Travel Tip 51
How to use AI to plan your trip
AI can never replace the culture we want to see when we travel, but eventually it might help us find that culture. These musicians and dancers are from Puno, Peru and they’re dancing at the Unu Raymi festival in Sangarará.
If you laughed at this title and thought “there is no way I would use AI to plan a trip,” I’m with you 99% of the way.
However, while AI still comes back with a lot of ridiculous answers, some programs are getting better at travel planning.
Take AI travel planning with a bucket of salt
You still have to feed it a lot of information and you still have to check for errors. There will be mistakes, some more obvious and some funnier than others.
After checking out many travel planning AI bots, I found three that are somewhat worthwhile. I asked all three the same question. What are the best places to learn about Inca history?
Mindtrip
I like how Mindtrip’s response comes with a map, so you can see where each recommended place is. It still has some errors that are commonly found on the internet, such as that Sacsayhuamán was a military fortress. (Read my Sacsayhuamán blog to see why that’s wrong). It’s very weird to see the Inca Pachacutec called the “Emperor Pachacuti” and for the Pisac description to be so lackluster. Read my Pisac blog to see why that description is so inadequate.
It definitely interpreted “best” as most popular. I think that’s unavoidable with AI at this point. Unless you’re good at explaining to a bot what best means to you, it’s just going to regurgitate what it finds most often on the web.
I appreciate that the list ended with “Remember, to fully appreciate these sites, it's a good idea to hire a local guide or take a tour that specializes in Inca history. They can provide valuable insights and information that you might not get otherwise.” That’s the best advice I’ve seen from AI.
Vacay
With the same question, Vacay came back with a list of Machu Picchu, Cusco, Lima, and the Sacred Valley. I certainly wouldn’t put Lima higher than the Sacred Valley, unless you prefer learning in museums to learning from living people.
I appreciate that each of the four destinations recommended came with sublists, offering more details. However, the replies I got from Vacay were the shallowest of the three bots I’m reviewing in this newsletter.
GeekGuide
This is a chatbot from Matador, which published several of my articles about Peru. The main disadvantage is that you have to chat from either Whatsapp, Facebook, or Instagram. I chose Whatsapp and, though it was convenient, I would have preferred an interface with images and maps.
All the information was correct, though responses were very short. It looked like most of it was gleaned from articles that I wrote for Matador. I’m happy it recommended Choquequirao, but that description is taken right from the article I wrote about Choquequirao. This was the easiest of these three options, but only if you already have one of the three social media chats it uses.
The courtyard at the Qorikancha is entirely colonial, but when you venture into the building you’ll find some of the finest examples of Inca architecture.
Blog
The Qorikancha came out as number five on both Mindtrip and GeekGuide, but if you’re coming to Cusco put it at the top of your list for what to do on your first day in the city. I love the Qorikancha, have been more than a dozen times, and have been meaning to write this blog for years! (I’m a bit embarrassed that I didn’t write it till this week, but better late than never).
Biologist Raúl Perez checks the memory card on a camera trap at the Los Amigos research center in the Peruvian Amazon. The station is run by ACCA, my favorite non-profit that welcomes tourists in the rainforest.
Article
Visiting non-profits during your travels
One thing that AI travel bots aren’t doing yet is leaning into new ways of thinking about travel. They regurgitate what they find the most, rather than curate the newest ideas. This article I wrote for Rooted is about non-profits I’ve visited as a tourist and why I think it’s such a powerful way to enrich your travels.