Travel

Gizmodo's Webb Wright had some badly delayed flights that forced them to pay for Lyft rides home in the early hours, and asked Muse to request refunds. Given screenshots of the receipts and the flight details, Muse drafted decent emails, courteous but firm. But buried inside one draft was the important point that the airlines didn't take refund requests by email, so the drafts would have to be pasted into the airlines' websites. Webb ended up opening a browser and entering the details by hand, though they did use the message Muse had drafted.

Muse · Travel · Source date: Oct 12, 2026

neom spent two hours trying ChatGPT's Dots agent and grades it B-. Asked to figure out a trip, it did; neom booked the flight and hotel, and Dots noticed the shuttle hadn't been booked and offered to book it with the details they'd discussed. But after neom said yes, it went back to the site, re-checked the details, asked for confirmation, filled in the booking form and then asked again whether to book. It can sign in with passwords, but wouldn't fetch two-factor codes from email even with email access, and its permissions checker rejected broad rules neom wrote, such as proceeding with routine, reversible actions without asking. neom finds it faster to use regular chat.

ChatGPT Dots · Travel · Source date: Sep 30, 2026

Xcelerate needed two rental cars that could each carry seven people for a trip to Maine, and had memberships with Avis, Hertz, Costco and Chase's travel portal; checking every combination by hand would have taken forever. They wrote a Codex prompt in 20 minutes and let it use the browser directly. It queued any CAPTCHAs for them to solve, and a sub-agent searched Reddit for other people's ways of getting good rental deals. It found a third-party Avis reseller charging $600 with a discount code, against $1,100 cheapest from Avis directly. By those quoted prices that's about $500 less for both cars (the poster calls it a $1,000 saving), and they say they wouldn't have found it without about a week of manual searching.

Codex · Travel · Source date: Sep 29, 2026

Ha Tran Nguyen Phuong used Muse to apply for a visa. It booked a refundable multi-leg flight and a refundable hotel, got the bank statement, dug through email for papers such as the passport photo and I-94, wrote a day-by-day itinerary and filled in the online form. But it couldn't size the passport photo (made from a selfie with ChatGPT) to fit the frame or upload most of the files; one field accepted only JPG, not PDF, and images had to be under 2MB, so they had Muse convert and compress files. Muse also missed extra documents and flights the instructions required, and bot detection stopped it booking one flight. Muse did about 70% of the work and they still spent about an hour on it.

Muse · Travel · Source date: Sep 14, 2026

Christopher Johnson built a Claude Code skill in about twenty minutes to act as a travel agent, sorting flights and places to stay for a business trip. Asked for real prices, it gave ranges, such as 'Flights typically run $280 to $420', and none of them was a price they could actually pay. Claude explained that the booking sites load prices with JavaScript after the page renders, which its tools couldn't see, so it had been estimating. With the Claude in Chrome extension installed and the same skill and request, it opened the sites and returned three specific places to stay with current prices and direct links. It was slower and used more of the plan's usage limits. They kept 'Act without asking' off, and Claude never bought anything.

Claude Code, Claude in Chrome · Travel · Source date: Aug 26, 2026

Daniel Ross, a UK citizen travelling through Central America, was in Medellín when they realised they hadn't checked whether Honduras needed a visa. They searched in Chrome on their phone, and Google's Gemini answer said US, Canadian, UK and EU citizens don't need a visa for tourist stays of up to 90 days. They took its word for it. At the airport the agent asked for a visa, and the UK government's travel page showed one was needed, obtainable only at a Honduran embassy. Airline staff helped them rebook to end in Panama instead. The mistake cost $457, and Ross says they will stick to official sources for visa rules.

Gemini · Travel · Source date: Aug 6, 2026

Manuel Dominguez's suitcase never left Canada on a WestJet trip to Mexico City and Puerto Vallarta, and it took 10 days to get it back. When the case moved from one WestJet person to another, they asked Claude to pull the full history of emails with the first person so they could pass it on. To claim expenses, they photographed the receipts for clothes bought during those 10 days and asked Claude to build an Excel sheet from them to attach to the claim. It saved a lot of time, but WestJet paid only 60% of the original claim.

