Instagram wants to be your favorite travel app with Places Search

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Places Search lets you scout spots
Places Search lets you scout trendy spots
Photo: Instagram

Instagram is already one of the best way to explore your friends lives, and now with its latest update, it wants to be even better at helping you scout awesome travel spots before you hit the road.

In a big 7.0 update, Instagram announced today on its blog that users can now search place to take a peek at pretty much any location on Earth. You could already look at a location’s photos if a friend tagged it in their snap, but now you can find spots much easier through search in order look inside a hot new restaurant, check out Coachella, or gaze at Yosemite.

Instagram 7.0 also redesigns the Explore page so that it now surfaces real-time trending topics, letting you tap into experiences like #bonnaroo or #fathersday. They’ve also added new curated collections that are updated regularly by real humans. Collections will feature interesting accounts and places on everything from architecture to extreme athletes.

The new update is available now on both iOS and Google Play, but you have to live in the U.S. to see the new Explore page.

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