How to Plan a Road Trip on Google Maps

Here are some tips and tricks to help you plan a great road trip online.

Greg Fitzgerald | 

Dec 11, 2024 | 3 min read

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Using Google Maps to Save Places

As part of your pre-road-trip research, you can use Google Maps to make lists of places and save those lists. Seek out and save every restaurant, attraction, and hotel you're considering visiting. You can create multiple lists and share them with others, too, so if you're planning a road trip as a group, you can collaborate easily. For each location you save, you can also leave a note with information, such as where you heard about the place or why you wanted to go there.

To add a saved place with Google Maps, look up a location, click or tap the "save" button, and then choose which list you want it to be a part of. You can also choose to have these saved places appear on your Google Maps app and the website when you're logged into your Google account, so you can see which potential sites are nearby as you travel.

Plotting a Route

The Google Maps website and app allow you to plan routes with up to 10 destinations. This is a downside to Maps, as longer and more complex trips sometimes have to be broken down into multiple routes to circumvent the 10-stop limit. When planning a multi-stop trip, put your origin and first destination in the route planner then click "add destination." Continue adding stops until you reach 10, then make a new list.

One thing to remember is that Google Maps considers current road availability and conditions when planning a trip. If you plan a summer road trip through the mountains, for example, you may be routed through a mountain pass that's only open seasonally. If you're planning a winter trip, you may be routed around ferries that aren't running during your planned dates.

If you're planning these trips outside your intended season of travel, you might miss out on these routes if you don't let Google know when, exactly, your departure is going to be. You can work with this feature by adjusting the trip-departure date and time — an option in the route-planning panel — but the feature doesn't work with a multi-stop itinerary, according to Google's Help Center.

Ensuring Your Road Trip Is Saved for the Future

Once you've saved your routes, you may want to refer to them later. An easy way to do this is to create a link to the route and save it in an email or a notes app. You can accomplish this either by clicking "copy link" in your mobile device's route guidance section or using the "share" button.

You can also download the map, so that if your road trip takes you to remote areas with poor or nonexistent internet connectivity, you can continue to use Google Maps offline. This works only if your whole route is within the map's offline area, though.

Greg Fitzgerald

Greg Fitzgerald is a New Jersey-based writer, photographer, adventurer, historian, and Land Rover enthusiast. When he's not writing about travel or cars, he's probably getting away from it all in the wilderness.