Claude · Travel · Source date: Jul 20, 2026

Kin Meng Sio launched 4 Claude Code agents to go through 4 booking flows for the same Tokyo hotel and dates (no breakfast, June 13–15) all the way to the final confirmation page, with coupons applied, taxes added and currency holds calculated. It took five minutes while the agents controlled their browsers; it used to take an hour of tab-switching. Booking direct would have cost $93 more than Agoda and had the worst cancellation policy of the four: sliding 40/50/100% fees within 3 days, while every online travel agency offered free cancellation. They booked Agoda at $192.27. Earlier the same week, the AI had caught a $702 drop fee on a car rental.

Claude Code · Travel · Source date: May 15, 2026

Carley Thornell, a working parent, spent a few hours going back and forth with ChatGPT to plan a four-day London trip with their 6-year-old, ending up with a spreadsheet itinerary. On the ground, hotel concierges caught what it missed: a V&A exhibit sold out since day one with no walk-ups, a way into the British Museum's Egypt wing when general tickets were gone, a nut-free restaurant pick (Ping Pong) that had closed the previous year despite a 'permanently closed' flag on Google, and suggested bus routes 11 and 15 that don't go to the Science Museum or Hamleys. A rail strike the week they were there wasn't something ChatGPT could know. Some of its dining picks still worked out for the family.

ChatGPT · Travel · Source date: Mar 18, 2026

Dana Yao and their spouse used ChatGPT to plan a romantic hike up Mount Misen on Japan's Itsukushima island. They set off at 15:00 to reach the summit for sunset, exactly as ChatGPT had told them. ChatGPT said the last ropeway down was at 17:30, but when they got to the station to descend, the ropeway had already closed, and they were stuck at the top of the mountain.

ChatGPT · Travel · Source date: Sep 29, 2025

According to the U.S. Forest Service, three novice hikers planned a Mount Shasta climb partly with Google Gemini, which recommended supplies for an 8-hour climb rather than the 16 hours it took and told them to eat simple carbohydrates rather than fats. They reached the summit at 7 p.m., got lost off-route on the way down after their phone battery died, and one hiker injured a knee at about 11,500 feet. Rangers reached them the next morning; the hikers said they 'relied too much on AI rather than our own critical thinking.'

Gemini · Travel · Source date: Sep 3, 2026

The poster booked flights and Airbnbs, then for each day gave ChatGPT the start and end Airbnb, the kind of places they like and how much walking they were up for, and asked what to see along the route. They checked every suggestion on Google Maps, asked for hidden spots, then asked whether each day was feasible and what they'd missed, which turned up a redwood trail. Planning took about four hours; the poster says the plan worked almost perfectly without feeling rushed.

ChatGPT · Travel · Source date: Aug 16, 2026

After a Lisbon–Frankfurt–Miami flight was delayed, boarded and then cancelled, the poster gave up the trip and flew elsewhere. Lufthansa tried to charge for the Lisbon–Frankfurt leg and offered only 'the difference'. The poster fought it entirely by email using ChatGPT, and after months and a long chain of emails got the refund. They still lost money, days and the trip with their mother.

ChatGPT · Travel · Source date: May 25, 2026

Planning a 13-day cross-country motorcycle ride for a year ahead, the poster asked Grok and ChatGPT for an initial route and itinerary. Grok's itinerary was 'a little wonky'; ChatGPT's schedule and route looked great. But when asked to draw a map of the route it had described, ChatGPT produced one that the poster says gets worse the more you look at it, making them question whether the itinerary itself was accurate.

ChatGPT, Grok · Travel · Source date: Mar 9, 2026

The poster's son, a Canadian studying in the U.S., was travelling overseas, and the poster almost bought travel insurance out of habit. ChatGPT pointed out the key issue: for this cover, residency mattered more than citizenship. They compared options and chose IMG Patriot International.

ChatGPT · Travel · Source date: Feb 27, 2026

About 90 minutes from their destination, with the family wanting hot chocolate and coffee, Shiva Arunachalam asked the Grok integration in their Model Y to find the best Starbucks on the way, with the shortest detour, the right direction of travel and timing so drinks would be ready, and to adjust the route. Arunachalam says it picked the right store and re-routed cleanly; they placed the mobile order by hand in the Starbucks app, and the drinks were ready on arrival.

