Using Google "My Maps" to Begin Planning an Itinerary

Starting from square one and mapping out a travel itinerary can be a scary task.  After you have scanned Pinterest, daydreamed over pictures, and narrowed it down to at least a REGION of the globe, it's time to head to Google's My Maps.

Google is known for being adept, easy to use, and best of all... FREE!  If you are logged into your google account just type in My Maps in your google search bar and you have the ability to name and edit a map.  You can drop pins on the cities you MUST hit and draw lines to connect them.  Here is where some research will need to kick in.  Take a look at place to place transportation costs.  Sometimes I alter my routes when I discover it is cheaper to add in an unexpected city on the way.  (Yay! Bonus city!)  On the other hand, sometimes you realize (heaven forbid) that it just isn't worth the extra hundreds of dollars to include that one city that is way, way out of your way. 

There are many future steps I take to plan a trip itinerary, but My Maps is definitely a great place to start visualizing your route.