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AI (Artificial Intelligence) has become a part of everyday life. Some people are just beginning to appreciate its value and use it occasionally, while others rely on it several times a day. It’s important to learn how AI can help you save time in daily life. If you’re planning a holiday, it can help with routine tasks and preparing for your trip. Let’s look at all the ways AI can help you to plan a gap year…
Planning a trip itinerary can involve hours of checking flights, hotels and transport schedules. Trying to figure out where everything is and the quickest route to get there can be a real nightmare. This can all be done for you thanks to artificial intelligence. If there are a few specific landmarks you want to see you can say to your AI assistant, “plan an itinerary to stop at these specific places on my 3 month trip to Thailand”. The AI will create the most logical plan for you, so you’re not constantly going back and forth between places—especially when some are closer together.
Like with any technology, there are downsides and risks to using it. Spend some time checking the information supplied by AI referencing reliable sources. It’s not perfect and it does get things wrong. The other thing to consider is that AI is not emotional, so it doesn’t provide empathy or relationship-building like you would experience speaking to a human. This is useful so you can take on board recent feedback from other travellers when considering your options.
When using AI, you should be specific in your prompts. Experts warn that if you ask generic questions, you will get generic responses. Some things to consider putting into your prompt are your budget, trip duration, area, number of people and any desired activities. This way you are giving the AI agent the information it needs to plan the best trip possible. For example, you could use a prompt like this:
“I am a 30 year old planning to travel to Thailand for 4 weeks in February. I want to see as many of the main tourist spots as possible, particularly the Grand Palace and Khao Phi Phi. I have a budget of £3000 for the trip. Please create a detailed itinerary and recommend places to stay so I can do as much as possible in my time. I arrive at Phuket airport from London at 7am on the 1st of February and leave at 7pm on the 3rd of March.”
While this prompt seems very long, it gives the tool detailed information so that it can create a plan tailored to you. Once the AI assistant responds, you can add or change things, but this is a great way to start.
There are many AI tools available now, so which is the best one to use for your trip planning? You may have heard of the regular AI agents like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Copilot. Did you know there are travel specific AIs? These include ones such as Mindtrip, Layla AI and Wanderlog. The main differences are how up to date their data is, whether they have flight information and if their map is basic or advanced. Mind trip has all three of these advantages, whereas Wanderlog is best for its maps, but it can’t track flights. Layla AI has a basic map feature but is best used for live data and flight information. It might be worth asking a few AI agents about your trip and taking your favourite elements from each one.
While you can use specific prompts, there may still be information that AI needs to plan your trip affectively. If you are asking AI to check a country’s entry requirements, it’s worth double checking this on the government website. AI is great for making your planning quicker, but you should still be fact checking everything rather than assuming the tool is correct. It can also be worth speaking to a human if possible, to verify what the agent has told you.
Whether you plan your trip with the help of AI or not, don’t forget to take out specialist travel insurance. The Longstay & Gapyear travel insurance is designed specifically for long trips like this. Get a no obligation quote today so you can start planning your gap year.
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