Google is releasing a whole suite of apps back to back these days. Allo, the chat app is rumoured to become available on 21st September, the last day of summer and Google Duo, the video chat app has already racked up 10 million downloads. Now Google has released Trips, an app to plan your holiday or honeymoon or business trip. It contains all sorts of useful features that you can use to plan your trip or make your trip more efficient, interesting and enjoyable.
The app has a basic layout. It starts with a search bar at the top to search your destinations. Below that is highlighted your current location and below that is a slideshow of popular destinations like Paris, New York, London, Rome, Dubai, Las Vegas, Venice, Istanbul, Vienna and Mumbai. 
When you enter your destination the app takes you to a page that has the option to “Create Trip” to that destination. You can set the dates, and more destinations during your trip. In the reservations tab, you can see all your reservations added automatically from your Gmail. You can also plan out your days with “Day Plans”.
There are some suggested presets already laid out for you filled with the best destinations and attractions in the city you’re visiting. 
If you have no clue how to plan your day you can visit the “Things to do”, “Food & Drink” and “Need to know” sections. The first shows you the landmarks, places of interest and fun places to visit in the city. 
The second shows you the best restaurants rated according to internet reviews and grouped according to categories like “Family-friendly”, “Coffee culture”, “On a budget” and “High-end dining”. There is also an overview of the local cuisine, the places to dine out and the nightlife. 
The third section of “Need to know” shows you some basic info about the place for “Health & Emergencies” (Hospitals and urgent care centers), “Shopping” (Malls and Markets) and “Communications” (how good is the Wifi coverage). 
This is one place where I found the app lacking. It should provide direct links to the places mentioned in the Need to know section. What if there’s an emergency and you have to look the place up ASAP. You shouldn’t have to type up the name of the place in Google maps.
There’s also a section called “Getting around”. This is possibly the most important section. It tells you what local transport is the best fit for your travel. 
It’s pretty specific too. It tells you which mode of transport you can use on arrival, which is the fastest and most affordable and even the best parking spaces available. I chose Venice as my travel destination so I was told to park my cars outside the city since there literally is no way to drive inside.
You can save all your favourite places in “Saved Places” by tapping that little star on the right hand corner of the name of each place.
This application takes full advantage of Google Maps, in fact, this app is a natural extension of the Map application. I wouldn’t be surprised if they merge some time in the future. The app is available on Android and iOS. Happy Holidays.
