How to plan travelling using Google Maps
I use Google Maps to plan all of my travels! I have met a few others who do the same, however, I feel that most people don’t and that they’re really missing a trick!
Google Maps is free, easy to use and if used properly, it can revolutionise your travelling experience! So without further ado, here is how I have honed my use of Google Maps after spending years on the road and how you can do the same.
Backup
Firstly, make sure that you are signed into Google. This is normally automatic on Android phones. This means that all your hard work saving locations down won’t be lost if your phone is.
Offline Maps
Be sure to download the area of the map which you are visiting so that you can still navigate your way around even if you have no signal. You will lose some features, like not being able to see Google Review for locations when using offline mode, but it has all the essential elements which you need and everyting else will show up when you do get signal again. You can manually select an area to download an offline Google Map for.
Maps.me
Going off topic for Google Maps for a moment, I am alsoa big fan of Maps.Me too. it is free for your first few downloaded map areas and it shows more hiking trails than Google Maps. Keep in mind that it can show you hiking trails which don’t exist on occasion, so I wouldn’t blindly follow it everywhere, but it’s generally pretty good. Apps like Gia can also be a good option if you are a keen hiker. Feel free to check out my Travel Tips page for tips on my favourite travel apps.
Saving Locations
You can easily pin a location on Google Maps; by default, this is normally a blue dot with a white centre. I recommend using these to pin any locations of interest to you to see which you would consider seeing on your travels. Activities, landmarks, beaches, you name it! Mark them with a pin. In the description for each saved location, write a brief note about why you want to see it and, most importantly, how you heard about it. Here’s a walkthrough with images to make your life easy…
Firstly, find a location you want to save and then click the bookmark icon, which has the red arrow pointing to it.
Choose the folder you would like it saved in. For example, this place is in Mongolia, so I have added it to my Mongolia list; I talk more about grouping saved locations into categories later on, so don’t worry too much about that now
Make sure that you write in the description where you heard about it, as this will help you when prioritising when you are in the area.
If a friend recommended it, jot down who it was, what they thought of it, and any tips they have for visiting. If you have seen an Instagram or YouTube video that recommends it, then copy the link into your Google Maps description.
While I’m on the topic, why not check out my Destination Guides! I provide an overview of each destination, followed by specific recommendations for each place. In my ‘specific recommendations’ section, I include a Google Maps link for each one so that you can quickly and easily add locations you like to your Google Maps. Be sure to copy the link to that destination guide into your Google Maps description. This way, when you’re there, you can refresh your memory as to my comments on that location.
My main reason for making all these saved location dots is because then, my travel is effectively planned for me, and I can simply join up the dots; it’s as easy as that!
I’ve found this makes my travel efficient and enables me to be spontaneous. If I am tired or don’t have much time, I’ll look at the dots I’ve saved in my area and cut out the things that didn’t sound as appealing or which didn’t come as highly recommended. Equally, I can also see lots in a day by looking at the map and finding a fun route which gets me what I want from my travels.
The key to this is that I am not just pinning locations for countries which I know I am going to. I am pinning locations for places constantly! If I meet someone from Siberia, the Congo, or wherever else in the world who knows a really awesome place to see in their area or somewhere they have visited, I save it. That way, if I do end up over that way, then my trip is also already planned with the best things to do. I have done this so often and now have so many dots that I now notice parts of the world with lots of dots marked on them. These are often in countries which I hadn’t planned to visit any time soon, but then, given the amount of cool things to do there, creating a cluster of pinned locations of interest, it then gets bumped up my list of travel priorities.
I save my pinned locations into different categories by region, such as ‘south-east Asia’, ‘south Asia’, ‘Latin America’, etc., and you can do the same if you like, or just have it all as one. I typically mark these places all with the same standard blue and white pin symbol.
Categories
You can create different categories on Google Maps. By default, when you save a location, it will have a blue circle with a white centre. I used to use this for everything, but Google now lets you change this emoji, which makes planning trips even easier. Ultimately, it’s up to you how you categorise your saved locations.
I’ll talk you through my way, which, not to blow my own trumpet, but it’s pretty darn good. As I said before, be sure to make a short note in the description of each location to jog your memory nearer the time when you visit to make your life even easier. If you heard about the location on my website, copy the link to my Destination Guide into the description so that you can easily fire up my notes on it when you are there in person, thank me later!
Other Categories
In the past couple of years, I have started adding more categories with different emojis so that I can more easily plan my trips. These are often dictated by the region I am in, as I will explain shortly; however, these are what I use and I recommend considering them.
Category Ideas
Other than the classic blue and white pin, which I use for most locations, I also use the following emojis for different location types to make planning easier.
Pins
Standard blue and white pins, which are used by default on Google Maps. I use these for most things except the following:
Accommodation
I use the house emoji to show places where I may want to stay. This is often based on Hostelworld, Booking.com, recommendations from friends, etc. This works particularly well if you are doing road trips, especially if your signal drops. I found this particularly useful in India when I travelled solo on a motorbike in areas with poor mobile internet. I would save a few locations before setting off and then rock up to a hotel in the evening and ask around for places to stay, changing where I was staying depending on how far I had travelled in a day.
Friends
I use the hand in the air emoji to mark on my map friends I have who I can meet up with and often give me a place to stay on my travels. You will often meet people who you really bond with on your travels. If you are a long-term traveller in particular, you will often find yourself meeting people from all over the world who you can reconnect with. It’s a great part of travelling and one of my favourites. If you mark where your friends are on a map and drop a note on there with their name and contact info. then if you are in that area, you can make a detour to catch up with them. I can’t recommend this enough and it’s far easier to do when you’re face-to-face rather than trying to remember where everyone lives exactly when you part ways. Remembering nationalities is easy, but exact town etc. is much harder.
