Google Earth/Google Maps/Google Street View
Part of my travel planning includes using these resources to get an idea of the location and neighborhood of a hotel, B&B or restaurant I'm considering. The photos on Google Earth show lots traveler oriented views that don't show on Street View. I have 70 photos of my own on GE. Anybody else use these sites?
Gary
Reeds Spring, Missouri USA 2/2/12
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I love Street View! I was able to "rehearse" how to get from the bus stop to my Dublin hotel without ever leaving my sofa. By the time I got off the bus, everything seemed so familiar, which was really nice after spending 17 hours in transit and suffering from brain-fog.
Use Google maps satellite image for every trip. Find my accommodation, search what's nearby (i.e. metro, tram, tube, pub, pharmacy, etc) do a screen capture, print and place the mini map into my travel journal. I've also encouraged other Helpline posters to use it as a tool. For instance encourage use of the satellite view to show how close many of London's major sites are. "type in Parliament Square, Westminster, London, wait for the image to come up and note how close Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, The Eye and Buckingham Palace are to one another." Street image I use to identify my route to my accommodation. Helps with a visual orientation of the neighborhood. Also helps when the cab driver gets lost. Don't leave home without it.
I use them all of the time, whether it is finding an address or figuring out to walk from A to B and what the area around the hotel or train station really looks like, or the route my train is traveling. Try it out for the Rhine river, to find all the little towns along here. It was helpful for any of the cities I have visted in the last few years.
I use them all the time. If I know I'm visiting a town, I'll check out the layout on Google Earth, then enable the photo option to take a peak. Or sometimes when I'll preview the route to see if anything interesting might lie along the way. Finally... when you drive to a new place in Germany, you will inevitably pass a castle, church, Schloß, brown tourist sign etc. that you knew nothing about beforehand. I often go back to Google Earth (and Wikipedia) to learn more about the places I passed.
For example, last weekend I paid a visit to Fritzlar in the Waldeck region of northern Hessen, because I read that it's similar to Rothenburg. What I didn't realize, though, is how many castles are scattered throughout the region, some of which are remarkably well preserved. Google Earth allowed me to get a better look at some of the castles I could only glance at while driving by. I now have a rough idea of which might be worth a more thorough visit and which I can skip.
My experience is that it is very disorienting to "pop up" from the subway to street level in a unfamiliar city. Using Google earth and street view allows me to better find my way and not look like such an out-of-town yokel. Well, except for my camera and Spurs shirt ....
If you like to take photos it's great for scouting locations, checking the light source, etc.
@ Ah gee Mike, I'm a professional film and television location scout. Now you've exposed my trade secret. :-)