TikTok traveller goes viral with super-organised trip planning hack

Dithering about where to stay on your next trip? This clever Google Maps hack could help

Travel vlogger JessicaWantsaNap explains her top tip (TikTok/JessicaWantsaNap)

A TikTok travel fan has gone viral for her simple but genius tip for planning your travels.

“The best (practical) way to plan a trip!” TikToker Jessica, who posts as @JessicaWantsaNap, captioned her video.

The post has already had 4.8 millions views, with more than 4,000 users commenting on its effectiveness.

In the clip, Jessica shows followers how to set up an offline Google Map, pinning the places they want to go on a trip, in order to find them later when exploring the city.

“It has come to my attention that not everyone plans a trip this way and ever since I started doing this, I can’t look back,” she says.

Describing her travel hack, she begins: “You are going to make a Google Map first – search for Google My Maps.”

She demonstrates finding a destination on her fresh Google Map, and searching for places she wants to visit there, including restaurants, sights, bars and parks.

“You’ve got all these ideas from TikTok and Instagram so what you are going to do is actually pin them all onto the map,” she explains.

“And organise them by groups like attractions and activities and food.”

You can identify each category by right-clicking on a pin and choosing a certain colour for it; say, orange for restaurants and purple for sightseeing spots.

“Don’t book a hotel or an Airbnb yet,” she warns in her TikTok captions at the start of the video.

Then comes her accommodation-booking tip. “Do a quick Google search of where the best recommended areas to stay are and then compare that to your map.”

“And now you know where the best place for you to stay is, based on what you want to do.”

Jessica recommends pinning the locations of airports, ferry ports and train stations, too, to influence where you book your accommodation.

She adds that the DIY map also helps you plan your itinerary day to day, grouping things nearby to visit or suggesting a logical order in which to do and see things in each area.

Once on the trip, she advises pulling the map up on your phone to see which of your hit list items are closest to you at any given moment.

Thousands of commenters posted beneath the video to praise Jessica’s trip-planning skills.

One added an extra tip of their own to avoid relying on data and wifi abroad: “Pro tip – download the map so you can pull it up OFFLINE and are never lost in the city you’re in.”

“I started one for my trip to Japan after watching this, total game changer thank youuuu!” wrote one impressed follower.

“This is the best video I’ve found on TikTok. Thank you!” raved another.

“You tackle the world theme park style,” joked one fan of the hack.

“The way I’ve spent hours googling every address to see how close/far they were away from the hotel or attractions …. THANK YOU,” said another.