When it comes to trip planning, there’s no shortage of fancy apps and tools to explore. And trust me, as someone who loves tinkering with all the shiny new travel tech, I’ve tried quite a few. But sometimes, the best tools are the ones we already know and use every day. Enter Google: your ultimate one-stop shop for travel planning.

Google has a suite of features that can help you snag cheaper flights, find the best accommodations, map out your itinerary, and organize your trip like a seasoned pro. Best of all? These tools are free, intuitive, and incredibly effective. Let’s dive into five simple Google hacks to make your next trip smoother, cheaper, and stress-free.

Before we dive in, grab my free customizable itinerary template HERE. It’s an easy to use Google Doc designed to keep all your booking details organized in one place, so you can stop digging through your inbox and start enjoying stress-free trip planning!

1. Let the Deal Decide the Destination

Remember spinning a globe as a kid and dreaming about where you’d go? Google Explore brings that sense of adventure into the digital age.

If you’re flexible about where and when to travel, Google Explore can inspire your next adventure while keeping your wallet happy.

How It Works:

• Open Google Flights and navigate to the “Explore” tab.
• Enter your departure city and choose flexible dates (i.e., 1-week trip in the next 6 months) to view destinations and prices on an interactive map.
• Set your most important filters – like maximum budget, flight duration, or number of stops – and pan around the map to spot the best deals in real time.

This feature is perfect for both spontaneous travelers or anyone looking for budget-friendly options. For example, you might discover an incredible deal on a direct flight to Reykjavik, Iceland, for less than you’d spend on a domestic trip!

For a visual guide, check out this video walkthrough that shows you how to make the most of Google Explore.

In early 2024, I knew I wanted to do a trip to incredible mountains during late summer or early fall, so I used this feature to see where I could fly into to get to amazing hiking. Nothing was beating the price to get from Boston to Copenhagen and I thought, you know what, I would actually really love to see Copenhagen, Denmark. It wasn’t exactly on my radar for this particular trip, but everyone knows the flights within Europe are typically very affordable. 

So I ended up booking that long-haul flight to/from Copenhagen and purchased a flight for around $80 round trip from Copenhagen to Venice, Italy. From Venice, we drove about two hours to the Dolomites, a world-class region for incredible hiking and mountain views. All in all, we got to see three very unique places from one another (Copenhagen, Venice, and the Dolomites) that weren’t in the original cards, but the trip turned out to be epic.

2. Set Up Price Tracking Alerts

Even if you already have a destination in mind, Google Flights can help you score the best deals on airfare with its price tracking and flexible date tools.

How It Works:

1. Go to Google Flights and enter your travel details (origin, destination, and approximate dates).
2. Make sure you’re signed in to your Google account, then slide the “Track prices” toggle to enable alerts. Google will notify you whenever there’s a significant price drop for your selected route.

Need help setting up alerts? Here’s another video walkthrough tutorial to guide you.

Date Grid Secrets – The Date Grid is your secret weapon for finding the best deals. Use this feature to compare airfare across different travel dates. Shifting your trip by just a few days could save you hundreds.

• Compare prices across multiple months
• Spot patterns in midweek vs. weekend pricing
• Identify shoulder season sweet spots
• Find the perfect balance between price and convenience

For instance, on a recent search for a Boston-to-Iceland round trip, I found that shifting my departure by just a few days would have saved me around $75. Imagine how much you could save with just a bit of flexibility, especially if traveling with several people!

3. Organize Your Trip in Google Maps

Once you’ve booked your flights, it’s time to plan the fun part – your itinerary. Google Maps makes it easy to organize your must-see spots and stay efficient while exploring.

How It Works:

• Open Google Maps and create a new custom list.
• Save restaurants, landmarks, shops, and other points of interest directly to your list.
• Use the map view to spot clusters of attractions and plan your day-to-day activities around them.
• Download maps for the region you’re traveling to in case service is unreliable.

Pro tip: Tailor your accommodation to be close to the areas with the most places you want to visit. This way, you’ll cut down on travel time and maximize your experience. With your custom list, you’ll also have quick access to directions and reviews, even while offline.

