The appearance of the online travel distance calculator has made things a lot easier for journey planning. Before the introduction of this online facility, people relied only on map support to learn distances and appreciate fuel consume for instance. Nowadays, there are plenty of web pages that discount a travel distance calculator option, but the most popular of variants are Google Maps and MapQuest. There is one common element with such sites: the basic travel distance calculator that requires you to introduce the point of origin and that of destination, and it gives you the results in miles and kilometers. But there is more to it than the straightforward distance indication!

Google offers all sorts of useful links and menu options beside the travel distance calculator, thus, one can learn the gas consume or go to hotel reservation pages in case one needs to make a stop on the way. There is also a certain variety of travel distance calculator formats; thus, some are designed to indicate the distances only for a specific country, while others cover additional features to show distances between cities abroad. A good illustration here is Map Crow, that is a web tool used to calculate international distances between cities: from Paris to Rome for instance, but Map Crow also allows one to make few specific calculations like those between countries.

The huge benefit of a travel distance calculator is that it provides results within seconds, increasing work efficiency and making the access to information a lot easier. People working in businesses that rely on the use of travel distance calculator find it a most essential tool in a variety of applications. Thereby, transport and logistic companies that operate goods transport all around the world use the travel distance calculator to find out the specific and non-specific fuel consume, as well as to approximate other variables.

Last but not least, the travel distance calculator works best for drivers, since car driving is the one that relies most on such information. The level of applicability of the distance calculator for international itineraries and flight routes is pretty reduced. You will surely not need a travel distance calculator for flying from Phoenix to Washington. Yet, there are specialized travel distance calculator models that indicate distances in air miles for instance, but such devices are used by professional air lines as part of the operational software.

Maps were not made just to show the way, but also to appreciate distances, and the technologies we now have existing allow us to measure distances in miles, air miles, nautical miles and kilometers. The calculation of travel distances both on the highway and in cities remain essential for trip or vacation planning, thus one can look up to the fuel costs as well as the necessity of eventual stops on the way, and therefore the afferent hotel bookings. The Internet is the most comprehensive resource for travel distances and calculators although the traditional map systems provided by AAA and Rand McNally continue to stay in business. Google and MapQuest are other major players in the online map competition.

Google calculators for travel distances dominate the web, particularly since together with this free service you are featured a whole range of options. For access to the Google Maps page you need to have a normal free Google account; after the entrance of the points of origin and destination, the distance measurement tools show all the distance specifics with utmost correctness. Thus, besides the travel distances you can also click other links in the menu that include gas prices, great sights to visit and weather forecast.