AI, my sudden day by day journey companion

I used to be beginning to doubt it might ever occur, however I lastly discovered an everyday, useful use for AI: vanlife journey planner.

I’m not a scholar and I don’t code. I’m, nonetheless, on day 48 of my van tour by Europe with my spouse and canine. We journey with no particular itinerary, chasing the wind and solar whereas working our 9 to five jobs. AI’s mastery of journey planning has made it an sudden however irreplaceable professional. So a lot in order that we’ve grown more and more dependent upon the free variations of Gemini and ChatGPT to assist select our subsequent vacation spot.

It all began with a easy question. Tired after a 25km hike with only some hours left of daylight, I made a decision to skip the same old slog by Google search outcomes, and opened the Gemini app on my iPhone as a substitute. “Is there a charming village near Plitvice Lakes National Park,” is the question I typed.

Here’s Gemini’s predictably peppy response:

Absolutely! There is a very charming village very near Plitvice Lakes National Park referred to as Rastoke.

It is usually described as a “fairy-tale” or “watermill village” and is incessantly known as “Little Plitvice” as a result of it shares an identical pure phenomenon, although on a smaller scale.

So, we took an opportunity and drove 20 minutes to Rastoke, Croatia, and that is what we discovered:

Using the identical question in Google search would have led me to Rastoke, finally, however it might have taken me longer and with extra effort. First I’d need to click on into the highest outcomes, which included Facebook, Tripadvisor, and a website I’d by no means heard of referred to as islands.com. Next I’d need to click on away cookie banners and publication affords, after which parse partitions of textual content to search out that advisable village. By comparability, Gemini’s end result was quick, concise, assured, and textual content based mostly (no spoilers!) – precisely what I needed.

With Rastoke having exceeded our wildest expectations, we tried AI once more a couple of days later after visiting Ravenna, Italy – a metropolis advisable by actual, precise people utilizing mouth phrases. Only this time we used ChatGPT and added a brand new parameter to the question since our 6-meter rig is just too large for the medieval streets discovered inside walled villages: “Find a charming village near Ravenna with easy RV parking.”

Here’s ChatGPT’s response:

Brisighella

• This is an attractive medieval hill village, typically listed amongst Italy’s most-beautiful villages.

• There’s an space camper in Brisighella on Via Giuseppe Billi, ten minutes on foot from the historic heart, with service.

And right here’s what we discovered:

Brisighella, Italy, is probably essentially the most stunning village I’ve ever seen in Europe and the parking was as straightforward as described. And but, someway I had by no means heard of it. Thanks, AI!

Searching Google with the identical immediate that yielded the Brisighella suggestion in ChatGPT produced nothing of worth. The prime three hyperlinks began with a Tripadvisor piece titled “THE 10 BEST Ravenna Campgrounds 2025 (with Prices), an Expedia link titled “RV Campgrounds Ravenna from $90,” and one thing from a website referred to as agricamper.com titled “Emilia Romagna on the road: 8 stops by motorhome and …”

AI had greater than confirmed itself adept at rapidly offering solutions. But right here’s the catch: AI can solely produce these outcomes as a result of people had beforehand posted about “charming,” “cute,” “quaint,” or “fairy tale villages” on the web. When no one has a motive to go to journey websites and blogs, they’ll die – the financial mannequin that drove the world large net doesn’t work with out search visitors and clicks. And when the people cease posting journey content material, what is going to the AI fashions scrape to take care of relevance?

As a founding Verge editor, my contribution to “Google Zero” – the purpose at which AI summaries now not require customers to click on by to a web site – has left me conflicted. It’s clear that in sure circumstances, AI instruments could be simpler and ship a greater expertise than conventional search and web sites. It’s additionally clear that they’ll exacerbate the issues which might be driving me and plenty of others away from search. As clicks fall, web sites are going to want to indicate extra adverts to make up income and embrace extra pop ups demanding my e-mail tackle in order that I’d come again. This sludge goes to make the online expertise worse, which is simply going to drive extra individuals again to AI.

The different problem right here is belief. So far, the AI outcomes we’ve gotten have been extremely dependable. But tales abound about vacationers ending up stranded after failing to verify that AI gave them correct data. That’s why I nonetheless cross reference these machine-generated recommendations with Google Maps and Park4Nite.

AI climate fashions proceed to enhance, so we’ve began so as to add climate parameters to our searches to assist discover spots for kitesurfing when the wind is up. Wind forecasts are notoriously unreliable quite a lot of days out, so we use these outcomes as extra of a sign of locations we would possibly go, whereas maintaining a tally of our most trusted wind apps.

For this question for a spot the place we will kite with sunny skies and wind above 15 knots, Gemini prompt the city of Noli, providing a abstract of situations and a wind forecast, which was supremely useful in narrowing our search of the realm.

This kind of response goes far past something Google search can produce – even its AI Overview summaries lack climate integration. The finest Google search may do was affirm that sure, individuals kitesurf in Noli. Gemini and ChatGPT have additionally confirmed helpful at discovering routes and locations that keep away from rain and snow, which once more, we proceed to confirm with trusted sources.

Gemini and ChatGPT at the moment are the primary instruments we flip to every single day to assist plan our journey. Neither is considerably higher than the opposite, it’s simply good to get a second opinion – however they’re each far superior to Google search outcomes or paging by journey websites. It’s not even shut. Armed with such an omniscient adviser has maximized our enjoyment, permitting us to spend much less time planning and extra time experiencing.

I had been doubtful about AI’s potential to learn my day-to-day life previous to utilizing it as a journey companion. Now I’m a convert. There’s no higher means that I’ve discovered to rapidly and effortlessly give serendipity a goose in the proper route. The solely query is how lengthy it may final if there’s nobody left to feed the machine.