#traveltools — Public Fediverse posts

Weekly output: Internet Archive, Roblox parental controls, Google travel-search tools, T-Mobile yanks free WiFi from United flights, Mark Vena podcast, talking to local user groups, AST SpaceMobile

LAS VEGAS–I’m typing this from a press room in the Las Vegas Convention Center barely three months after I spent too much time in that facility for CES. Credit or blame for this trip goes to a different Washington-area trade group, the National Association of Broadcasters. Tuesday, I will be moderating an NAB Show panel about the state of content creation that features two people who are better at Instagram than me: Juliana Broste and my fellow former USA Today columnist Jefferson Graham.

4/13/2026: Journalists Applaud the Internet Archive’s Role In Preserving the Public Record, Fight for the Future

A staffer with Public Knowledge e-mailed me a few weeks ago to ask if I would be willing to sign a letter supporting the Internet Archive’s efforts to preserve the history of the Web and possibly provide a quote about how I’d used the Archive. Having repeatedly relied on the Archive’s Wayback Machine to link back to my own past published work, I said I would be happy to do that–having already donated $100 to that San Francisco non-profit in January.

4/13/2026: Roblox Adds Account Restrictions for Younger Users, Expands Age Verification, PCMag

I attended a press roundtable Monday morning featuring some Roblox trust-and-safety executives, allowing me to enrich this writeup of the platform’s changes with quotes from that conversation.

4/15/2026: T-Mobile Grounds Free In-Flight Wi-Fi Benefit for United Airlines Passengers, PCMag

I had the dumb luck to see this change firsthand on a flight from Denver to San Jose Tuesday, then needed the rest of that day to get some responses from T-Mobile and United. The airline’s switch to free Starlink connectivity will fix this problem, but we are months away from that rollout reaching a significant fraction of United’s mainline fleet.

4/17/2026: Like It or Not, Google Wants to Be Your AI Travel Buddy This Summer, PCMag

I wrote up this post off an embargoed copy of Google’s announcement that we had to correct the next day because I had missed two of the finer points of this bundle of news. In my halfhearted defense, it is more work than you might realize keeping track of Google’s ongoing efforts to infuse AI into its existing services.

4/17/2026: How NTT Research’s Upgrade 2026 Helps Silicon Valley Get Ready for The Future, Mark Vena

My industry-analyst pal had do a quick video from NTT Research’s Upgrade conference in San Jose, Calif.–with that firm covering my travel costs–about some of its initiatives.

4/18/2026: 2026 Consumer Electronics Show and Lots More!, Potomac Area Technology and Computer Society/Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Personal Computer User Group/Washington Apple Pi

Despite that title–picked by the organizers at PATACS, pronounced “Pat-Aces”–I spent more time talking about other topics. Among them: my switch from Evernote to Obsidian just in time for CES, the sad state of tech policy in Washington, and my takes on self-driving cars and what’s befallen the Washington Post. As I have in previous appearances before these folks, I showed up with a bag of trade-show swag and gave away all of it.

4/19/2026: Blue Origin Rocket Launches, Then Loses AST SpaceMobile BlueBird Satellite, PCMag

I watched the third launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on my phone as I was walking up to the security checkpoint at Dulles early Sunday morning, started writing up what I thought was a successful launch, then learned–via painfully slow inflight WiFi–that New Glenn’s second stage had failed to deliver AST’s mobile-broadband BlueBird satellite to the intended orbit. This is a real black eye for Blue that should outweigh its achievement in reflying a New Glenn booster and then landing it on a barge in the Atlantic.

Weekly output: Internet Archive, Roblox parental controls, Google travel-search tools, T-Mobile yanks free WiFi from United flights, Mark Vena podcast, talking to local user groups, AST SpaceMobile

LAS VEGAS–I’m typing this from a press room in the Las Vegas Convention Center barely three months after I spent too much time in that facility for CES. Credit or blame for this trip goes to a different Washington-area trade group, the National Association of Broadcasters. Tuesday, I will be moderating an NAB Show panel about the state of content creation that features two people who are better at Instagram than me: Juliana Broste and my fellow former USA Today columnist Jefferson Graham.

