Can I search for places near a given address in Google Maps?

The easiest way to solve any of these sort of problems is to simply call the hotel and ask for the concierge. Then describe what you're seeking, how far away it can be, and what he suggests. If you want, then Google 'em all to see what they look like. Five minutes on the phone and problem solved, voila!

I know, I know, you're a digital sort of person and would rather do all the work yourself. No worries, we can do that too, using Google Maps.

The first thing you need is the street address of your hotel. Let's just guess that you're staying at the very nice Sheraton Denver Downtown which (according to Google) is located at 1550 Court Place, Denver.

Go to Google Maps and type in that address. You'll see a map like this:

As you can see, it quickly finds and places the Sheraton, shows various useful information on the left and even has a tiny photo of the building in the "address balloon" window.

Look more closely at the options in that address balloon, however:

See "Search Nearby"? Click on it, and you'll have a tiny text input window appear:

As you can see, I simply typed in "bars" to see what'll appear. The result is almost instant:

A nice selection of different bars within 3-4 blocks of the hotel, each tagged with a letter that corresponds to the information shown on the left side of the page.

To learn more about one, just click on it, as I've done here on "G":

Sounds nice. Shall we say 5pm on Thursday? See ya there.