In the past, you had to carry maps, Lonely Planet guides and walk with a railway timetable in your pocket to know how to get somewhere or where you could eat well. Nowadays we approach this differently, because we have a smartphone. Sometimes you might use Google Maps, sometimes Tripadvisor. But did you know that Google Maps can do a lot more than you probably think? Google Maps helps you on holiday in these 10 ways.
1. From the airport to your hotel
It is of course very easy to get to your hotel from the airport with a taxi, but sometimes there are buses that run almost directly and are much cheaper. In Google Maps you can navigate from the airport to your hotel and Google will let you know which bus to take and even where to find the bus stop.
2. Recognize toll roads
If you have chosen to rent a car, you can easily travel from the airport to your hotel using Google Maps navigation. And do you want to drive via toll roads or avoid them? That’s possible: Google Maps can tell you exactly where there are toll roads and so you can make a good decision about how you are going to drive.
3. Find restaurants nearby
You arrive at your hotel, but of course you are tired from all that traveling. With Google Maps you can search for a restaurant in the area: if you tap on a restaurant name (red), you will see how many stars it has and also based on how many reviews. This way you know approximately what to expect, especially if you also look at the photos added by other Google users.
4. Tips from the experts
If you want to do something fun at your destination, but you don’t know what yet, Google will soon come up with a very useful feature: destination lists. For example, it indicates which attractions are recommended by the New York Times and Lonely Planet, so that you can quickly view the highlights of a city. Once that option is available, you can also see which hidden gems a city has (Gems) and which locations are always popular.
5. View opening hours
Do you want to go to a major tourist attraction but you don’t know what time it opens? If you tap on it within Maps, you can see not only the rating, but also the opening hours. In some cases you can even buy tickets for it immediately. Handy, because even if you don’t buy it immediately, you can immediately see what the damage is: the prices are listed from different websites.
6. Avoid the crowds
Especially since the corona years, not all of us are equally keen on large crowds. Or perhaps you are traveling with a small child who would benefit from a little more peace and quiet. If you tap on a tourist attraction and scroll down, you can see what the popular times are. This way you can see how busy it is, but also how much time people spend there on average. Then you will have a better idea of ​​what to expect and you can adjust your plan for that day based on the crowds.
7. Save your own route
Do you like to do a kind of pub crawl when traveling? You can easily plan this by looking up bars in Google Maps and saving them in Google Maps. You can give your list a name and add an icon, so you can quickly recognize which list something belongs to.
8. Save maps offline
This is one of the best features of Google Maps: you can choose how large the map should be, but you can save the map of an entire city or even parts of a country. This way you can also use it offline, which is useful: especially if you go to the United States or Asia, for example, where your data bundle does not apply.
9. Adjust the order
Previously this was not possible, but now it is: putting lists in a different order. This way you can really plan a route properly, because you simply make a list of which place you want to go to which place. You just have to long press it and drag.
10. More specific court information
Google is also increasingly introducing AI within Google Maps. This summer, AI will be introduced that scans photos of restaurants. It can tell you which dish is on the menu, how much it costs and potentially whether it is vegetarian or not. However, it also uses menu information for this. Moreover, if you fancy a specific dish, you can often simply type it into the search bar and Google will find places for you where they have it.
Google Maps is becoming more than just a way to navigate. Also read 10 Google Maps tips you didn’t know yet. Have fun traveling!
