If driving in winter storms and experiencing bumper-to-bumper holiday traffic frightens you, Google Maps on your Android device and iPhone can assist in keeping things stress and traffic-free over the holidays. In this article, we explore a list of tips to help you travel this Christmas.
With traffic congestion tipped to rise in some cities with holiday travel, planning your trip in Google Maps now could seamlessly save you some hours in the hold-up.
Maps will help you with turn-by-turn directions to your location and even allow you to build in stops along the way for the most effective route from Point A to Point B to Point C. It will even inform you on how quick you are going. Maps also alert your family if you’re running late. See Google Maps Tips To Help You Travel This Christmas:
1. Track your trip itinerary in Google Maps:
Google Maps can chart your travels, and it can reveal your holiday flight, hotel, car rental e.t.c, saving you the stress of searching through your email for check-in times and confirmation numbers.
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To view your upcoming reservations:
- In Google Maps, click the 3-line menu up in the top-left corner, and then click “Your Places.”
- Click “Reservations.” A list of upcoming reservations you’ve made that Maps has pulled from emails in Gmail will be visible.
- Click an item to view more about the reservation, including date and location.
- You can search for “my reservations” in the Google Maps search box to view a list of what you have booked.
2. No cooking? Reserve a table:
- In Google Maps, click “Explore” way down on the screen.
- Click “Restaurants” way up on the map and you will view a list of places to eat, sorted by cuisine or distance.
- Click a restaurant that appears nice and in the window that pops up, reserve a table or join a waitlist, if you are shown the option.
3. Find EV charging spots on your trip:
- In Google Maps, click the caret icon way down on the screen.
- Click “Search along route” and type “EV charging stations.”
- Maps will reveal closeby charging stations and your wait time for a port.
- Click a charging station on the map to make Maps add it as a stop on your trip.
More Information About Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping service developed by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° panoramic views of streets (Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and route planning for traveling by foot, car, bicycle and air (in beta), or public transportation.
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Google Maps began as a C++ desktop program at Where 2 Technologies. In October 2004, the company was acquired by Google, which converted it into a web application. After additional acquisitions of a geospatial data visualization company and a realtime traffic analyzer, Google Maps was launched in February 2005. The service’s front end utilizes JavaScript, XML, and Ajax.
Google Maps offers an API that allows maps to be embedded on third-party websites and offers a locator for businesses and other organizations in numerous countries around the world. Google Map Maker allowed users to collaboratively expand and update the service’s mapping worldwide but was discontinued from March 2017.
However, crowdsourced contributions to Google Maps were not discontinued as the company announced those features will be transferred to the Google Local Guides program.
Google Maps’ satellite view is a “top-down” or “birds-eye” view; most of the high-resolution imagery of cities is aerial photography taken from aircraft flying at 800 to 1,500 feet (240 to 460 m), while most other imagery is from satellites.
Much of the available satellite imagery is no more than three years old and is updated on a regular basis. Google Maps used a variant of the Mercator projection, and therefore could not accurately show areas around the poles. However, in August 2018, the desktop version of Google Maps was updated to show a 3D globe as the default projection. It is still possible to switch back to the Mercator Projection in the settings.
Google Maps for Android and iOS devices was released in September 2008 and features GPS turn-by-turn navigation along with dedicated parking assistance features. In August 2013, it was determined to be the world’s most popular app for smartphones, with over 54% of global smartphone owners using it at least once.
There you have it – a comprehensive list of Google Maps Tips to help you travel this Christmas. If you have other recommendations, feel free to drop them in the comment section below.