9 Best AI Tools for Trip Planning in 2026 (Tested and Ranked)
Short answer: use Kayak AI for real-time flight and hotel pricing, Layla AI for the most complete dedicated trip planner, and ChatGPT at $20/month if you want the most versatile travel brainstorming partner.
40% of travelers now use AI tools for trip planning. Among those who've tried it, 63% rely on AI for most or every trip. 96% say they'll use it again. The adoption curve is steep because the use case is obvious: instead of opening 15 browser tabs to compare flights, hotels, activities, and restaurants, you describe what you want and get a structured itinerary. The tools that connect to real-time pricing data are the ones worth paying attention to.
I've tested every major option for different trip types: weekend city breaks, multi-country backpacking, family vacations, and road trips. If you want to learn how to get the most out of AI tools in general, the AI Academy covers practical AI skills for everyday use. Here's what actually delivers.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Price | Standout feature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kayak AI | Real-time pricing | Free | Flights + hotels with actual prices |
| Layla AI | Dedicated trip planning | Free/$49/yr | Full itinerary + booking links |
| Google Gemini | Ecosystem integration | Free/$19.99/mo | Google Maps + price tracking alerts |
| ChatGPT | Brainstorming + flexibility | Free/$20/mo | Custom GPTs for travel |
| Wonderplan | Free trip planning | Free/$49.99/yr | Niche interest itineraries |
| iPlan.ai | Minute-by-minute planning | Free/$3.99/mo | Real-time schedule adjustments |
| Curiosio | Road trips | Free | Proprietary AI for route planning |
| Vacay Chatbot | Theme-based travel | Free/$9.99/mo | Specialized travel chatbots |
| Claude | Complex trip research | Free/$20/mo | 200K context for detailed planning |
Kayak AI
Kayak AI is the only trip planning tool backed by a major travel metasearch engine with actual real-time pricing data. Every other AI planner generates itineraries with estimated costs. Kayak AI tells you what flights and hotels actually cost right now, searches across hundreds of providers, and lets you book directly.
The conversational search is genuinely useful. Type "I want to party for NYE, where should I go?" and Kayak AI combines travel inspiration with real pricing. Ask "flights from Paris to anywhere under $200 this weekend" and get actual bookable options. It handles flights, hotels, and rental cars in one conversation.
Completely free. No subscription. Kayak monetizes through booking commissions.
Ratings: App Store: 4.8/5 (479,000 ratings). Trustpilot: 4.2/5.
The limitation: Kayak AI is a search and comparison tool, not a full trip planner. It doesn't generate day-by-day itineraries with activities, restaurants, and logistics. It finds and prices travel components. For the planning layer, pair it with Layla or ChatGPT. Currently English-only for US users, expanding globally.
Layla AI
Layla AI (which acquired Roam Around, the original AI itinerary builder with 10M+ itineraries) generates complete day-by-day travel plans covering flights, hotels, activities, and dining. The live pricing feature compares costs across Skyscanner, Booking.com, and GetYourGuide. Road trip planning includes scenic stops, driving times, and overnight stays.
Key features:
- Specialized planners for families, couples, solo travelers, and budget trips
- Collaborative editing: multiple people modify the itinerary in real time
- Live pricing: pulls current costs from booking platforms
- Road trip mode: scenic stops, driving times, overnight stays
Free tier (basic itinerary generation). Premium at $49/year (live pricing, advanced personalization, unlimited features).
Ratings: Product Hunt: 5/5 (975 reviews). Google Play: 4.8/5. Trustpilot: 2.6/5 from 35 reviews, with complaints about inaccurate flight connections, hotel pricing discrepancies, and the app getting stuck during planning.
Live pricing isn't always as live as advertised. The free tier handles the basics well, but test it thoroughly before committing to Premium.
Google Gemini
Google Gemini plugs into the entire Google ecosystem for travel planning. Generate an itinerary, and it links directly to Google Maps for route visualization. Hotel price tracking sends email alerts when prices drop. The auto-browse feature (Pro subscribers) researches hotel and flight costs across multiple date ranges automatically.
The Maps integration is the killer feature. Gemini identifies places from screenshots and saves them to your map lists. Ask about a restaurant you saw on Instagram, and Gemini finds it, shows reviews, hours, and adds it to your trip map. No other AI planner connects to real-world location data this deeply.
Free tier (basic itinerary generation). AI Pro at $19.99/month (auto-browse, Deep Research for destination analysis, 2TB cloud storage). AI Ultra at $249.99/month for maximum limits.
The limitation: not a dedicated travel tool. The travel features are scattered across Gemini, Maps, and Search rather than one unified interface. Can hallucinate restaurants that don't exist. No collaborative planning. Requires knowing how to prompt effectively for travel-specific results.
ChatGPT
ChatGPT isn't purpose-built for travel, but its conversational flexibility makes it the best tool for the messy early stages of trip planning. "I have 10 days, I like history and street food, I hate crowds, and my budget is $3,000. Where should I go?" produces genuinely useful, personalized suggestions that dedicated planners struggle to match.
Custom GPTs built specifically for travel planning (thousands available) add specialization: budget travel optimization, adventure trip planning, family vacation itineraries, foodie city guides. Web browsing pulls current information on visa requirements, seasonal events, and local conditions.
Free tier (basic planning). Plus at $20/month (GPT-5.2 with meaningfully better travel reasoning and web browsing for current data).
The downside: no real-time pricing, no booking integration, no map component. ChatGPT generates text itineraries that you then need to manually research for pricing and logistics. Can hallucinate restaurants, hotels, and attractions. The suggestions are a starting point, not a finished plan.
