Google Trips is a must-have travel app for the modern tourist

Google recently announced a new free app Trips, available on Android andiOS that serves as a trip planner and travel guide for anyone who is exploring a new place. It will organize your plane tickets and hotel reservations, offer editorial guides to more than 200 cities, and make personalized recommendations based on your Google history. Best of all, it works offline: you can download everything to your phone before you leave, including maps and walking directions — sparing you from having to use an expensive international data plan.

Trips is the culmination of more than two years of work on improving Google’s travel products, said Richard Holden, a vice president of product management at the company, in an interview. In recent months Google introduced Destinations, a travel-planning feature inside mobile search, and revamped its hotel and flight search features.

Trips requires you to log in with your Google account. Once you’ve signed in, Google will show you a list of your upcoming and previously completed trips. Tap into a future trip and you’ll find a colorful grid of options to explore. Reservations organizes your flights, hotel information, and any rental car reservations you may have made. “Need to Know” has useful information about getting from the airport to the center of the city, the local currency, and what to do in case of an emergency.

The heart of the app is Things to Do, which builds custom itineraries based on how long you’ll be in town, popular destinations, and anything that you’ve previously starred or saved on a Google service. You can select a general itinerary like “72 hours in London” or drill deeper into guides that focus on shopping, museums, or other activities. And each guide can be edited to include other destinations you’d like to visit.

If you have got your cellular connection active, Trips will pull in real-time information about which destinations are open or closed. It will also make adjustments based on time of day and weather — if it starts raining, for example, the app will recommend indoor activities. And if you want an I’m Feeling Lucky-style recommendation for your day, tap the big red “magic wand” button and Google will offer you a random highlight from the city.

If you have privacy concerns about Google tracking your every step around the world, Trips is likely not the app for you. But if you are comfortable with the trade-offs, you will find Trips to be a tremendously useful travel companion. After a rocky year making consumer products for Google and its parent company, Trips feels like a return to form. In time it may prove to be the most useful consumer tool the company has introduced since Google Photos.

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