Is this AI travel assistant worth using?

published: 7/2/23 | July 2, 2023

Planning a trip can be tedious. And I say that as someone who loves to plan trips. Find cheap flights, find things to see and do, create an itinerary, get visas, and buy gear. And the list goes on.

Planning a trip takes a lot of time and energy – no matter if it’s a two-week or two-month trip. Between reading guidebooks, travel blogs and checking social media for tips, most people spend dozens of hours planning a trip.

Now, companies are looking to streamline this process with the latest revolution: artificial intelligence.

With the rise of artificial intelligence, there are now more and more tools available to travelers to help them get the most out of their travels.

The best of those tools I’ve seen is GuideGeek.

What is GuideGeek?

GuideGeek is an AI-powered personal travel assistant created by Matador Network – a leading adventure travel publisher that’s been around for a long time.

They’ve created a sophisticated AI that blends OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology with real-time travel information (i.e. live flight search) and human curation from their in-house travel experts.

You can ask GuideGeek about almost anything:

• Accommodation
• tracks
• Local and colloquial customs
• places to eat
• Things to see and do
• Safety tips
• Budget tips
• and more!

It’s 100% free – just go to Guidegeek.com and use a QR code to connect to GuideGeek via WhatsApp (it runs over WhatsApp, so you don’t need to download a separate app).

If you don’t have WhatsApp, they plan to launch it on Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and SMS soon (although the world outside the US does WhatsApp, it’s worth installing if you plan to spend any amount of time abroad).

GuideGeek offers tips and advice to help you decide where and when to go, plan your itinerary, and get suggestions on what to see and do. Combined with travel guides and/or travel blogs, it’s a powerful tool that will simplify your trip planning.

But does it really work?

I wanted to test and see if it really works. For starters, here’s what it will look like when you start using GuideGeek:

Now, since I recently moved back to NYC, I thought I’d ask her for some suggestions for what to come up with. I know NYC pretty well, so I wanted to know if they would give BS or real answers:

What’s interesting is that he didn’t just post general information. She asked me to be specific so she could better adapt her suggestions to my travel style and interests:

That’s a good start, but let’s be more specific and ask about museums and sushi restaurants that focus on history:

In addition to the museums, I also asked about some colonial history sites (something I had read about and researched myself):

With our history covered, let’s ask about the food — sushi, in particular.

These are some high end sushi places and not very affordable ones. Let’s see what we can find most budget-friendly:

These are very strong suggestions, and definitely a good place for visitors to start getting the ball rolling. (To be fair, I’m a sushi snob, so it’s hard to impress me!)

Fortunately, each answer only takes a few seconds to get and you can ask her almost anything when it comes to things to see and do (and where to eat).

Example trip

To see just how useful (and accurate) the tool is, let’s use it to plan a two-week trip from scratch.

First, let’s say you have a vacation in October. Let’s ask her where we should go:

She suggested New England, Munich (for Oktoberfest), Bali, Japan and Patagonia. All great suggestions and October is a good time to visit each of these places. Assuming we don’t want to stay in the US, let’s continue our planning:

With that information in hand, let’s narrow it down further:

Bali is!

This screenshot shows about half of the suggestions GuideGeek has, giving me plenty of suggestions that I can dig deeper through guides and blogs to learn more and figure out what I want to prioritize.

With my activities clear, it’s time to ask where to stay:

I can now take these suggestions and check them out online via websites like Booking.com and Hostelworld to check out photos and reviews and see what works for my travel style and budget (he sent me clickable links, but not for about an hour after I submitted my question).

With this tool, I’ve found somewhere to go, things to see and do, and places to stay – all by submitting a few quick questions to GuideGeek. Not only has it helped me narrow my search, but it has given me some solid information that I can use to drill down and make reservations, potentially saving me a huge chunk of time.

The travel industry is constantly changing. By embracing easy-to-use AI tools like GuideGeek, you can save countless hours while arming yourself with a powerful personal travel assistant that will ensure you get the most out of every trip.

Will this replace blogs, people and travel agents? no not yet. maybe in the future. But not now. But it does add another free and easy-to-use tool to your arsenal while planning a trip.