4/13/2026: Journalists Applaud the Internet Archive’s Role In Preserving the Public Record, Fight for the Future

A staffer with Public Knowledge e-mailed me a few weeks ago to ask if I would be willing to sign a letter supporting the Internet Archive’s efforts to preserve the history of the Web and possibly provide a quote about how I’d used the Archive. Having repeatedly relied on the Archive’s Wayback Machine to link back to my own past published work, I said I would be happy to do that–having already donated $100 to that San Francisco non-profit in January.

4/13/2026: Roblox Adds Account Restrictions for Younger Users, Expands Age Verification, PCMag

I attended a press roundtable Monday morning featuring some Roblox trust-and-safety executives, allowing me to enrich this writeup of the platform’s changes with quotes from that conversation.

4/15/2026: T-Mobile Grounds Free In-Flight Wi-Fi Benefit for United Airlines Passengers, PCMag

I had the dumb luck to see this change firsthand on a flight from Denver to San Jose Tuesday, then needed the rest of that day to get some responses from T-Mobile and United. The airline’s switch to free Starlink connectivity will fix this problem, but we are months away from that rollout reaching a significant fraction of United’s mainline fleet.

4/17/2026: Like It or Not, Google Wants to Be Your AI Travel Buddy This Summer, PCMag

I wrote up this post off an embargoed copy of Google’s announcement that we had to correct the next day because I had missed two of the finer points of this bundle of news. In my halfhearted defense, it is more work than you might realize keeping track of Google’s ongoing efforts to infuse AI into its existing services.

4/17/2026: How NTT Research’s Upgrade 2026 Helps Silicon Valley Get Ready for The Future, Mark Vena

My industry-analyst pal had do a quick video from NTT Research’s Upgrade conference in San Jose, Calif.–with that firm covering my travel costs–about some of its initiatives.

4/18/2026: 2026 Consumer Electronics Show and Lots More!, Potomac Area Technology and Computer Society/Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Personal Computer User Group/Washington Apple Pi

Despite that title–picked by the organizers at PATACS, pronounced “Pat-Aces”–I spent more time talking about other topics. Among them: my switch from Evernote to Obsidian just in time for CES, the sad state of tech policy in Washington, and my takes on self-driving cars and what’s befallen the Washington Post. As I have in previous appearances before these folks, I showed up with a bag of trade-show swag and gave away all of it.

4/19/2026: Blue Origin Rocket Launches, Then Loses AST SpaceMobile BlueBird Satellite, PCMag

I watched the third launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on my phone as I was walking up to the security checkpoint at Dulles early Sunday morning, started writing up what I thought was a successful launch, then learned–via painfully slow inflight WiFi–that New Glenn’s second stage had failed to deliver AST’s mobile-broadband BlueBird satellite to the intended orbit. This is a real black eye for Blue that should outweigh its achievement in reflying a New Glenn booster and then landing it on a barge in the Atlantic.

Weekly output: Internet Archive, Roblox parental controls, Google travel-search tools, T-Mobile yanks free WiFi from United flights, Mark Vena podcast, talking to local user groups, AST SpaceMobile

LAS VEGAS–I’m typing this from a press room in the Las Vegas Convention Center barely three months after I spent too much time in that facility for CES. Credit or blame for this trip goes to a different Washington-area trade group, the National Association of Broadcasters. Tuesday, I will be moderating an NAB Show panel about the state of content creation that features two people who are better at Instagram than me: Juliana Broste and my fellow former USA Today columnist Jefferson Graham.

4/13/2026: Journalists Applaud the Internet Archive’s Role In Preserving the Public Record, Fight for the Future

A staffer with Public Knowledge e-mailed me a few weeks ago to ask if I would be willing to sign a letter supporting the Internet Archive’s efforts to preserve the history of the Web and possibly provide a quote about how I’d used the Archive. Having repeatedly relied on the Archive’s Wayback Machine to link back to my own past published work, I said I would be happy to do that–having already donated $100 to that San Francisco non-profit in January.

4/13/2026: Roblox Adds Account Restrictions for Younger Users, Expands Age Verification, PCMag

I attended a press roundtable Monday morning featuring some Roblox trust-and-safety executives, allowing me to enrich this writeup of the platform’s changes with quotes from that conversation.

