AI trip planner
Hand any AI your dates, your city, and your budget — get back a day-by-day itinerary that fits the money you actually have, plus a bookings checklist you can knock out tonight. No spreadsheets. No 40 open tabs.
Planning a trip is 30 tabs and a bad guess
You know where you want to go and roughly what you can spend. Everything in between is the pain: which days to do what, how far things are from each other, what to book first before it sells out, and whether the whole thing quietly blows your budget.
So most people either overpay a travel agent or wing it and waste half the trip backtracking across the city. An AI can do the boring part in one shot — if you tell it exactly what to give you back. That's what the prompt below does.
One prompt. Copy it, fill the brackets, send.
Replace anything in [brackets]. Leave the rest exactly as written — the structure is what forces the AI to give you a plan you can act on instead of a vague list.
You are my expert travel planner. Build me a realistic, budget-aware trip. Ask nothing back — make sensible assumptions where I'm vague and state them at the top. TRIP BRIEF - Destination: [city / region, e.g. Lisbon, Portugal] - Travelling from: [your home city] - Dates: [start date] to [end date] ([number] days) - Travellers: [e.g. 2 adults, 1 kid age 6] - Total budget: [amount + currency], EXCLUDING flights unless I say otherwise - Style: [e.g. mix of food, culture, and slow mornings — not a march] - Must-do / must-see: [anything non-negotiable, or "you pick"] - Avoid: [dislikes — e.g. long queues, clubbing, extreme hikes] - Pace: [relaxed / balanced / packed] - Home base: [hotel/area if booked, else "recommend one"] WHAT TO GIVE ME BACK, IN THIS ORDER: 1. ASSUMPTIONS & SNAPSHOT — the assumptions you made, the season/weather to expect, and one line on getting from the airport to my base. 2. BUDGET TABLE — a per-category estimate (lodging, food, local transport, activities, buffer) that sums to at or under my total. Show a per-day figure too. Flag the single biggest cost. 3. DAY-BY-DAY ITINERARY — one block per day. For each day give: • a theme for the day (e.g. "Old town + sunset") • Morning / Afternoon / Evening, each with 1–2 specific places or activities • a rough cost per item and a running daily total • ONE food recommendation with a price band ($ / $$ / $$$) • realistic travel time between the stops, and group nearby things on the same day so I'm not crisscrossing • a "swap if it rains" indoor backup for the day 4. BOOKINGS CHECKLIST — a numbered list of everything I should reserve in advance, ORDERED by how urgently it sells out. For each: what it is, roughly when to book, and est. price. Mark items that are usually walk-in-fine as "no need to pre-book." 5. PACKING & PREP — 6–10 trip-specific items I might forget (not "socks"), plus any docs, apps, or local-payment/SIM tips. 6. MONEY-SAVER MOVES — 3 concrete swaps that cut cost without gutting the trip, with the rough amount each saves. RULES - Keep the total at or under my budget. If my must-dos don't fit, tell me honestly and offer the trade-off. - Be specific — name real neighbourhoods, dish types, and transit lines, not "a nice local restaurant." - Use short lines and tables. No fluff, no travel-blog padding. - End with: "Reply with any changes — swap a day, tighten the budget, or add a day trip — and I'll rebuild it."
Pro move: after the first plan lands, just talk to it — "make Day 3 cheaper," "add a day trip," "we're vegetarian," "the kid naps at 1pm." It rebuilds the whole thing in seconds.
3 steps to a booked-and-ready trip
Copy the prompt & fill your brackets
Hit Copy prompt above and paste it into your AI. Swap every [bracket] for your real details — dates, who's going, and the number that matters most: your total budget. Vague is fine; it'll fill the gaps and tell you what it assumed.
Send it and read the plan
You'll get a budget table, a day-by-day itinerary grouped so you're not zig-zagging the city, and a bookings checklist ordered by what sells out first. Skim the budget line — it should land at or under your number.
Refine, then work the checklist
Reply in plain English — "cheaper hotel," "more food, less museums," "add Sintra as a day trip" — and it rebuilds instantly. Once it feels right, open the bookings checklist and reserve top-to-bottom. Done.
Not a list of ideas — a plan you can book
The prompt is engineered to return six things, every time. Here's what lands in your chat:
A budget that adds up
A category-by-category table — lodging, food, transport, activities, buffer — that sums to at or under your total, with a per-day figure.
A day-by-day itinerary
Morning / afternoon / evening for each day, with real places grouped by area, travel times, a food pick, and a rainy-day backup.
A bookings checklist
Everything to reserve, ordered by how fast it sells out — so you book the tight stuff first and skip pre-booking what you don't need.
Packing & prep list
Trip-specific items you'd forget, plus the docs, apps, and local-payment or SIM tips for where you're headed.
Money-saver moves
Three concrete swaps that trim the cost without wrecking the trip — each with the rough amount it saves.
Instant rebuilds
Change your mind and it re-plans in seconds — tighter budget, extra day, kids in tow, dietary needs. The plan bends to you.
- AMAlfama & São Jorge Castle — wander the old quarter, castle views (€15pp)
- PMTram 28 to Graça — miradouro sunset spot, 12 min ride (€3)
- EATGrilled sardines, Alfama tasca · price band $$
- ☔Rain swap: National Tile Museum, indoor, 20 min by bus
Illustrative example of the format the prompt returns — your real plan uses your city, dates, and budget.
Free tiers included — you don't need a paid AI to run this. Paste it anywhere, in any of them, and it works the same way.
This is the free, do-it-yourself way.
JARVIS does this for you — automatically, wired to your real data. Your calendar, your budget, your saved trips — no brackets to fill, no re-pasting. It plans, tracks, and reminds you what to book, on its own.