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, nevertheless, on day 48 of my van tour by way of 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 surprising however irreplaceable skilled. 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 began with a easy question. Drained after a 25km hike with just a few hours left of daylight, I made a decision to skip the standard slog by way of Google search outcomes, and opened the Gemini app on my iPhone as an alternative. “Is there a captivating village close to Plitvice Lakes Nationwide Park,” is the question I typed.
Right here’s Gemini’s predictably peppy response:
Completely! There’s a notably charming village very near Plitvice Lakes Nationwide Park known as Rastoke.
It’s typically described as a “fairy-tale” or “watermill village” and is often known as “Little Plitvice” as a result of it shares the same 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:
Utilizing 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 should click on into the highest outcomes, which included Fb, Tripadvisor, and a website I’d by no means heard of known as islands.com. Subsequent I’d should click on away cookie banners and publication presents, after which parse partitions of textual content to search out that really helpful village. By comparability, Gemini’s outcome 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 number of days later after visiting Ravenna, Italy – a metropolis really helpful by actual, precise people utilizing mouth phrases. Solely this time we used ChatGPT and added a brand new parameter to the question since our 6-meter rig is simply too massive for the medieval streets discovered inside walled villages: “Discover a charming village close to Ravenna with simple RV parking.”
Right here’s ChatGPT’s response:
Brisighella
• This can be a stunning medieval hill village, typically listed amongst Italy’s most-beautiful villages.
• There’s an space camper in Brisighella on By way of Giuseppe Billi, ten minutes on foot from the historic middle, with service (carico/scarico).
And right here’s what we discovered:
Brisighella, Italy, is maybe probably the most stunning village I’ve ever seen in Europe and the parking was as simple as described. And but, by some means I had by no means heard of it. Thanks, AI!
Looking out Google with the identical immediate that yielded the Brisighella suggestion in ChatGPT produced nothing of worth. The highest three hyperlinks began with a Tripadvisor piece titled “THE 10 BEST Ravenna Campgrounds 2025 (with Costs), an Expedia hyperlink titled “RV Campgrounds Ravenna from $90”, and one thing from a website known as agricamper.com titled “Emilia Romagna on the street: 8 stops by motorhome and …”
AI had greater than confirmed itself adept at rapidly offering solutions. However 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 story villages” on the web. When no person has a cause to go to journey websites and blogs, they’ll die – the financial mannequin that drove the world broad internet doesn’t work with out search site 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?
My contribution to “Google Zero” has left me conflicted.
As a founding Verge editor, my contribution to “Google Zero” – the purpose at which AI summaries not require customers to click on by way of to an internet site – has left me conflicted. It’s clear that in sure circumstances, AI instruments might 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 advertisements to make up income and embrace extra pop ups demanding my electronic mail handle in order that I would come again. This sludge goes to make the online expertise worse, which is simply going to drive extra folks again to AI.
The opposite problem right here is belief. Thus far, the AI outcomes we’ve gotten have been extremely dependable. However tales abound about vacationers ending up stranded after failing to test that AI gave them correct data. That’s why I nonetheless cross reference these machine-generated options 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 may go, whereas keeping track 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 advised the city of Noli, providing a abstract of situations and a wind forecast, which was supremely useful in narrowing our search of the realm.
One of these response goes far past something Google search can produce – even its AI Overview summaries lack climate integration. The most effective Google search might do was verify that sure, folks 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 are actually the primary instruments we flip to on daily basis 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 way of 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 skill to profit my day-to-day life previous to utilizing it as a journey companion. Now I’m a convert. There’s no higher method that I’ve discovered to rapidly and effortlessly give serendipity a goose in the correct route. The one query is how lengthy it will possibly final if there’s nobody left to feed the machine.
