Google Earth has many “Layers” available as part of the product.
However, turning too many on at once can become overwhelming.
The most typical layers are:
- Roads
- Borders
- Populated Places
To turn them all off click the box to the left of “Primary Database” at the top of the layers. Then select roads, borders and populated places.
Roads can be turned off when viewing routes, as they can make it difficult to determine the route’s exact path.
Restaurants/Bars are useful for determining where a stop was made.
You should only turn on the layers which are useful to you, and you can safely turn the rest off or they just get in the way and confuse your view of the map. You can turn them off by clicking here (in the picture below):
