Spring is a great time to start planning your travel for the year. To help you get started, I'm sharing 3 ways you can use Apple Maps for easy travel planning.

Did you know, you can use Apple Maps for more then just looking up directions?

Apple has redesigned Maps with faster and more accurate navigation and comprehensive views of roads, buildings, parks, airports, malls and more, making it easier and more enjoyable to map out any journey. Building on the new map, iOS 13 introduced many new features that help users navigate and explore the world with a simple tap.

Create a Collection for your next vacation.

Collections are a fun and easy way to build lists of the places you love and share them with friends and family. You can create collections of places you want to visit around the city, your favorite restaurants, or create a collection of all the places you want to see on that next exciting vacation.

How to? Click on Maps > New Collection > Select Location > Tap the “Add to” button

Keep track of live transit updates with Share ETA.

Share ETA offers a way to share your estimated time of arrival with family, friends, or coworkers. Maps will even update those who received the original message should a significant delay occur, or notify them when you are arriving.

How to? Click on Maps > Directions > Go > Tap the grey line > Share ETA

Use Indoor Maps for convenient identification.

With indoor maps support for major airports around the world, you can breeze through to your gate, find the closest restroom, duty-free store, or strategically map out the best food options to make the most of your time in transit. Simply fire up the Apple Maps app, see what level you’re on and start exploring your terminal, from the check-in counters to your gate.

With Indoor Maps support for malls across the country, you can quickly identify just the right stores you want to check out to optimize your shopping time during the busy shopping season. Search by floor, category of store and even check out hours, right in the Maps app.

Maps and Privacy

Apple is committed to keeping personal information safe and has built privacy into the core of Maps. With Maps, no sign-in is required and it is not connected to an Apple ID in any way. Personalized features, such as suggesting departure time to make the next appointment, are created using on-device intelligence.

Any data collected by Maps while using the app, like search terms, navigation routing and traffic information, is associated with random identifiers that continually reset to ensure the best possible experience and to improve Maps.

Maps goes even further to obscure a user’s location on Apple servers when searching for a location through a process called “fuzzing.” Maps converts the precise location where the search originated to a less-exact one after 24 hours and does not retain a history of what has been searched or where a user has been.

For the next few weeks, I'll share different tips and info on how iPhone, iPads, etc can enhance families lifestyles, so stayed tuned.

To learn more, visit - www.apple.com/ios/maps