Camp Sites & Camper Van Sites
I use the tent emoji to make note of campsites I may want to stay at. You may also want to use the van emoji if you are planning a camper van trip to note potential locations to bed down for the night. There are also other apps out there, like Vanlife, which recommend places to stay, but I like them all on Google, so that it’s easier to plan.
Restaurants
I use the salad emoji to mark restaurants which I like the look of. I don’t always do it, but it’s nice to have.
Fuel
If I am travelling somewhere where petrol (gas) stations are few and far between, then for that leg of the trip, I mark them in advance with a petrol (gas) pump emoji. I found this particularly useful when traversing the Australian outback.
Car parked here
I use a red car emoji to save the location where I have parked. I’ll often be in a rental car or motorbike and in a new place. This can make it hard to find your way back to your vehicle, so I typically pin it on a map.
Bike rental
I often rent motorbikes and scooters while travelling, so I pin locations for reputable rental companies on my map with a motorbike emoji.
Hikes / Mountains
I save the start of good hiking trails with the boot emoji and mountain peaks, which I am keen to summit with the mountain emoji.
Bus stop
Bus stops can be a pain to find in many countries. I often pin the bus emoji at a location to make my life easier.
Airports
I use the plane emoji to mark airports, which can help me plan my travels. I don’t normally do this far in advance, but in places like Hawaii and Mexico, I found it useful. In Hawaii, for example, knowing the location of an airport helped me plan what I could do in a day while accommodating my trips to and from airports between the islands (since no ferries are available and flights are the only way to island hop there). In Mexico too, I also had several choices of airports to access and plotting my top destinations to visit and airports together helped me find an efficient way around, booking the right airport out of Mexico which suited me.
ATMs
I use the bank notes emoji to mark ATMs. This is particularly useful in countries like India and Mongolia, where many ATMS either don’t accept foreign cards or where certain banks offer cheaper withdrawal fees than others.
High Risk Areas
If you are planning to travel to more out-there destinations, you may find that it’s not advisable to travel in certain regions. For these areas to avoid, I use a siren or megaphone emoji depending on the level of risk. This can be a bit difficult to do as Google Maps pins a specific location rather than being able to easily identify an entire region. I pin them with the emoji, however and then write a note on there about the risk. I look at the UK government travel advice website to denote high-risk areas in countries which I intend to visit.
Hobbies
If you have any hobbies which you love to do while travelling, especially if these are things which you never get bored of, you can show them separately. Maybe it’s scuba diving, snorkelling or surfing. Find an emoji, make a category and bang it on the list! I love climbing, but typically don’t take my equipment with me on longer travels, so I mark locations for climbing and shops where I can rent the gear on my map. Or by all means, keep it as the default emoji if you don’t fancy making a category for everything.
How it looks
Ultimately, you can make as many categories as you like and organise Google Maps in a way which works best for you. I try to strike a balance between keeping my Google Maps simplistic enough to be easy to interpret. Meanwhile, I aim to have enough categories and emojis that the most important things I need to consider are taken into account.
Here’s how it looks…
It’s up to you how much research you want to put in before a trip and what you add to your map.
I wouldn’t recommend making all these categories at once, but the image below shows how I organise my saved locations. On the left are some of my saved locations by area, all of which are shown by a blue pin on my map. I would generally recommend organising your location categories by region rather than as individual countries, so that you don’t have too many. The central and right-hand columns show some of my saved categories with their corresponding emojis and which feed into my map.
Bonus tip one:
Change your map view
I also look at the ‘terrain’ and ‘satellite’ views on Google Maps to plan routes. Using Google Maps satellite images means I can see interesting features such as deserts or lush green areas easily. Likewise, terrain views make it easy to identify mountain ranges or other interesting and unusual geographical features. I often zoom in on any of these places which peak my interest and find out more. Google Maps recommends attractions too, and I have often found some of the best things to do in an area by just stumbling across them on Google Maps, often when zooming in on a distinctive geographical feature. A great example of this was in India, where I found some of the more impressive castles I’ve ever seen in mountain ranges, which I identified on the terrain view and zoomed in close to see castles listed there and then dived further into finding out more.
Bonus tip two:
Google reviews
I often use Google Maps to find reputable businesses to ensure that I am not ripped off or scammed. This can also be a great way to find restaurants too, particularly if you have allergies or are worried about food hygiene in foreign countries. Sometimes I research restaurants in advance, but often I see where the locals go and that normally goes well, although I will often load up Google to make sure it has good reviews too; nobody wants a stomach bug when they’re abroad if they can help it!
Bonus tip three:
Polarsteps
You can see my full list of recommended apps, which I use to make my travels easier on my Travel Tips page. Easily one of my favourites though and one which deserves particular mention as we are on the topic of maps, is Polarsteps. I use Google Maps to plan places I want to visit in the future, but I use Polarsteps like a diary and to track where I have been. Check out my ‘Travel Tips’ page for more info. on this amazing app. I have also included some screenshots from one of my travel trips below so that you can see how it looks.
Summary
Google Maps is easy to use and free! I hope that Google Maps will enhance your travel experience as much as it has mine. It’s easy to use, free and ultimately ticks all the boxes for me which I need for life on the road.
Thank you for reading and happy travels!
Andy Argo
Did you like this blog? You may also like...
Want to keep up to date? On my Support Me page, you can leave your information to get email updates for new blog posts, podcast episodes and more. Any donations are also greatly appreciated!
Title image: Flaming Cliffs, Gobi Desert, southern Mongolia. See my Mongolia Destination Guide for more information on this location.