Without a doubt my favorite travel tool, Google Flights is where I start researching any flight I want to take.

Though Google Flights has dozens of features, here are the three that any traveler can use:

1. Discover trips.

Know you want to take a trip but not sure where to go on your budget? Just put in your airport of origin and approximate dates, and Google Flights will make some suggestions for you.

Click on one of the suggestions to see a cost overview of flights and lodging:

You can also put in specific dates and compare how much it would cost to fly to cities all over the world:

2. Fare calendar.

Know you want to go to Madrid but not sure which would be the cheapest dates to fly? Enter your origin/destination airports, then click into the date box to bring up the fare calendar.

If you’re flying somewhere like NYC with several airports, click the ‘+’ button next to your airport selection, and that will include the prices from any airports nearby your origin or destination.

The price graph shows you how prices fluctuate depending on the time of year:

3. Price tracker.

Know you want to go Madrid in February, but want to wait & see if flights will go on sale or get any cheaper? Enter the dates you want to go, then toggle on the ‘track prices’ button.

Once you start tracking a flight, Google will send you an email if the prices drop or rise significantly.

You can click the menu on the side to view all of your tracked flights:

You can see how the prices on your tracked flights have fluctuated since you started tracking them, which gives you an idea of what the rock bottom price may be on a given flight:

This is also a great way to make sure you’re alerted when there is fare sale on one of your favorite routes — just track a bunch of potential future flight dates, and chances are you’ll get alerted if an awesome fare sale happens.

For more info on how to find the cheapest flights, here is a previous post on that topic.

If I missed any of your favorite Google Flights features, please let me know!