4/15/2026: T-Mobile Grounds Free In-Flight Wi-Fi Benefit for United Airlines Passengers, PCMag

I had the dumb luck to see this change firsthand on a flight from Denver to San Jose Tuesday, then needed the rest of that day to get some responses from T-Mobile and United. The airline’s switch to free Starlink connectivity will fix this problem, but we are months away from that rollout reaching a significant fraction of United’s mainline fleet.

4/17/2026: Like It or Not, Google Wants to Be Your AI Travel Buddy This Summer, PCMag

I wrote up this post off an embargoed copy of Google’s announcement that we had to correct the next day because I had missed two of the finer points of this bundle of news. In my halfhearted defense, it is more work than you might realize keeping track of Google’s ongoing efforts to infuse AI into its existing services.

4/17/2026: How NTT Research’s Upgrade 2026 Helps Silicon Valley Get Ready for The Future, Mark Vena

My industry-analyst pal had do a quick video from NTT Research’s Upgrade conference in San Jose, Calif.–with that firm covering my travel costs–about some of its initiatives.

4/18/2026: 2026 Consumer Electronics Show and Lots More!, Potomac Area Technology and Computer Society/Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Personal Computer User Group/Washington Apple Pi

Despite that title–picked by the organizers at PATACS, pronounced “Pat-Aces”–I spent more time talking about other topics. Among them: my switch from Evernote to Obsidian just in time for CES, the sad state of tech policy in Washington, and my takes on self-driving cars and what’s befallen the Washington Post. As I have in previous appearances before these folks, I showed up with a bag of trade-show swag and gave away all of it.

4/19/2026: Blue Origin Rocket Launches, Then Loses AST SpaceMobile BlueBird Satellite, PCMag

I watched the third launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on my phone as I was walking up to the security checkpoint at Dulles early Sunday morning, started writing up what I thought was a successful launch, then learned–via painfully slow inflight WiFi–that New Glenn’s second stage had failed to deliver AST’s mobile-broadband BlueBird satellite to the intended orbit. This is a real black eye for Blue that should outweigh its achievement in reflying a New Glenn booster and then landing it on a barge in the Atlantic.

Weekly output: Internet Archive, Roblox parental controls, Google travel-search tools, T-Mobile yanks free WiFi from United flights, Mark Vena podcast, talking to local user groups, AST SpaceMobile

LAS VEGAS–I’m typing this from a press room in the Las Vegas Convention Center barely three months after I spent too much time in that facility for CES. Credit or blame for this trip goes to a different Washington-area trade group, the National Association of Broadcasters. Tuesday, I will be moderating an NAB Show panel about the state of content creation that features two people who are better at Instagram than me: Juliana Broste and my fellow former USA Today columnist Jefferson Graham.

4/13/2026: Journalists Applaud the Internet Archive’s Role In Preserving the Public Record, Fight for the Future

A staffer with Public Knowledge e-mailed me a few weeks ago to ask if I would be willing to sign a letter supporting the Internet Archive’s efforts to preserve the history of the Web and possibly provide a quote about how I’d used the Archive. Having repeatedly relied on the Archive’s Wayback Machine to link back to my own past published work, I said I would be happy to do that–having already donated $100 to that San Francisco non-profit in January.

4/13/2026: Roblox Adds Account Restrictions for Younger Users, Expands Age Verification, PCMag

I attended a press roundtable Monday morning featuring some Roblox trust-and-safety executives, allowing me to enrich this writeup of the platform’s changes with quotes from that conversation.

4/15/2026: T-Mobile Grounds Free In-Flight Wi-Fi Benefit for United Airlines Passengers, PCMag

I had the dumb luck to see this change firsthand on a flight from Denver to San Jose Tuesday, then needed the rest of that day to get some responses from T-Mobile and United. The airline’s switch to free Starlink connectivity will fix this problem, but we are months away from that rollout reaching a significant fraction of United’s mainline fleet.

4/17/2026: Like It or Not, Google Wants to Be Your AI Travel Buddy This Summer, PCMag

I wrote up this post off an embargoed copy of Google’s announcement that we had to correct the next day because I had missed two of the finer points of this bundle of news. In my halfhearted defense, it is more work than you might realize keeping track of Google’s ongoing efforts to infuse AI into its existing services.

