As someone who travels multiple times a year—and tests tech for a living at the Good Housekeeping Institute—I don’t leave home without Google Maps. It’s the one app I rely on most, whether I’m scoping out a neighborhood before booking a trip or trying to find an open restaurant close to my hotel after a long travel day. Over the years, it’s become far more than a navigation tool; it’s how I plan, explore, and troubleshoot in real time.
Google Maps is a Good Housekeeping Family Travel Awards winner—and for good reason. Beyond turn-by-turn directions, this app is packed with useful features that many travelers (even frequent ones) don’t realize exist. From stroller-friendly routing to collaborative trip planning and immersive AR previews, here are five unexpected ways to use Google Maps on your next trip.
Turn on wheelchair- and stroller-friendly routing
If you’ve ever visited New York City, you know navigating the subway isn't always easy. It’s confusing, busy, and involves hundreds of stairs. To help me navigate where I need to go, I’ve long relied on Google Maps to find the best route—whether that be walking, taking the bus, or hopping on the subway.
But it wasn't until I had a baby that I discovered you can filter route options by “Wheelchair accessible.” Once selected, Google Maps will determine a route that avoids stairs and prioritizes elevator access. We put this feature to the test when visiting Paris with my then 4-month-old, and it really helped us travel throughout the city with our large stroller. Since the Paris Metro isn’t renowned for its accessibility, Google Maps found bus routes that made getting around significantly less stressful.
Plan your itinerary together with collaborative lists
Whenever someone shares a restaurant recommendation, I automatically search for it in Google Maps and save it under my “saved places.” While I’ve been using this feature for years, I only recently started using it to build shared lists when planning travel.
Before a trip to Iceland, my partner and I saved hikes, restaurants, and landmarks in one collaborative list. When we landed, everything we wanted to see was already mapped out by location. I loved being able to add notes when saving a spot, which helped me remember who recommended it or why it caught our eye.
There's another cool feature to keep in mind when building out lists. You (and those that the list is shared with) can react to each location you've saved with an emoji—whether you want to like it with a heart or send a thumbs-down. I can see this helping groups narrow down their trip itinerary.
Let Gemini curate restaurants and activities for you
Instead of searching broad terms like “brewery” or “omakase,” you can now refine your search with Gemini, Google's AI assistant. Try typing something more specific—like “best activities for couples in London”—in the Google Maps search field and you'll notice that it pulls a curated list of options tailored to your prompt.
When testing Gemini out myself, I typed in “best NYC restaurant on a boat,” and Google Maps successfully surfaced a few of my favorite boat restaurants and bars in the city. Since I already do most of my travel research within the app, this feels like a natural evolution—and a major time-saver. It eliminates the need to sift through countless blogs and browser tabs to find exactly what you’re looking for.
Preview landmarks and routes with AR
Immersive View is one of the most impressive features in Google Maps that you may not have noticed. When available for major landmarks, like the Eiffel Tower or the Empire State Building, it offers detailed street-level and aerial views so you can see what to expect before you arrive.
What’s especially helpful is the ability to preview a location at a specific time and under certain weather conditions. If you’re hoping to visit the Eiffel Tower at sunset tomorrow, for example, you can get a sense of what that moment might look like.
In select cities, Immersive View also works for routes. You can preview your walk from the subway to your hotel or office, helping you feel more confident navigating a new place. It’s particularly useful for cyclists who want to gauge how busy a road might be ahead of time.
Save your travel screenshots directly to maps
If you're anything like me, then you probably take a lot of screenshots. When I see a restaurant or a landmark that I want to visit on Instagram, I’ll screenshot it. Unfortunately, those screenshots tend to get lost among the thousands of photos already in my Camera Roll.
Google Maps’ new Screenshots feature aims to fix that. Located under the “You” tab of the app, it scans your screenshots for addresses and place names, then pulls them up so you can review and save them directly to a list. Instead of losing track of recommended addresses or travel inspiration, you can now organize everything in one place—right inside the app you’re already using to plan your trip.
If you don't see the Screenshots option in your Google Maps, that's because it's a newer feature and part of a phased rollout.
