Ro's Recz

I’ve always used Google Maps for directions, but have never considered using it for anything else. On my most recent trip though, I started using Google Maps to track any favorite restaurants/spots, as well as any places I wanted to make sure I tried.

Before, I normally just wrote down my favorite spots in either Google Docs or the Notes app; however, these lists would often change (or I would create new ones), so it was hard to remember exactly where I wrote down everything. Using Google Maps though, I could just save a spot I enjoyed and keep adding to either my “want to visit list” or “favorites list”. One super useful function that Google Maps offers is showing you how far away you are from all of the spots you’ve saved; for example, if you saved 10 restaurants that you want to go to, you can see exactly how far you are away from all 10 (and it ranks them in order of proximity to your current location). When traveling, this makes it easy to hit multiple spots at once if you are in the general area. If you save your list ahead of time, Google Maps can also provide all of this functionality even when offline.

Lists can include anything ranging from restaurants to tourist attractions to sports stadiums (anything that is on Google Maps). After you visit, you can also write notes (maybe about what the best dish was, how long the line was, etc.) so that you don’t forget the next time.

I don’t know if this is a commonly known feature of Google Maps, but it is something I myself didn’t discover until recently. It makes tracking so much easier, and it also is good if you want to share your list with other people (instead of writing down a list, you can just send your saved spots to other people!).