How to find GREAT places when you are from out of town.

Last week I went for a long day drive in an relatively unfamiliar area and wanted to find a good place to have breakfast.

In my planning stage I turned to Google Earth. (Do not confuse with Google Maps . . . not the same!)
http://earth.google.com/
Google Earth is a free program you must download onto your computer in order to use. It is simply amazing what GE can do. (hint: learn to turn on "Layers" and "terrain" and tilt the image for a pseudo 3D effect).

Under "Layers" on the left side is a check box for "Featured Content" . . . and under Featured Content are also check boxes for items like National Geographic - NASA - Discovery Networks - etc.
One of the check boxes is for Yelp!
http://www.yelp.com/
But, unlike using the Yelp web site - Yelp on Google Earth will highlight the location of a Yelped sites as you zoom in to an area or city.

I used this for planning a long day trip last week. I found an absolutely wonderful place for breakfast that I would have not otherwise found.

This feature alone is worth downloading GE . . . but there are many other features to discover.

What have you found cool about Google Earth?