AI trip planning has quietly become the default starting point for a lot of travellers, so we decided to actually test it on a real trip we were planning to Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland instead of just reading about the trend. We asked for an 8-day, day-by-day plan with accommodations, then checked its work against what we’d have built ourselves.
Where It Actually Helped
AI creating a itinerary draft was a genuinely useful as a starting point, especially for a place we hadn’t researched much or visited before. It surfaced a couple of destinations we hadn’t considered and saved us the first hour of open-tab research most trips start with. AI was a good place to start and generate ideas. Narrowing in and fine-tuning to a final itinerary is where it became far less helpful.
Where the Itinerary Fell Apart
Suggesting Accommodations
The accommodations list it generated didn’t meet expectations or the parameters we’d provided. It missed a lot of interesting, solid options that were actually available. It suggested places that weren’t bookable, it failed to find anything in the areas we wanted to stay, and it often pointed us to accommodations many hours away instead. The prices weren’t accurate either, usually lower than what was actually listed on the booking sites. The outcome was that we had to do all the heavy lifting ourselves to find the right places to stay. We wouldn’t recommend using AI for accommodation planning at all.
Finding Flights Within a Budget Range
Typing “find the lowest flights” into ChatGPT didn’t return the most accurate results. On the surface, the suggestions look like a deal. Go a layer deeper, though, and you quickly realize the prices aren’t real market prices. We found two problems with using AI to find cheap flights: it gives you the base price with no add-ons or taxes included, and it pulls results from any website, legitimate or not, which skews everything lower than it really is. Use AI to narrow your search, but do the final leg of finding an actual flight deal yourself.
Budget Forecasting
When it came to planning a trip within a set budget, AI also fell short. It gave us an itinerary with an estimated budget, but the number was way off once we did the real calculations. The total trip AI proposed was $2.5k CAD for flights and accommodations for three travellers. When we planned and booked the trip ourselves, the final cost landed just shy of $5k CAD. AI tends to give you the base rate on flights, not the added costs, and it recommends the cheapest accommodation available, whether or not it’s accurate or actually meets your criteria.
The Local, Specific Details It Missed
When it comes to local sightseeing or off-the-beaten-path spots, AI missed the mark completely. Not in a “close enough” way, either. In a way that would have actually cost us time and money.
The clearest example: it had us driving the full loop around Bonne Bay to get from Norris Point to Woody Point, adding an hour to our day. It never once mentioned the BonTours water shuttle, a fifteen-minute boat ride locals use to cross the bay instead, no reservation needed, just show up at the dock. That’s the kind of thing you only know if you’ve actually been there, or talked to someone who has.
It also told us we could “swing by” Western Brook Pond same-day without mentioning that the boat tour needs to be booked ahead, sometimes days ahead in peak season, and that there’s still a 3 km walk to the dock before you even board. We’d have shown up to a fully booked boat and a very disappointed family.
Then there’s the bigger structural miss. Gros Morne is split into a north side and a south side by Bonne Bay, connected by one long road. Where you base yourself changes your whole itinerary. AI kept suggesting day trips that bounced us back and forth between Rocky Harbour and Woody Point like they were ten minutes apart. They’re not. It never asked which side we’d rather sleep closer to; it just built a schedule that assumed unlimited driving time.
And it left out the practical, slightly unglamorous stuff that actually keeps a family safe and sane out there: that moose are most active, and most dangerous to hit, at dawn and dusk; that cell service disappears for long stretches between towns; that some sights like Broom Point run on a short seasonal schedule. None of that is exotic knowledge. It’s just the kind of thing you’d get from a park ranger, a Reddit thread, or a neighbour who’s actually driven that road, not from a model that’s never had to worry about hitting a moose in the dark.
Here’s why it misses the mark. AI trip planning tools are built on whatever’s already been written down and published online, averaged out and smoothed over. They’re good at telling you what’s popular. They’re much weaker at telling you what’s current, what’s seasonal, or what’s only obvious once you’re standing there.
A boat schedule changes. A shuttle isn’t well documented outside a few local operator sites. A shortcut that saves an hour only exists in the collective memory of people who’ve made that drive the long way once and vowed never to do it again. AI doesn’t have that memory, and it can’t tell you what it’s like to almost hit a moose at dusk, because it’s never driven that road. It doesn’t know which details actually matter until something goes wrong. That’s the gap no amount of prompting closes, and honestly, it’s the gap that makes planning the trip yourself worth doing in the first place.
How We’d Use It Next Time
We’d use it as a first draft to react to, or to get a general feel for options, but not for budget planning or a final itinerary to follow. It’s good for generating options and routes quickly. It’s not good at knowing the minor details that are critical for planning, like price, location, and availability.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is AI trip planning useful for family travel? It’s useful as a starting point for generating itinerary and destination ideas quickly, but it still struggles with accurate budgeting and finding quality accommodation options.
What should you double-check after using AI to plan a trip? Double-check local specifics for activities and seasonal hours, along with any accommodation recommendations, before you book anything.
The Bottom Line
Here’s our take: AI trip planning is a fine first draft and a poor final answer, at least for a family trying to pack carry-on only for a trip to Gros Morne National Park. Use it to find and validate a few options fast, sure, then run them through your own filter, because you know things a chatbot doesn’t: how long your kids can actually sit in a car, what “rustic” means to your family, what are quick food options when your kids are hungry.
And honestly? Planning the trip is half the fun. Poring over maps, arguing about which hike is worth the drive, letting your kid pick one “must-do” that’s not busywork you hand off. That’s part of the trip. Why would you give all that fun and excitement away to a chatbot?