The Alluring Promise of an AI Travel Agent
The pitch is simple and powerful: tell an app your destination, budget, and interests, and it will instantly generate a detailed, day-by-day itinerary. Tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and dedicated travel planners like Viaje and Stippl are gaining traction,
with many travellers using them for initial brainstorming and inspiration. These platforms can analyse vast amounts of data to suggest destinations, activities, and logical routes, saving hours of manual research. For a user, it feels like having a personal travel agent on call, ready to build a trip around specific themes, whether it's a culinary tour of Delhi or a relaxed beach holiday in Goa. The idea is to move beyond generic travel guides and get a plan that feels uniquely yours.
Putting AI to the Test: A Weekend in the Hills
To see how these tools perform, we devised a simple test: a three-day weekend trip from Bengaluru to Ooty for two people with a mid-range budget, focused on nature and local food. We gave this prompt to several popular AI planners. The initial results were impressive. Itineraries were delivered in seconds, complete with suggestions for the Government Botanical Garden, Ooty Lake, and Doddabetta Peak. The schedules were logically structured, grouping nearby attractions and suggesting a reasonable pace. Some even recommended specific local eateries and factored in driving time from Bengaluru. On the surface, the plans looked solid, efficient, and ready to be booked.
The Reality Check: Where AI Stumbles
The real test of an AI itinerary isn't whether it looks good, but whether it works in the real world. This is where the cracks begin to show. A significant issue is outdated information. AI models often draw on fixed data, which means they can recommend restaurants that have permanently closed, suggest visiting an attraction on its weekly closed day, or provide incorrect opening hours. In our Ooty test, one AI recommended a highly-rated cafe that had shut down over a year ago. Another major flaw is the AI's inability to grasp real-world context and nuance. It might suggest a scenic route without knowing it's prone to landslides in the monsoon or recommend a hotel that, while technically matching the budget, has a recent flood of terrible reviews. Some AIs are also known to "hallucinate," inventing non-existent places that sound plausible. Studies have shown that AI-generated itineraries can be error-prone, requiring significant human oversight.
The Human Touch: Your Role as Editor-in-Chief
This doesn't mean you should abandon AI for travel planning. Instead, think of the AI as a very fast but sometimes unreliable intern. Its draft is your starting point, not the final product. The key is to verify every critical detail before making a booking. For any hotel, restaurant, or attraction, do a quick search on Google Maps to confirm its location, opening hours, and, most importantly, recent reviews. Cross-check travel times between locations, as AI can underestimate the realities of traffic and road conditions. For anything price-sensitive, like flights or activities, always click through to the official vendor to get live pricing, as the AI's data can be stale. This hybrid approach—using AI for the initial creative work and human intelligence for verification—is the safest and most effective way to plan.
Smarter Prompts for Better Results
You can improve the quality of your AI-generated draft by giving it better instructions. Instead of a vague request like "plan a trip to Kerala," be specific. Include details like "plan a 7-day family trip to Kerala in December with two kids under 10, focusing on wildlife and beaches with a budget of ₹1.5 lakh, avoiding long car journeys." The more constraints and preferences you provide, the more tailored and useful the output will be. You can even ask it to act as a specific persona, like a budget backpacker or a luxury traveller, to filter its recommendations through a particular lens. This helps the AI move beyond generic, over-touristed suggestions and provide a more personalised starting point for your research.
