How To Use Google Maps Trip Planner To Travel Like A Pro

Step 1: Create a New Google Maps Trip Planner Map

Done booking the tickets and shortlisting the places you want to visit? All that’s remaining is to add them to the trip planner in Google Maps one by one. However, let’s first start off with how to create a new Google MyMaps page.
And voilà! You just created your own map. Now on to adding places to the map.

Step 2: Add Locations to Your Google Maps Trip Planner

The next step is adding locations. If you already have the locations you want to go to, you could search and add them to the map. However, you can also search right on the map thanks to Google Maps’s comprehensive and up-to-date location information. Here’s how Google Maps’ multiple stops feature works.

Add Layers to Map Trip Planner

Adding locations is not the end, as Google Maps also has layers that you can create to store locations of different categories. You can have at most 10 layers. Here’s how to add them. What all the layer styles mean:

Numbered: All locations in the layer are numbered. This could be useful to plan where to go first and the following places. Uniform Style: This can be considered a sub-layer. Changes all locations into the same color. Individual Styles: This gives you the ability to assign different icons and colors to each location in the layer.

Creating and adding locations could be a tedious process, but if you’ve already added them, we’re now in the fun part of trip planning, i.e., adding notes, measuring distance, adding directions to places, and customizing the colors of locations.

Add Directions as Layers

The maps trip planner lets you both search for locations and choose them on the map. The latter is what you’ll be doing most of the time. If you’re planning a road trip via Google Maps, this feature could be helpful. Here’s how to add directions as layers.

Step 3: Customize Locations on Map

Customizing places on Maps trip planner can help you sort of add your own filters to better differentiate between places. For example, you can change the location pointer’s color for all eateries to yellow and all monuments to blue.
Maybe arrange them in a way that blue indicates you’re supposed to visit them on a particular day and yellow indicates you’ll visit them the next day. There are endless possibilities. Here’s how to customize map trip locations.

Changing the Colors of Pointers

To change the color of the location pointers, all you need to do is click on one of the pointers > color bucket > choose a color and/or an icon. This way, you can have different colors and icons for different layers of the maps.
A good example would be if you change the colors of places you want to visit to Orange and all the eateries you want to visit to Blue. You can also change the individual pointer colors by selecting the “Individual styles” option.

Rearranging Locations

You can rearrange the contents and places in a layer by dragging and dropping them above or below other places or layers, thereby eliminating the need to manually add or remove the locations.

Changing Map Style

If you prefer plotting on a satellite or terrain map, you can change the base map style by clicking on the down arrow icon on the “Base map” section and choosing your preferred type of terrain. Maps such as Terrain, Satellite, and regular-styled ones are pretty good.

Step 4: Access the Saved Map on Your Phone

The map once saved in Google Maps can be accessed on both your phone and PC. Here’s how to access it on your phone: One of the best tips to never lose access to your map is to download an offline map of the area you’re visiting. This could not only help you keep using the maps without an internet connection but can also save your battery life.

Once you’re done adding all the locations, it’s now time to share the completed map with your travel partner(s). All you need to do is click on the Share option at the top > turn on the Anyone with this link toggle > copy the link to share it with others.
And that’s how you can use Google Maps to plan your trips in advance and select all the locations you want to visit. What are your thoughts on this, and do you know better apps that can do the same thing? Let us know in the comments.