What To Know About Google's 'Trips' App

Google has always been innovative when it comes to helping travelers plan a trip by making it easier and hassle-free by implementing platforms like the Trip Planning search. Google has made it much less time consuming and stress-free to plan your vacation with its latest Google Trips app. This app is designed to take the stress out of planning your itinerary and providing travelers with easy access to information like things to do and see, which would be readily available to them through this app.

Planning out a trip can be overwhelming to many travelers, especially if it’s a destination that is mainly foreign to you. A study from Goodthink has reported that 74% of travelers feel as though researching the details of a trip is the most stressful part of travel planning. That said, most travelers will start their preparation and research by searching Google. They may look at the top 10 lists of things to do on TripAdvisor or rely on reading online reviews from other travelers to get an idea of popular things to do in the area. However, this way of doing research may limit travelers on information about local things to do. Many millennials especially love to do local stuff as opposed to just visiting those ‘touristy’ attractions. Finding hidden gems, like mom-and-pop restaurants, is something that would interest many millennials because, as you know, many of them are foodies and love taking unique adventures.‍

So now, let’s take a look at what features Google Trips provides modern-day travelers. This app instantly allows users to plan each day of their trip and organize their flight and hotel reservations. Also, it offers editorial guides to over 200 cities and makes personalized suggestions based on your Google history searches. Not to mention it also stores your travel plans offline, so you don’t have to worry about lost internet connection or lost signal on the plane ride. What makes this app user-friendly is its ability to gather information already stored from your Gmail automatically. For instance, if you have flight and hotel reservations stored in your Gmail, Google Trips will automatically grab that stored information and organize the info so you can begin creating a trip based on the bookings made to the destination. If you don’t have an email with reservations about your trip, rest assured you can still use this app for its intended purpose. If you choose not to connect your Gmail, then the app will prompt you to begin a search of where you would like to go. This is where you will enter the city you will be traveling to.

Day Plans

If you immediately want to cut out the guesswork and have Google instantly generate an entire itinerary for the day, then click on the ‘Day Plans’ category. Here you will see a plethora of suggested full day plans for the next 72 hours. For each day, Google generates a list of 4-5 attractions to visit for the day in order of what makes the most sense. What makes this app especially cool, is its ability to create a detailed list of must-see attractions around the city. It gives you an idea of how long visitors usually spend at that attraction, which is helpful to know because it allows you to organize your time accordingly. Another great thing about this ‘Day Plans’ feature is the transportation information it provides regarding how long it takes to get to one attraction to the next by car or on foot.

Furthermore, it also provides open and closing times for each attraction, so you don’t have to do a separate Google search to find this out. If you happen to be traveling with kids, Google will sometimes generate a different Day Plan list with a kid-friendly itinerary. If you want to stay within a city, then there’s also a list of attractions in and around that specific city.

Things To Do

If you prefer to make your itinerary but still need ideas on where to go and sights to see during your vacation, then click back to the ‘Things To Do’ category. This feature allows you to search by different types like Local Favorites, Comedy Clubs, Historical Places, Architectural Icons, Upscale Shopping, and much more. Just click on the star icon to save the area that interests you and refer back to those places in the Saved Places category. Here you can organize and create your itinerary based on what you selected in the Things To Do and the Food & Drink category.

Food & Drink‍

Now that you’ve decided on places you’ll want to visit using the Things To Do feature, it’s time to select what restaurants to dine at during your visit using the Food & Drink feature. This feature gives you an overview of what the city has to offer when it comes to different ethnic cuisines. When you click on the Top Spots tab, you will find a list of top restaurants to eat at organized by various categories like high-end dining, on a budget, family-friendly, breakfast & brunch, comfort foods, and more.

Unlike the Trip Planning search feature introduced back in January, this app is meant to help consumers when they have already arrived at their destination. This app is a new and enhanced version of the Trip Planning platform that Google integrated into their search experience. With this app, travel planning no longer has to be burdensome. Take advantage of this app on your next trip and spend more time living in the moment while on vacation than worrying about where to go next.