I’m a travel expert, but I’m now letting AI plan my trips

My wife just planned an 18-day Egyptian itinerary to take in Cairo and Luxor, the Valley of the Kings, a Nile River cruise and a trip to Siwa Oasis, amid the dunes in Egypt’s remote Western Desert. She asked ChatGPT to design an itinerary with a daily budget of less than $400 a head, with the focus on immersive, culturally rich travel with a strong storytelling component. From go to whoa it was wrapped up in under five minutes. “If we’d done this ourselves it would have taken half a day and we’d be shouting at one another,” she said. And she’s right.

AI can make planning your holiday much faster.Credit: iStock

I’ve been planning travel itineraries for years: for myself, for readers when I’m answering their questions and for group tours I host, and ChatGPT has been transformative. It’s taken me from the horse-and-cart to a seat in a Formula 1 car. Feed in the question and bingo, the response is almost instantaneous. It needs checking. Mistakes creep in, some references and products are out of date and there are always improvements to be made. It’s a draft rather than a finished product, but it’s a good start, and it’s possible to make further refinements using ChatGPT.

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by OpenAI to help users find answers. It’s one of a family of generative AI tools and there are plenty of alternatives, with Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and Claude just a few of the more popular examples. To answer questions, ChatGPT reviews a vast trove of information, in fact pretty much all the information freely available on the internet, including text, images, audio and video. The question might be a recipe for tiramisu, the rights of de facto spouses in Switzerland or how to land a Cessna 195 (and pray you never have to ask that one). There’s a free version and ChatGPT Plus, a subscription model.

As with all generative AI tools, ChatGPT isn’t perfect. Some of the information it relies on for its answers can be opinion rather than fact, misleading or just plain wrong – ChatGPT has no way of distinguishing. Its answers are not gospel, but within the confines of travel planning it’s a valuable asset. Say you want a two-week itinerary for northern Italy starting in Milan and ending in Venice to include lakes, cultural elements, alpine walks and great food experiences, travelling by train.

The itinerary comes back in about five seconds and it’s a solid starting point. It includes a couple of days each in Milan, the lakes of Como and Garda, Bolzano, Verona and Venice. It’s light on detail, especially the food component, but that’s easily fixed.

Now I need somewhere to stay in Milan, preferably a boutique property in a central location under €250 a night in September. That’s a tough ask and ChatGPT has to work hard, but it comes up with five suggestions, one of which is Hotel Spadari al Duomo and I know that’s a solid choice.

Rather than Bolzano, I want to stay somewhere in the Dolomites with direct access to walks. The area ChatGPT has suggested is the Seiser Alm and that’s brilliant, a high alpine plateau with wildflower meadows overshadowed by soaring peaks and threaded with walking trails. ChatGPT recommends five hotels including the four-star Hotel Steger-Dellai, directly on the Seiser Alm. It also suggests staying in the village of Castelrotto, to take the cable car to the Seiser Alm. That’s an excellent idea, given that fickle mountain weather can put the kibosh on day walks, but I’m a little disappointed the suggested accommodation doesn’t include Castelrotto’s Hotel Cavallino D’Oro Bed & Breakfast, a personal favourite.

Next I want to see some opera in Venice. Top of ChatGPT’s list is La Fenice, the city’s legendary opera theatre, and that’s a no-brainer, but after that comes another suggestion, Musica a Palazzo, and I’m impressed. This is an opera performed to a small audience in a palace on the edge of the Grand Canal, moving from room to room. Nobody does opera like Italians, and Musica a Palazzo is fun, uplifting and the audience gets involved.

You could dig deeper. Want to take a scenic train ride through the mountains, paddle a gondola in Venice, get behind the wheel of a Maserati in the Dolomites, stay at a Benedictine monastery overlooking one of the lakes? ChatGPT has the answers. The only limit is your imagination.

ChatGPT works just as well for domestic trips. If you’re planning an itinerary and looking to add food and wine experiences, historic attractions, an Indigenous cultural component or adventure activities, ChatGPT will find it.

Getting started with ChatGPT is simple. Go to ChatGPT on your web browser, click on “Sign up”, enter your email address, create a password and respond to the confirmation email – you’re in business.

The value of all such generative AI tools depends largely on the question that’s being asked. The simpler and more precise, the better the response. As the northern Italy example shows, you can start off with a general question and drill down to granular level to refine your holiday experience.

Used in concert with other online sites and apps that incorporate AI including Google Maps and booking engines such as Skyscanner and Booking.com, it’s one of a suite of tools that can help you plan a close-to-perfect trip. And – who knows – it might save you from a tormented discussion with your partner.