Grok · Travel · Source date: Jan 4, 2026

Burned out by work and a London heatwave, Santiago Barraza Lopez and their partner handed the planning to ChatGPT with one prompt and three rules: affordable, romantic, away from the tourist crowds. Its picks, all tied to a cheap flight into Salerno, were Salerno's old town, the fishing village of Cetara and Atrani in the shadow of Amalfi. Barraza Lopez says letting go of the planning brought calm and connection, and they came home feeling recalibrated.

ChatGPT · Travel · Source date: Oct 5, 2025

Planning a week-long road trip from Chicago to San Francisco via Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, the poster gave ChatGPT o3 a rough route, the things they wanted to see and questions in XML format, then refined the daily plans and switched part of the route. Asking 'is there anything to see between [x] and [y]' surfaced places they'd never heard of, including the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Dauphin Island and its car ferry, and Saguaro and Guadalupe Mountains national parks, which they count among the best parts of the trip.

ChatGPT · Travel · Source date: Aug 11, 2025

Business Insider's Kelsey Vlamis usually spends hours reading about a destination before booking. For a Door County, Wisconsin trip, Vlamis asked ChatGPT which attractions people call overrated and which are worth the crowds, for timing tips, varied sample itineraries and which town suits someone who likes good food, nature, vintage shops and fewer crowds. In about half an hour Vlamis felt confident enough to book a waterside rental that same night. ChatGPT also recommended at least two restaurants that had closed years earlier.

ChatGPT · Travel · Source date: Jul 19, 2025

A parent asked Grok on an iPhone to plan a road trip with their daughter from the Bay Area to Tesla Giga Texas, with a stop halfway and hotel recommendations; then booked the hotels and added them to the calendar. On the road they asked Grok for food and rest stops when needed. The poster says LA traffic added 7 hours to one day, and they missed the factory tour because tickets sold out.

Grok · Travel · Source date: Oct 14, 2026

After an airline schedule change, a traveller asked for a full refund on two China Eastern tickets booked through an online travel agency; the agency confirmed it in writing on Sep 8 but then stalled through 8 complaint emails. Grok Bot advised him to stop waiting and dispute the charge with his bank. On Oct 11 the bank ruled in his favour and he got the full $1,373.97 back.

Grok Bot · Travel · Source date: Oct 12, 2026

A traveller planned a Hong Kong trip mainly with Gemini, using Grok and ChatGPT as extras, to organise locations, build itineraries, make packing lists and turn store addresses into Google Maps links. The traveller says routes were logical and personalised, but the AIs sometimes produced convincing addresses that didn't exist, and got names, opening hours or whether shops were still open wrong. Next time they'd verify every important detail on maps and official sites.

Gemini, Grok, ChatGPT · Travel · Source date: Oct 3, 2026

Overwhelmed by pins on Google Maps while travelling with an infant, Android Police's Akshay Bhalla asked Gemini by voice for a flexible day at Mandrem Beach in North Goa: sunset, local food at a beach shack rated 4.2 or higher, maybe water sports, using maps, weather, UV index, traffic and blogs. Gemini suggested a creek in the morning, a local restaurant for lunch, shade during the peak UV hours of 11:30 AM to 3:00 PM, and the beach from 5:30 PM for sunset, then added a café with good Wi-Fi when asked.

Gemini · Travel · Source date: Sep 26, 2026

Denied a flight back to the US because they only had a passport card, not the book, a traveller asked Grok what to do. The traveller says it suggested taking an Uber to the border, linked them with a private car from the border to the airport, said which security checkpoint to use and calculated the travel time; they missed the first flight but caught the layover after a 4-hour drive.

Grok · Travel · Source date: Sep 18, 2026

After an Airbnb stay with no hot water and a host-required third-party app that didn't work, a guest explained the problem to ChatGPT by voice and uploaded a video. Instead of drafting an email, ChatGPT opened its cloud browser, had the guest log in to Airbnb, found the stay, opened a support ticket, asked for a human, made the case and uploaded screenshots from the video; the guest only stepped in to approve messages. A representative called and the guest got $250 back.

ChatGPT agent · Travel · Source date: Sep 12, 2026

Planning a month of travel with kids while working remotely, Nick Thomson gave Gemini the family's profile, preferences and goals. It talked them out of a there-and-back route from London to southern Italy, suggesting three routes starting with a flight to the furthest point; recommended beaches by the kids' ages and swimming ability, off-peak trains, surf schools and teen-friendly activities; flagged when train companies release cheap tickets; and found co-working spaces, compared day rates and drafted booking emails in French and Spanish. Over the month, one recommendation was wrong: a bus to a market that didn't exist.

