Along with the launch of iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, Apple introduced an exciting new feature for the Maps app: travel guides. Along with improving the information displayed in the app, which in Europe still hasn’t arrived this year 2021, Apple has added information on certified travel guides in the app. So, If we want to visit New York, for example, we can look at recommended sites, reviews, driving directions, etc.
Official and quality guides
The guides offered in Maps have a high standard of quality because Apple checks and approves the various people responsible for their publication. Entities like Lonely Planet, The Washington Post, Louis Vuiton, TimeOut cultural trip o, among many others, are responsible for the development of this content.
Quality before quantity also means that the important cities are the ones that will offer us the most guides, although over time they expand to less visited destinations and places. Apple is releasing the new guides without notice, so if we’ve been looking at some of them for a long time, it’s very likely that they’ve been updated or more are available.
How to find a guide
Finding a travel guide in Maps is very easy. There are several ways to do this depending on how we access the information. One of the most direct ways is to use the app’s search engine, The steps are as follows:
- We open the app Plans on our iPhone, iPad or Mac.
- We write the city that interests us, for example New York.
- Before pressing Enter (↵), the first result “New York, NY, United States” already displays the button Guides that we can touch.
- Near New York Guides We touch see more to see all that is available.
What information will we find and how to browse it
In this example we will consult the guide The best parks in New York by Lonley Planet. To open it, just touch it in the list. The information is displayed in two sections. On the left side, on the iPad; right, on the Mac; and at the bottom, on the iPhone, we find the information of the guide itself. Here we are offered a brief description of the guide, the author, how many places it contains and how many days have passed since the last update. Below we find the list of places of interest in the guide. For each place we see a picture, the location and the address, as well as the opening hours and the description or explanation made by the guide. Meanwhile, on the right side, on the iPad or Mac, and at the top, on the iPhone, in the Map view, we see the places of interest marked and highlighted.
At this point, we can browse the information in two different ways. To see what the guide of each place tells us, we have to go to the first section from which we can touch any place to see it on the highlighted map and check all the details. For navigate at leisure through the suggested points of interest we simply touch them in the second section, the map view.
It is clear that Maps guides are an excellent way to access a first contact with a city or region that you want to visit. Some guides updated periodically and which integrate perfectly with Maps, allowing us to prepare and plan our trip with the comfort to which we are accustomed and with abundant information.
