Using Google Maps and Street View for Your Road Trip

Can you see where you’re going before you get there?

If you use Google Maps, you can definitely see where you’re going before you get there. One of the coolest features on Google Maps is their street view option, which takes you down to street level and allows you to drag the view up and down the road by using your mouse on a computer or by tapping the screen on a smartphone or tablet.

If you’re thinking about a road trip in another country, wouldn’t it be helpful to know what you’re in for as far as driving conditions and traffic, as well as get some visuals for what you have planned on your itinerary? I go down to street level on Google Maps for absolutely every place I stay and every route I travel when I’m traveling on my own (like in a rental car or by foot).

I want to know the look of the hotel when it’s not dressed up with the pretty photographs you might see on the hotel’s website, but I also want to figure out the best entrances to get into places, and what to expect if I’m taking a taxi to the hotel, restaurant, activity, or whatever else is on my itinerary.

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You Can “Drive” Your Road Trip on Google Maps

When I visited Iceland, I “drove” virtually the ENTIRE route we traveled in our rental car on Google maps. We traveled hundreds of kilometers (we were in Iceland, so suddenly I was traveling by kilometers instead of miles, right? #americantourist) across Iceland, and despite never having been to Iceland, I had a great idea about what I was in for as far as roads and destinations were concerned, after I conducted my research on Maps.

Truthfully, our Iceland trip was the first extensive international travel I ever experienced other than a trip “way back” in the 1990s, when I went to the UK and Ireland for three weeks. Iceland is so spread out that the only practical way to get from each amazing vista to another is to drive or take a tour bus. I initially considered a guided trip, but I eventually settled on renting a car and handling the driving on our own.

The road you see in the picture above is actually a “street view” of the area right outside a glacial lagoon we visited during our Iceland road trip. Before we left for our trip, I created a list of all the things we’d see along the way, and “drove” much of the route with nothing more than a mouse and my computer.

Deciding On A Road Trip or Guided Trip

I’ll share one of the differences of a road trip versus a fully or partially guided trip, at least as far as Iceland is concerned. One of the things I wanted to see when we were in Iceland was the Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon (try saying that three times fast in a row!), which is along the southeastern edge of Iceland. I could have booked a full-day journey to the lagoon where the tour operator would have taken us all the way from Reykjavik to the lagoon (I initially considered a version of this From Reykjavik: Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon Full-Day Trip on GetYourGuide).

However, as I planned our trip, I realized that I could make that lagoon a stop on our journey, rather than a destination from a singular home base. Rather than staying in Reykjavik the whole time and taking day trips from Iceland’s biggest city, I decided that taking a car and visiting all those places on our own would allow us to make the most of our time.

The boat ride I booked that would take us through the glacial lagoon took a few hours, and as we traveled to the lagoon in our rental car, we were able to get some food (at a food truck set up right next to the lagoon actually), as well as see a variety of geological formations that were only steps away from the main road and easily accessible by exiting the car and walking a few hundred feet.

Find All The Great Shots For Your Trip

See that awesome photograph of a sundial in Iceland at the start of this blog post? I knew that there was a scenic overlook to go see this view because I looked at the satellite view of Route 52 while I was planning our itinerary, well before we actually flew to Iceland, rented the car, and started our journey.

Here’s that actual spot on the map (the little red dot in the center):

If you’re curious yourself about this view and want to take the photograph yourself, the GPS coordinates are 64°26’16.61″N 21°2’33.29″W. You can also buy the photograph if you don’t feel you’ll reach Iceland anytime soon but love the shot. I certainly loved taking the shot. Iceland should ABSOLUTELY sit on your future travel list!

The interesting thing is that I didn’t find that sundial on a travel blog or on a list offering details about “what to see in Iceland.” Honestly, I found it because I scooted my way across the map from above, searching for landmarks along the route I expected to take.

What Happens When You Can’t Get Street View?

You may have seen the famous Google truck driving around your own neighborhood or town, mapping out all the streets for Google’s street view, but that doesn’t mean the company has driven its trucks on every single road in the world. If you plan on driving on a particular road but can’t get to the street view, all is not lost! Google hasn’t gotten there by car yet, but they’ve certainly looked at it with a satellite.

I actually ran into this issue a few times when I was mapping Iceland. Sometimes, I just couldn’t get a street view, so I had to inspect the area from above. If you look at the satellite view on Google, you can zoom in pretty closely to the ground to get a look at your route.

Further, when you look at the area from above, you can choose to toggle on “things to do” or “restaurants,” which will pop up as little icons on your map. Very helpful when you’re trying to make sure you don’t miss any cool things during your journey, or when you want to find a crack place to eat.

One of the vistas I found while exploring the map was Selvallafoss, a waterfall in the middle of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula in Western Iceland. Here’s a picture of the waterfall, which isn’t actually visible from the road and requires a stop and a bit of a walk down a large field.

We walked all the way up to the waterfall (you can walk next to many of the geological features in Iceland, but always look for signs that tell you not to trample!) and even took a picture from behind the waterfall, where a little path exists.

As I explored our route around Iceland, I came upon all sorts of cool things like this that I took note of, so I could point them out during our trip.

Creating a Digital or Printed File of Your Road Trip or Route

It doesn’t matter whether you’re aiming for a road trip like the one we took in Iceland, or you’re thinking about a guided tour. Understanding where and when you’ll visit various places is really helpful for trip planning.

Even though we took taxis and tour buses around Colombia (as well as flights between the major cities), I still had maps of all the places we’d visit, the addresses where we needed to show up for each of our activities, and a few street view screen captures of the venues we needed to find. The same was true for Vietnam. We took a lot of taxis and tour buses, but I wanted to see those places “in person” via Google Maps before we touched down in the country.

Tip: When you print out a route from one place to the next, you can insert information into a field right below the title. Feel free to include any pertinent details about the route, like the time you expect to start, arrive, or who might be picking you up (in the event you’re not driving yourself).

After mapping out all of our routes and locations, I was able to save a digital file full of all of these images, as well as a print-out of our routes. Yes, I know it’s not green-friendly to print out a huge itinerary, but I normally print at least one copy for our travels, because you never know when technology will fail you, and you’ll need a backup copy. I also email PDF itineraries to my friends and family, so they know where I’m traveling.

Another Tip: Make sure to have a copy of your PDF on your phone, too. Even if you don’t have internet access when you travel, you’ll still have access to your file with all your important travel information (routes, reservations, confirmation codes, tickets, etc.).

When I’m not traveling the world (admittedly not the most ecologically friendly activity, since it requires air travel), I do my part to reduce my carbon footprint. I recycle what I can, drive an electric car, avoid unnecessary purchases, and use no plastic in my shower – the whole nine yards! I hope the efforts I make in my day-to-day life help balance out the carbon I spend each time I travel. Off-topic, slightly, but I think it warranted a mention here.

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