Viral TikTok travel tip shows how to find the best places to stay
Instead of booking a place to stay and then drawing a Google map of what she wants to eat, see and do, Jessica Tsoi creates her wish list before booking her place to stay.
“I’ve noticed that not everyone plans a trip this way,” Tso says at the beginning of her video, titled “The best (practical) way to plan a trip!” “And since I started, I can’t look back more.”
Here’s her method: Once Tsoi decides on a place to visit, she creates a customizable map for the destination using Google My Maps, a tool that lets Google Maps users save maps with additional features like color-coding map points and can share. Organize them in “layers”, draw lines or add directions.
Once she’s created her map, Tsoi enters sights she wants to see, restaurants she wants to try, and public transportation hubs, then researches the web to find recommended areas to stay at the destination. She compares these recommendations to the neighborhoods that contain the most of her saved map points, and then chooses a place to stay.
“I usually have about two areas that I choose between,” Tsoi told the Washington Post. “And seeing all of this in one place really helps me make a decision.”
The method ultimately helps Tsoi choose accommodation based on her interests, rather than staying close to a booking she chose based on deals or other reasons in search of attractions. Once on her journey, Tsoi uses the map to plan her day, which saves her precious vacation time and takes away some of the stress.
If you want to try their method, here are some best practices.
The first step to getting the most out of Google Maps is to create a Google account. Users can then have a customizable Google Maps experience and try Google My Maps.
Note that while you can see a finished Google My Maps product in the Google Maps mobile app, you cannot create or edit one in the app. You can use a computer or a browser on a mobile device via mymaps.google.com (although it’s a bit cumbersome on your phone).
“With Google My Maps, you have to plug everything in beforehand, so it’s more of an advanced planning tool,” says Gunnar Olson, flight deals analyst and travel reporter at Thrifty Traveler. “It’s most helpful to plan a trip weeks or months in advance when it’s live at the moment.”
You can skip the Google My Maps process and use Google Maps to get the same benefit, albeit with fewer bells and whistles. Instead of creating a map, Google can favorite specific locations or create a list of locations to organize points of interest.
Don’t forget to save your Google Map offline. You save battery power by using your phone in airplane mode (or keeping your map working if you’re abroad without an international phone plan) while still being able to view your map and use navigation.
Don’t let your wish list dictate the whole trip
Chris Hutchins, travel expert and host of the All the Hacks podcast, likes to spend at least half of his time in a new place without planning to allow room for spontaneity in his travels. Recording a few points of interest is not the same as planning every minute of your trip. Don’t feel obligated to hit every item on your map.
“I’m really worried these days that travel is becoming checklist travel,” says Hutchins. “So the idea of starting with a map and plotting everything … worries me about the kind of trip you might have.”
Tsoi says she saw some TikTok users post similar concerns in the comments section of her video.
“You could just use it to jot down notes about cool places you want to go, maybe not things you want to visit got to do,” she says. “It is a recommended guide for you. There are many ways to use it.”
Other Google travel tools to try
Google has other tools for every step of your journey. When you’re trying to figure out how to get to a destination, “Google Flights is the best flight search tool in the world,” says Hutchins.
Olson agrees. “There’s no better way to compare flight prices,” he says. “You can set flight alerts and get live data on when is the best time to book flights. …I’m not looking anywhere else.”
Both experts also use Google Hotels. A hotel button on Google Maps allows users to compare hotels in the area they want to stay in based on prices and reviews.
Atlanta-based travel expert Jewels Rhode uses Google Sheets to organize her travel budget, accommodations, and activities, especially when traveling with friends. The tool allows users to easily collaborate while traveling and you can also upload your list to Google My Maps.
Rhode also swears by Google Translate to help overcome language barriers. You can write down words to be translated or speak out loud into your phone or take a picture of the text to be translated. Google Translate is a lifesaver for Rhode because she uses it to explain her severe nut allergy when ordering food abroad.