Imagine being able to snap your fingers, and within a few seconds you can magically see where you can find cheap flights to anywhere in the entire world. Now you can stop imaging, because this exists in real life, and best yet, it’s completely free. My favorite way to find affordable flights to any destination is by using Google Flights. If we’re talking about specifics, it’s the explore feature of Google Flights.
What is Google Flights?
Google Flights is, you guessed it, Google’s own flight finder for finding the best flights. With Google Flights you are directed to book through either the airline directly or another third party like Booking.com. The option to be able to be redirected and book your flight directly with the airline is invaluable here, and makes finding flights a breeze. When you can, you will nearly always want to book directly with the airline (or at least their partner airline) so you can easily make any changes to your flight if needed instead of having to go through a third party.
What is the Google Flights Explore Feature?
When you search for a traditional flight from Point A to Point B, you of course will type in your departure city as well as your arrival city. This is the standard page that you get on google.com/flights. If you are looking for ways to find cheap flights to anywhere, you can instead use the Google Flights Explore feature. This feature allows you to enter in your departure city, but instead of entering in a specific arrival city, you can instead enter in an entire country, or even an entire continent.
While this feature is incredible on its own, it’s amplified even more by the fact that you can enter in flexible dates, allowing you to truly find the cheapest flights to anywhere. This allows you to become even more flexible and really find those hidden flight deals that so many people are always talking about. You can either move the map around with your cursor, or you can enter in specific destinations around the world.
In the above photo, you can see that for a 1-week trip in the next 6 months, I can fly to destinations like Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Louis, and San Diego for as low as $48 roundtrip from Denver.
Be Sure to Add Filters
$48 roundtrip might seem amazing, but without adding any filters you don’t know if the flights are non-stop and if you can even bring a bag. Luckily, you can set filters with Google Flights for both of these.
I added in a “nonstop” as well as a “1 carry-on bag” filter to the Google Flights Explore tab, and the pricing has been updated quite a bit. Adding filters is extremely useful to ensure that the cheap flights that you are finding, are flights you actually want to take.
My favorite way to use the Explore tab is to look at cheap flights to other destinations around the world.
Using Google Flights Explore for International Flights
I filtered my search to the entire continent of Europe, and as you can see the prices range quite a bit. Inter-European travel is traditionally inexpensive, so why fly Athens for $1,004 when instead I can fly to Barcelona for $560 for nearly half the price? If you are flexible on date ranges, you can really find cheap flights to nearly anywhere in the world using this method.
I always recommend booking flights directly with the airline if you can through Google Flights, that’s especially true for any sort of international travel. So be sure to keep this in mind as you consider different flight options.
Find New Places to Go
With Google Flights you can find inexpensive flights to nearly any destination across the world, combining this with filters specific to your travel needs, along with flexible dates can help you discover destinations you may have never considered going too.
Google Flights remains my favorite flight booking tool for nearly any trip. Whether I am planning on visiting a specific destination, or I’m just curious on where I can find a cheap flight to anywhere in the world, Google Flights is my go to solution.
