Break out the stretchy pants: Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Before settling in for a day of family, football and food coma, many weary travelers earn their eats through another time-tested holiday tradition: travel. This year, plan a different kind of holiday — one where you can enjoy your meal on the fly (literally). Check out our jet-setting, turkey-day-travel-itinerary that takes you across 4 historic American cities named after your favorite Thanksgiving eats, like Cranberry Country, WI and Pie Town, NM. Planning your adventure is easy with Google travel tools that can help you quickly find the best flights, hotels and things to do.

You can use the itinerary we’ve saved as your recipe for adventure or go to www.google.com/flights to quickly and easily plan your own multi-city meal — selecting the destinations and portions that appeal to you.
Take our suggestion and start your edible itinerary with the star of the show: the turkey. Fly into AMA (Amarillo, TX) and drive to the small town of Turkey, TX. With a population of less than 1,000 and an annual festival honoring native son and Western Swing musician Bob Wills, it’ll be a leisurely visit. Swing by the dry goods shop on Main Street, or check out the Bob Wills Museum, with twice-weekly live music shows.

Once you’ve had your fill of Turkey, TX, hop a flight to JAX (Jacksonville, FL) and make the quick 50-minute drive to Spuds, FL to indulge in everyone’s favorite starchy side dish. Primarily a farming community, the main crop in Spuds is — you guessed it — potatoes. Only 20 minutes away is St. Augustine, the oldest European settlement in the country. You can enjoy a variety of historically themed activities to indulge your turkey day traditionalist, including the Colonial Quarter and the Florida Agricultural Museum.



Up next? A visit to Cranberry Country by way of MKE (Milwaukee, WI). Take a relaxing drive on the scenic Cranberry Highway with nearly 50 miles of cranberry bogs, some that have been functioning farms since the 1870s. You can also take a 2-hour drive to Chicago where there are plenty of Thanksgiving-themed events to keep you entertained. Bundle up on Thursday morning to watch the 81st Annual McDonald’s Thanksgiving Parade, featuring floats, local celebrities and marching bands.

When the tryptophan finally kicks in, ask Google to show you “Hotels in Chicago” and you’ll see several options available. Select your preferred hotel and quickly book with one of our travel partners. Hit the town early the next morning for a day of Black Friday deals along the famed Magnificent Mile, where for over 50 years, the trees along Michigan Avenue have been draped with thousands of twinkling holiday lights.



There’s no better way to end your meal than in aptly-named Pie Town, NM. After landing in ABQ (Albuquerque, NM), settle in for a 2.5-hour drive to the tiny community made famous for its proximity to the Continental Divide and its pie. Try Pie-o-Neer Pies, a Travel + Leisure featured restaurant. It’s known for chocolate pies, butterscotch pies and New Mexico Apple pie made with green chiles and pine nuts. Sure, it’s a bit of a departure from tradition, but after this whirlwind Thanksgiving food tour, a spicy slice sounds just right.

Hungry yet? Why don’t you invite a friend to join you on this tasty, turkey-day trip. Select “Share this itinerary” and your friend will receive an email summary like the one below. When they select the blue button reading, “View on Google”, they’ll be directed to Flight Search where they can see the full itinerary and quickly complete their booking so they can join you on this multi-city, meal march.

Whether you decide to follow our recipe or plan your own Thanksgiving adventure, we hope you’ll see how fast and easy it is to use Google to find the best flights, hotels and things to do on your next trip.

Posted by Cheryl Eisele, Product Marketing Manager, Travel

Halloween is coming up -- and that means it’s time to get your spook on. Dress up in costumes, tour haunted attractions or visit a real-life haunted house. With a few simple voice prompts and taps, Google can help you plan a trip to some of the spookiest places around.

You might consider visiting the Beechworth Lunatic Asylum -- a 19th century, abandoned asylum in Australia rumored to have nearly 9,000 souls haunting its halls. Or travel to Ireland, in pursuit of Halloween’s Celtic roots. You could visit the Ross Castle -- believed to be one of the most haunted castles in Ireland.

If you’re really daring, you can stay the night in the 1851 Marshall House in Savannah, GA -- where water faucets turn on and off, doorknobs wobble, unseen children are often heard playing in the halls, and staff and guests routinely see men wearing Civil War uniforms.

It’s easy to visit these haunts no matter where you live. Just ask Google to show you flights or begin your search on google.com/flights. You can quickly compare the cost to different destinations, find tips to save money and choose the “best flights” -- based on price and convenience. Live in NYC? A weekend trip to Savannah might be in your future.


With a few taps, you can select your outbound and return flights, and complete your booking on our partner’s website.

When you’re ready, ask Google to show you the “closest hotels to the Marshall House” and you’ll see a list of nearby hotels, including -- of course -- The Marshall House. You can view photos of the hotel, peruse user reviews and digitally explore the surrounding area with Street View. If you’re dying to stay here, simply tap one of the booking links to complete your reservation.


Now that you’ve seen how frighteningly fast and easy it is, let Google help you plan your next trip.

Posted by Cheryl Eisele, Product Marketing Manager, Travel

Starting today, travelers living in Denmark, Norway or Sweden can use Flight Search to quickly find, compare and book flights originating from each of these countries by accessing www.google.dk/flights/, www.google.no/flights/ and www.google.se/flights/, or by searching for flights directly within Google. Additionally, you can search in your local language and see prices in your local currency from your mobile device, tablet or desktop.

Let’s say you live in Norway and you want to plan a summer getaway. If you access Flight Search, you’ll immediately see the price, duration and type of flight for several popular destinations you might like to visit -- based on your preferences and previous searches. If you set your dates and tap to expand the map, you’ll see live prices for destinations around the world. A trip to Kristiansand sounds nice.
Once you tap on Kristiansand, you’ll automatically be presented with a list of ‘Best flights’ (flights that represent the best tradeoff of convenience and price) and a tip for how you can save a bit. In this case, you can save NOK928 just by leaving one day later. For nearly a thousand Krones it might be worth it!
When you’re ready, you can select the tip, choose your outbound and return flight, and reserve your flights by tapping the red book button.
As you start to plan your next trip from Norway, Sweden or Denmark, try www.google.no/flights/,
www.google.se/flights/ or www.google.dk/flights/ for yourself.

As a reminder, anyone can use www.google.com/flights to plan trips worldwide. We hope Flight Search makes it fast and easy to explore where you want to go and figure out the best time to travel!

Posted by Stefan Trienen, Partner Development Manager, Travel