tool here only reads, so it can run on a schedule from n8n, Make, Zapier or cron without waiting for your OK.

Sources: Polarsteps Help: How can I export a copy of my data? · Polarsteps Help: Can I export my trip into a PDF file?

curl https://cotlet.dev/api/v1/polarsteps/export_trip \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $COTLET_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"trip_id":"16720458","format":"gpx","include_media":false}'

{
  "trip_id": "16720458",
  "format": "gpx",
  "download_url": "https://example.com/exports/16720458.gpx",
  "expires_at": "2026-10-11T15:00:00+02:00",
  "steps": 41
}

MCP: add https://cotlet.dev/mcp/v1 with the same key; the tool is polarsteps_export_trip. Example data.

• Turn a Polarsteps trip into a blog post
• Import a past trip into Polarsteps from a spreadsheet
• Proofread a Polarsteps trip before printing a Travel Book
• Polarsteps API and MCP server: every tool
• All use cases