Gemini · Travel · Source date: Aug 25, 2026

On vacation, Stefan Heil asked Gemini every morning for a route for the day: what to see, where to eat and roughly when to be where. Through its Google Maps integration it surfaced places they wouldn't have found, sanity-checked their own plans, and found a restaurant and somewhere to unwind at the end of long days. Heil notes they didn't compare it with other AI tools.

Gemini · Travel · Source date: Aug 14, 2026

A traveller living with depression says ChatGPT helped them build a personal Osaka travel project: two books designed for them as a neurodivergent traveller, the second a field guide they planned to test in Osaka that September. They say it made the trip feel possible.

ChatGPT · Travel · Source date: Jul 21, 2026

On a trip to Barcelona, Android Police's Rajesh Pandey pointed Gemini Live's camera at Spanish signs and asked what they meant, had it find vegetarian lasagna and other vegetarian ready meals on a supermarket shelf, and used it to understand local café menus instead of ordering the one dish he recognized. He still used Google Translate's Live Conversation for talking with locals and hospital staff.

Gemini Live · Travel · Source date: Jun 21, 2026

A New York Times personal tech columnist used Gemini (with personal data from Gmail) and Google Maps' Ask Maps to plan a 14-day Taiwan and Hong Kong trip with their wife and 20-month-old. The columnist says activity planning took only about 30 minutes; Gemini drafted family-friendly daily plans that accounted for jet lag, to-do and packing lists, and found a cheap data plan. But the packing list left out the columnist's own socks and underwear, and in Hong Kong it suggested restaurants near the previous hotel in Taiwan; Ask Maps handled real-time requests better.

Gemini · Travel · Source date: May 10, 2026

A client applying for an Austrian Schengen visa asked ChatGPT whether biometrics were mandatory. It said they can be waived if you've had a Schengen visa in the last five years, allowing a third party to submit. Visa professional Chandan Pandey noticed the client's previous visa was in an old passport, and the waiver requires it to be in the current one. Pandey refused to submit it on the client's behalf; the client went for biometrics in person and confirmed the rule. Pandey says relying on ChatGPT's answer would have meant a rejected application.

ChatGPT · Travel · Source date: Apr 4, 2026

Over two weeks in Vietnam, Android Police's Parth Shah used Gemini to check weather by region, which showed he'd need warm clothes for Ba Na Hills and Sa Pa, and to build packing lists, shopping hotspots and a list of pure vegetarian restaurants he saved in Google Keep. On the trip it helped him check snacks for eggs and hidden allergens and explained the history behind temples and old towns.

Gemini · Travel · Source date: Apr 1, 2026

After a crew time-out cancelled their Miami flight, Chris Bernasconi was told by a gate agent that passengers were entitled to a hotel, transport and a meal, and saved every receipt and the airline's email. Delta declined the reimbursement claim. Bernasconi asked Grok, which spelled out what to do, how to frame the appeal and what to upload, and offered further steps if it failed. Within an hour of appealing, Delta said payment was on the way.

Grok · Travel · Source date: Mar 22, 2026

After their diverted flight returned to the origin airport in Delhi, a traveller used Gemini as a crisis consultant: they asked for the specific DGCA rules for a full refund instead of a credit shell, compared night train and bus reliability in fog, and got the exact Metro route to the interstate bus station. They say they secured a refund using the clauses Gemini gave them and were on a sleeper bus within an hour.

Gemini · Travel · Source date: Jan 13, 2026

A Tom's Guide writer asked five chatbots to plan a four-day family trip from near Minneapolis to the Black Hills and Badlands, with gas and food stops, meals, lodging and under 1,400 miles in a borrowed minivan. Gemini was best at routing; ChatGPT did worst, with a broken map link and a needless night in the Badlands; Copilot was minimal; Claude was good apart from the route. DeepSeek won by basing the family in Custer State Park and planning every meal, and he followed its plan exactly, calling it a blast.