4/17/2026: How NTT Research’s Upgrade 2026 Helps Silicon Valley Get Ready for The Future, Mark Vena

My industry-analyst pal had do a quick video from NTT Research’s Upgrade conference in San Jose, Calif.–with that firm covering my travel costs–about some of its initiatives.

4/18/2026: 2026 Consumer Electronics Show and Lots More!, Potomac Area Technology and Computer Society/Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Personal Computer User Group/Washington Apple Pi

Despite that title–picked by the organizers at PATACS, pronounced “Pat-Aces”–I spent more time talking about other topics. Among them: my switch from Evernote to Obsidian just in time for CES, the sad state of tech policy in Washington, and my takes on self-driving cars and what’s befallen the Washington Post. As I have in previous appearances before these folks, I showed up with a bag of trade-show swag and gave away all of it.

4/19/2026: Blue Origin Rocket Launches, Then Loses AST SpaceMobile BlueBird Satellite, PCMag

I watched the third launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on my phone as I was walking up to the security checkpoint at Dulles early Sunday morning, started writing up what I thought was a successful launch, then learned–via painfully slow inflight WiFi–that New Glenn’s second stage had failed to deliver AST’s mobile-broadband BlueBird satellite to the intended orbit. This is a real black eye for Blue that should outweigh its achievement in reflying a New Glenn booster and then landing it on a barge in the Atlantic.

Weekly output: Internet Archive, Roblox parental controls, Google travel-search tools, T-Mobile yanks free WiFi from United flights, Mark Vena podcast, talking to local user groups, AST SpaceMobile

LAS VEGAS–I’m typing this from a press room in the Las Vegas Convention Center barely three months after I spent too much time in that facility for CES. Credit or blame for this trip goes to a different Washington-area trade group, the National Association of Broadcasters. Tuesday, I will be moderating an NAB Show panel about the state of content creation that features two people who are better at Instagram than me: Juliana Broste and my fellow former USA Today columnist Jefferson Graham.

4/13/2026: Journalists Applaud the Internet Archive’s Role In Preserving the Public Record, Fight for the Future

A staffer with Public Knowledge e-mailed me a few weeks ago to ask if I would be willing to sign a letter supporting the Internet Archive’s efforts to preserve the history of the Web and possibly provide a quote about how I’d used the Archive. Having repeatedly relied on the Archive’s Wayback Machine to link back to my own past published work, I said I would be happy to do that–having already donated $100 to that San Francisco non-profit in January.

4/13/2026: Roblox Adds Account Restrictions for Younger Users, Expands Age Verification, PCMag

I attended a press roundtable Monday morning featuring some Roblox trust-and-safety executives, allowing me to enrich this writeup of the platform’s changes with quotes from that conversation.

4/15/2026: T-Mobile Grounds Free In-Flight Wi-Fi Benefit for United Airlines Passengers, PCMag

I had the dumb luck to see this change firsthand on a flight from Denver to San Jose Tuesday, then needed the rest of that day to get some responses from T-Mobile and United. The airline’s switch to free Starlink connectivity will fix this problem, but we are months away from that rollout reaching a significant fraction of United’s mainline fleet.

4/17/2026: Like It or Not, Google Wants to Be Your AI Travel Buddy This Summer, PCMag

I wrote up this post off an embargoed copy of Google’s announcement that we had to correct the next day because I had missed two of the finer points of this bundle of news. In my halfhearted defense, it is more work than you might realize keeping track of Google’s ongoing efforts to infuse AI into its existing services.

4/17/2026: How NTT Research’s Upgrade 2026 Helps Silicon Valley Get Ready for The Future, Mark Vena

My industry-analyst pal had do a quick video from NTT Research’s Upgrade conference in San Jose, Calif.–with that firm covering my travel costs–about some of its initiatives.

4/18/2026: 2026 Consumer Electronics Show and Lots More!, Potomac Area Technology and Computer Society/Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Personal Computer User Group/Washington Apple Pi

Despite that title–picked by the organizers at PATACS, pronounced “Pat-Aces”–I spent more time talking about other topics. Among them: my switch from Evernote to Obsidian just in time for CES, the sad state of tech policy in Washington, and my takes on self-driving cars and what’s befallen the Washington Post. As I have in previous appearances before these folks, I showed up with a bag of trade-show swag and gave away all of it.

