Weekend has come and you open your favorite flights search engine and start picking up prices for a potential destination. Will it be a resort with all-inclusive & beach access? might be an adventure out with a backpack with limited local food or even a full urban city tour going to the most famous places in Paris?
Can’t decide on one and you might want a short glimpse of every aspect of the country you plan to visit?
No worries! Go ahead, book the flight first, and now we’re starting the real adventure…
Yeah…That was the easy part ?
Now, how are we going to maximize our adventure and get the most out of it, considering it’s just two weeks without taking into account the expected jet leg period?
You won’t believe how simple it is by first open a list on Google Maps and start adding places.
It might look intimidating at the beginning as you don’t know a lot about your destination, believe me…start by adding the airport,
Now, concentrate about the first city you’d like to explore and start reading on it.
That could be first on Google map and click on the major attractions, restaurants and parks which are outstanding on the map.
You might be surprised, those might be very relevant based on the taste & places you’ve previously visited in Google.
Exploring each point of interest is super easy and include for you reviews & pictures from local guides and people who contributed and visited that place before.
It gives you a real glimpse into the place whether it’s worth the time to spent there or not. much better than any single blog review or post on social Facebook which just represent a single experience from a single person.
Now, after you added several places zoom out and see for yourself a list of places that you might interested to visit.
Way to go - 1st part is done!
You might think, ‘hey, wait? I need to find hotel in the city!’ - so why not look on your POIs and choose a hotel nearby?
This is fairly easy in Google Map as you can see the exact distance between your places & the suggested hotel you might consider.
Read the reviews, see some picture and decide easily! It;'s really amazing you don’t need to hop from one website to another and try to connect the dots!
This is moment I felt every-time and I locked myself into the Google Map experience and start review places to help people
around the world to start & building their own journey in our amazing world.
Now you’re looking for the adventure part of your trip, so start looking around and find the type of activity you’re looking to do, read about the weather in that period of time of the year and imagine what landscapes you’d like to see.
It’s so simple after to pin-point a place in the map and mark a hill, a route or forest and even making sure it’s worth visit by reading reviews from other people!
You wouldn’t believe how many places & hidden gems you might find. I think without having Google Map I wouldn’t be able to enjoy amazing local food in my travels!
I remember my trips in the beginning of 2000s were ended up in the nearest coffee shop or the next fast food chain. It was ok but considering the fact we all now have this tool, you’ll be amazed what restaurants you can find and desserts you’ll never find by just few clicks away.
One more thing, don’t get me wrong - It’s good and highly recommended to not plan everything on your trip.
Keep some time off and stroll around the little streets or area. Some of the hidden gems aren’t documented well enough so it’s super fun and exciting moment.
The bonus about it is that afterwards you can share it on Google Maps and you’ll be surprised to find out how useful that information is over time and this will be another mark to check off and know that you helped people around the world the enjoy and have their best time of their life during their travel.