DeepSeek, Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot · Travel · Source date: Nov 9, 2025

When a delay turned a 2-hour layover into an overnight stay in Turkey, a traveller first used ChatGPT to translate his correspondence for a Turkish-only support portal, then got the runaround: two airlines, a codeshare, three jurisdictions, and compensation firms that turned him down. Once he explained the full situation, he says ChatGPT reasoned through the rules, told him which airline to chase and what to say, and that airline agreed to compensation; he says he got $500.

ChatGPT · Travel · Source date: Nov 5, 2025

A writer and his partner had ChatGPT and Claude each plan one day in Tunis, Tozeur and Hammamet, then built their trip from both. ChatGPT's plan was ambitious and cinematic; its Tozeur day 'nearly flattened' them with a far longer drive than implied, and a sandstorm blocked the road to the film sets. Claude's was slower and added two stops they loved, the Great Mosque of Kairouan and El Jem amphitheatre. He says ChatGPT delivered better memories and Claude more comfort and culture.

ChatGPT, Claude · Travel · Source date: Oct 12, 2025

Planning an RV trip from Tampa with her partner and their dog, a poster asked ChatGPT for a 7-day route with no drive over 4 hours, waterfalls and short hikes, and dog-friendly stops. She also used it to check which state parks allow dogs on trails, how to connect a 30-amp RV to a 50-amp site, campfire cooking steps and campgrounds with cell service. She says it gave a day-by-day route with mileage and drive times, and dinner was saved.

ChatGPT · Travel · Source date: Aug 25, 2025

On a week-long drive north from Los Angeles on Highway 101, David Stevenson handed the itinerary to their daughter, who produced one with Grok within minutes and ran it through CarPlay. As the family spent longer at places they liked, she kept Grok updated and it revised the plan, adapting each day to their feedback. They visited places and restaurants they'd never have found themselves, all of which were great, with manageable driving between stops.

Grok · Travel · Source date: Aug 17, 2025

A poster asked ChatGPT agent to book a return flight for his mother-in-law with her specific seating and baggage preferences. He says it found the right flights, followed her instructions, clicked through the FlySafair website and stopped right before payment as asked; refining the prompt a few times made it more efficient.

ChatGPT agent · Travel · Source date: Jul 30, 2025

On a family road trip through Germany, Austria, Italy, Croatia and Slovenia, a poster used ChatGPT and Grok as an on-the-go assistant: planning village visits, walks and beaches, finding fairly-priced safe parking, choosing local beers and wines, and answering first-time EV road-trip questions such as where to buy national vignettes online, road taxes and trip-time estimates.

ChatGPT, Grok · Travel · Source date: Jul 28, 2025

TechRadar's John-Anthony Disotto shares a long 'travel assistant' prompt (originally posted on Reddit) that asks for your age, destination and trip details, then builds a categorized packing checklist with clothing, tech, toiletries, luggage type and one commonly forgotten item. Trying it for his own trip, he says ChatGPT broke down his wardrobe into specific business-casual outfits, and that results are only as good as the details you give it.

ChatGPT · Travel · Source date: Jul 7, 2025

With a passport expired just before a vacation, Dan Sanchez asked ChatGPT's o3 model to search for options. Together they worked out that Sanchez would need to drive to Atlanta for an expedited passport; when the government sites weren't clear about the process, ChatGPT filled gaps from Reddit and travel forums and helped with the appointment, hotels, where to be, what to bring, what to expect and backup plans. Sanchez says they got through the passport agency smoothly; the post doesn't say whether the passport was issued that day.

ChatGPT · Travel · Source date: Jul 7, 2025

For an AI-planned trip with two colleagues, TechRadar's Josephine Watson sent the same Deep Research prompt and three completed preference questionnaires to ChatGPT and Gemini: four days, one base, about $2,000 each, scenic and filming-friendly. Gemini returned five well-known picks such as Lagos and Mallorca in under five minutes. ChatGPT asked follow-up questions first, then ran 110 searches across 34 sources in 16 minutes and suggested Santorini, Madeira, the Bay of Kotor, Cappadocia and Essaouira. ChatGPT came out on top in their head-to-head.

ChatGPT, Gemini · Travel · Source date: Jun 19, 2025

Ahead of a trip to DC, a poster gave Grok the appointments already set, the hotel locations and the remaining sights the group wanted to see. The poster says it produced an itinerary and, when prompted again, restaurants near the must-do stops to save searching once there, and called the result incredible.

