Use these 5 AI-powered tools to plan your summer travel

I don’t like to “wing” travel — to say I’m a planner is a bit of an understatement. If I’m being totally honest, I might enjoy the preparation part as much as the trip itself. Whether you’re like me and enjoy the process or only put in the work so that the vacation itself is incredible, it’s necessary to do some research ahead of time. And if you’re going to travel this summer, chances are you’re somewhere in the planning phase — and there are a few AI-powered tools that can help.

1. Ask Gemini to be your travel prep assistant

The first step in planning summer travel is deciding what that travel should look like, starting with your destination, how to get there and when exactly to go. This can be daunting, but Gemini can help you figure out what you’re looking for, whether it’s a road trip across the country ASAP, backpacking somewhere remote in a month or hanging at the local beach to end summer on a good note. Try asking Gemini things like:

• Tell me about some of the most popular summer vacation destinations.
• Is July a good time to visit Tokyo?
• When is the best time to book flights to Europe?

Once you nail down the broad strokes of your vacation, then you can ask Gemini to help you get more specific — try asking things like:

• Start a trip planning doc for me and friends, we're visiting Ireland for a week and want to do a roadtrip.
• I’d like to do a staycation for the 4th of July weekend. What mid-priced hotels have the best ratings for a staycation near me?
• Let’s pretend you’re my travel agent. Help me plan a trip to the Bahamas. I’m looking for a nice hotel with 4+ stars, flights that leave Los Angeles around 10 a.m. and restaurants near the airport.

And then, finally, you can ask Gemini to help with some logistics. For example:

• Draft a packing list for my weekend fishing and camping trip.
• Compile a list of ways I can save money on hotels.
• Give me the confirmation code for my upcoming flight to Miami. Check @Gmail.

2. Use Google Lens or Circle to Search to turn inspo into information

Sometimes when you’re really at vacation planning square one, all you’ve got are inspo pics. Instead of just treating those as a travel vision board, you can use Google Lens to get more information about them. For example, if you came across a photo of a beautiful view from what looks like the top of a hike but don’t know where it is, you don’t have to spend time trying to dig it up: Just search it with Google Lens and get the information you need. On select Android devices, you can also use Circle to Search to learn about whatever you see on your phone — without needing to switch apps. Maybe you come across just the carry-on backpack you’ve been looking for in your social feed. With Circle to Search, you can use a simple gesture to select whatever catches your eye and get results from across the web — including easy options for where to buy. Plus, with multisearch on Lens and Circle to Search, you can add text to your visual query to get more specific results, like finding the perfect travel backpack in your favorite color.

3. Find places to go with Google Maps highlights

Google Maps is a traveler’s best friend, and using its lists feature to prepare for an upcoming trip is incredibly handy. That way you’ll have a collection of spots you’ve already researched along with instant access to directions so you don’t waste any time looking up somewhere to have dinner, grab coffee or even do some much-needed laundry while you’re on vacay. A great way to research places ahead of your trip is by using an AI-powered Maps feature that combines key insights from photos and reviews shared by the Maps community with information shared by businesses to help you quickly identify a place’s highlights. All you have to do is click on a location on Maps and you’ll see helpful details at a glance — like what people like about it, the cost and popularity of certain dishes at a restaurant and even more obscure things like what the vibe of a place is like — so you can decide whether a spot makes it to your list or not.

4. Preview potential routes with Immersive View

Like I said: Google Maps is a traveler’s best friend! Another excellent way to plan your travels is to get a realistic feel for a place using Immersive View. Immersive View uses AI and computer vision to analyze a vast amount of Street View data and other imagery to understand, identify and eventually transform 2D images into 3D models you can explore. So while you’re planning your summer trip, you can use Immersive View (which is currently available in over 50 cities worldwide including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dublin, Florence, Las Vegas, London, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Paris, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Tokyo, Venice and expanding) to get an idea of how walkable a particular location is, figure out how tricky parking might be or see whether there are restaurants nearby — helpful details when you’re trying to decide between different areas of a town to stay in.

5. Organize travel prep with Gemini for Google Workspace

Google One AI Premium subscribers have access to Gemini in Gmail, Docs, Sheets and more, effectively supercharging how you use these tools for pre-travel tasks. I am a huge proponent of using Workspace for this purpose — I’ve got thorough Docs and Sheets for every vacation I’ve taken within the past 10 years. And now generative AI features make it even easier and faster to collect and act on your trip-planning information; for example, use Help me write in Docs and ask Gemini to create a to-do or packing list. Or if you’re sharing a Doc with a group you’ll be traveling with and notice that someone’s dumped a ton of ideas into it but it’s disorganized, you can ask Gemini to summarize or bulletize it for you. Then get ultra-organized with Sheets, where you can ask Gemini to make you a table that has the arrivals, departures, locations and airline details for your flights — then add a tab and ask Gemini to create a budget table or a daily itinerary, featuring whatever information you’ll find most useful. If you’re like me, then you might have a tab or two or three or four to add. What can I say? I like to be prepared!