Is this AI Travel Assistant Worth Using?

Posted: 7/2/23 | July 2nd, 2023

Planning a visit might be tedious. And I say that as somebody who loves journey planning. Hunting for reasonable flights, in search of issues to see and do, creating an itinerary, getting visas, shopping for gear. The listing goes on.

It takes numerous time and power to plan a visit — no matter whether or not it’s a visit for 2 weeks or two months. Between studying guidebooks, journey blogs, and checking social media for suggestions, most individuals spend dozens of hours planning a visit.

Now, corporations want to simplify that course of by utilizing the most recent rage: AI.

With the rise of AI, there at the moment are increasingly more instruments obtainable to vacationers to assist them take advantage of out of their travels.

The better of these instruments I’ve seen is GuideGeek.

What is GuideGeek?

GuideGeek is a private AI-powered journey assistant created by Matador Network – a number one journey and journey writer that has been round so long as I’ve.

They’ve created a classy AI that blends OpenAI’s ChatGPT know-how, real-time journey information (i.e. dwell flight search) and human curation from their in-house journey specialists.

You can ask GuideGeek about just about something:

• Accommodation
• Itineraries
• Local customs & slang
• Places to eat
• Things to see & do
• Safety suggestions
• Budget suggestions
• And extra!

It’s 100% free – simply go to guidegeek.com and use the QR code to attach with GuideGeek by way of WhatsApp (it runs by way of WhatsApp, so that you don’t must obtain a separate app).

If you don’t have WhatsApp, they’re planning on launching on Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and SMS quickly (although for the reason that world outdoors of the United States runs on WhatsApp, it’s price putting in for those who’re planning on spending any period of time overseas).

GuideGeek offers suggestions and recommendation that can assist you resolve the place and when to go, plan an itinerary, and get ideas for what to see and do. In tandem with journey guides and/or journey blogs, it’s a strong instrument that may streamline your journey planning.
 

But does it truly work?

I wished to check and see if it truly labored. For starters, right here’s what it appears like once you begin utilizing GuideGeek:

Now, since I just lately moved again to NYC, I believed I might ask it for just a few ideas to see what it comes up with. I do know NYC nicely so I wished to see if it could give BS or actual solutions:

What’s tremendous fascinating is that it didn’t simply spew out generic information. It requested me to get particular so it might higher tailor its ideas to my journey type and pursuits:

This is an effective begin, however let’s get much more particular and ask about history-focused museums and sushi eating places:

In addition to museums, I additionally requested about some colonial historical past websites (one thing I’ve examine and researched myself):

With our historical past lined, let’s ask about meals — sushi, particularly.

These are some top-end sushi locations and never tremendous inexpensive. Let’s see what we will discover that’s extra finances pleasant:

These are fairly strong ideas, and undoubtedly a very good place for guests to start out getting the ball rolling. (To be truthful, I’m a sushi snob, so I’m arduous to impress!)

Fortunately, every response solely takes just a few seconds to get and you’ll ask it just about something in relation to issues to see and do (and locations to eat).
 

An Example Trip

To see simply how useful (and correct) the instrument is, let’s use it to plan a two-week journey from scratch.

First, let’s assume you’ve got break day in October. Let’s ask it the place we should always go:

It prompt New England, Munich (for Oktoberfest), Bali, Japan, and Patagonia. All nice ideas and October is an effective time to go to every of those locations. Assuming we don’t need to keep within the USA, let’s proceed our planning:

With that info in hand, let’s slender it down even additional:

Bali it’s!

This screenshot reveals about half of the ideas GuideGeek supplied, giving me loads of ideas I can then dive deeper into by way of guides and blogs to study extra and see what I need to prioritize.

With my actions outlined, it was time to ask about the place to remain:

I can now take these ideas and verify them out on-line by way of web sites like Booking.com and Hostelworld to take a look at photos and critiques and see what works greatest for my journey type and finances (it did ship me clickable hyperlinks, however not for about an hour after I despatched my query).

Using this instrument, I’ve discovered someplace to go, issues to see and do, and lodging — all with just some fast questions despatched to GuideGeek. It not solely helped me slender down my search however gave me some strong info I can use to go deeper and make bookings, doubtless saving me a very good chunk of time.

The journey business is continually altering. By embracing easy-to-use AI instruments like GuideGeek, it can save you your self numerous hours whereas arming your self with a strong private journey assistant that may make sure you take advantage of out of each journey.

Is this going to interchange blogs and folks and journey brokers? No, not but. Maybe sooner or later. But not now. But it does add one other free, easy-to-use instrument to your arsenal as you propose a visit.