Google Places API

I’m looking to use the Google Places API to pull in the “hours of operation” and “address” of local venues. I have a few questions about this:

I read that Google is now using a “Place ID”. Do you think I can store this as a custom field for each Venue (custom post type), and simply retrieve the needed data from a template file, by pulling that ID?

I’d prefer to use the API without a plugin, as my needs are pretty basic, is this simple enough to do?

I can’t find any quality guides on how exactly to do this, so if anyone could point me in the right direction and offer some advice, that would be greatly appreciated!