In this post, we wanted to share a simple but really useful (drone) travel hack with you. It's so simple that we're surprised when some droners we meet don't know about it yet..
Between us, how many times have you seen a TV show & told yourself, "I will go there one day!"; or you saw a documentary about amazing landscapes & promised yourself "I got to fly my drone there!" But in reality, you probably don't have time in the near future so you write it on a notebook & tell yourself I will keep it in mind with more or less success?
Well, this is all about giving you a resource to create an easy, kick ass personalised google maps for your drone travels & recall yourself over the years. Seriously, it works for us that simply that we believe you will love it! In this post, we will find out together:
Google Maps features & key functions you will đ
How to create an awesome Google Maps with pins for free
How to personalize your Google Maps & create this awesome drone fly map!
Once you're ready to hit the road, don't forget to check our article about the best drone travel backpack to make sure you're covered & planned it all properly!
Google Maps features & key functions
Google Maps is a straightforward mapping tool allowing each of us to find directions from one point to another based on your preferences. It is widely used & available in almost every country. To us, it's one the greatest tools to travel freely with your drone and find the perfect spot to fly, & remember these awesome shot locations if someone asks us one day.
The map is available on your smartphone, desktop or tablet and fairly easy to get around in seconds as long as you have a Google account (so you can start pin point our best drone shots on your personalised map).
When entering your destination(s), Google Maps will instantly show you where it is & ask you if you want to:
Get there or Directions, by offering you direction options according to your preferences (walk, bicycle, car, taxi/car share/private driver or public transport.. & soon drone đđđ¤ (we hope)).
Photos, you can see the place before getting there, or click on the 360° sign & get immersed as if you were in the street.
Quick facts, summing up Wikipedia content & telling you a little more about the place.
Nearby, to find cafes, restaurants, petrol, anything.. & you can also filter by rating the places or see if there will be open by when you arrive for eg.
Share, instead of typing down the location to your friend.. share it.. he/she opens it directly & just has to click on directions to find it.. "trust us, they will thank you!" đ
Save, in other words pin point, Google Maps best unknown feature to us
How to create an awesome Google Maps for free?
Before anything, there is a great news.. Google Maps is entirely free! Yes, yes, it happens, we just don't see it anymore but one of the most powerful software to date is free to use đ¤ This means you can fly your drone in as many places as you like, pin point them & remember or share them over your lifetime.. "awesome!"
To create & use a Google Maps for you drone flights, you will need:
A Google Account (gmail); if you don't have one, you can simply make your account compatible (no need to create a Gmail account) by registering yourself via this link.
Login Google Maps & start browsing to find where to fly your drone next. đ¨ Make sure you can see your profile on the top right of your desktop screen (or in the burger menu on mobile) to be able to start pin point your favorite drone locations on the map
You are now ready to fill up your map with all the pin points of the world & remember these good times to share with other when in demand/need. Let's take for example that you've just seen a great show about temples in Cambodia & you just told yourself, "I've got to fly there one day!" Head to your Google Maps & enter the place's name, in our example we will take Koh Ker Temple (a must see if you're heading to Cambodia one day!).
Once on the right place, click on "Save" & choose which list you want to remember this place as.. We've created dozens now & will tell you a little later how we've organised ourselves to now have over 20,000 locations saved đ˛ Once pin pointed, this will show on your Google Map no matter which device you're on as long as you remain connected with your Gmail account so your saved pin points appear on it.. & that's it đ
You're now set to become the next drone travel guru always having this cool place you've been & able to recommend your friends in seek of good tips.
How to personalize your Google Maps?
As you travel, watch, listen, explore, taste, understand, discover, hear, read, you're going to have more & more pin points on your map where you wish to fly your drone, its never ending.. (seriously). The đ is a big place made smaller thanks to cheaper airfares & adds making you wish "If I was there..."
Personally, we've now reached 20,000+ pin points on our Google Maps & adding an average of 5/day.. or 1,800+ per year.. đ "We will get there one day, yes we can!" & well, as much as this is awesome to look at, you/we wanna be able to recognize easily what we've been up to as most of these pin points will be a note for the future meaning we haven't necessarily done it yet. You're going to need to get organised by personalizing your Google Maps.
Our recommendations to personalize your Google Maps:
Keep a separate color for what you intend to do one day
Identify what really matters to you when travelling with your drone & stick to it.
Add symbols to identify your pin points visually on your Google Maps.
On this last point, we've kept it as simple as possible & hope this will work for you as well as we've used the following symbols to identify visually:
đŚ (national parks)
đ (friends/family)
đ (best drone shots)
đ´ (great food/drinks)
â(absolute blast/must do when going there)
Sometimes, there is always this awkward random things to add such as a special event happening only once. For these, we use a color symbol unique until done and then remove it. Which brings us to our last recommendation: remove pin points you've done & do not wish to remember! As cool as it looks to have it all on a map.. if you didn't like it, drop it. You've enough years ahead of you to remember the good pin points & there is always Google Timeline to remember where you were over time.
Related Blog Posts