Travel influencer Vera, who is known online as Vera Vlogs, is known for sharing her adventures travelling around the world – and it turns out she has a very handy trick up her sleeve
A savvy travel influencer has gone viral for revealing her “next level” Google Maps trick that’s perfect for planning your dream holiday.
Vera, also known as Vera Vlogs, shares her globetrotting experiences and tips with her 180,000 followers. And in a recent video, she detailed her entire trip preparation process – from selecting outfits to choosing destinations.
The 32-year-old influencer swears by a simple yet effective Google Maps feature for trip planning, which she calls “the most practical way to plan a trip”. The clip, which racked up more than 143,000 likes, shows her explaining: “It has come to my attention that not everybody plans a trip this way because people are DMing me, asking me like, ‘oh, what app is this?’
“It’s not an app. I’m going to show you because it is just in Google. Google search My Maps, then click create a new map right here in the search bar.”
Google My Maps is a bespoke mapping tool that lets users craft and share custom maps. It’s handy for adding personal points of interest, plotting routes, and even collaborating with friends, making it a nifty option for trip planning, event organising, or simply exploring geographic data.
Vera shared her savvy travel tip on how to personalise Google Maps, starting with a demonstration of her own map of tourist spots in Los Angeles. “As an example, I’m typing in this pasta place that we have in LA,” she said.
“Then you’re gonna make your first layer. Layers are things that you can click on and off so that it’ll show, like all the coffee places or not show it on the map. I like to make coffee, dinner, and landmark strolls.
“Then you click Add to Map on this paintbrush thingy, and it’s gonna bring up all the colours and default icons you can use. But I don’t like using these icons because I think they look like Windows 98, so I like to create my own icons.”
She noted that custom icons help her quickly identify “what is what” as opposed to the default settings which she finds “so chaotic and I just don’t know where anything is”.
Vera enthused: “Have fun. I think it’s so therapeutic and I just love seeing all the icons. It just makes me so happy. And then when you click on them, it also goes to the location. So it’s also useful.”
TikTok users were left stunned by the hack, flooding the comments with their excitement. One user exclaimed: “This is amazing! The default icon just doesn’t cut it,” while another wrote: “They need to put this on the app ahhhh.”
Someone else remarked: “How have we all not been doing this to plan our travel? ” Another user was inspired, saying: “I’ve used my maps for travel but didn’t make custom icons. Now that’s my goal for the day”.
Google even got involved, praising her map as “next level” in the comments.