Ever since the advent of smartphones, apps, and admit it, Google, traveling to an unfamiliar place is not as scary as it once was. As long as you have Internet connection (and a lot of hotels and tourist destinations have WiFi, if you don’t want to risk roaming charges), even if you don’t have a physical guidebook or the people around you cannot speak your language, you can still get around. The newest Google Search function has even removed a few extra steps to make it much easier for you to explore an unfamiliar place while you’re still at your hotel.
All you need is for your hotel reservation to be saved into your Gmail account, for you to have a Google Search app on your Android device, and you’re all set. By just tapping the mic on the app, you can say “Show me the best restaurants around my hotel” or “How do I get to my hotel from here” and it will (hopefully) give you the answers you’re looking for. Now you can find the best places to visit nearby, also through the help of Google Maps of course.
Search and other products in the Google ecosystem has constantly been trying to improve their options and features to make travellers even more confident as they explore other places. When you search for a restaurant or place anywhere you are, you’ll get hundreds or maybe thousands of results and it can be overwhelming. Just a few months ago, they allow searchers to filter the results based on price, ratings, cuisine (if you’r searching for a place to eat) and others.
Google Now is another product that is making itself even more useful for when you travel. Aside from getting cards that suggest places to visit when you’re in a certain area, you can also use it to manage your flight information and hotel details, like getting directions, saving the codes for easier scanning at the airport, etc. It can even advise you what time you should be leaving your house to get to the airport with its “leave home by” feature. So just make sure your smartphone has connection and enough battery, and you’re all set wherever you’re going.
SOURCE: Google