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.

 

[elanshin]

Ok I've been using Gemini a fair bit to find food in Rome, Venice and Nice and my goodness it's currently delivering very well.

Give it a few good prompts based on what you're after (local, not tourist heavy, nearby.. etc) and it'll start giving reasonable suggestions. Fact check them against gmaps, adjust prompt again if necessary. Suddenly what would be hours of searching has zoomed in on some good locations. It does hallucinate a little but thats what the fact checking process is for.

 

[jbman]

Google paid $10 million at bankruptcy auction for a massive trove of data from collapsed airline Spirit, saying it plans to use the assets to improve its AI models.

Google Aims to Boost AI With Purchase of Spirit Airlines Data

Google LLC won a bankruptcy auction for a trove of deindentified business data, software code, and operations records from collapsed low-cost carrier Spirit Aviation Holdings Inc., saying it plans to use the assets to improve its artificial intelligence.

news.bloomberglaw.com

 

[Pushka]

Ok I've been using Gemini a fair bit to find food in Rome, Venice and Nice and my goodness it's currently delivering very well.

Give it a few good prompts based on what you're after (local, not tourist heavy, nearby.. etc) and it'll start giving reasonable suggestions. Fact check them against gmaps, adjust prompt again if necessary. Suddenly what would be hours of searching has zoomed in on some good locations. It does hallucinate a little but thats what the fact checking process is for.

I'm having less success with Gemini at the moment. Just giving wrong info that I know enough to know it's wrong. Maybe they changed their algorithms- chat gpt does this too and it's frustrating.

 

[elanshin]

I'm having less success with Gemini at the moment. Just giving wrong info that I know enough to know it's wrong. Maybe they changed their algorithms- chat gpt does this too and it's frustrating.

Im mainly using it for food finding which it seems to be doing a reasonable job. It plugs into gmaps and reads reviews, location data etc.

Other things I'm using either a mix or looking it up myself separately.

 

[Travel_Hacks]

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 recent trip to the Loire Valley, I had to navigate French-based websites to book luggage transfer services between villages and arrange for the delivery and pickup of our e-bikes. Chat GPT told me precisely what to do, where to book, and summarised the best service providers based on the reviews.

As a result, the trip went without a single hitch. It's saved me hours and hours of research and time.

I'm ditching traditional review sites like Google and TripAdvisor, opting instead for AI-driven, on-the-ground recommendations, like our recent trip to the Loire Valley. We were heading to Château de Chenonceau, and we checked into our hotel near the château in the afternoon. ChatGPT suggested something counterintuitive - wait until 9 am the next morning instead of going immediately. The reasoning? Beat the crowds.

As a result, we were the fifth people through the gate and essentially had the entire chateau to ourselves for a solid 30-60 minutes. It was an incredible experience, and we got amazing photos as a result. Within 2 hours, the place was swamped with tourists.

I've now set up a dedicated AI travel project in Claude. I've created custom instructions that enable it to understand my loyalty program memberships, such as Accor Platinum and Hilton Gold, recognise my hotel preferences, including a preference for hotels with executive lounges, track point redemption strategies, and assist in researching complex travel routing.

I'm seeing this as just the beginning. These tools are rapidly evolving from information sources to actual travel agents.

Who else is experimenting with AI in their travel planning? What's worked for you? What hasn't? Are you seeing the same potential, or am I getting ahead of myself?

I do for finding out the tourist spots in the in the city I am travelling to, but it doesn't do a great job in planning the whole itinerary and it's better to plan the itinerary by myself rather than spending huge amount of time in first telling ChatGPT what I want and then keep editing those plans.

I wouldn't say it is smart enough yet to be fully relied upon for planning the whole itinerary.

 

[kookaburra75]

I've started using Gemini for a big trip late next year to Italy. We've been throwing around different ideas and now avoiding travelling through the ME and the US to reduce our potential stress. It's been useful for planning a DONE3 itinerary, and providing an outline of our 10 or so weeks in Italy and other places. Including putting together a cost estimate.

 

[LCC]

Google paid $10 million at bankruptcy auction for a massive trove of data from collapsed airline Spirit, saying it plans to use the assets to improve its AI models.

Google Aims to Boost AI With Purchase of Spirit Airlines Data

Google LLC won a bankruptcy auction for a trove of deindentified business data, software code, and operations records from collapsed low-cost carrier Spirit Aviation Holdings Inc., saying it plans to use the assets to improve its artificial intelligence.

news.bloomberglaw.com

Interesting that a few weeks ago I was using Gemini and was also having an issue with one of the annoying bugs/features with Google maps. In my frustration I asked Gemini to please pass some feedback onto the Google maps team about the issue (can’t remember what it was). Quick as a flash Gemini came back and told me it was just a generic AI tool, independent of the Google entity and therefore had no relationship or ability to provide feedback to Google, so go figure.

 

[elanshin]

I wouldn't fully rely on AI for full itinerary planning, but for tasks like sifting through thousands upon hundreds of thousands of reviews to find restaurants and such , I think its doing a very good job narrowing down what we wanted.

Also for providing basic outlines of "must sees /do's in a city".

 

[Pushka]

I wouldn't fully rely on AI for full itinerary planning, but for tasks like sifting through thousands upon hundreds of thousands of reviews to find restaurants and such , I think its doing a very good job narrowing down what we wanted.

Also for providing basic outlines of "must sees /do's in a city".

Yes and for researching hotels with a specific facility that's not in the main headline but buried somewhere and sometimes only in the reviews. Eg stairs no elevator. I was doing this just yesterday with hotels in Venice. Also easy way to get to from the airport and close to the train on the way out. Helped me find a place on the canal with the landing outside for water taxi and also five minutes walk to railway station. It then worked out it was over a bridge and some of these have steps. So asked it for a photo of that bridge and it showed luggage friendly mini steps and not a high bridge. Very doable. Booked. That was after maybe an hour of looking at others.

 

[kpc]

We spent hours planning a 12 day itinerary around Sri Lanka next year.

Out of curiosity, I then asked ChatGpt, and it came up with a near identical itinerary !!