The short answer
Planning a trip with AI works best in four stages: write a one-paragraph brief, ask for a shortlist and a day-by-day plan grouped by area, research current details with a tool that cites sources such as Perplexity, and confirm every price, opening time and entry rule on official sites before booking. ChatGPT is the best all-rounder for building the plan, Gemini's free plan adds Deep Research, and Claude Docs exports the final itinerary.
What you need before you start
- The fixed points: dates, where you start, who is travelling (ages, mobility, diets), and anything already booked.
- Your style in a sentence: "slow mornings, one big sight a day, good food, no nightlife" tells the AI more than a list of cities.
- A budget level, such as "mid-range hotels, one nice dinner". Exact sums are less useful because AI price estimates are rough.
- A free account on at least one assistant that can search the web, such as Perplexity, ChatGPT or Gemini.
- The official sources you will check against: airline, rail and hotel sites, attractions' own websites, your government's travel advice and the destination's official entry pages.
AI is excellent at the thinking part of travel: matching places to what you enjoy, putting sights in a sensible order and pacing days. It is unreliable on anything that changes, such as prices, timetables, opening hours, closures and entry rules, even when it searches the web. Plan with AI; confirm with official sources.
How to plan a trip with AI, step by step
- Write a one-paragraph brief. Travellers, dates, start point, pace, budget level, must-dos and hard no's. Paste it at the start of every new chat so you never repeat yourself.
- Get a shortlist, not an answer. Ask for three to five destinations that fit the brief, each with why it matches, the catch and the best area to stay. Pick two and ask for an honest side-by-side comparison.
- Research with sources. Use Perplexity, which answers with citations in every response; its pricing page describes the free plan as good for limited daily usage with basic AI models, which is enough for checking the facts behind a trip. In ChatGPT, ask it to search the web and give a link and date for each fact. For a bigger question, such as "the best time of year for this region with children", Gemini's free plan includes Deep Research reports.
- Build the day-by-day plan, grouped by area. Give your pace rule ("no more than two big sights a day") and your fixed points (arrival time, a booked dinner). Ask it to group places that are near each other and to add a rain or low-energy plan B for each day.
- Make a budget table with a "check" column. Ask for rough costs by category and a column showing where you must confirm the real price. Treat the numbers as a starting point only.
- List what to book in advance. Timed tickets, popular restaurants and trains that sell out. Then book on the official sites yourself.
- Check entry requirements the safe way. Do not ask AI whether you need a visa. Ask it which questions to check and which official body answers each, then look them up on your government's and the destination's official pages.
- Export the plan. Claude's free plan includes Claude Docs, which exports to Word, PDF, Markdown and Google Docs, so you can turn the final itinerary into a shareable document for everyone travelling.
- Use it on the trip. Photograph a menu or sign and ask for a translation and explanation: ChatGPT's free plan includes a limited number of uploads, and in Gemini Live you can tap Camera and point your phone at it. See how to use AI on your phone.
Worked example: four days in Lisbon with a seven-year-old
Here is how the method plays out for a typical family trip. The brief: two adults and a seven-year-old, four days in late April, arriving at 14:00 on day one, mid-range budget, the child loves animals and trams, the adults want one good seafood dinner, no more than one big outing per morning.
- Perplexity is asked for family-friendly neighbourhoods to stay in, with sources. They pick from its suggestions only after opening and reading the linked pages.
- ChatGPT gets the brief and builds a four-day plan grouped by area: the first afternoon kept light after the flight, mornings for one main outing, afternoons near the hotel, and a plan B for each day in case of rain.
- The budget table has columns for category, rough cost and "confirm at". Tickets for the busiest attraction are flagged to book ahead.
- The parents check every opening time and ticket price on the attractions' own websites, move any visit that clashes with a closing day, and book tickets directly.
- They paste the final plan into Claude and ask for a one-page Doc with a packing list, exported as a PDF to their phones.
The AI did the matching, ordering and pacing; every time-sensitive detail came from an official page.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
- Trusting prices and opening hours. Fix: every prompt should ask the AI to mark what needs checking, and you check it on the official site.
- A vague brief. "Plan a trip to Japan" gets a generic tour. Fix: add pace, interests, budget level and who is travelling.
- Days that look fine on paper. AI often underestimates travel time between places. Fix: ask it to group by area and to list the travel time between each stop, then sanity-check them in a maps app.
- Asking AI to decide visa or health rules. Fix: use it only to build a checklist of questions for official sources.
- Letting an agent book or pay. Fix: book yourself on official sites. If you try a proactive agent such as Claude Duet, a research preview, Anthropic says it asks before sending messages or paying; keep it that way.
- Relying on AI translation for severe allergies. Fix: carry a written allergy card in the local language checked by a person, and tell staff directly.
Which AI to use for travel planning
Perplexity is the best for current research because every answer cites its sources; see the Perplexity guide. ChatGPT is the best all-rounder for building and revising the plan; see the ChatGPT guide. Gemini suits Google users, with free Deep Research and Gemini Live on the trip, and Google lists more than 40 connected apps, including OpenTable, that it can work with; see the Gemini guide. Claude is useful for turning the final plan into a clean document. Compare them in ChatGPT vs Perplexity, find 13 ready prompts in prompts for travel planning, and see the best AI for research. For team offsites and business travel prompts, see Yuzoki kits.
Prompts to copy
Shortlist destinations
Here is our brief: [travellers, dates, start point, pace, budget level, loves and hates]. Suggest four destinations that fit. For each, give why it matches, the main catch, the best area to stay and how long it takes to get there from [start]. Mark anything I should check.
You get: A reasoned shortlist with the trade-offs
Build the itinerary
Using this brief: [paste], build a day-by-day plan for [destination]. Group places by area, no more than [number] big sights a day, include travel time between stops, and add a rain or low-energy plan B for each day. Our fixed points: [arrival time, bookings].
You get: A realistic plan with backups
Budget with a check column
Estimate a budget for this itinerary at [budget level] for [travellers]: accommodation, transport, food, tickets and extras. Use a table with columns for category, rough cost, confidence and "confirm at" with the official site to check. [paste itinerary]
You get: A starting budget that shows where to confirm prices
The entry checklist
I am a [nationality] citizen travelling to [country] for [purpose] for [length]. Do not tell me the rules. List the questions I must check (visa, passport validity, health, customs, driving) and which official body or website answers each one.
You get: A checklist that sends you to official sources
Review my plan
Review this itinerary for problems: unrealistic travel times, days that are too full, places likely to be closed on certain days of the week, and anything that usually needs booking ahead. Mark each issue and suggest a fix. [paste itinerary]
You get: A second pair of eyes before you book