The next time you're looking for something fun to do, Google can help you take that surfing class you’ve been dreaming of or visit that amazing museum you’ve been thinking about. You can now book top attractions, activities, and more, directly from Google Search, Maps, and the Assistant via Reserve with Google. From the UNESCO World Heritage Site Casa Batllo in Barcelona to urban kayaking in Chicago, booking an activity is easier than ever before.

Just look for the “Find tickets” button on a place listing (or the “Schedule” button on the Assistant) and tap it. From there you can explore your options, select the number of tickets you need, prepay, and be on your way.

These bookings are possible thanks to integrations with partners like Peek and Tiqets. Additional activities with more businesses will become available as we add new partners like Accesso, Checkfront, CourseHorse, Fareharbor, Musement, Rezdy, and TripAdvisor Experiences.

If you aren’t ready to fly to Paris to visit the Eiffel Tower just yet, don’t worry! You can also book at hundreds of thousands of restaurants, salons, and fitness studios (and more!) in your own backyard right from Google Search, Maps, and the Assistant.

Google Maps is now supported by Apple CarPlay, which means that iPhone users can navigate with Google Maps right from their car’s built-in display. Read on to learn how to get the most out of the new experience:

Real time information when you need it: Google Maps on CarPlay features the same navigation experience found in the app. Search for places, see alternative routes and get live, up to date  information about traffic jams and delays happening right now. See an up to the minute ETA so you know exactly when you’ll be at your destination.

Never miss a beat.You know the drill. You’re rushing out the door, and you immediately start navigating on your iPhone to see how long it’ll take you to get to your destination. Google Maps on CarPlay lets you start navigation from your iPhone and immediately pick up where you left off once you’ve connected to CarPlay - because we know that minutes matter when you’re pressed for time.

No data? No problem.You can still find your way even if you have spotty reception or an expensive data plans. Whether you’re camping in the wilderness or traveling abroad, you can use downloaded maps of an area  so you can see directions and use turn by turn navigation even when you can’t get online.

These are a few of our favorite things:If you’re obsessed with creating lists likewe are, you’re in luck. You can access any of your saved lists from Google Maps on CarPlay, and quickly navigate to all of your favorite places with a single tap.

Save time when commuting: If you've set up your commute within the app, you can quickly navigate to home or work. While en route, you’ll see real time traffic updates about your journey so you can be prepared for whatever the ride has in store.

https://www.apple.com/ios/carplay/

In the winter, the sun barely scrapes the horizon in Canada’s high north. The average lows hover in the -30s, roads are covered in snow and polar bear sightings aren’t uncommon. For those who call Canada’s arctic home, winter is a way of life. And the only way to truly understand it, as one resident put it to us, is to see it for yourself.

In 2012, teams from Google Canada and Google Earth Outreach touched down in the tiny fly-in community of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, beginning an ambitious program to map the towns, wildlife and parks of Canada’s arctic. At the time, the digital maps of Canada’s north needed work. When you searched for a shop, a hospital or a school, the map pins would all land on the same spot: the post office, because that’s where every person and every business had a PO Box. While traditional cartography had captured the inlets and tundra of the north’s physical geography, there were no digital maps that accurately reflected the world of the people living there.

In addition to collecting Street View imagery of the town and surrounding landscape using an oversized tricycle, we worked with the nonprofit, Nunavut Tunngavik, to conduct a “map up” in the local community center. The people of Cambridge Bay, a hamlet of 1,500 people north of the arctic circle, added streets, places of worship and homes directly to the Google Map. This was about more than simply making an accurate and useful map—it was about building a virtual bridge between the communities of Canada’s north and the world.

Anna Nahogaloak is an Inuit elder and renowned seamstress in Cambridge Bay. “People are always asking how we live, how we survive,” she said the first time she saw the map zoom in on her village in Google Maps. “I think that it is important for all people to see Nunavut. This will help them understand and learn more about Nunavut. I think that it is important for Inuit people to contribute to the maps. It is important for everybody. The land is everybody’s land. We all share it.”

After Cambridge Bay, our work in Canada’s north expanded, and the newly developed Trekker allowed us to bring our Street View cameras to even more remote spots. Our teams traveled to Iqaluit, collecting Street View imagery from the frozen streets of Nunavut’s capital, conducting another map up and exploring the frozen landscape from the back of a dogsled. We also partnered with Parks Canada to collect Street View imagery from Canada’s northern parks, including Quttinirpaaq National Park. Located just 500 miles (800 kilometers) from the north pole, it remains the most northern Street View imagery on Google Maps.

