Google Trips turns your phone into a free, full-time travel guide

Google Trips turns your phone into a free, full-time tour guide

Travel is good for the soul, but planning for it? Not so much.

Adding to the stress of travel logistics is that it can be needlessly expensive if you have to rely on roaming data just to keep track of your overseas itinerary.

To help make the most of your venture into parts unknown, Google's newest app, Google Trips, takes the guesswork out of planning the day's sightseeing - all without needing to stay connected to an international data plan.

Google Trips offers extensive full-day and half-day tourist ideas for 200 different destinations across the globe to download before you fly out. Once landed, users can put together their own personalized travel itinerary by adding recommended landmarks in their area, as well as look up popular local activities, transportation, and even places to grab a bite.

Google Trips in action

You can go your own waaaaay

Should you decide to add a few must-see spots on a whim, Google Trips can adjust on the fly, ensuring that you can make the most of each day abroad without wasting precious time looking up addresses, directions, or hours of operation.

The digital tour guide also ports over critical reservation details from your Gmail account, such as your flight number, hotel's address, or rental car pickup, removing the need to fish around your email during key parts of your journey.

Though novel, Google Trips isn't the only one trying to cut down the headaches of travel. Competing app TripIt has been on the block for a while, though with a more business slant than the pleasure-titled Trips.

Adding to the list of competitors is Airbnb, which is reportedly working on its own smart trip planner to augment its lodging rental service, TechCrunch reports.

Google Trips rolls out for iPhone and Android devices beginning today and once paired with other apps in the Google suite, like Calendar and Translate, could spell the end of clinging to outdated travel pamphlets you nabbed from the luggage claim as your primary method of seeing the world.

Parker Wilhelm
Parker Wilhelm is a freelance writer for TechRadar. He likes to tinker in Photoshop and talk people's ears off about Persona 4.