Planning Your Time Ashore with Google StreetView

I originally wrote this article last August after realizing just how critical Google Maps (and the related Google StreetView) were in planning my cruises. This week, I found myself using this technology again and thought it would be worth re-running this article. Here’s what I had to say last August:

Whenever I plan a cruise to a place I haven’t been before, I tend to research it as thoroughly as possible, for the simple reason that I hate to not know where I am going. In the old days, this would necessitate visits to several websites and a trip to the bookstore to get some city guides. In the old, old days, you’d rely on books and a rather large fold-out map that was impossible to get back into its original shape.

Today, however, you can use Google.

Google Earth and its web-based friend, Google Maps, are remarkably useful to the cruiser planning a holiday for one reason: Google StreetView. I first used this in 2009 in order to plan a stay in Southampton, England before embarking Princess Cruises’ Crown Princess. I wanted to know what was near our hotel, and how close our hotel was to the various cruise terminals found in Southampton. With two clicks, I was “standing” along West Quay Road in Southampton, “walking” my way around the streets.

Plotting my course: using Google Maps to determine what was near our hotel for a 2009 stay in Southampton, England. Screen grab courtesy of Google.

To activate Google StreetView, grab the little orange man in the top left hand corner of your 2-D map and drag him onto any street. Active streets should highlight.

When I actually arrived in Southampton, I impressed myself with how much I remembered from my little virtual excursion, including knowing in advance where a shopping area was where we could find a mobile phone store in order to buy a European “pay-as-you-go” phone.

This technique came in handy again this past month for determining what we could do ashore on my recent cruise aboard Windstar Cruises’ Wind Spirit. By finding the location of the cruise piers in each city, I was able to put myself at the virtual starting point of my real-life journey to see what, if anything was in walking distance. Case in point: I discovered that in Copenhagen, Denmark, there was an abundance of things to do and see within easy walking distance of all but the most remote berthing locations. This was in contrast with Gothenberg, Sweden, whose main cruiser terminal is situated outside the city, near the Volvo Museum. While the museum is pretty cool, we’d need an excursion to properly enjoy our time here.

A Google StreetView image of Stockholm, along Skeppsbron near Gamla Stan. Screen capture courtesy of Google.

Skeppsbron and Gamla Stan in real-life. Photo © 2011 Aaron Saunders

Google StreetView requires a little bit of imagination in certain circumstances. Our recent post-cruise hotel near Oslo’s Gardermoen airport was missing entirely from the Google StreetView data. Why? It was still under construction!

What the…!? Where’s our hotel? Screen capture courtesy of Google.

Older Google StreetView images showed our hotel near Oslo’s Gardermoen airport as missing or incomplete; it was, in reality, perfectly completed and open-for-business! Photo © 2011 Aaron Saunders

Obviously, for some ports this doesn’t work. There’s no data at all for Athens, Greece, and many small ports like Olden, Norway aren’t likely to be on Google StreetView. But for those that are, I’ve still found this to be my most valuable, go-to research tool for a variety of my cruise planning.

So when planning your next cruise, give it a shot. You might be surprised at how much you can learn – and how much you can impress your friends and family on that next trip abroad.

From the Deck Chair will return tomorrow with another brand-new article to improve your cruise vacation!