Google Maps gets four useful features for excursions and hikes

If you are planning a hike or a trip to a nature park, you should do your research well in advance to avoid unexpected surprises. Factors such as rest stops, sights and the degree of difficulty of the paths play an important role. The remedy is Google Maps, which this month will receive four new updates on iOS and Android to help you plan your outdoor activities.

New features are available in the US first

Google announced an update for Google Maps this month, aimed primarily at those who want to plan trips and hikes.

Some of the new features are already available and are scheduled to be rolled out to all US national parks later this month and will be rolled out to parks around the world in the coming months.

Quick overview of popular places

In the future, you can see popular locations such as landmarks, campgrounds, visitor centers, and hiking trails at a glance.

To do this, you search Maps for the park you want to visit and then see photos of landmarks and other places highlighted on the map.

If you tap on one, you get the most important information and reviews from other users.

Detailed hiking trail descriptions

Instead of just starting and ending points, trails are now shown as a whole on the map. In addition, as with the locations on Google Maps, you will find user ratings, uploaded photos and other useful information, such as the difficulty of the path.

Hiking trails are shown to you as a whole. Sights and other popular places can be found more quickly thanks to highlight photos.

Display of entrances and exit points

In the future, Google Maps will be able to show you where the entrances are in a national park and navigate you more precisely to the starting points of hiking trails.

Specific download of national park maps

From this month there will be a new feature that will allow you to download an offline map for the national park you want. For this purpose, a download button will be integrated on the park’s maps page. In this way you have access to the necessary card – even without Internet access.

Are you looking forward to using the new Google Maps features yourself? Are there other features you would like Maps to have? Tell us in the comments!