How I use AI to plan a trip✈️
A step-by-step guide to using Google Gemini as a free travel agent
Google’s Gemini is an increasingly useful alternative to ChatGPT. It plugs into Google’s apps, including search. That gives it a helpful “double-check response” feature to verify its responses with Web searches. In this special guest post, technology explorer and writer Rahul Chowdhury shares his experience using Gemini as a travel planning assistant.
Rahul: Gemini’s most distinctive features are its deep integrations with other Google apps like Google Flights and Google Hotels. It can suggest accurate flight and hotel information right from the chat interface. I tested it by planning a trip from Bangalore to Malaysia for two people.
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Refining travel prompts
While Gemini will work with off-the-shelf prompts like “Plan a 2-week vacation from Bangalore to Malaysia,” it might not give you precisely what you need. With generic prompts, you’ll get generic answers.
Noting a few of the following key components of your trip will be sufficient:
Duration: How long will your trip be?
Passengers: How many people will be on the trip?
Budget: How big is your budget? Are you traveling economically or in luxury?
Pace: Do you want a slow-paced, relaxing vacation? Or do you want to see as many landmarks and attractions as possible?
Planning the trip
I asked Gemini to plan a moderate-paced trip for two from Bangalore to Malaysia. It came back with a decent answer right away:
Gemini helpfully includes photos of destinations in relevant parts of its answers. This is lacking in other AI bots like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude.
I was satisfied with the itinerary, so I asked Gemini to show me flights. This is where it got interesting. Gemini came back with relevant flight options in a structured widget from Google Flights:
The widget presented relevant information in a neat table. Clicking on it took me directly to the Google Flights page to view more details or tweak the flight search. It works for hotels too. When I asked Gemini about hotels, it came back with a list in an interactive Google Hotels widget:
This is where Gemini shines in travel planning. It presents accurate, live data from Google's deep sources in a skimmable format. If you don’t like the options presented, you can ask for alternatives:
Gemini’s suggestions extend beyond Google data sources. It can scour the web to find relevant travel data when needed. I asked Gemini to find island hopping tours in Langkawi on Klook, my go-to service for booking activities. When I directed Gemini to narrow its scope to that site, it returned a range of tour packages from Klook. I could then click to book directly on the Klook page:
With a bit of supervision and guidance, Gemini was able to plan a complete trip for me in under 15 minutes. Manually searching and browsing multiple sites to find this information might have taken hours.
Finding important travel info
Like other AI bots, Gemini excels at bringing you condensed general information from the web. One such use case is understanding visa requirements for an international trip. I asked Gemini to give me a rundown of my visa requirements to travel to Malaysia on an Indian passport, and it came back with an accurate summary:
This is crucial information, and given that AI models sometimes spit out fake data, I wanted to double-check Gemini's answer with a reliable source. Fortunately, Gemini has a built-in tool for that. The Double-check response below every answer validates Gemini’s reply with what is found for the same query on Google search. This ensures that Gemini isn’t hallucinating and provides specific source links to follow-up with:
Statements highlighted in green are the ones that were found and match the content of search results for the same query. The arrows can be clicked to reveal relevant source links.
Where Gemini falters
Like other AI tools, Gemini requires supervision. It often failed to stick to my trip's requirements and provided errant info, like flights on dates other than the ones requested. It even mixed up currencies mid-chat. But it revisited its answer when I pointed out mistakes, which made it bearable. Think of Gemini as your expert but forgetful assistant. You have to nudge it in your desired direction when it strays from the path:
Bonus tips
You can periodically ask Gemini to remember your choice of flights, hotels and places to visit.
You can also ask Gemini to prepare an overall trip summary, with your preferred flights and hotels presented in a tabular format so you have a neat takeaway summary:
Gemini's integrations with other Google apps— like Sheets— mean you can export info straight into a spreadsheet for further planning and reference:
Final thoughts
Gemini has become the best AI chatbot for travel planning. Its seamless integrations with other Google services provide a richer and more actionable experience than its counterparts, ChatGPT and Perplexity.
It’s not perfect, as it occasionally confuses travel dates and other requirements. But with minor nudges it yields a decent starting point for trip planning. And it’s 100% free. You don’t have to subscribe to a premium tier to access these features.
Perplexity as an alternative
While not as visually appealing or structured as Gemini, Perplexity comes close as an alternative. Based on my other experiments, Perplexity is better at remembering your chat context. It doesn't stray from what is discussed. It can provide flight and hotel data by searching the web and summarizing the results:
If you subscribe to Perplexity Pro, it can also act as a concierge by asking you relevant follow-up questions before giving you a final answer:
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