How to use Tripadvisor’s AI-powered assistant to create a travel itinerary
Tripadvisor has a new tool that uses OpenAI's generative AI technology to create custom travel itineraries.
Using the tool, you can choose a destination, outline specifics of your trip, and have a comprehensive itinerary within minutes. The tool leverages reviews and insights from Tripadvisor users, so you're essentially getting an automated experience of the research you might normally do on the crowd-sourced site.
Let's plan a seven-day trip to Istanbul, Turkey to see how it works.
- 5 min
- Computer or smartphone with WiFi access
Step 1: Go to Trips on the Tripadvisor site
On a desktop or mobile browser, go to the Tripadvisor site and click on the Trips section at the top of the homepage. Click on "Plan a trip." In the "Create a trip box," choose "Use AI" to get started. Or you can click on the big banner on the homepage promoting the tool, which will take you directly to the planning page.
Step 2: Choose your destination
This opens up a new window, where you're asked to choose your destination. For now, you can only choose a specific city or town, so you won't be able to build an itinerary for an entire country or state yet. Type in where you want to go and click the Next button.
Step 3: Choose your trip length and dates
Select how many days you're traveling (there's a maximum of seven days) and choose the dates you're traveling, or the month of when you'd like to travel. Then, hit Next.
Step 4: Choose your travel buddies (or none)
Here, you have the option to select solo travel, traveling with a partner, friends, or family. This will refine the kinds of activities the tool generates.
Step 5: Choose the types of activities to focus on
The last step is selecting different filters based on how you want to spend your time. This includes Must-see attractions, Hidden Gems, Great Food, and Outdoors. You can choose as many as you want, or none at all, but some specificity will make the itinerary more tailored to your interests. You can also add in your own filters such as Nightlife or Shopping. Click the Submit button to generate your itinerary, which takes a few seconds. Note: you have to be logged into Tripadvisor. When you hit Submit, the site will ask you to log in with your email or make a new account.
Step 6: Edit and save your itinerary
With your itinerary full generated, you can look through what the Tripadvisor bot has come up with and add new ideas or edit existing ones. Once you're happy with your itinerary, you can save it to access it later.
Perusing your itinerary
Now you have your very own AI-generated travel itinerary. Tripadvisor gives you a little summary about the destination and what it's like during the time of year when you'll be there. Each day contains a few activities broken up by a restaurant recommendation that is thoughtfully nearby.
Each attraction has a description of what it is and why it fits your preferences. Most of the time, the AI-generated itinerary notes the price of the attraction or whether it's free, but we noted it didn't do this every time. For example, it didn't talk about the ticket price of the Istanbul Modern Museum of Art (which is 350 Turkish Lira.)
That said, each description is pretty good about giving travel tips. For a visit to the Hagia Sophia mosque, it mentions wearing conservative clothing. For Sultanahmet Square, it warns you about overpriced souvenirs and aggressive guides offering help or deals, and for Topkapi Palace it tells you that it's worth the wait, but the lines are long.
Each suggestion contains Tripadvisor info like reviews and price ranges, and clicking on any of the suggestions will take you to that Tripadvisor page.
A few limitations
It's a handy tool that makes good use of the time-saving efficiency of generative AI. However, there are a few limitations. It would've been helpful to customize additional preferences such as budget, dietary restrictions, and other settings such as LGBTQ-friendly or limited mobility.
While the bot does a good job of choosing activities and restaurants within proximity to each other so that there's a convenient flow to the travel plan, it doesn't have any information about transportation. It would have been helpful to know whether you can walk to certain places, if public transportation is a good option, or if it's recommended to rent a car or take taxis. Also, the tool is currently only available to U.S. users.
It being a bot and all, we caught a few glitches. The itinerary suggested "Historic Areas of Istanbul" as a single attraction, clearly referencing a Tripadvisor page that encompassed all the attractions it had already suggested.
That said, this is just a beta version of the tool, and Tripadvisor says it is planning to improve the product, expand its features, and release it to other regions.