How to Use Google Flights for Multi-City Trip Planning

Google Flights is most people’s default starting point for any flight search, and its multi-city mode — while a little less obvious than the standard round-trip search — is genuinely capable for building out a multi-destination itinerary. This guide walks through exactly how to use it, what its various tools actually show you, and a few things worth checking beyond what Google Flights surfaces by default. For a fuller reference covering where to find the feature and an honest look at its strengths and limits, see Google Flights Multi City: The Complete Guide.

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Step 1: Switch to Multi-City Mode

On the Google Flights homepage, you’ll see three tabs near the top of the search box: Round trip, One way, and Multi-city. By default, it opens on Round trip, so the first step is simply clicking Multi-city.

This changes the search box from a single origin/destination pair into a list of flight segments you can build out individually.

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Step 2: Add Your Flight Segments

Each row in multi-city mode represents one leg of your journey. For a simple two-city trip (say, London to Paris, then Paris to Rome, then home to London), you’d set up:

• Segment 1: London → Paris, outbound date
• Segment 2: Paris → Rome, second date
• Segment 3: Rome → London, return date

Click “Add flight” below the existing segments to add more legs if your itinerary has additional destinations. There’s no fixed limit on how many segments you can add, though very long itineraries (six or more legs) can become slower to search and compare.

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Step 3: Set Passengers, Cabin Class, and Bags

Above or alongside the segment builder, Google Flights lets you set the number of passengers, cabin class (Economy, Premium Economy, Business, First), and whether you’re bringing carry-on or checked baggage. These apply across the whole itinerary by default — worth double-checking if your preferences differ leg to leg, since some search tools allow per-leg customisation and Google Flights’ handling of this can be limited.

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Step 4: Review the Results

Once you search, Google Flights returns combinations across your full itinerary, typically sorted by a mix of price and convenience (referred to as “Best” in the results). You can re-sort by price, departure time, or duration using the tabs above the results list.

A few things worth checking in the results:

The total price shown reflects the whole itinerary as searched, not necessarily the cheapest possible combination of individually available fares for each leg — it’s worth being aware that changing one segment’s date or time can sometimes reduce the overall total meaningfully.

Layover duration is shown for connecting flights within a single segment, but Google Flights doesn’t specifically flag whether the gap between two of your separately searched multi-city segments (e.g., your time in Paris before flying to Rome) is a flight connection or simply the time you’re spending in that city — since in multi-city mode, each segment is really its own point-to-point search rather than a single connected journey.

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Step 5: Use the Price Graph and Date Grid

For each individual segment, Google Flights shows a price trend graph beneath the results, letting you see how the fare for that specific leg changes across nearby dates. This is one of Google Flights’ genuinely strong features — shifting a single leg by even a day or two based on this graph can produce a noticeably better fare.

Use this per-segment, not just for your overall trip. Since each leg in multi-city mode is essentially its own search, checking the price graph for each individual segment (rather than just your first or most expensive leg) can reveal savings you’d otherwise miss.

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Step 6: Track Prices If You’re Not Ready to Book

If you’ve found a reasonable itinerary but aren’t ready to commit, Google Flights lets you track prices for the specific search and sends email notifications if the fare changes meaningfully. This works on multi-city searches the same way it does for round trips, though it tracks the specific combination you searched rather than automatically finding better alternatives.

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Step 7: Check the “Explore” Map for Flexible Planning

If you’re still deciding on destinations rather than locked into a specific route, Google Flights’ Explore tool (accessible from the main menu) shows a map with approximate prices to a wide range of destinations from your chosen departure city. This is useful earlier in the planning process — before you’ve committed to a multi-city route — to get a sense of which combinations of destinations might be good value together.

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What Google Flights’ Multi-City Mode Doesn’t Tell You

A few things worth checking separately, since Google Flights’ multi-city search doesn’t cover them directly:

Whether your connection times are realistic. As mentioned above, each segment in multi-city mode is essentially independent — Google Flights won’t flag if the time between your arrival in one city and your onward departure is uncomfortably tight for the specific airports involved.

Whether you’re locked into one airline or alliance’s bundling. The combinations Google Flights surfaces are shaped by how each search engine’s system finds and presents results, which may not always highlight every possible combination of airlines across your legs.

Whether booking as multi-city vs. separate one-way tickets is actually cheaper for your specific route. Google Flights will show you its multi-city result, but comparing that against manually priced separate one-ways for each leg is a manual step you’d need to do yourself.

For a deeper look at evaluating your specific connection times, see How Long Should a Layover Be for an International Flight?

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A Practical Workflow

Combining Google Flights’ strengths with the gaps above, a sensible planning workflow looks like:

1. Use Google Flights’ Explore map if you’re still deciding on destinations
2. Switch to multi-city mode and build your rough route, checking the total price as a baseline
3. Check the price graph for each individual segment, not just the trip as a whole, and adjust dates where it saves meaningfully
4. Note your planned connection times between legs, and check separately whether they’re realistic for the specific airports involved
5. Compare the multi-city total against separately priced one-way legs, particularly if budget airlines might serve any individual segment
6. Set price tracking if you’re not ready to book immediately

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I search more than six or seven cities in Google Flights’ multi-city mode? Yes, there’s no hard limit, though very long itineraries can be slower to load and compare, and results can become harder to scan visually with many segments.

Q: Does Google Flights show budget airlines in multi-city search? Generally yes, Google Flights indexes a wide range of carriers including many budget airlines, though availability and accuracy can vary by route and region.

Q: Can I book directly through Google Flights? No — Google Flights is a search and comparison tool. It links you through to the airline’s own site or a booking partner to complete the purchase.

Q: Why does the price change between searching and booking? Flight prices are dynamic and can change between when you search and when you complete a booking on the airline’s site, particularly if there’s a delay of more than a few minutes or if seat availability shifts in the meantime.

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Final Thoughts

Google Flights’ multi-city mode is a genuinely capable, free tool for building out a multi-destination itinerary, particularly for checking price trends on individual legs and getting a broad view of available routes. Its main gap for complex multi-city planning is that it doesn’t evaluate connection realism between your legs or make it easy to compare a bundled itinerary against separately priced alternatives — both worth checking manually, or with a tool built specifically around that part of the process.

Check your connection times and compare leg-by-leg options with VoyageFlights once you’ve got a rough route in mind.