To support the conservation efforts of Canada’s arctic wildlife, over the past several years we worked with Polar Bears International and the Arctic Eider Society to take the Street View beyond the towns and onto the arctic’s tundra and ice flows. PBI strapped the trekker to a “tundra buggy” to capture polar bears in their natural environment. And we climbed on board a snowmobile to travel onto the ice of Hudson’s Bay to the small open pools of water where the eider ducks of Canada’s far north spend their winters. The Canadian arctic remains ecologically fragile, vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Street View provides a window for Google Maps users worldwide to explore these fragile habitats.

Bringing Street View to Canada’s arctic gets us closer to our ultimate goal of creating the world’s most comprehensive, accurate and usable map. But it’s also more than that. For any community's sense of place in the digital age, they need to be on the map—that’s as true in Toronto as it is in Sanikiluaq (look it up). Chris Kalluk, who lives in Nunavut and helped us collect the Street View imagery of Canada’s north, thinks about it this way: “Our home is a place with a vast amount of local knowledge and a rich history. By putting these tools in the hands of our people, we will tell Nunavut’s story to the world.”

As we reflect on Google’s 20th birthday this month, we think the story of Canada’s arctic is a story worth being told.

If it was up to me, everyone would get to visit my home country, Lebanon (and they’d have a long list of things to do and sites to see). But for those who can’t get to experience it in person, we’ve just added 41 iconic sites—from ancient temples to heritage sites and natural forests—to Street View.

Lebanon is beautiful and diverse. If you were visiting in person, I’d suggest starting the tour with a manoushe on the go—it’s a flatbread with Zaatar (a thyme herb mix) you can get from the corner baker’s oven on Hamra street, one of the busiest districts in Beirut.  But if you’re doing the tour virtually, let’s begin.

Thanks to Street View, you can now discover one of the 14 worldwide landmarks and greatest natural wonders, the breathtaking Jeita Grotto. Discovered in 1836, the caves were used as an ammunition store during the civil war. With a length of 9 kilometers (5.6 miles), Jeita Grotto is the longest cave system in the Middle East, split into two sections. You can now virtually visit the underground river, and then watch the dazzling rock formations at the upper cave.

Take in some culture and explore the rich history of Lebanon by heading East to Baalbek, one of the mysterious ruins of the Roman Empire, also called City of the Sun. There’s something special about this modern city with all the Roman structures at its heart.

Head to Byblos, one of the 20 world’s oldest cities and the first city of Phoenicia. Byblos today bridges the ancient with the modern, and with Street View, you can virtually stroll the street markets in Byblos and enjoy the coastal view during sunset.

Just 37 miles (60 kilometers) from the capital Beirut, visit Shouf Cedar Reserve,  the largest nature reserve in Lebanon, and home to the Cedar tree, the emblem of the Lebanese national flag. There are many trails for hiking—each will unveil a new layer of natural beauty.

My trips to Beirut are never complete without stopping to revisit  the American University of Beirut, one of the oldest universities in the Arab world.   Located in the city of Hamra, the campus sits on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, spread across 61-acres of beautiful landscape.

I encourage you to also check Google Arts & Culture and see a special showcase. And whether you continue your journey on Google Maps or get inspired to visit in person, I hope you’ll get a deeper appreciation for this small but magical country in the Middle East.

I was eight years old when my dad took me to my first Indianapolis 500, one of the most prestigious car races in the world. It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before—the track was buzzing with hundreds of thousands of loyal fans overshadowed only by the sound of the cars speeding by. The excitement was contagious and the sheer power of the race cars is otherworldly. From then on, I’ve attended nearly every race with my Dad. As a “Hoosier,” born and raised in Indiana, I’ve always felt a connection to this event—steeped in tradition and alive with fans like me who return every year and sing “Back home again in Indiana.”

While the true feeling of the Indy 500 can only be experienced in person, I wanted to bring a taste of it to people who have never been and to those who want to revisit their past experiences there. I work in the Global Business Organization at Google, so I reached out to our Street View team to see if we could bring the track to Google Maps. They sent a Street View Camera around the track just moments before the green flag was waved, and 3 months later, it’s on Street View for all to enjoy. Starting today, you can take a spin around the infamous Indianapolis Motor Speedway and get closer to the action on your phone or computer.

Start your engines and take a spin around the track in Google Maps. For a higher speed look, check out IMS.com/RaceView.