You know that trip to the Dolomites I talked about above? Well it turns out the mountain roads there make planning a road trip logistically challenging. What looks to be close together on a map might actually take several hours due to the steep, windy mountain roads and general rural nature of the region. By researching and saving spots to a custom list on Google Maps, I was able to easily identify two home base areas to split up our accommodations.

Another example of one of my lists in Google Maps for a trip I’m planning to New Zealand – 

4. Find the Best Hotel Deals with Google Hotels

Flights aren’t the only part of trip planning where Google can save you money. Google Hotels helps you quickly find and compare accommodations based on location, budget, and amenities.

How It Works:

• Go to Google Hotels and enter your destination and travel dates.
• Use filters to narrow down results by price range, guest rating, hotel class, or amenities like free breakfast or pet-friendly stays.
• View hotel locations on a map to find options closest to key attractions or transit hubs.
• Compare prices across different booking platforms to ensure you’re getting the best deal.

Google Hotels simplifies the research process and ensures you don’t miss out on hidden deals from lesser-known booking sites.

5. More Google Superpowers

Google acts as a general hub for all your trip planning and researching – flights, hotels or vacation rentals, and things to do.

How It Works:

• Visit Google Travel to see trending travel destinations and recommendations for things to do.
• Automatically sync flight, hotel, and restaurant reservations from your Gmail inbox to your Google Calendar.
• Get real-time updates on flight changes by simply Googling your flight number. 
• Stay up to date on the local weather forecasts.
• Explore blogs, travel guides, and recommendations based on your interests.
• Dig in to Google Reviews for hotels and attractions.

Expert Level Google Travel Hacks

If you’ve nailed down the basics, why not take it a step further and learn these additional advanced Google travel hacks?

Search Like a Pro

Use these advanced search techniques to find what you need in less time:

• site:reddit.com [destination] best xyz – for unbiased favorites 
• [destination] filetype:pdf guide – for downloadable resources
• [attraction] “best time” -tours – for crowd-avoiding and seasonality tips

Bonus: Maximize Your Points with the Points Path Browser Extension

For travelers who use points and miles to book flights, the Points Path browser extension is a must-have when searching on Google Flights.

How It Works:

• Install the extension on your browser and conduct a search on Google Flights as usual.
• Points Path will overlay additional information, showing how many points or miles it would take to book the same flights.
• It highlights transfer partners and best redemption options, helping you maximize your travel rewards effortlessly.

This tool is a game-changer for those looking to stretch their cash or points and miles for maximum value!

Maximize Google Reviews

• Focus on recent reviews with photos
• Look for Local Guide perspectives
• Read both positive and negative reviews
• Check seasonal review patterns

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Don’t make the same mistake as me… Before I knew you could download Google Maps offline, I paid for a road trip planning app where one of the features was downloadable maps 🤦‍♀️

Some other common mistakes include – 

1. Not clearing your browser cache when searching flights
2. Ignoring nearby airports in your search
3. Failing to set up price alerts early
4. Not downloading offline maps
5. Not using Incognito Mode for Flight Searches
6. Not setting Google Reviews to most recent
7. Relying too heavily on Google’s AI recommendations

Bringing It All Together

The real power of Google’s travel tools comes from using them together – 

• Find destinations with Google Explore
• Track and search flights with Google Flights
• Plan your adventure with Google Maps
• Save everything in Google Drive (I have a free itinerary template you can download now for Google Docs)

What’s Next for Google Travel?

As we move through 2025, Google continues to enhance its travel planning features with –

• Smarter AI-powered suggestions
• More accurate price predictions
• Better integration with local transit
• Enhanced virtual exploration tools

After trying countless travel apps and planning tools, I always find myself coming back to good old Google. The simplicity, reliability, and seamless integration of its tools make travel planning effortless. From tracking flight deals to organizing itineraries in Google Maps, everything is in one place. Google’s travel tools are like the Swiss Army knife of trip planning: efficient, versatile, and built for every kind of traveler.

So, the next time you’re dreaming about your next getaway, let Google be your co-pilot. From choosing a destination to finding deals and organizing every detail, it’s the travel resource you didn’t know you needed.

Remember, the best travel planning tool isn’t always the newest or most expensive – sometimes it’s the reliable one you already know and use every day.

Want to take your travel planning to the next level? Download my free customizable itinerary template here – it’s a Google Doc that will help you get your booking details out of your email inbox and in one organized document!