Grok · Travel · Source date: May 23, 2025

Planning a month-long road trip for a family of seven, a poster used ChatGPT and Grok to map routes between national parks without backtracking, break long drives into kid-friendly segments, find lodging that fits, research kosher food and the kitchen kit needed for Shabbos, and create packing lists. He notes it didn't understand kosher certification symbols and that it's not perfect.

ChatGPT, Grok · Travel · Source date: May 11, 2025

Stuck in Expedia's cancellation process and not getting the refund he believed he was owed, a poster asked Grok for help and found the Expedia phone number. He says the Expedia agent then helped him get a refund.

Grok · Travel · Source date: Apr 26, 2025

After a day of 4 delays, 4 rebookings and a last-minute diversion, a traveller was handed a Southwest form that, if filled in, gave up the right to a refund in exchange for a voucher. He asked Gemini whether there was really no refund option, and it gave him a near-identical link that included a refund request.

Gemini · Travel · Source date: Jan 2, 2025

A shared sequence of seven prompts for planning a trip with Grok Bot: a travel brief, three priced options, a fare watch, a booking step with a confirm-before-paying check, a paperwork checklist, a day-by-day itinerary and a day-before briefing. The post is a prompt guide; it doesn't show a completed booking or any results.

Grok Bot · Travel · Source date: Oct 16, 2026

Asked to find flights, Manus ran for 16 hours and then picked what the poster called probably the most expensive option, with a 9-hour layover.

Manus · Travel · Source date: Oct 6, 2026

The poster used Manus to plan a 6-week Southeast Asia trip, and it hallucinated flights that didn't exist despite having browser access.

Manus · Travel · Source date: Sep 24, 2026

Muse booked every restaurant for the poster's Japan trip and corresponded in Japanese with a Hakone hotel to secure a dinner slot not offered on its website.

Muse · Travel · Source date: Sep 21, 2026

ChatGPT read the poster's chat with their girlfriend, proposed itinerary options, staged an Airbnb, rental car, fishing gear and dinner reservations through browser use, then made a shareable trip page after the poster booked.

ChatGPT Work · Travel · Source date: Aug 12, 2026

Android Police's Akshay Bhalla gave Gemini a Rs 1,00,000 budget for a September trip to North Goa with flights and stays already booked, and a cap of Rs 3,000-4,000 per meal. He says Gemini used Google Maps to suggest restaurants and activities in his favourite neighbourhoods, mapped routes and best visiting times, and found hidden gems and beach shacks after he refined the prompt.

Gemini · Travel · Source date: Aug 9, 2026

XDA's Mahnoor Faisal let Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini plan a real summer vacation she was taking alone. She says Gemini kept forgetting basics, repeatedly defaulting to group and couple-oriented ideas like a romantic candlelight dinner, and tended to agree her plan was great when it needed work.

Gemini · Travel · Source date: Aug 9, 2026

After a Norse Atlantic flight from Oslo was delayed overnight and the airline offered a $25 refreshment card, then ignored his claims, the author pasted the delay email into ChatGPT Pro and asked about his rights. Over eleven months it walked him through EU261 (600 euros per passenger for four people), the national complaint body, the Norwegian conciliation court and a settlement including statutory interest; on July 14, 2026 the airline wired $4,760.36.

Poster says:$4,760.36 paid after eleven months

ChatGPT · Travel · Source date: Jul 22, 2026

On a 6-day family trip to Hong Kong and Macau, the PickEnough author checked AI travel advice against reality. ChatGPT and Claude were blocked by regional restrictions; of the tools that worked (Grok, Gemini and Perplexity), the author rated Grok the most accurate overall (7.2/10), with correct real-time navigation and local restaurant picks. Asked what was good to eat within 5 minutes while walking the Mid-Levels, Grok suggested a nearby egg-tart shop the author rated 4/5. Across the tools, transport predictions were within 10%, but restaurant cost estimates assumed 2 people even though the group was 4.

Grok · Travel · Source date: Jun 13, 2026

The day before a work trip, Claude read the poster's booking emails and organized a polished itinerary that the poster says would have taken a few hours by hand.

Claude · Travel · Source date: Jun 9, 2026

Asked for a central Lisbon hotel for two under $220 a night near Alfama across three October week-long windows, Chrome auto browse opened Booking, Hotels.com, Expedia and Hyatt, kept a running comparison and surfaced three candidates with trade-offs in about six minutes, stopping before booking.