4/19/2026: Blue Origin Rocket Launches, Then Loses AST SpaceMobile BlueBird Satellite, PCMag

I watched the third launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on my phone as I was walking up to the security checkpoint at Dulles early Sunday morning, started writing up what I thought was a successful launch, then learned–via painfully slow inflight WiFi–that New Glenn’s second stage had failed to deliver AST’s mobile-broadband BlueBird satellite to the intended orbit. This is a real black eye for Blue that should outweigh its achievement in reflying a New Glenn booster and then landing it on a barge in the Atlantic.

Công cụ lập kế hoạch nghỉ lễ 2026 cho Mỹ, Đức, Thổ Nhĩ Kỳ giúp đếm ngày nghỉ, tối ưu ngày phép, tìm ngày nối và chọn lịch trình tốt nhất. #LễTết2026 #TravelTools #DuLịch #HolidayPlanner

https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/1ppltc7/i_built_3_small_tools_to_plan_holidays_in_2026/

The Best Ways to Use Google’s AI Tools for Travel Planning – AFAR

Destinations Trip Ideas Tips + News Hotels Podcast Subscribe Tips + NewsTravel Tips + Etiquette

By Craig Stoltz, October 17, 2025

You’re Not Using Google Right to Plan Your Trips

Artificial intelligence is expanding the ways in which the search engine can help save you time and money when planning and booking travel—if you know how to use the new tools correctly.

• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Twitter
• Print

Earlier this year, Google search debuted an AI Mode created to respond in conversational language to users’ questions on just about any topic under the sun, including travelers’ queries about places to go and things to do. Ask it for a “romantic Santa Fe weekend in March” or “wineries to visit in Croatia” and it will zing out ideas and rough, often rather accurate itineraries that get vacation planning started.

While most people access the itinerary function just by using AI Mode in Google search, more informed users would be wise to use the Gemini app. There’s a paid version, but the majority of consumers will get all the information they need from the free version. Gemini offers additional tools (detailed below) and a better chat interface, taking full advantage of Google’s ability to connect users to the search behemoth’s well-established travel planning services—Google Flights, Google Hotels, and Google Maps—and incorporating its stored search data about users to refine its results.

“The ability to pull live data about travel products from Google Travel while integrating its answers with data from your Google search history, Maps, Gmail, and YouTube make it an end-to-end experience that’s hard for other platforms to match,” says Mike Coletta, senior manager of research and innovation at Phocuswright, a travel consulting firm.

In other words, Google offers a lot more than simple AI-generated itineraries for travel, and more than most other bots can muster to help travel planners. Here’s how to make the most of Google’s AI travel planning tools.

Find flights by chatting

Travelers can use the Gemini app to specify what they are looking for in natural language. For instance, you can go to the Gemini app and explain your flight needs as follows: “Find me nonstop flights to London from Washington, D.C., the week of January 10th. Show a grid of choices and links to book them.”

Gemini will show you basic choices and send you to Google Flights with a running start. “The balanced blend of conversational search with traditional filters and inputs” makes the process much easier and better, says Coletta. Other services don’t have access to Google’s real-time flight data.

Dream big with Google Flight Deals

The recently launched AI-powered Google Flight Deals tool sounds like a way to find cheap fares, and it is. But its super power is that it’s a dream weaver with a budget brain. Try this: Don’t specify a destination. Just tell it “romantic Caribbean vacation long weekend in February from Philly, not too expensive.”

You’d expect Jamaica and the Dominican Republic to appear, and they do. But right at the top is Providenciales in the Turks & Caicos Islands, selling for 41 percent less than usual as of this writing. Suddenly you’re dreaming of an entirely different Caribbean getaway.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: The Best Ways to Use Google’s AI Tools for Travel Planning – AFAR

#2025 #Afar #AI #America #artificialIntelligence #BestTools #Google #Libraries #Library #Opinion #Science #Technology #Travel #TravelPlanning #TravelTools #UnitedStates

The Best Ways to Use Google’s AI Tools for Travel Planning – AFAR

Destinations Trip Ideas Tips + News Hotels Podcast Subscribe Tips + NewsTravel Tips + Etiquette

By Craig Stoltz, October 17, 2025

You’re Not Using Google Right to Plan Your Trips

Artificial intelligence is expanding the ways in which the search engine can help save you time and money when planning and booking travel—if you know how to use the new tools correctly.

• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Twitter
• Print

Earlier this year, Google search debuted an AI Mode created to respond in conversational language to users’ questions on just about any topic under the sun, including travelers’ queries about places to go and things to do. Ask it for a “romantic Santa Fe weekend in March” or “wineries to visit in Croatia” and it will zing out ideas and rough, often rather accurate itineraries that get vacation planning started.

While most people access the itinerary function just by using AI Mode in Google search, more informed users would be wise to use the Gemini app. There’s a paid version, but the majority of consumers will get all the information they need from the free version. Gemini offers additional tools (detailed below) and a better chat interface, taking full advantage of Google’s ability to connect users to the search behemoth’s well-established travel planning services—Google Flights, Google Hotels, and Google Maps—and incorporating its stored search data about users to refine its results.

“The ability to pull live data about travel products from Google Travel while integrating its answers with data from your Google search history, Maps, Gmail, and YouTube make it an end-to-end experience that’s hard for other platforms to match,” says Mike Coletta, senior manager of research and innovation at Phocuswright, a travel consulting firm.

In other words, Google offers a lot more than simple AI-generated itineraries for travel, and more than most other bots can muster to help travel planners. Here’s how to make the most of Google’s AI travel planning tools.

Find flights by chatting

Travelers can use the Gemini app to specify what they are looking for in natural language. For instance, you can go to the Gemini app and explain your flight needs as follows: “Find me nonstop flights to London from Washington, D.C., the week of January 10th. Show a grid of choices and links to book them.”

Gemini will show you basic choices and send you to Google Flights with a running start. “The balanced blend of conversational search with traditional filters and inputs” makes the process much easier and better, says Coletta. Other services don’t have access to Google’s real-time flight data.

Dream big with Google Flight Deals

The recently launched AI-powered Google Flight Deals tool sounds like a way to find cheap fares, and it is. But its super power is that it’s a dream weaver with a budget brain. Try this: Don’t specify a destination. Just tell it “romantic Caribbean vacation long weekend in February from Philly, not too expensive.”

You’d expect Jamaica and the Dominican Republic to appear, and they do. But right at the top is Providenciales in the Turks & Caicos Islands, selling for 41 percent less than usual as of this writing. Suddenly you’re dreaming of an entirely different Caribbean getaway.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: The Best Ways to Use Google’s AI Tools for Travel Planning – AFAR

#2025 #Afar #AI #America #artificialIntelligence #BestTools #Google #Libraries #Library #Opinion #Science #Technology #Travel #TravelPlanning #TravelTools #UnitedStates

The Best Ways to Use Google’s AI Tools for Travel Planning – AFAR

Destinations Trip Ideas Tips + News Hotels Podcast Subscribe Tips + NewsTravel Tips + Etiquette

By Craig Stoltz, October 17, 2025

You’re Not Using Google Right to Plan Your Trips

Artificial intelligence is expanding the ways in which the search engine can help save you time and money when planning and booking travel—if you know how to use the new tools correctly.

• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Twitter
• Print

Earlier this year, Google search debuted an AI Mode created to respond in conversational language to users’ questions on just about any topic under the sun, including travelers’ queries about places to go and things to do. Ask it for a “romantic Santa Fe weekend in March” or “wineries to visit in Croatia” and it will zing out ideas and rough, often rather accurate itineraries that get vacation planning started.

While most people access the itinerary function just by using AI Mode in Google search, more informed users would be wise to use the Gemini app. There’s a paid version, but the majority of consumers will get all the information they need from the free version. Gemini offers additional tools (detailed below) and a better chat interface, taking full advantage of Google’s ability to connect users to the search behemoth’s well-established travel planning services—Google Flights, Google Hotels, and Google Maps—and incorporating its stored search data about users to refine its results.

