How to Map Everywhere You’ve Been with Google Maps and RoadGoat
By: Roadgoat, Find Your Perfect Travel Place
Tags: Maps

Welcome to your RoadGoat journey! Thanks to our newly launched integration with Google, you can easily visualize everywhere you’ve ever traveled with Google Maps! Because Google Maps is the best — true that, double true.

Photo by Simon Rae / Unsplash

How it Works

RoadGoat is a travel community that lets users check in to, rate, review, bookmark, and get recommendations for travel destinations. When you opt in to syncing travels, we find the nearest city to any photos that have locations tagged. We then add that city to your RoadGoat map and profile. In addition to integrating to Google Maps, you can opt in to sync with a number of other platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, FitBit, and more.

When you export your travels from Google, it will package together everywhere you’ve been as a list of points. Each of the points are labeled as driving, biking, or walking by Google. We remove all driving points as we assume you aren’t spending time in those places. We then add the remaining points to your RoadGoat travel map.

How to Map Your Google Maps Activity

Photo by Isaac Mehegan / Unsplash

First, you’ll have to download your location history from Google Takeout. Navigate to https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout Select only ‘Location History’. Click ‘Next step’ at the bottom. In ‘Customize Archive Format’, make sure to leave File type as .zip. For ‘Delivery Method’, we suggest ‘Send Download Link Via Email’. Click ‘Create Archive’ at the bottom of the page. Depending on how much data you have this could take a couple minutes. You can take a quick break and say hi to your pet goat. Google will send email you when it’s done. Download the .zip file either from your email or from the page provided. Create your free RoadGoat profile if you haven’t already. Access the Sync feature through the RoadGoat homepage, or locate the button on the top right of the website header. Select Google from the sync options. Upload the .zip file you downloaded from Google to RoadGoat. We purge your Google location history after converting it to cities you’ve been to so nobody is able to access your Google Location history except you… and Google, of course. Depending on how long Google’s been tracking your location, the resulting import may or may not include a lot of data. Upload .zip file RoadGoat virtually “herds” your Google history across digital pastures, from one familiar platform to another. The result is a beautiful map of everywhere you’ve been. Fill any other places you may have been with our interactive map!

Will My Google Activity Stay in Sync with RoadGoat?

The bad news is Google hasn’t provided an automated way to sync your data. That means that you will have to upload your data to RoadGoat every time you want to bring it up to date. The good news is that our other integrations such as Facebook, Instagram, and Fitbit do sync automatically each month.

Let it Soak In

You can appreciate all the places you’ve been with Google Maps as they sync to and populates your RoadGoat travel map. You might remember your first kayaking trip in Florida or that wonderful latte you had in Paris. RoadGoat will automatically add these locations to your map and profile.

Your Memories in One Place

RoadGoat simplifies and speeds up the process of organizing your most valued travel memories. Soon enough, you’ll be able to solidify your status as a travel guru — without having to shuffle through your data.

Photo by sarandy westfall / Unsplash

Will you become the GOAT of travel?

Share your map and compete with friends to see who is traveling the most.

Where to Explore Next

When it’s time to plan your next trip, head over to our lists of awesome destinations and figure out which is the best for you. You can filter by region or characteristics (such as “Foodie”) until you find the perfect destination for you.

On to RoadGoat!