Nerve Endings Firing Away

Why should trip planning be any more complicated than opening your browser and entering the name of your favourite city?”

[Source: Google LatLong: Plan a trip in one click] Google may not exactly live up to it’s Don’t Be Evil mantra everytime but it sure churns out useful products in its labs. For travel enthusiasts, combination of Google Maps and tips on walking tours in cities is a welcome addition. Not only does it effectively crowdsource suggestions but makes it simple to access such tours with text and graphical support.

Recently, we visited San Francisco and Ash planned out our daily itinerary complete with transit routes and places to eat at. But sometimes, the lure of walking was too strong to resist and in spite of San Francisco’s famed steep inclines, we managed to do quite a bit of walking. The cable cars although convenient can be cramped especially if you have a camera bag with a tripod attached. This walking tour of San Francisco started right on Union Square where we were staying and meanders through most of the city’s neighborhoods. Noteworthy is the fact that this suggested tour tries to minimize the climbs up the hills. We found out the hard way when we decided to trek up to Lombard Street from Ghirardelli Square. On the map, it looked like 5 blocks but the last two blocks were near-45-degree angled streets; nearly had a stroke going up. I hope as this feature gets more popular, more cities will be added. Having walked around a lot, I would love to see one for Mumbai down D.N. Road.