Summary Google's AI Travel features provide trip planning assistance, tailored itineraries, and ways to save ideas easily. Gemini, Google's AI assistant, helps brainstorm travel ideas and plans while respecting privacy concerns. Utilize Google Hotels to track hotel prices, turn screenshots into organized travel lists, and use Google Lens as a tour guide.
Tired of having to open 20 tabs just to plan one trip? Google's new AI travel features might just be your next favorite travel assistant -- and it won't argue over the itinerary.
Here's how the search giant's latest AI tools can take the pain out of your holiday plans, leaving you to simply enjoy the trip.
AI Overviews in Search
If you've used Google search in the past year, you've likely come across AI Overviews when you do a search on Google. The AI, powered by Google's Gemini, reviews your query and captures relevant information to summarize an answer for you, along with providing the source links to explore deeper. Google states that it's a way to find information faster and easier.
Related 6 Best Gemini Features to Try on Your Google Pixel 9
You'll love them all.
Posts 1
A new improvement in AI Overviews in Search allows you to get trip ideas for distinct regions and countries. Previously, you could get trip ideas for mostly bigger cities, but this change allows you to plan your whole itinerary no matter where you're going.
Here's a prompt to try out next time you're planning travel:
"Create an itinerary for Miami with a focus on food."
Once you hit enter, it generates a day-to-day itinerary with Google Maps links to the places it suggests, which you'll be able to explore further. You'll also get recommendations on how to get there, with the AI showing you a few flight options, beginning with the cheapest option.
Close
There are two ways you can save this itinerary. The first way is to "Export" the information, which allows you to copy the text, save it as an email, save to Google Docs, or export to Google Maps. You can also click "Save" next to it, which saves it to your Google account interests page. You can only see this when you're logged in, and you can see everything you've saved from the Google ecosystem from here.
Close
This feature isn't just limited to travel itineraries. Here are some other prompt ideas you can try when planning travel:
"What are some unique experiences in [city or town]"?
"What is the best time to visit [country/region] for the festivals? (or good weather)?"
"What is the culture like in [country]?"
"What are the transportation options within [City A] to [City B]?"
This saves a ton of time since you no longer have to navigate a hundred different travel blogs or search on Instagram to find things to do. Google Maps is useful for the area you're in, sure, but you'll get a lot more information and much more quickly when you have AI doing all your research for you. If you don't like AI Overviews on Google Search, you can turn it off.
Google is still rolling out AI Overviews in more languages and regions, so if you don't see AI overviews on Google when searching, it may just not be available to you yet. You can always navigate to Gemini, Google's AI chatbot assistant, which can do the same thing as well.
Using Gemini for Travel Inspiration
If you're not sure where to go or traveling with people who want to do different things, fear not! We now have AI that can act as your personal travel assistant and help you brainstorm ideas and plan your trip. This goes a bit further than the AI Overview in Google search, as it allows you to ask back-and-forth questions to help your travel plan.
Close
Some prompt ideas include:
"Help me brainstorm what country to visit next. This is what I like to do [enter your favorite activities] and see [add what attractions or things you might want to see], and I'll be travelling [solo/as a couple/family of four]. My budget for flights is [add budget]."
"Help me plan a romantic honeymoon for two people. We are in [age range] and our budget is [add budget] for flights and hotels."
"What are the top 5 Mexican restaurants in [add town/city] that have at least a 4-star rating on Google and serve vegetarian options?"
You can remove the square bracket and customize it to what you need.
But what about privacy? Well, if you're worried, you can always use Gemini without logging in. Although, it won't save the chat conversation if you want to return to it another day.
You can even explore Gemini's Gems feature, which allows you to tailor the AI to your specific goals. So you can set it up to act as your AI travel guide and planner. This feature is now available to all, for free.
Hotel Price Tracking
You may have already used Google Flights to track prices on flights and get notified. But did you know that you can now do the same for hotels?
Google Hotels has a new feature where you can toggle "Track hotel prices" for your location and dates. Just make sure that you're logged in to your Gmail account so you can receive email updates. One cool thing is that the price alerts are very specific, so if you're searching for a hotel within specific search filters, you'll receive emails on price drops on those very search parameters. So they aren't just general price drops on the destinations.
According to Google, to update the tracker for the destination, you can turn it off and back on with your update dates or filters. I don't know about you, but this is a feature I'll start using before I plan my next trip.
You can now use hotel price tracking on mobile and desktop browsers, no matter where you are in the world.
You can open up Google Hotels in incognito mode to ensure that you're getting the best price for your accommodation -- incognito is no match for those pesky cookies.
Turn Your Screenshots Into Travel Lists
If you're planning a trip, and you're anything like me, you probably have a bunch of screenshots saved on your phone. Whether that's from social media or random travel blogs, they can quickly add up.
Fortunately, there's now a solution and an easy way to organize this, without having to forget. According to Google, Gemini now has capabilities in Google Maps that can automatically identify places that are shown in your screenshots. In other words, it can turn your screenshots into lists that you can share with your friends and family before you travel.
Here's a short GIF from Google showing you how it's done:
As of this writing the feature is currently available in the U.S. in English on iOS, and coming soon to Android.
Use Google Lens as a Tour Guide
If you've seen the colorful camera icon next to the Google search bar (or on the app) and aren't sure what it's used for, you're missing out.
Google Lens allows you to generate information just from taking a photo of something. This is especially useful when you're traveling and want to know more about what you're looking at. For example, if you're in a museum and want to learn more about a piece of history. Or perhaps the local cuisine of the country you're traveling to doesn't have a menu in a language you speak. You can simply take a photo and get it translated using Google Lens.
While in Rome, I used Google Lens to scan a restaurant and discovered that it was frequently visited by celebrities and was known for its authentic desserts. So you'll never know what you'll discover. There are so many other incredible uses for Google Lens that go beyond these examples. It's also AI-powered, so you'll receive an AI overview just like a standard Google search result.
Looks like planning your next getaway just got a lot easier -- Google's AI does the legwork, so you can skip the stress and get to the fun.
