If you are planning a trip to some place, then you can use Google Maps to find the route directions for your travel between one or more places. Google maps can tell you directions for public transport, car, bicycle or walking. Not only that but you can customize our itinerary in the Google Maps to suite your travel. Here is how :
- Visit http://maps.google.com/.
- Suppose you want to go to Tampa, Florida from the New York City. Then type from new york city to tampa, florida in the search box as shown and press Enter. Google Maps would show you the route of travel.
- You can click on any suggested routes in the left side to choose one of the suggested route you like. In this example, Google is showing you two suggested routes I-81 S and I-95 S. The approximate time taken is also shown along with the suggested routes. The directions for the selected routes are shown below the suggested routes section.
- By default directions for travel by car are shown. If you want to see the directions for a public transit (like buses or trains), bicycle or walking you can choose from the drop down list as shown. Then click on Get Directions to get the directions for it.
- Suppose you want to go through your destination via a third place which is not included in the Google’s suggested routes, then you can easily add it to the route. For example, you want to go to Tampa, Florida from the New York City, through(via) Lexington. Then just place your mouse cursor anywhere over the suggested Google route. You would find it turn into a round circle. Drag that circle to the place you want to include in your route. In the following picture we will drag the circle to Lexington :
- After you have done the dragging, keep the mouse button pressed for a second as the Google Maps would adjust the route. When the route is adjusted, release the mouse button. You would see the new route which included the location we wanted. You would immediately see the directions in the left side change to reflect the modified route.
- Once you have your route to your liking, you can print, save or email it. You can do all these things from the shortcuts shown on the top right.
Google Maps are very easy to use and a very useful tool for all people who want to plan their travel route before-hand. Best of all, they are absolutely free to use anywhere in the world.