Seeking Tips for using ChatGPT as a part of Travel Planning

I've not used any of the AI options for trip planning yet, but have used them a bit at work. One thing co-workers who use it heavily have mentioned and that I've seen mentioned in training videos and readings is to give the AI a role. For example for a travel inquiry you might start your prompt with "You are an experienced guide in the city of xxxxx, and have clients who want to spend 5 days touring your city, please provide a suggested itinerary." Also if you are a slow walker or like to read museum texts include that in your prompt to improve results. Example "You are a travel guide organizing a trip to Paris for two friends. They enjoy museums and take the time to read the exhibit texts. They also walk at a slower pace, but don't want to take taxis." The more specificity you can provide in your prompt the better your results.

Angella, thank you! What a great suggestion that never would have occurred to me. I'm refining my Gdansk prompt, giving AI a role as a tour guide.

And also getting much more specific in my inquiry, such as:
"You are an experienced guide for a solo female traveler in Gdansk. Your client would like a 5 day itinerary for Gdansk, which she's never visited."

"Please give your travel client two options for dinner each evening: one for authentic Polish food and one for a fancy Michelin restaurant." (LOVE the results of this refinement!)

It's interesting to see which refinements improve the results and which do not. I'm also learning to "exclude" things from the results that don't appeal, in which case it gives another suggestion.

"Your client likes WWII museums but not maritime museums."

I agree with Angella, CW. I used ChatGPT to help me with my England trip and found it very useful. As was said above, the more details you provide, the better the response. And you can keep going, too.

For example, "I am traveling to Amsterdam, and will have 6 nights in the city. I would like to visit museums, stroll through some parks, and have dinner on at least 2 nights in a nice restaurant."

Maybe it gives you an itinerary, but you want more. So you go back and say, "I am traveling to Amsterdam, and will have 6 nights in the city. I would like to visit museums, stroll through some parks, and have dinner on at least 2 nights in a nice restaurant. I would also like to visit a few quaint villages outside of the city, and maybe do some bike riding. I will be relying on public transportation. Please provide me with a possible itinerary and also some good places to rent bikes."

The more info you provide, the more you will get. I do like the idea of providing AI with a role, though, as that can narrow down its focus, which is good.

By the way, it's great for other things, too. I asked it to design a fitness workout for an overweight, 69 year old woman, and it gave me a great one. :-)

ETA: You asked at what point to use it. I used it late in the game, but only because my research was so spread out over time. I do think it helps to have a good general idea of what you want to see first. For example, I knew I wanted to visit Yorkshire, but could not figure out an itinerary because I wanted to see everything. So I finally asked AI for some daily itineraries in areas I would be visiting, explained that I had a car, and so on. AI was great at narrowing down my itinerary to something manageable, which I could not bring myself to do.

These are some great tips. If you used what was suggested, did you experience any hiccups - ie, things were closed, or it sent you zig-zagging aross town to your attractions? Last year sometime I watched a YouTube video from a guy who used Chat GPT to plan an itinerary in, I think, Lisbon and it did a terrible job. I don't think he was nearly as specific in his requests as you all have been, and he didn't do any checking on the itinerary to verify what was open or if it made sense to visit things in the order that Chat GPT suggested them. So did you all do any double-checking what was suggested before you left on your trip?

One more thought...
At least in Bing Chat Copilot (this is the AI tool the company I work for has authorized us to use for work so the one I'm most familiar with) you have options for how AI responds to your prompt, they are: more creative; more balanced; and more precise. If chatGpt has something similar you can play around with changing those settings and seeing if the responses change. More creative might get more unusual results and generate some out of the norm ideas, but if you want cold hard facts for your travel planning, I'd stick with the "more precise" setting as that should limit AI's hallucinations.

Definitely check the info. ChatGPT does carry a disclaimer at the bottom that says, "ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info." Gemini has something similar.

BTW, I often use more than one AI option; usually ChatGPT and Gemini (Google). That can help find discrepancies as well, and sometimes gives you more options.

Echoing what others have mentioned about providing specifics for what you like to do. Blogs tend to be more tailored to specific interests at least but most guidebooks try to cover a lot of activities like shopping, food, museums, family friendly etc. so I like using AI chat because I can tell it what we like to do and get ideas based on that. I’ve also used it in early stages for exploring transit routes (i.e., when moving between towns- comparing train vs. bus options). I would never 100% rely on AI for the specific transit details but it’s given me a rough idea. And a bit handier than using google maps.

Thanks all, I'm getting a nice picture!

Mardee, I see how you are driving at specifics. I am starting down that track, requesting different types of restaurants. I can see that I can do much more with the types of qualifiers you suggest.... "2 nights in a nice restaurant" or "relying on public transit." I love that you let AI do the "dirty work" of narrowing down your itinerary. I may try that for Stockholm, even 8 full days isn't feeling like "enough" for everything I have my eye on!!

kayla.p, I haven't taken any of these trips yet. Gdansk is too small for it to send me zig zagging around. I'll see what happens when I ask it for help with larger Stockholm. Since I already have an itinerary, I'll see if it creates a better logical organization.

Definitely check the info. Great point, Mardee.
I was having a hard time finding some of the Polish restaurants in Gdansk. Perhaps some of them have closed.... or they don't come up on Google Maps. Interestingly, each time I refined the prompt for restaurants, it seemed to have tossed its set of known restaurants back in a cup like dice and rolled them back out again on different days in the itinerary.

Angella, I'm starting to see this as a tool that the more you understand how it "thinks" the better you can guide it to suggest a trip in line with your own vision. I'll look for those settings to guide it's left-brain vs right-brain thinking.

