Google Launches ‘Destinations’, Makes Travel Planning a Walk on the Beach

There’s an app for that There are hundreds of apps for that. And that, and that. Oh yes, and that too.

It’s mind boggling sometimes. Between trawling through the many out there and scrolling through customer reviews it can be overwhelming. Luckily for us, Google feels the same way – especially when it comes to planning your dream trip. So to take the stress out of travel apps (and to corner the market on them) they’ve created Google Destinations.

The best part is, it’s already there – on your phone. You can check it out right now:

All you have to do to enable it is type the name of the country you want to research followed by destination.

It can be a continent, country, state, or city depending on how much you want Google to narrow down options for you. So if you’re interested in booking a trip to Turkey all you need to do is type “Turkey Destinations” and tap on the arrow for more information and away you go.

Of course, your average Google search will still yield a lot of information about your chosen vacation destination. But the difference here is that it presents it in a grid form, giving you the cheapest flights and the dates they’re available, as well as giving you accommodation prices. You can filter by dates, interests , and price, as well as adjust the number of travellers.

If you click on one of the cards, say the city of Antalya, it gives you the option to explore and look at suggested itineraries, top sights, peak travelling times, and the climate for each month. Alternatively, if you click the ‘Plan a Trip’ tab, it brings up airfares which you can customize to see how prices fluctuate by time of year, and also view hotels with reviews and average costs.

You can also do this by typing the city and ‘travel’ or ‘vacation’, i.e. “Barcelona Travel’. You may find you have to scroll down a little, but again you’ll see the little arrow and ‘Barcelona Travel Guide’ which will bring up similar information. Again, you can use this for a city, state, or country.

It will even suggest some itineraries, like a Gothic Quarter Highlights, or a day exploring the Eixample District. For a country guide it will offer ideas for a seven day stay, outlining excursions – Mexico’s brought up 5 days in Mexico City, Playa del Carmen and Cancun as well as itineraries for a 6-day break in Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta.

In other words, it’s dangerous.

In just a few idle clicks you’re all of a sudden imagining yourself on sandy white beaches sipping a Pina Colada…when you’ve already used up all your annual leave. But if you are genuinely planning a trip it’s an amazing tool. As Google Destinations says, it does everything for you, except pack.

Now if only there was an app for that…

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