There is a lot to like about Google Flights. Just a few of the features include: seeing months of flights at one time, alerts sent to you when prices of flights change, being able to book directly with the airline and seeing the price history of flights.
There is one feature to Google Flights that is one of my favorites and that is the Explore option.
The Explore feature allows you to easily search for the cheapest flights no matter if you want to fly somewhere in the US or anywhere else in the world.
The feature is great to use especially if you want to find cheap flights and you don’t care where you go on your next adventure.
How to Access Google Flights “Explore”
First go to the homepage of Google Flights at google.com/flights.
Put your departing airport in the first box and leave the destination box blank. Enter the dates that you want to leave.
If you don’t have particular dates in mind that is okay. You can just leave the dates alone. Next, click the “Search” button.
How to Use “Explore” with Google Flights
After you click the “Search” button you will be taken to a page with the map of the region you are searching from. The map on the page will populate with various cities and the lowest price for the time frame that was put in for the dates.
If you have a particular region that you are thinking about going to, you can manipulate the map by moving to that area and zooming in. The map will repopulate with cities in that region.
Besides manipulating the map to see other cities, you can put states, countries and whole continents in the “Where to” box to go to that region. The map will then populate with flights for that region.
How to Use Explore Feature with Flexible Dates
When you landed on the initial page of the Explore feature, there were set dates that the results showed. If you have flexible dates, you can change the search.
To change to flexible dates click on the departing date box. Next, click on “Flexible dates.”
You will be able to select flights for the next 6 months. You can also choose a specific month over that time frame.
There are also weekend, 1 week or 2 week trip options. Click the “Done” button after you made your selections.
The map will then populate with flights for the month(s) and length of trip that you have chosen.
As with the specific dates option, you can put specific states, countries or whole continents into the “Where to” box to see the cheapest flights for that area.
How to Filter Results when Using the Explorer Option
There are a number of different options that you can choose to narrow down your search on the Explorer landing page.
You can choose round trip versus one way tickets, the number of people flying, and the class of ticket.
There is also a “Filters” option where you can even narrow your results even further.
The following options are included with the filters.
Stops– This allows you to select how many stops you want on your flight with nonstop being one of the options.
Travel Mode– The travel mode lets you choose trips where you fly directly to the destination or you can broaden your search to include some driving to get to the final destination.
Interest– What do you like to do? You can select different interests, such as skiing, outdoors, beaches etc.
Price– Want to travel on the cheap? This option allows you to select the price that you are willing to pay for your flight.
Airlines– Do you want to eliminate results for airlines like Spirit and Frontier? You can choose to see results for Star Alliance which includes United, SkyTeam which includes Delta and One World which includes American Airlines.
Duration– This allows you to select how long you want a flight to take.
Bags– The bags option allows you to see the cost of flights with one carry on.
Other Things to Know
Do you like to fly Southwest? If you do, the results that you see in Google Flights or any other flight search is not going to show you Southwest flights.
You will need to go to the Southwest site or use the app to see flights for Southwest.
After doing a search in the Explore page, the map will populate with different flights. You will need to zoom in on the map to be able to see more flights. They all don’t populate on the initial search.
Do you want to see flights for further out than six months? The Explore page does not allow you to go beyond this time frame. The only way around it is to put in specific dates.
Google Explorer also has a National Park feature. Hover the cursor over a National Park and it will show you the nearest airport to the park and how long of a drive it is to the park.
For example, if you wanted to go to Zion National Park. The nearest airport is Las Vegas and the cost of the ticket is $157 with a 3 hour drive to the park.
Final Thoughts
The Google Explorer option is a great way to search for flights that you want to go on. It is especially useful if you don’t have a particular time that you want to go on your trip.
It is also a great option to help you get some inspiration when you don’t have a certain place in mind either.
Lastly, and maybe most importantly it is a great way to find the cheapest flights available.