Long weekends are rare to come by but in case you are taking a couple of days off from work in favour of a getaway, Google Maps has your “road trip” covered. Here are a few Google Maps tips to make the most of your time on the road.
Figure out the best time to leave: To make sure you don’t get stuck in traffic for most of your drive, set the time you would like to depart or arrive by to see how long it’ll take you to get to your destination.
Avoid tolls: To steer clear of tolls completely, simply tap on the three dots at the top right corner of your directions in Google Maps to see your route options and select ‘avoid tolls.’ And soon, Google Maps will also start showing you the estimated toll price before you start navigating to help you compare and select the best route for you.
Enjoy multi-stop road trips: Plan your complete journey at once by adding up to 10 stops in a single trip with multi-stop directions on Google Maps. On the app, enter a destination, tap the corner menu, and then tap ‘add stop’. To rearrange the order of your stops, tap and hold the stop you want to move and drag it to the position you want.
Keep your eyes on the road with voice navigation in local languages: Enjoy a hands-free and eyes-free experience by simply saying ‘OK Google’ followed by a voice command. The feature is available in eight Indian languages — Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Gujarati, and Urdu.
Get directions quicker with new widgets on iOS: The new pinned trip widget by Google Maps lets you access frequent trips that are pinned in your Go Tab directly from your iOS home screen — so you can see your estimated arrival time at the destination, next departures for transit trips, and a suggested route for driving trips.
Access directions offline: Download a map of an area in advance so you can still access directions and turn-by-turn navigation even if you can’t get online. To do this, tap on your profile picture in Maps, tap ‘offline maps’, then select your own map.
Search along your route: Use Google Maps to search for petrol pumps, a restaurant or other places along your drive so you can manage your tasks without going too far out of your way.
Save time with helpful information: Use the ‘Popular Times’ and ‘Live Busyness’ information to see when restaurants are most crowded so you can know which places are likely to seat you immediately.
Stay entertained through the trip: Stream music from Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play Music and more on Android and iOS devices right from Google Maps.
Plan activities as a group: Use the Saved tab to create custom lists of favourite places you’ve been and places you want to visit and even share your lists with others. You can also share your real-time location with your group to make it easier to meet up or find one another if you get separated.