Poster says:About six minutes

Gemini in Chrome (auto browse) · Travel · Source date: May 20, 2026

In a Tom's Guide road-trip feature, Elton Jones shares an all-in-one prompt (written with ChatGPT's help) that has the chatbot ask about starting point, budget, trip length, travel style, food, music, routes, lodging and companions, then build an itinerary, driving schedule, budget, packing list, food stops, scenic stops and rain plans. It offers prompts only and doesn't report a finished trip.

ChatGPT · Travel · Source date: May 17, 2026

Jeff Binek, a gym owner in Dublin, Ohio, asked Grok to plan a two-day drive from Columbus to Hilton Head via Charlotte with three kids under four and a dog, stopping every 2.5 hours at safe playgrounds near gas stations. He says it gave precise timing and distances, gas prices, three park options per stop and a dog-friendly hotel, and the family reversed the same plan on the way home.

Grok · Travel · Source date: Mar 31, 2026

For a New Year's trip to Oxford, MakeUseOf's Jack Mitchell asked Gemini for 5 hotels or B&Bs in or around the city that were cheapest and not overcrowded over the holiday. He says Gemini shortlisted places factoring in seasonal crowds and typical costs, and he then compared travel times, tolls and fuel or transit costs in Google Maps before choosing.

Gemini · Travel · Source date: Feb 16, 2026

A Hacker News commenter says they've been using Gemini to plan a vacation and finds it surprisingly useful: it can look up flights from Google Flights and hotels from Maps, and knows about busy weeks at the destination. They add that you have to hope it isn't hallucinating, which they see as safer for trips than for healthcare.

Gemini · Travel · Source date: Jan 30, 2026

The poster planned a family Disneyland trip using Claude Code as the agent, Claude Skills for research, planning, tracking and journaling, and a simple companion web app for itineraries and maps.

Claude Code · Travel · Source date: Jan 17, 2026

ZDNet's tester asked Google's AI Mode trip-planning tool to plan a five-day New York City trip focused on historical sites and museums, then asked it to add flights; it researched Charlotte-to-NYC options and added a Flights tab with three major-airline choices to the itinerary. The tester says everything was well organized in Canvas, with Google reviews alongside each stop.

Google AI Mode · Travel · Source date: Nov 18, 2025

BKA Content's Greg Secrist asked ChatGPT agent for nonstop Salt Lake City to Las Vegas flights for October 8–11 plus hotel rooms under $400 per night. It worked across Delta, Expedia and Booking.com but struggled with JavaScript-heavy pages and date pickers, sometimes looping or freezing; after almost nine minutes it returned some options he says he could have found manually in half the time.

ChatGPT agent · Travel · Source date: Oct 29, 2025

The poster asked ChatGPT Atlas in agent mode to book a car rental and says it did, shown in a short demo video.

ChatGPT Atlas agent mode · Travel · Source date: Oct 24, 2025

ChatGPT Atlas agent picked 20 restaurants from an article and added them to a new saved-places list in the poster's Google Maps account; the poster called it slow but an excellent result.

ChatGPT Atlas agent mode · Travel · Source date: Oct 21, 2025

From a flight confirmation email, Comet Assistant opened Google Calendar and created entries with airports and flight numbers for a NJ–London–Dubai–NJ trip, but the entries didn't span the full flight times and the poster had to fix them by hand and re-prompt for the check-in reminders.

Perplexity Comet Assistant · Travel · Source date: Sep 24, 2025

Asked (in German) to book the cheapest Hamburg–Copenhagen train for September, ChatGPT agent found a €63.26 fare after about ten minutes on the Deutsche Bahn site, then asked the author to log in; Comet was faster (3:40) but booked legs separately for €70.94.

Poster says:€63.26 vs €70.94 from Comet

ChatGPT agent · Travel · Source date: Aug 4, 2025

For a points-funded family holiday plan, ChatGPT agent built a decent deck but spent 15 minutes formatting slides; it couldn't book the romantic dinner.

ChatGPT agent · Travel · Source date: Jul 26, 2025

Asked to check a hotel's price with its town clearly stated, ChatGPT agent looked up a same-named hotel in another town, and the poster notes this wouldn't have been obvious from the reply.

