Does Google Trips still exist?

The Ghost of Google Trips: What Happened to Your Travel Companion?

Remember Google Trips? For a brief but bright period, it promised to be the ultimate travel planning assistant, effortlessly compiling your reservations, suggesting local attractions, and generally smoothing the bumps in the road of international (or domestic!) adventure. But if you’ve tried to access it recently, you’ve likely been met with a digital ghost.

So, what happened? The short answer is: Google Trips no longer exists. It was sunsetted, a gentle euphemism for “discontinued,” by Google in August 2019. The announcement came a few months prior, in June, giving users a relatively short window to migrate their data and find alternative solutions.

The disappearance of Google Trips left a void for many travel enthusiasts. It was a genuinely useful application, lauded for its ability to automatically organize reservations pulled from Gmail, suggest nearby points of interest based on your location, and even offer offline access – a godsend when roaming charges threatened to break the bank. Its strength lay in its simplicity and integration with other Google services.

While Google never explicitly stated a single reason for pulling the plug, the likely explanation lies in the broader consolidation of Google’s travel offerings. Many of the core features of Google Trips, such as itinerary management and destination exploration, were integrated into Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Travel. Effectively, the functions of Trips were absorbed into the larger Google ecosystem, making a standalone app somewhat redundant.

For users who relied on Google Trips, the discontinuation meant scrambling to find alternatives. Thankfully, the travel app landscape is now teeming with options, including:

• Google Travel: As mentioned, many Trips features migrated here. Google Travel allows you to plan trips, compare flight and hotel prices, and explore destinations.
• TripIt: A popular itinerary management app that automatically compiles your travel plans from email confirmations.
• Roadtrippers: Ideal for planning road trips, offering suggested routes, attractions, and unique roadside stops.
• Wanderlog: A collaborative travel planning app that allows you to build itineraries, manage budgets, and share trips with friends.

While the demise of Google Trips may have initially been disappointing, the travel planning app world has continued to evolve. Today, there are more sophisticated and feature-rich options than ever before.

So, while you can no longer rely on Google Trips for your travel planning needs, its spirit lives on in the integrated features of Google’s other products and the plethora of excellent alternatives available. The lesson? In the ever-changing world of technology, even the most promising travel companions can sometimes disappear. But the adventure, and the tools to plan it, always endure.