Earlier this year, Google search debuted an AI Mode created to respond in conversational language to users’ questions on just about any topic under the sun, including travelers’ queries about places to go and things to do. Ask it for a “romantic Santa Fe weekend in March” or “wineries to visit in Croatia” and it will zing out ideas and rough, often rather accurate itineraries that get vacation planning started.
While most people access the itinerary function just by using AI Mode in Google search, more informed users would be wise to use the Gemini app, the Google AI chatbot that powers AI Mode. There’s a paid version, but the majority of consumers will get all the information they need from the free version. Gemini offers additional tools (detailed below) and a better chat interface, taking full advantage of Google’s ability to connect users to the search behemoth’s well-established travel planning services—Google Flights, Google Hotels, and Google Maps—and incorporating its stored search data about users to refine its results.
“The ability to pull live data about travel products from Google Travel while integrating its answers with data from your Google search history, Maps, Gmail, and YouTube make it an end-to-end experience that’s hard for other platforms to match,” says Mike Coletta, senior manager of research and innovation at Phocuswright, a travel consulting firm.
In other words, Google offers a lot more than simple AI-generated itineraries for travel, and more than most other bots can muster to help travel planners. Here’s how to make the most of Google’s AI travel planning tools.
Find flights by chatting
Travelers can use the Gemini app to specify what they are looking for in natural language. For instance, you can go to the Gemini app and explain your flight needs as follows: “Find me nonstop flights to London from Washington, D.C., the week of January 10th. Show a grid of choices and links to book them.”
Gemini will show you basic choices and send you to Google Flights with a running start. “The balanced blend of conversational search with traditional filters and inputs” makes the process much easier and better, says Coletta. Other services don’t have access to Google’s real-time flight data.
Dream big with Google Flight Deals
The recently launched AI-powered Google Flight Deals tool sounds like a way to find cheap fares, and it is. But its super power is that it’s a dream weaver with a budget brain. Try this: Don’t specify a destination. Just tell it “romantic Caribbean vacation long weekend in February from Philly, not too expensive.”
You’d expect Jamaica and the Dominican Republic to appear, and they do. But right at the top is Providenciales in the Turks & Caicos Islands, selling for 41 percent less than usual as of this writing. Suddenly you’re dreaming of an entirely different Caribbean getaway.
Power user tip
Now put the AI field you’ll find on the same page to work on that unexpected destination recommendation, pushing for deeper insights: “What specifically makes Providenciales good for a romantic getaway? What downsides should give me pause? Cite examples and give sources for each item.” Next, ask for moderately priced hotels. You’ll get bumped to Google Hotels and discover whether your overnights will suck up your air savings.
Create a profile that includes trusted travel sources
Google’s little-used Gems are essentially profiles you set up for certain kinds of AI searches. “They help you tailor Gemini to your specific needs ... saving you time on repetitive prompting,” says Google’s Jasmyn Peterson. To do so:
- Go to the Gemini app.
- Look for Gems at the top of the left sidebar.
- Click “Explore Gems,” then “New Gem.”
- Write a sort of bio that you want the AI to consider when you write a travel query, and give it a name. (I have one each for romantic getaways with my wife, trips with the extended family, and conference travel.)
- Then, whenever you go to the Gemini app to plan a trip, select a Gem before you enter a prompt.
Now you don’t have to remind Gemini that you like historic hotels, mom-and-pop restaurants, and e-biking. The more you use it, the better it gets. “Given the vast amount of data Gems can store, it can remember and reference previous sessions and hone the results,” says Adriana Lee, who covers AI for the travel consulting and publishing firm Skift.
Power user tip
Specify in your Gem that Gemini draw only on certain sources for travel information, like trusted publications you name. This greatly reduces (but does not eliminate) information from lower-quality sources. But you might miss some hidden wisdom from unexpected places, too.
The more you give to Gemini, the more you get
To super-charge your travel recommendations, give Gemini access to your emails, photos, and documents. This sounds like a crazy invasion of privacy, but you’re essentially giving Google permission to access your Google information. (Google says your Gemini inputs are not shared outside the Google ecosystem, but there are some privacy concerns, Lee points out. Some experts question whether it’s possible to even know if the opaque systems that power AI abide by privacy agreements, and European privacy laws place strict rules on the use of personal data that all AI systems will struggle to comply with.)
Once Gemini has access to information like your loyalty programs and previous trips, drawn from search history, emails, photos, and documents, it can tailor answers more precisely. This is the unique value of Google, according to Coletta, and the service that Google’s Peterson extolls most. To do this, go to the Gemini app, find Settings, click Apps, and you’ll find instructions for giving Gemini access to your trove of digital personhood.
I’ve found this approach, integrated with Gems, shockingly effective. I used my “conference travel” Gem and told Gemini about a certain meeting I went to two years ago and told it to plan a trip to the next one. It found the information on my last trip in my emails, looked up the coming one and its dates, and suggested flights, hotel options, and a restaurant based on my Gems profile.
Using AI to fact-check AI
I then told Gemini to check everything by putting all facts and recommendations into a table, verifying that the places were currently operating and priced as originally stated, and providing two linked sources for each fact. You still have to check everything, but this way Gemini catches some of its (inevitable) flubs.
In this case it got all the facts right, but after digging I discovered it mischaracterized the restaurant. It said Delmonico’s was a “chef-driven independent restaurant,” which is not factually inaccurate, but it misses that Delmonico’s is a swaggering old-school steakhouse foremost. That’s a really typical AI fail: It’s “right” but just doesn’t “get it.” Sigh.
Google’s AI is pretty cool for travel, but it’s by no means error-free. You still have to check everything it suggests. For now, the best way to plan your trip is to start with artificial intelligence and finish with the old-fashioned human kind.
