Planning a trip can be a painstaking experience. You must find suitable dates, pick the right destination, find accommodations, book flights, compare prices, and look for things to do. Google has a range of services to help you organize your next trip, whether it's for a business meeting or a group vacation. Some of them are designed to make it easier to include other people in your plans, and most are accessible from a web browser or an Android device, even the most affordable Android phones.

Here are the Google apps we use and some of our top tips to help you plan your next vacation.

Google Calendar

Before planning a trip, it's best to identify suitable dates. Google Calendar can make this easier by helping you see people's availabilities, provided they've shared their calendars with you.

What's even better is that Google parses travel confirmation emails and adds the details to your calendar. You don't need to add flight, hotel, and car rental information. Other reservations, such as visits and restaurant bookings, are also easy to add directly from Gmail. You just click to add it.

Google Travel Explore

Now that you've found dates that suit everyone, Google can help you find location inspiration. Google Travel Explore is an underrated feature that lets you browse destinations on a map and use filters to narrow down your options. Select various travel interests from the filters, and Explore helps you choose the perfect spot.

It's a neat way to get recommendations, but filter options are limited. We would love to see additional filters for kid-friendly and pet-friendly places.

Google Travel Hotels and Vacation Rentals

When booking a trip, it's essential to figure out where you'll stay. Google can help you find the best hotels and vacation rentals. It searches through third-party sites such as Agoda, Expedia, Booking.com, and Hotels.com to find the best rates.

It's even more convenient for vacation rentals as it looks through sites you may not be familiar with and won't limit itself to VBRO and Airbnb. For instance, if you're looking for rentals at a French ski resort, Google Travel may pull options from sites like Bluepillow, BookingPal, HolidayLettings, and other sites you wouldn't have considered. Google Travel is more helpful than other options because it analyzes ratings and popular nearby locations to find the best spots.

Similarly, Google Travel can calculate the best times to visit and what to expect in terms of prices according to the hotel category. Recommendations are based on data such as prices, weather, and occupancy rates. It's an excellent way to get to know your destination better and narrow your choices to find the best available options.

Google also provides filters to refine your searches, such as hotel category, type, brand, price, amenities, guest ratings, brands, cancelation options, and the number of rooms for vacation rentals. However, there is no way to set a price alert like with Google Flights, but there's a neat option to save hotels or vacation rentals to a list and compare them.

Things to do in Google Maps and Travel

Whether you access the Things to do service from Google Travel or Google Maps, it's a great way to find interesting attractions. Google Travel presents you with the top sights. You can dig deeper and browse through narrower categories, such as historical places, arts and culture attractions, museums, outdoor features, amusement parks, and pet-friendly places. Google also recommends travel articles from various sites, offering several opinions about a place.

Also, since Google's services work together, you can add places to a list and see them later in Google Maps. In contrast to other services like Yelp, you get the benefit of seeing everything in one spot, and places are easier to find once you're there. Also, as users and local guides can review places in Maps, there's no reason to open a different app to find recommendations.

Google Flights

If your trip involves flying, Google Flights is the best service to look for options. It asks you to enter any destination, then routes you to the closest airports.

Google Flights offers various filters to find the perfect flight. Cabin preference, flight time, price range, and bag allowance are a few of the filter options. Frequent flier members can also filter by airline alliance.

Google Flights also allows you to set a price alert and notifies you if there's a price drop or hike on a particular route.

Google Travel

In addition to saving your trip information in Calendar, Google Travel saves your bookings in an organized way. It's convenient when you plan to visit multiple cities as it calculates travel times between your hotel and the airport.

Since Google Travel is a progressive web app, you'll need an internet connection to use it.

Translate

With Translate, language doesn't need to be a barrier when traveling abroad. With support for over 100 languages, Google can help you communicate with people in many parts of the world.

Make sure you download languages locally before your trip. That way, you can communicate with people without an internet connection. We particularly like the Live Translate feature, which is handy when having a conversation with someone who doesn't speak the same language.

Also, when trying to figure out what's on a menu, you can use the Instant Camera feature. This feature allows you to point your camera at written text and watch as it's translated into the language of your choice.

Google Maps

Google Maps may be the app you'll use the most when traveling. It provides online and offline guidance, recommends places to eat or drink, lets you chat with local businesses, and helps you book a table on Reserve with Google.

Android Auto

Becoming familiar with the dash menus, headlights, windshield wipers, and radio can be a hassle when renting a car. Android Auto is a familiar interface that makes it easier to get to your destination. It lets you locate all the places you've saved in Google Maps and provides directions to your hotel.

Google Keep

Google Keep is a popular way to store notes about anything you'd like to have handy during your trip, whether it's ideas you've had or copy-pasted bits of advice from others.

For example, you could create a to-do list called "Pack List," which lists every item you might need when you travel. That way, you can tick it off when it's in your suitcase, and you won't forget anything. You can duplicate the list and reuse it for other trips. Then, you won't have to think about what to bring all over again.

Google Photos

When traveling, most of us take pictures to cherish after our trip. Google Photos can automatically back up pictures to the cloud whenever there's a Wi-Fi connection. You can also allow it to use cellular data.

This ensures your photos are safe, even if you break or lose your phone during your trip. Since the pictures are already saved, they're easier to sort through and share with friends and family once you're back.

Google Pay

Many airlines allow you to save your boarding passes in Google Pay, which makes them easier to show at the airport. Similarly, various hotel chains and car rental companies invite you to save your confirmation information in the app.

What's particularly useful is that Google Pay automatically shows a reminder close to your check-in time, ensuring you don't have to keep checking your phone or watch. Lastly, Google Pay is the easiest way to pay for that delicious-smelling pretzel or some bright and shiny souvenir from a duty-free store.

Google Home

Being away doesn't mean you shouldn't know what's happening back home. Google Home helps you make sure your doorbell camera is switched on, unneeded appliances are off, and certain security measures are in place.

Even better, it lets you create routines for scheduling lights at random times, which makes it look like you're home. Google Home can even help you control your thermostat so that your room is at the perfect temperature when you get home. To find more inspiration, look at our list of the best Google Assistant Routines.

Start planning your next trip

With so many services available, you're all set to have an incredible travel planning experience, and you'll also make the most of your trip once you're there. A bunch of other apps on the market consolidate everything in a single place. Still, these aren't as valuable as Google's ecosystem, especially when integrating with your emails and offering aggregated data and recommendations. The drawback is that you must use several instead of accessing everything at once, even if you're using Google's apps and services. Still, it's an excellent way to organize your information and make travel planning a pleasant experience.