An online system receives location information from a plurality of user devices used by users of the online system. The location information identifies a plurality of different locations at which each of the user devices was located. From the location information, a plurality of chains of locations visited by each of a plurality of users are extracted. The online system generates one or more location pairs based on the chain of locations, where each location pair includes a first location and a second location to which there is a high probability a user will travel if the user is located at the first location. The location pairs are used for a variety of applications, such as for advertising to users based on locations and for providing insights into the movements of users.