ChatGPT agent · Travel · Source date: Jul 25, 2025

Frank Andrade asked ChatGPT agent to find the best restaurants in the city he was about to visit and save them as a new Google Maps list with notes on signature dishes. It picked 10 restaurants, collected their signature dishes, paused for him to enter his Google login, then created and saved the list with notes; it took about 23 minutes.

ChatGPT agent · Travel · Source date: Jul 18, 2025

An X user asked both Grok and ChatGPT for a 7-day solo travel itinerary to Bali and says ChatGPT did a better job, with tables and accurate breakdowns of the expenses the poster expected.

ChatGPT, Grok · Travel · Source date: Apr 11, 2025

Gemini Deep Research produced a San Diego spring-break itinerary covering the zoo, SeaWorld and Balboa Park built around a daily nap for a two-year-old; the poster called the report insightful and detailed.

Gemini Deep Research · Travel · Source date: Apr 9, 2025

An X user recommends Grok for planning travel itineraries, saying it can create a timeline, give written driving locations to plug into any map app, offer restaurant suggestions and find public toilet locations, and that it created an itinerary the poster calls amazing when asked what to do.

Grok · Travel · Source date: Mar 26, 2025

Asked for the safest destinations for solo travelers in 2025, Grok DeepSearch returned a table of cities with Global Peace Index scores, places to visit and solo-travel tips; TechWiser's reviewer said it stood out for structure and focus on solo travel.

Grok DeepSearch · Travel · Source date: Mar 4, 2025

In Tom's Guide's ChatGPT-vs-Grok test, Ryan Morrison asked both for a 3-day Tokyo technology trip with hotels, transport, a robot restaurant and a budget in USD and yen; he judged Grok's itinerary more focused, realistic and detailed, with a fuller budget breakdown.

Grok · Travel · Source date: Jan 9, 2025

Hulry's writer asked Gemini to plan a 10-day trip from Bangalore to Malaysia for two at a moderate pace, low-to-mid budget with hotels under ₹5,000 a night. Gemini returned a decent itinerary and, using Google Flights data, flight options with accurate timings and pricing, but it mixed up the travel dates while searching for flights. The article says the whole plan took under 15 minutes.

Gemini · Travel · Source date: Mar 27, 2024

ChatGPT agent filled Thailand Digital Arrival Cards for 5 people (about an hour / 16 credits); the poster verified the preview and swapped in real passport numbers before submitting.

ChatGPT agent · Travel · Source date: Dec 31, 2025

Claude Opus 4.5, Gemini 3 Pro and ChatGPT agent mode only matched a manual Google Flights search and were too slow as cheap fares vanished; the humans beat them by about 15%.

ChatGPT agent, Claude Opus 4.5 (Antigravity), Gemini 3 Pro · Travel · Source date: Dec 19, 2025

On the same Airbnb search, ChatGPT Atlas agent mode and Comet each found properties in about 5 minutes, Claude's extension took 10 minutes to find the first, and MiniMax Agent ran over an hour without giving links.

ChatGPT Atlas agent mode, Perplexity Comet, Claude in Chrome, MiniMax Agent · Travel · Source date: Oct 27, 2025

ChatGPT Agent Mode produced a dining guide for a 4-day St. Simons Island trip organized by meal and price, and the author ate at 4 restaurants from the list and liked them all.

ChatGPT agent · Travel · Source date: Oct 21, 2025

ChatGPT agent suggested flights costing $1,400 when the poster found an $850 option on their own.

ChatGPT agent · Travel · Source date: Aug 20, 2025

From a vague brief, ChatGPT agent searched flights from Ljubljana or Zagreb to Bordeaux over a two-week window and found a €141.48 fare in 12 minutes.

ChatGPT agent · Travel · Source date: Aug 1, 2025

ChatGPT agent researched accommodation, activities and vegan restaurants for a Budapest weekend and got into an Airbnb reservation flow, then handed over to the user for login and payment.

ChatGPT agent · Travel · Source date: Jul 25, 2025

ChatGPT agent booked what the poster called the perfect Airbnb on the first try.

ChatGPT agent · Travel · Source date: Jul 18, 2025

ChatGPT agent found a Costa Rica place with a pool at a decent rate for 2 adults and 3 kids; the poster was tempted to book without checking further.

ChatGPT agent · Travel · Source date: Jul 18, 2025