Importance Score: 72 / 100 🔴
Whether you’re exploring a new metropolis or charting a course for a summertime road trip, Google Maps can act as your essential travel companion. From pinpointing that essential landmark to securing a last-minute dining spot, Google’s navigation application provides support—even without a data connection—no matter your location globally.
Google Maps boasts a diverse array of features crafted to streamline your travel adventures, from assisting with navigation through bustling airport terminals to aiding in the discovery of dining establishments along your route. Recent enhancements incorporating artificial intelligence now offer tailored itinerary suggestions and captivating immersive views of destinations, rendering travel planning more customized and effortless.
Delve into seven valuable tools within the app that I utilize on every journey. Plus, explore the latest AI integration set to enhance Google Maps.
Essential Google Maps Tools for Seamless Travel
1. Easily Navigate Airports and Train Stations
Navigating chaotic environments can be challenging. Overwhelming situations and large crowds can induce panic. For many, navigating vibrant airports and train stations can quickly become a daunting experience.
During a trip last May, navigating a busy terminal while catching a high-speed train from London King’s Cross to Edinburgh Waverley proved difficult. King’s Cross sees roughly 67,078 individuals daily, making it a notoriously overwhelming place to find amenities. Google Maps offered a solution.
In large malls or transit hubs, the Google Maps Directory tab for airports, malls, and transit stations can help you find a specific store or point of interest. This is particularly beneficial when you need to quickly find a place to eat or buy a souvenir before your flight. (I relied on the Directory feature to locate a coffee shop and try a traditional sausage roll before departing London.)
To locate it, simply search for an airport or transit station, then tap on the Directory option at the bottom of your screen. You can then view opening times, floor plans, and options like eateries, stores, lounges, and parking zones.
2. Check Real-Time Crowds Before You Arrive
The fear of crowds is real. If a particular street, restaurant, or even neighborhood is likely to be extremely busy, avoiding it altogether seems reasonable.
To prevent wasted trips and immediate U-turns, consider checking Google Maps’ “busyness” feature to gauge how packed an area is before heading there. A quick search for a locale, like a café or retail store, unveils a chart detailing its popularity at various times, ideal for timing your visit during quieter periods. Selecting the “Busy area” indicator provides insight into broader regions, such as neighborhoods, to discern periods of peak and low crowding.
To use it, launch the Google Maps application on your mobile device or desktop browser and navigate the map. Focus your search on different zones, such as downtown, a waterfront, or neighboring towns. The real-time “busyness” data appears automatically; there’s no need to search for individual addresses.
Google Maps might flag a location as “Busy Area,” and tapping on it will show details like “As busy as it gets” or “Not too busy.” You can also search for a specific place and scroll down to see busy and non-busy times for that location.
3. Make Reservations Easily Online
As a traveler, balancing organized activities with the flexibility to explore spontaneously can be tricky. Some days are dedicated to meticulous pre-planning, while others embrace spontaneity.
When traveling, especially when you’re determined to explore every corner of a new location, pinpointing the exact moment hunger strikes can be difficult. On reservation-free days, Google Maps simplifies the process of booking accommodations without needing a phone call.
Here’s how:
- Open Google Maps and choose the Restaurants option near the top of the screen to examine nearby dining choices.
- Choose a restaurant that appeals to you, and a pop-up window will present options to book a table or join a waiting list, subject to availability.
Leverage the Busyness tool to pinpoint less crowded places. Also, be aware that some venues may be closed for dining but may still supply options for delivery, curbside pickup, or alfresco seating.
4. Offline Access: Use Google Maps without Cell Service
A family hike through the Scottish countryside was made easier thanks to forethought. The remote location and dense forest cover meant unreliable cellular service. Fortunately, preparation was key.
When visiting areas with potential cellular instability, Google Maps continues to be helpful, even during periods of connectivity loss. Consider the following steps:
- Prior to departure, find your desired destination within the Google Maps application.
- From the location choices, access the menu and scroll until the “More” button comes into sight.
- Select “Download offline map,” next, confirm download for the chosen zone, and tap “Download” to confirm. Google Maps will cache a segment of this zone on your mobile device.
Post-download, use Google Maps for guidance. In the event of signal loss, the application switches automatically to the offline version. However, keep in mind that traffic data is not available offline.
5. Real-Time Coordination: Location Sharing
Differing interests can make it hard when touring a new city with others. While an art museum might hold interest for some, others may prefer to explore outside.
To maintain harmony while traveling, consider parting ways temporarily to accommodate individual interests. Meeting back up later can become challenging.
Few things are more irritating than losing contact and battling to reconnect. Frantic phone calls and unclear “I’m by the fountain” and “Near the bridge” explanations are not ideal.
Fortunately, Google Maps simplifies this.
- Launch Google Maps; tap the profile iconography located at the upper right, then tap Location Sharing.
- Click Share Location, determine who will receive your data, and select when to terminate sharing.
- Click Share, and the data gets pushed to selected parties.
- To observe someone else’s location, tap their corresponding iconography atop the display and tap Request.
6. Curate, Share, and Explore Custom Lists
Travel planning and list-making go hand-in-hand. Upon securing flights, travel tips and itinerary ideas are collected and curated. A detailed plan emerges, marking stores, eateries, and monuments that are essential throughout the trip.
The challenge is locations are not geographically organized. Continually entering locations into Google Maps to optimize traversal between sequential events consumes time previously dedicated to exploration.
Google Maps helps by creating travel lists to categorize upcoming destinations within a single zone. Starting is very easy: Move to the You tab, and select + New List. Name the list, drop in a description, and use iconography relevant to each element. Every location that’s relevant will then be saved with simple access using the Save option on each map listing.
Share the list with other travelers and invite input to further refine the itinerary.
7. Gemini Integration: Unleash AI-Powered Recommendations
Deciding how to spend time in a new location can be extremely overwhelming. Turning to Gemini, Google’s artificial intelligence, alleviates this pressure.
Since Google Maps updated in Fall 2024, users can utilize Gemini for itinerary recommendations. Simply invoke Gemini to find attractions during rainy spells or to suggest top-rated family-friendly restaurants near you. Gemini pulls crowd-sourced data from Google and places relevant recommendations on the map for your consideration.
This capability directs you toward better leisure-related activities and superior dining spots, enabling smooth time management with decreased stress.
Bonus: Screenshot Organization with AI
Saved photos can easily number in the thousands. Travel plans often involve saving images on your mobile device, marking attractions, museums, and dining spots by pinning items in specialized applications such as Pinterest and Instagram. The screenshots result in numerous photos requiring filtering.
Google Maps offers a new facility to categorize items and establish separate lists for ease of use. Using the artificial intelligence capability, the screenshots are scanned, and relevant text from images is used to organize locations plotted on the map. You may organize by saving or sharing entries on a custom-built list.
The rollout commences on iOS in the American market, with Android slated for future introduction.