Making travel plans is tricky even in the best of times, but the pandemic and its lingering effects have made things even more complicated. Whether you're going halfway around the world or planning a trip much closer to home, your smartphone can be a huge help.
You probably already use your phone to get you from A to B as quickly as possible, but Google Maps, Apple Maps, and other apps can do much more than this—they can put together a proper itinerary for your next excursion, storing longer lists of places that you want to tick off on your travels.
Planning ahead means that time away from home—whether a vacation, business trip, or anything else—is much better organized and less stressful. You can make sure you visit everywhere you want to visit in the time you have available.
Use Google Maps to Save Destinations
Google Maps can be public or private.
Search for a location on Google Maps, bring up its info card, and you'll see a Save icon—it shows up on Android, iOS, and the web, and if you tap the icon you can add the place to one of the lists Google Maps makes for you (Starred places, Want to go, and Favorites) or choose New list to put together a custom list of your own.
When you create a new list, you can give it a name and description, and choose a list type: Private means only you can see the list, Shared means you can share it with a select number of people (your travel buddies perhaps), and Public means anyone can see the list (in case you want to share your pick of the local bars in your area, for example).
Whether or not you decide to share the list, this is your opportunity to put together a handpicked collection of places based around a trip—it might be restaurants, or landmarks, or entertainment options for the kids. Google Maps lets you create multiple lists and save locations to one or more of them as required.
You can get back to your lists by tapping on the Saved tab in your mobile apps, or by opening the main menu on the Google Maps web interface and choosing Your places and Saved. Open up an individual place and it's possible to add a note, which is handy if you want to remember why you added it, or what you're actually going there for.
