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"When I plan to travel to a locale I&amp;#039;ve never visited before, it&amp;#039;s my habit to look at a map before I go. I find it helpful to get the literal lay of the land, so that once I get there, I have an understanding of where I am and an idea as to how to get from place to place. In recent years, I&amp;#039;ve used Google Maps to simplify the process but I only just learned that it has a really cool feature: the ability to work with others to visually plan your visit.  Designing a map is easy enough. Log into Google Maps using your gmail account. Click on &amp;quot;My Places&amp;quot; then &amp;quot;Create New Map&amp;quot;; name your map and click &amp;quot;save.&amp;quot; Search for the location you&amp;#039;re visiting (I tend to use the address where I&amp;#039;ll be staying). You can add markers using the little upside-down teardrop icon in the upper left corner of the map to indicate the sites you&amp;#039;d like to see, the restaurants you&amp;#039;d like to try, etc., and even plug in routes to show how you might get from place to place. When you&amp;#039;ve finished, click &amp;quot;done&amp;quot; \u2014 you now have a map you can access from any computer or smartphone. If you&amp;#039;re traveling with friends or family, just click &amp;quot;collaborate&amp;quot; to be prompted to add others&amp;#039; e-mail addresses (they don&amp;#039;t have to be gmail accounts). Your recipients will receive a link that will allow them to view and edit your map. Another bonus: This mapping method is paper-free. For more ways to green your travel plans, see our sister site TheDailyGreen.com&amp;#039;s guide to eco-tourism. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/institute/a24465/plan-a-trip-with-google-maps/>