Planning a vacation this holiday season? Here's how you can ease the process

New Delhi: Google today announced the launch of its travel guide application 'Google Trips' making it easier for travellers to plan their vacation and get curated travel options as per their interest.

The new app with added features will help travellers find everything that they need - right from seeking suggestions on destinations to hotels and flight options with rates and recommendations on places to visit - all at one place.

For those planning a vacation, "Plan a trip" feature will help users find trip prices for the selected destination for the next six months, helping them get competitive hotel and flight prices with just a few taps. In addition, Google has also introduced several updates to its existing travel features including 'Google Destinations', a travel-planning feature inside mobile search, and has expanded coverage for its hotel and flight search to more countries in Asia.

#1 Destinations on Google

Users can Search for the continent, country, or city they would like to travel to and add the word "destination" or "vacation" to see an easy-to-browse collection of options. Through this feature, users can customise their search by planning their vacation catering to their specific interests, for example - search for a destination and something they'd like to do there, like "Australia surfing," "Malaysia hiking," or "Thailand beaches", and Google will suggest destinations that match.

You can also see suggested itineraries, top sights, recommendations on when to visit, videos and more so you can make the right choice for your next vacation.

Destinations on Google integrates a deep understanding of all the places in the world with Google Flights and Hotel search, so you can see available flight and hotel prices instantly. Instead of jumping between a dozen links or tabs to get the information you need, you can sit back and scroll. You can also see suggested itineraries, top sights, recommendations on when to visit, videos and more so you can make the right choice for your next vacation.

Users in India, Japan and Malaysia, have the option to use the "Plan a trip" feature to see trip prices for the selected destination for the next six months, helping them get competitive hotel and flight prices. Flight prices and hotel rates update instantly as travellers change their travel details and link you to Google Flights and Hotel search where you can plan and book your travel.

#2 Expanding Google Hotel Search and Google Flights to more countries in Asia

Google Flights and hotel search on Google is designed to help price-conscious travellers make the best decision for upcoming trips. For the budgeted travellers, hotel search on Google results now automatically identifies deals when a hotel's price is lower than historical prices or when a partner has discounted rates compared to the existing market price for the hotel. Additionally, Deals and Tips filters have been introduced to allow users to quickly see only hotels that have been identified as having good deals and the Tips feature shows hotel ratings or whether changing travel dates could get a better price.

That's not all! To stay up to date on changing flight prices, Google on its Search app has also launched a feature that allows users to easily track fare changes for a date and route combination, or track specific flights in Google Flights. Travelers can simply select "track prices" after searching for a flight or choose to be notified by email or Google Now cards when prices change significantly.

#3 Announcing Google Trips - your travel assistant

Google Trips helps users take care of the needs of the traveller on the go. With the help of this reliable travel assistant, Google Trips tries to make a traveller's vacation simpler by doing things like bundling all their reservations in one place - available offline - saving users from having to dig through their emails at the check-in desk.

A feature called "Day Plans", recommends places to visit based on the search items saved on their Google Maps. Users can also modify the itinerary based on the weather, the people they are traveling with and places they have visited. In addition, Trips provides details on how to get around, etiquette for tipping and other useful information - all available offline.

Google Trips is currently available globally, in English. Users can download it today by visiting the Play Store or the App store.

With the onset of festivities and the year coming to an end, now is the time when most people start to plan their annual vacations and these new features from Google Search App will help make their travel easy.