Using Google Maps

One thing that you’ll quickly find out when traveling or road tripping is that there isn’t enough time to see everything and finding those hidden gems aren’t always easy. To help with this problem, and track where we’ve been so we can share with others, we use Google Map’s List feature.

The List feature allows us to track where we’ve been and where we’d like to go. There are two lists we primarily use: 1) “want to go” list for places we come across to visit and 2) a custom “little travel channel” list to keep track of where we’ve been and share this with others.

Get Started with Google Maps

• Create an account on Google Maps
• Create a new list by:
  note: This step is optional because Google Maps provides 4 default lists each with its own icon (icons can’t be changed on custom lists). We recommend using one of the default lists noting that each list has its own functionality (some can’t be shared or exported)
  • [computer] Clicking the > Your Places > Lists > + New List > Enter a Name > Create
  • [ios] Tap Saved > Scroll down to “Your lists.” > + New List > Enter a Name > Create
  • [android] Tap Saved > In the bottom right tap + New List > Enter a Name > Create
    
• With Google Maps open search and click a location to bring up the location’s information. Click Save button and choose the list to add it to.
• All your saved locations will be shown on your map with an icon associated with the list it was saved to.

The Different Lists

• Want to go: This is where we mark all the places we want to see. features: add notes, share, allow others to edit
• Travel Plans: This seems redundant for us as “want to go” does the same thing. Could be used for a single trip travel plans but we don’t plan that much in advance – like the flexibility when on the road
• Favorites: We use our custom “little travel channel” list instead of Favorites.
• Starred places: We don”t use this list as it cannot be shared, exported or add a custom note so this limits what can be done with it
• Little Travel Channel: We use this for our lists of visited locations that can be shared with others. features: add notes, share, allow others to edit and export