“The ability to pull live data about travel products from Google Travel while integrating its answers with data from your Google search history, Maps, Gmail, and YouTube make it an end-to-end experience that’s hard for other platforms to match,” says Mike Coletta, senior manager of research and innovation at Phocuswright, a travel consulting firm.

In other words, Google offers a lot more than simple AI-generated itineraries for travel, and more than most other bots can muster to help travel planners. Here’s how to make the most of Google’s AI travel planning tools.

Find flights by chatting

Travelers can use the Gemini app to specify what they are looking for in natural language. For instance, you can go to the Gemini app and explain your flight needs as follows: “Find me nonstop flights to London from Washington, D.C., the week of January 10th. Show a grid of choices and links to book them.”

Gemini will show you basic choices and send you to Google Flights with a running start. “The balanced blend of conversational search with traditional filters and inputs” makes the process much easier and better, says Coletta. Other services don’t have access to Google’s real-time flight data.

Dream big with Google Flight Deals

The recently launched AI-powered Google Flight Deals tool sounds like a way to find cheap fares, and it is. But its super power is that it’s a dream weaver with a budget brain. Try this: Don’t specify a destination. Just tell it “romantic Caribbean vacation long weekend in February from Philly, not too expensive.”

You’d expect Jamaica and the Dominican Republic to appear, and they do. But right at the top is Providenciales in the Turks & Caicos Islands, selling for 41 percent less than usual as of this writing. Suddenly you’re dreaming of an entirely different Caribbean getaway.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: The Best Ways to Use Google’s AI Tools for Travel Planning – AFAR

#2025 #Afar #AI #America #artificialIntelligence #BestTools #Google #Libraries #Library #Opinion #Science #Technology #Travel #TravelPlanning #TravelTools #UnitedStates

The Best Ways to Use Google’s AI Tools for Travel Planning – AFAR

Destinations Trip Ideas Tips + News Hotels Podcast Subscribe Tips + NewsTravel Tips + Etiquette

By Craig Stoltz, October 17, 2025

You’re Not Using Google Right to Plan Your Trips

Artificial intelligence is expanding the ways in which the search engine can help save you time and money when planning and booking travel—if you know how to use the new tools correctly.

• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Twitter
• Print

Earlier this year, Google search debuted an AI Mode created to respond in conversational language to users’ questions on just about any topic under the sun, including travelers’ queries about places to go and things to do. Ask it for a “romantic Santa Fe weekend in March” or “wineries to visit in Croatia” and it will zing out ideas and rough, often rather accurate itineraries that get vacation planning started.

While most people access the itinerary function just by using AI Mode in Google search, more informed users would be wise to use the Gemini app. There’s a paid version, but the majority of consumers will get all the information they need from the free version. Gemini offers additional tools (detailed below) and a better chat interface, taking full advantage of Google’s ability to connect users to the search behemoth’s well-established travel planning services—Google Flights, Google Hotels, and Google Maps—and incorporating its stored search data about users to refine its results.

“The ability to pull live data about travel products from Google Travel while integrating its answers with data from your Google search history, Maps, Gmail, and YouTube make it an end-to-end experience that’s hard for other platforms to match,” says Mike Coletta, senior manager of research and innovation at Phocuswright, a travel consulting firm.

In other words, Google offers a lot more than simple AI-generated itineraries for travel, and more than most other bots can muster to help travel planners. Here’s how to make the most of Google’s AI travel planning tools.

Find flights by chatting

Travelers can use the Gemini app to specify what they are looking for in natural language. For instance, you can go to the Gemini app and explain your flight needs as follows: “Find me nonstop flights to London from Washington, D.C., the week of January 10th. Show a grid of choices and links to book them.”

Gemini will show you basic choices and send you to Google Flights with a running start. “The balanced blend of conversational search with traditional filters and inputs” makes the process much easier and better, says Coletta. Other services don’t have access to Google’s real-time flight data.

Dream big with Google Flight Deals

The recently launched AI-powered Google Flight Deals tool sounds like a way to find cheap fares, and it is. But its super power is that it’s a dream weaver with a budget brain. Try this: Don’t specify a destination. Just tell it “romantic Caribbean vacation long weekend in February from Philly, not too expensive.”

