Nothing is more refreshing than having the chance to take a peek at different local places or even distant parts of the world without actually having to deal with the hassles of traveling.

Say for example, you want to see the recently opened Sky Tree Tower in Japan, but you don’t have the luxury of time to go out of the country and leave your job. Perhaps you’d settle on just letting it pass, while hoping that someday, the chance would come knocking on your door. But, more often than not, you feel inclined to find ways to see the view without compromising your entire business.

You may not be able to fly out to the destination of your dreams just yet but at least you can enjoy beautiful pictures of it. Instamap, a third-party app for viewing photos, is finally here.

The app allows users to view geo-tagged Instagram photos on Google Maps while giving them users the luxury to navigate virtually to any place around the globe. In short, it’s the sum of Instagram added to Google Maps.

Just imagine how great it would feel to get a peek of the Egyptian pyramids while having a cup of coffee at home or in the office.

Unlike Instagram which only allows you to geo-tag your own photos, Instamap offers a more interactive way of exploring these photos by letting you see the geo-tagged photos of the people living in your vicinity. You can easily view any user’s profile by simply clicking on her or his avatar. Through the user’s profile, you’ll be able to see the user’s latest photos and followers.

It’s in the user’s profile where you get the chance to like or comment on  photos of your friends or family, and even share them on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The said photos are displayed in the form of thumbnails which you could click if you want to post a comment. Instamap will ask you to provide access to your Instagram account, for social interaction. You can view others’ photos if you choose to provide your info. Otherwise, you may go ahead and explore the rest of the available photos worldwide.

Moreover, Instamap is constantly updated, so whatever new photos posted on Instagram are automatically added to Instamap’s gallery. Details are also posted with each photo. Location and names of the places, for example, are part of the details.

Another interesting feature of Instamap is the Popular Photos option. This option shows all photos that are tagged as ‘popular’ by Instagram. So, if you like any of those photos and want to include them in your personal photo collection, you may store them in a single place with the help of Instamap’s My Liked Photos feature.

The app is totally free and runs on any Android device with Froyo or higher.

View Instagram photos on Google Maps through the free Instamap app on the Google Play Store.