Wonderplan
Wonderplan positions itself as a completely free AI travel agent. Enter your destination, dates, interests, budget, and travel style, and it generates a personalized itinerary. The niche interest planning is where Wonderplan stands out: it crafts itineraries for specific themes (food tours, history deep-dives, adventure trips, cultural immersion) rather than generic sightseeing.
Core planning features are free. Premium at $49.99/year (offline PDF downloads, advanced AI features, live multi-user editing).
Ratings: Product Hunt: 4.6/5 (11 reviews). Community of roughly 20,000 users.
The limitation: AI suggestions don't always match specific preferences and often need manual adjustments. Multi-city trips produce generic results. No booking integration. Small user base means limited community validation.
iPlan.ai
iPlan.ai plans down to the minute: transportation timing between activities, meal breaks, rest periods, and buffer time for walking. The real-time modification feature adjusts your schedule based on traffic, weather, and booking changes. Budget tracking integrates cost estimates for accommodations, transportation, and activities.
Email monitoring alerts you to flight cancellations, weather warnings, and local restrictions that affect your plans.
Free tier (basic planning). Pro at $3.99/month.
Ratings: App Store: 4.5/5 (1,478 ratings).
The limitation: maximum trip length of 10 days. Mobile-only (no desktop interface). No interactive map. Some users report the content generation doesn't change much when parameters are adjusted. Best for short, detail-oriented city trips where minute-by-minute scheduling adds value. Less useful for flexible, spontaneous travel styles.
Curiosio
Curiosio built its own AI engine (Ingeenee) trained on crowdsourced geographic data from Wikivoyage, Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, and GeoNames. The result: road trip itineraries that surface off-the-beaten-path stops that other tools miss. Filter by interest (culture, food, history, nature, adventure), and Curiosio maps a route with time estimates, costs, and Google Maps integration.
Completely free. Expedia partnership for hotel booking within plans.
The limitation: covers only 29 countries. Best for road trips specifically, not city breaks or international flights. Depth depends on destination popularity. No mobile app. The niche focus means it's the best tool for its specific use case and irrelevant for everything else.
Vacay Chatbot
Vacay offers specialized chatbots for different travel categories: hotels, dining, cruises, flights. Instead of one generic AI, you get topic-specific advisors with deeper knowledge in their domain. Multilingual support covers 150+ languages. Destination guides provide in-depth local information.
Personal plan is free (unlimited chatbot access). Premium at $9.99/month (advanced AI models, trip organization). Professional at $49/month (white-label tools for travel advisors).
The limitation: suggestions are limited to its database, with no real-time availability or pricing. Web only, no mobile app. Struggles with complex multi-layered requests. Paid plans limited to US customers. Very small user base.
Claude
Claude excels at the research-heavy side of trip planning. The 200K token context window means you can paste flight options, hotel comparisons, activity lists, dietary restrictions, group preferences, and budget constraints into a single conversation. Claude reasons across all of it simultaneously, identifying scheduling conflicts, suggesting optimal routes, and flagging logistics issues.
I used Claude to plan a 3-week multi-country trip for a group of 6 with different dietary needs, activity preferences, and budget levels. It cross-referenced flight schedules with hotel check-in times, identified a visa requirement I'd missed, and suggested rebooking one flight to avoid a 14-hour layover. No dedicated planner handled that level of constraint-solving.
Free tier (basic planning). Pro at $20/month ($17 annual). No real-time pricing, no booking, no maps. Claude is a thinking partner for complex trip logistics, not a point-and-click itinerary builder.
How to choose
Need real pricing now: Kayak AI. Free, real-time, bookable. No other tool shows you what flights and hotels actually cost right now.
Want a complete itinerary built for you: Layla AI. The most feature-complete dedicated trip planner with booking links and collaborative editing.
Planning a road trip: Curiosio. Purpose-built for driving routes with off-the-beaten-path stops.
Complex multi-destination trip: Claude for constraint-solving and logistics, then Kayak for pricing and booking.
Flexible exploration ("where should I go?"): ChatGPT. Best for open-ended brainstorming when you don't have a destination yet.
Budget approach: Kayak (free) for pricing + Wonderplan (free) for itineraries + Google Maps for navigation. Total: $0.
One thing every AI planner gets wrong: they recommend popular tourist spots by default. The best trips include local discoveries that aren't in any database. Use AI for the structure and logistics. Use locals, food blogs, and wandering for the soul of the trip.
FAQ
Can AI plan an entire trip for me?
AI handles itinerary structure, flight/hotel research, activity suggestions, and logistics planning well. It does not handle booking (except Kayak), real-time changes during travel, or subjective preferences like "find me a restaurant with the vibe of that place we loved in Barcelona." Use AI for the 80% that's research and logistics. Add your own judgment for the 20% that makes a trip memorable.
Are AI trip planners accurate?
Mostly, but verify everything. Flight connections, hotel pricing, restaurant hours, and visa requirements can be wrong. Kayak AI has the best accuracy because it pulls from real booking databases. Chatbot-based planners (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) can hallucinate places that don't exist. Always confirm booking details directly with airlines and hotels.
What's the best free AI trip planner?
Kayak AI for real-time flight and hotel pricing. Curiosio for road trip routing. Wonderplan for general itinerary generation. ChatGPT free tier for brainstorming. All four are genuinely useful at zero cost. For most trips, the free tools cover 90% of planning needs.
Should I use a dedicated trip planner or ChatGPT?
For simple trips (weekend city break, beach vacation), a dedicated planner like Layla or Wonderplan is faster. For complex trips (multi-country, group travel, specific interests), ChatGPT or Claude's conversational flexibility handles nuance better. For pricing and booking, Kayak AI beats both. Most travelers get the best results combining 2-3 tools.
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