Oh, if only Alan Turing could see it all!

rueterjon, thanks! I haven't tried asking for help with transit routes. I'm going to try some of that for Stockholm. And perhaps Istanbul. Obviously both of those are big cities, but I think there may still be some options.

So here's one that made me chuckle, in the context of using AI vs trusted travelers on the forum....

...I gave ChatGPT an extra day in Gdansk, because otherwise it was assuming my last full day was a travel day. As a result, it grouped the WWII Museum and the Solidarity Center on the same day, one in the morning and one in the evening.

I think I will take acraven's forum guidance over ChatGPT in this instance, and refine the prompt to give each of those a full day :-)

And another funny one .... given an extra day in Gdansk and even asking it not to put 2 museums on the same day ... it is giving me a vacation from my vacation day!

Day 6: Leisure and Reflection
Morning: Spend a leisurely morning exploring local markets or visiting any remaining sights in Gdansk.
Afternoon: Relax at a cafe or take a scenic walk along the Motlawa River.

Apparently ChatGPT also has some idea of pacing your travel :-)

Exactly! That's why I like it because it does push them, and I still have a tendency to cram everything in. It's sort of my "travel conscience." :-)

These are great tips. I especially like the brand new destination travel prompt.

I’ve played a little with ChatGPT for travel too. One trick I read about is to tell the AI its role. For example, “You’re a travel agent. Find me [fill in the blank]. Another trick I found very useful is to ask for the sources used. And check for accuracy because ChatGPT is not a search engine; it’s a language tool. To double-check, I ask questions that I know the answer to and often find that AI gets it wrong. That said, I find that Perplexity does pretty well on accuracy and actually includes sources so you don’t have to ask for them. The travel AI sites I’ve tried, however, don’t seem to work all that well. Itineraries are over-packed and hotel suggestions seem to be straight off TripAdvisor.

I can’t wait for the day I can ask AI for the perfect hotel so I don’t have to spend my usual month (or 2 or 3, pls don’t judge me) obsessing over which one to pick!

You'll get even better results if you go into detailed interests --

example:

What should a visitor to Warsaw look for if they are interested in birding and crocheting and like to walk in the rain?

What should a Python coder be sure to check out in Talinn if they like dance festivals and Bauhaus architecture?

If a traveler really likes the Rolling Stones and desserts with fruit in them, how should they spend a weekend in Bucharest?

Ok, avi, I know you are right, but you still made me laugh.

Here is guidance for your rainy day birding crocheter....

Visitors to Warsaw interested in birding should explore parks like Łazienki Park or Kabaty Woods, known for diverse bird species. For crocheting, look for local craft stores or attend workshops. Walking in the rain can be enjoyable in Łazienki Park or along the Vistula River.

Hmmm, might need further refinement :-)

I played with it and was not impressed with the results. One thing I didn't see anyone mention is ChatGPT's data has not been updated since 2021. It is a closed system. They are using old data for their suggestions. It is also know for hallucinating information, so some of the information it produces is false.

Google Gemini scrapes from their search engine and can provide links to sources, so you know they are real, but the question remains if they are any good. I think Microsoft's AI also scrapes from Bing, so it would be the same issues.

I think anything beyond what most guidebooks will state will not be helpful in the long run.

Thanks for joining the discussion, Mariam. I was not aware of the difference in methodologies of the tools - a "closed system" that might have old data (I certainly found that some of its restaurant suggestions were permanently closed) vs scraping their search engines for live data, which should at least be one degree more up to date.

I was not aware of the term "hallucinating" as it relates to AI engines. While I haven't yet seen any apparent "made up stuff," it's good to know to keep an eye out for it.

I think anything beyond what most guidebooks will state will not be helpful in the long run.
I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on this one. For my search related to the National Parks in Utah, I found the presentation of the information to be nicely concise and on point for my questions. Realistically, I viewed it as a jumping off point for my own research. But a better jumping off point than a bare (say) Google search.

Although, having said that, apparently my Google Search engine is jealous of my hours spent with ChatGPT because suddenly it is giving me AI answers, instead of raw search. Although those lines are easily blurred, it's like it read my mind that I wanted more from our relationship ;-)

To everyone on and reading this thread, we will host a "Tech for Travel" talk on October 12th to further discuss the use of AI tools for travel planning. I haven't posted that meeting announcement, but will do so under the "Travel Group Meetings" section of the forum.

Until then, please mark your calendars:
October 12, 11am - 1pm (Pacific Time)

Thanks for the tip on using GPT for travel. I would like to write a book based on my travels or can GPT help with that?

It's an interesting question that makes me wonder whether it could write our trip reports.

I'll give it a try!

I'm sure you can write just about anything with it.

Earlier this summer, I took a class at the local university. We had agreed not to use AI for class papers (which I did not). But I was curious about how AI would do, so on one assignment (which I had already finished and turned in), I actually asked that question to ChatGPT. I gave it the exact wording of the question, the recommended number of words, and let it fly. I was surprised at how accurate it was, and how well it answered the question. I can see why students would want to use it.

In some respects, it was better than my paper (and I like to think I'm a good writer) especially in that it used less passive verbs (that's one thing I always have to edit out) , followed grammatical rules better and basically presented a very interesting and engaging paper.

Reported reply above by katiewart for possible self-promotion.

We'll be holding a "Tech for Travel" discussion of using AI for trip planning on October 12. Please find the details on this meeting announcement:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/travel-meetings/sf-east-bay-tech-for-travel-discuss-using-ai-for-trip-planning-oct-12-online-everyone-welcome

As the title says, everyone is welcome ... whether you've tried AI for trip planning, used it at work, or just have questions about using it. Please join the discussion!