Are you using AI / ChatGPT for travel planning and while travelling?

[dtienloi]

I had my first ever chat GPT or active AI use yesterday.

I’m in Saudi Arabia and was taking a Careem ( Uber- like) with a young bloke and I used Google Translate to say a few things to him through the phone.

He smiled and fiddled with his own phone and brought up a ChatGPT voice translator where we could simply speak and the thing would say the translation fairly promptly. Not quite, but almost a normal conversation.

This is ironic (for humanity, and for Google I suppose). If I remember correctly, the tech behind GPT-style AI (Transformer Neural Networks) were initially researched at Google, for translation purposes. Yet Google does not seem to bother to use it to improve Google Translate anymore.

 

[elanshin]

This is ironic (for humanity, and for Google I suppose). If I remember correctly, the tech behind GPT-style AI (Transformer Neural Networks) were initially researched at Google, for translation purposes. Yet Google does not seem to bother to use it to improve Google Translate anymore.

I suspect gTL is going to be left in its current state for a while and be "downloadable" to be offline and a separate thing will go through Gemini in the future.

 

[dtienloi]

i think we might live to see every single g-product other than Gemini itself ending up on Killed by Google (not looking forward to it!)

 

[Warks]

I've been booking a trip through Europe bit by bit but I had a quandary where one part of the trip depended on a flight between two cities that hardly any airlines flew. And there were only two flights per week. It was also a cheap airline and they only make flights available for ticket purchase six months ahead of time. I had a very bad feeling that if I got these tickets on the right date the flight could easily be cancelled. I was on the train coming back from an interstate work trip when I thought "I'll ask ChatGPT what to do if the flight is cancelled". Well it opened up a whole new avenue I hadn't considered so I changed plans a few days later and am skipping that flight and going a slightly different way allowing us to visit one city for an extra day and add another stop I hadn't anticipated. I mean if I'd talked to someone who knew their stuff they could have put me on the same track but this was nice and simple and easy to check. As long as you don't ever get caught up on its hallucinations you will largely be okay. Question everything though.

 

[mel-world]

I thought I'd like to get some feedback from AFF Members who are already using AI to assist with planning and/or booking their travel. Or members who are contemplating using these tools.

Specifically:

• Which engines do you find the best? Do you use just one or compare two by giving them the same ideas and dates?
• Do you use it for planning only or for planning and booking?
• If the latter, do they default to their favourite booking engine?
• Or do you maintain complete flexibility?
• Once an Itinerary has been generated, does the platform monitor for flight changes, track pricing and tell you the optimum window to book?
• Do you worry about the AI engine retaining and using your data? Or are we well beyond the point of no return re the use of our data?
• Does making an inquiry lead to a flood of messages, junk mail or AI Slop (I think it's called)?
• Do you think you save more than you spend on the subscription(s)?

Hopefully, this will lead to some good ideas and discussion.

 

[Jenya]

AI is useless, can't even see available air fares in real time.

 

[flyingfan]

See here for plenty of recent discussion

Thread 'Are you using AI / ChatGPT for travel planning and while travelling?'

Oct 22, 2025

I'm using AI almost exclusively now for travel planning and also planning on the ground while travelling, and I'm curious if others are seeing the same potential.

AI has completely transformed how I create travel itineraries. Instead of spending hours researching, I'm now feeding tools like ChatGPT and Claude some basic parameters about my trip duration, interests, and the type of holiday I'm after. The output is incredibly tailored, well-researched itineraries that hit exactly what I'm looking for. It's like having a travel consultant who actually gets me.

For instance, during our...

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[AuSammy]

Totally new to AI tools and heavy google user. I tried free chatgtp and results were ok but not startling, guess I need to learn the lingo to prompt it.

Out of interest I asked google what I should use for tour planning and it responded thus….(i notice no reference to Claude mentioned above???)

Based on 2026 travel AI testing, Layla is considered the best for conversational, comprehensive planning, while Wonderplan excels at creating fast, free, and detailed itineraries. For deep research with citations, Perplexity is preferred, and ChatGPT is strong for initial brainstorming.

Here is a breakdown of the best AI offerings for travel planning and research in 2026:

Top AI Travel Planners (Itinerary & Organization)

• Layla (layla.ai): Best for conversational, agent-like planning. It merges inspiration, location research, and itinerary generation, feeling like a "real travel planner".
• Wonderplan: Top choice for generating free, detailed, and visually clean itineraries that can be exported as PDFs.
• Mindtrip: Excellent for visual inspiration and finding detailed information in a magazine-style format.
• Explorer AI: Highly recommended for creating personalized itineraries, allowing users to drag and drop attractions into a saved, structured plan.
• iPlan.ai: Good for building customized, minute-by-minute itineraries based on specific interests.

Top AI for Travel Research

• Perplexity: The superior choice for deep research, providing detailed reports with citations.
• ChatGPT: Excellent for creative brainstorming and iterating on itinerary ideas via conversation.
• Notebook LM: Ideal for personalized research, allowing users to upload specific travel blogs, PDFs, or videos to get accurate, hallucination-free answers about a destination.

Key AI Travel Planning Tools for 2026

• Speed: Wonderplan.
• Personalization: Stardrift.ai or Layla.
• Avoiding Tourist Traps:EasyTripAI.com.
• Local Information: tourguido.com.
• Real-time Updates: Google Gemini.

Combining tools is recommended: use ChatGPT for brainstorming, Perplexity for verification, and Layla or Wonderplan for the itinerary.