The IT Nerd

Travelling to the cottage is a favourite summer pastime for Canadians, but getting there is usually time consuming, stressful and challenging because of cottage country traffic — leaving less time to unwind at the lake.

Waze, the community-based, people-powered navigation app, makes summer driving easier with features that power users find essential, but other Wazers may not be familiar with. Here are just a few of the features in the driving app that can help make your summer travels more fun:

Listen to music without missing your directions: Waze integrates with audio apps like Spotify, Deezer, iHeartRadio, NPR, Scribd, Stitcher and Tunin so you can jam to summer tunes within Waze, with directions cutting in seamlessly.

Plan your drive: Want to know how early you should leave to get to the cottage by 1 p.m.? Wherever you are planning to go, Waze can tell you what time you need to leave based on traffic. Just enter your destination, select “Later” and the time you want to arrive. Waze will indicate the time you should leave to make it with enough time to enjoy your summer getaway.

Find restaurants and gas stations along your journey and add them to your route:Waze can help you make detours to fuel up – either your car or yourself – without missing a beat.

Roadside assistance: Connect quickly to emergency and professional services without needing to fumble to find contact information, whether you need a tow truck or have a medical emergency. Simply tap on Reports within Waze to pull up the menu for Roadside Help.

Share your drive: If someone is expecting you or you’re in a group driving together, you can share your drive so they can keep tabs on your journey. Waze lets you share a link — via e-mail, text and other options — so anyone with the link can see your drive on the map. (You can stop sharing your drive at any time.)

Change the voice Waze speaks with: A new voice in the car might be just what you need to stay alert during a long drive. You can even record your own voice or that of a loved one to tell you where to go. The voice options are always changing, and sometimes include celebs (such as, most recently, DJ Khaled).

Not only is summer a great time to drive — it’s a time when Canadians are in their cars more often! Waze has found its users have different driving behaviours in the summer compared to the rest of the year as they go on vacation, driving further and visiting gas stations and restaurants more often during their journeys. In fact, in July and August they are 270 per cent more likely to navigate to a cottage/cabin, and 100 per cent more likely to navigate to a gas station, convenience store or restaurant.

Wazers also drive more in general during July and August: 14 per cent more than the rest of the year. Last August in particular, one in three Canadian Waze users traveled outside of their home city. In Canada, 71 per cent of Wazers will go on a summer vacation and 62 per cent will use their car to go on vacation.

More than just a map, Waze is truly dedicated to drivers and helps the get to their getaways quickly and safely.