Introducing Google Trips: Your Own Customized Travel Planner

Google has just debuted a new mobile app offering called Google Trips, and it is designed to help users better plan their vacation trips. What the app (it is made available for Android and iOS mobile users) does is collate data from various sources, including Google’s own Google Maps as well as crowdsourced suggestions and feedback from other users, especially those who have traveled to the places you are planning to visit. Using all the combined data that the Google Trips app has collected, you can keep better track of your day trips, reservations, interesting places to visit, dining places, and many more.

Earlier this year, there were leaks suggesting that Google was developing a travel app, especially after an app was seen being tested within the tech giant’s Local Guides community. For those not familiar with Local Guides, it serves to continuously improve Google Maps and business data through reviews, corrections on entries, and images. For its service, the community gets to enjoy exclusive access to Google products and services that are still being tested, like Google Trips.

When launching the Google Trips mobile app, users will see a home screen that comes with a simple search box. Users can then enter their desired destination, and along the way, get access to other travel information related to that destination. What is cool about the app is that it can dedicate a separate tab for each destination the user plans to visit. All tabs are grouped under a bigger Trip section, and if users want to access all of the gathered information even when offline, they can just download everything via a toggle switch.

Each destination tab comes with various colorful cards that offer helpful and interesting information grouped into categories such as Saved Places, Day Plans,. Food & Drink, Getting Around, Things To Do, and of course, Reservations, among many others. Moreover, Google has cleverly designed the app to offer recommendations based on what is trending -- for instance, the app can display the most popular day plans and travel itineraries for the top 200 cities across the globe, collected from other travelers.

Another advantage of Google Trips is that it seamlessly takes advantage of Google Maps data in allowing users to check out interesting spots near their planned destinations. For instance, if users tell the app they have no plans after having lunch at this particular restaurant, Google Trips can suggest another place to check out for the rest of the afternoon.

To get Google Trips, you can visit Google Play or iTunes.