You’d expect Jamaica and the Dominican Republic to appear, and they do. But right at the top is Providenciales in the Turks & Caicos Islands, selling for 41 percent less than usual as of this writing. Suddenly you’re dreaming of an entirely different Caribbean getaway.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: The Best Ways to Use Google’s AI Tools for Travel Planning – AFAR

#2025 #Afar #AI #America #artificialIntelligence #BestTools #Google #Libraries #Library #Opinion #Science #Technology #Travel #TravelPlanning #TravelTools #UnitedStates

The Best Ways to Use Google’s AI Tools for Travel Planning – AFAR

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By Craig Stoltz, October 17, 2025

You’re Not Using Google Right to Plan Your Trips

Artificial intelligence is expanding the ways in which the search engine can help save you time and money when planning and booking travel—if you know how to use the new tools correctly.

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Earlier this year, Google search debuted an AI Mode created to respond in conversational language to users’ questions on just about any topic under the sun, including travelers’ queries about places to go and things to do. Ask it for a “romantic Santa Fe weekend in March” or “wineries to visit in Croatia” and it will zing out ideas and rough, often rather accurate itineraries that get vacation planning started.

While most people access the itinerary function just by using AI Mode in Google search, more informed users would be wise to use the Gemini app. There’s a paid version, but the majority of consumers will get all the information they need from the free version. Gemini offers additional tools (detailed below) and a better chat interface, taking full advantage of Google’s ability to connect users to the search behemoth’s well-established travel planning services—Google Flights, Google Hotels, and Google Maps—and incorporating its stored search data about users to refine its results.

“The ability to pull live data about travel products from Google Travel while integrating its answers with data from your Google search history, Maps, Gmail, and YouTube make it an end-to-end experience that’s hard for other platforms to match,” says Mike Coletta, senior manager of research and innovation at Phocuswright, a travel consulting firm.

In other words, Google offers a lot more than simple AI-generated itineraries for travel, and more than most other bots can muster to help travel planners. Here’s how to make the most of Google’s AI travel planning tools.

Find flights by chatting

Travelers can use the Gemini app to specify what they are looking for in natural language. For instance, you can go to the Gemini app and explain your flight needs as follows: “Find me nonstop flights to London from Washington, D.C., the week of January 10th. Show a grid of choices and links to book them.”

Gemini will show you basic choices and send you to Google Flights with a running start. “The balanced blend of conversational search with traditional filters and inputs” makes the process much easier and better, says Coletta. Other services don’t have access to Google’s real-time flight data.

Dream big with Google Flight Deals

The recently launched AI-powered Google Flight Deals tool sounds like a way to find cheap fares, and it is. But its super power is that it’s a dream weaver with a budget brain. Try this: Don’t specify a destination. Just tell it “romantic Caribbean vacation long weekend in February from Philly, not too expensive.”

You’d expect Jamaica and the Dominican Republic to appear, and they do. But right at the top is Providenciales in the Turks & Caicos Islands, selling for 41 percent less than usual as of this writing. Suddenly you’re dreaming of an entirely different Caribbean getaway.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: The Best Ways to Use Google’s AI Tools for Travel Planning – AFAR

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"The old strategies you might remember of things like booking on Tuesday evenings aren’t relevant anymore… thanks a lot dynamic pricing!"

#travel #vacation #personalfinance #traveltools #traveltips #hotel #flight #cruise

https://www.routetoretire.com/travel-planning/

"The old strategies you might remember of things like booking on Tuesday evenings aren’t relevant anymore… thanks a lot dynamic pricing!"

#travel #vacation #personalfinance #traveltools #traveltips #hotel #flight #cruise

https://www.routetoretire.com/travel-planning/

"The old strategies you might remember of things like booking on Tuesday evenings aren’t relevant anymore… thanks a lot dynamic pricing!"

#travel #vacation #personalfinance #traveltools #traveltips #hotel #flight #cruise

https://www.routetoretire.com/travel-planning/

"The old strategies you might remember of things like booking on Tuesday evenings aren’t relevant anymore… thanks a lot dynamic pricing!"

#travel #vacation #personalfinance #traveltools #traveltips #hotel #flight #cruise

https://www.routetoretire.com/travel-planning/