Second Opinion Reviews

Second Opinion #22: Google Trips Review

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Ian and his mom Amy enjoy traveling together, but usually Amy relies on travel books to find attractions. On a recent trip to Chicago, Ian planned everything out using the Google Trips app; can it completely replace an expert travel guide?

Overview
  • Google Trips – Travel Planner – Android Apps on Google Play
  • Google Trips – Travel planner on the App Store
  • App for trip planning
  • Integrates into the rest of the Googleverse
    • Location info sourced from Google Maps, Wikipedia
    • Reviews from Google Maps
    • Tickets, reservations, bookings that are emailed to your Gmail automatically appear
    • Anything you star in Google Trips appears in Google Maps
    • Sections in the app
      • Reservations
        • Either appear automatically, or you can add them manually
        • Can send details of reservations to others via email
        • Things to do
          • Does well at surfacing attractions you might not be able to find just by searching around on Google Maps
          • Listed by category – top spots, nearby, on a budget, etc
          • Each attraction has
            • Pictures
            • Average Google Maps rating
            • Paragraph summary (my “tour guide factoids”)
            • Map
            • Business hours
            • Phone number
            • Top reviews
            • Saved places
              • List of attractions you’ve starred
              • Appear in Google Maps
              • Day plans
                • User-created strings of attractions
                • Heavily depends on how popular a destination the area is
                • You can create your own
                • App can magically make one for you, with some preferences like morning/afternoon/full day or favoring saved places
                • Food & Drink
                  • Overview is a custom summary of the area in question
                  • Top Spots shows the highest-rated restaurants from Google Maps
                  • Getting around
                    • Gives info on public transit, taxi/riding services, drivability, and walking/biking
                    • Need to know
                      • Emergency numbers, hospital information
                      • Popular shopping areas
                      • Money – currency and tipping practices
                      • Internet access
                      • Works best if planning a visit to a larger metro area
                        • In smaller areas, all “custom written” stuff is missing, only has Google Maps locations
                        • Does not do well at telling you the prices of attractions
                          • Attributions
                          • Free Music Archive: Beat Doctor – Organic (electric edit)

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