# Export a single Polarsteps trip as GPX or Markdown

> Polarsteps exports only your whole account as JSON by email. Get one trip as a GPX route or a Markdown journal from your AI agent instead.

Source: https://cotlet.dev/integrations/polarsteps-api-mcp-server/export-trip-gpx

You finished a trip and want its route in Komoot, Google Earth or a GPS watch, or its stories in a notes app. Polarsteps shows the route on its own map, but it has no button that saves one trip as a file.

Cotlet does it in your own Polarsteps account with list\_trips and export\_trip, called by your AI agent, an n8n workflow or a script.

[Request access](https://cotlet.dev/app/signup?app=polarsteps) [All Polarsteps tools](https://cotlet.dev/integrations/polarsteps-api-mcp-server)

Hosted · nothing to install or maintain

Official options

## Can Polarsteps do this on its own?

Polarsteps has no API and no per-trip export (checked 12 Oct 2026). The help center says a trip cannot be exported to PDF. The two official ways out are "Download my data", an archive of the whole account sent by email, and a printed Travel Book. Neither gives you a GPX file.

By hand

## How you do it in Polarsteps today

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.

With an agent

## How to export a single Polarsteps trip as GPX or Markdown

Prompt

```
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.

### What you get back

Example data

```
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
```

### Other ways to ask

- Export every past trip from 2025 as GPX, one file per trip.
- Back up my current trip as JSON every Sunday night.
- Export my Iceland trip with all photos and videos as a zip.
- Give me the Lisbon part of my Portugal trip as Markdown only.

Before you automate it

## What Polarsteps allows, and what to know first

- 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?](https://support.polarsteps.com/hc/en-us/articles/24266264821138-How-can-I-export-a-copy-of-my-data) · [Polarsteps Help: Can I export my trip into a PDF file?](https://support.polarsteps.com/hc/en-us/articles/24268063526802-Can-I-export-my-trip-into-a-PDF-file)

REST

## Call export\_trip from a script

curl

```
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}'
```

Example response

```
{
"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.

[Schedule it in n8n, Make, Zapier or cron](https://cotlet.dev/integrations/polarsteps-api-mcp-server#automations)

Tools

## Polarsteps tools this automation uses

__Cotlet Polarsteps tools used to export a single Polarsteps trip as GPX or Markdown__
| Tool | Parameters |
| ------------ | -------------------------------- |
| list\_trips | status, limit |
| export\_trip | trip\_id, format, include\_media |

[All 14 Polarsteps tools with descriptions](https://cotlet.dev/integrations/polarsteps-api-mcp-server#tools)

## Frequently asked questions

### Can I export a trip I follow but did not make?

No. list\_trips returns the trips on your own Polarsteps account, and export\_trip works on those. A trip of someone you follow belongs to their account.

## More Polarsteps automations

- [Turn a Polarsteps trip into a blog post](https://cotlet.dev/integrations/polarsteps-api-mcp-server/trip-to-blog-post)
- [Import a past trip into Polarsteps from a spreadsheet](https://cotlet.dev/integrations/polarsteps-api-mcp-server/import-past-trip)
- [Proofread a Polarsteps trip before printing a Travel Book](https://cotlet.dev/integrations/polarsteps-api-mcp-server/proofread-trip-for-travel-book)
- [Polarsteps API and MCP server: every tool](https://cotlet.dev/integrations/polarsteps-api-mcp-server)
- [All use cases](https://cotlet.dev/use-cases)

## Give your agent access to Polarsteps.

Free 7-day trial with 5,000 credits, no card needed. Cotlet is independent and not affiliated with Polarsteps.

[Request access](https://cotlet.dev/app/signup?app=polarsteps)