There’s no denying that AI is infiltrating our daily life. The use of generative AI models like ChatGPT and Gemini, as well as specified AI trip planners, are making many tasks –including trip planning– more convenient. AI travel planners can plan your trip to northern Spain quickly, easily, and at a low cost.
So why would you still ask a local travel agent to plan your holiday?
In this blog post, we share honestly where AI is useful for you, where it falls short, and what intoAsturias does that an algorithm cannot.
Where AI travel planners help, and where they fall short
AI is a good place to start dreaming. It can provide inspiration, a rough idea, and answer general questions. For quick getaways or familiar destinations, it can be helpful in planning simple itineraries.
But when planning complex, multi-stop trips or rural vacations, its limits show quickly:
- Outdated or even wrong information: AI often suggests restaurants that have closed, buses that only run in high season, or “easy” hikes that, in reality, turn out to be 8 hours of steep climbing. AI may sound confident, but that doesn’t mean that the information is up-to-date or accurate.
- Popular rather than good. AI suggests hotels and tours based on the best algorithms, rather than the best quality, often sending you to the same crowded places as everyone else. For unique local experiences, AI often misses the mark. This is especially true for small-scale accommodations and excursions, which rely on local connections and word of mouth.
- No accountability. If a suggestion is wrong, nobody fixes it for you. Miss the bus? Too bad. Dirty hotel? You’re on your own.
The Time Cost of an AI Travel Planner
The biggest advantage of an AI Travel Planner is that it is free or cheap to use. However, travelers usually still spend over 5 hours choosing a destination, researching, planning, and booking. This whole process usually lasts for over a month (source: Expedia Group).
So what does a local travel agent do differently? One things is sure: it starts long before you pack your bags!
How We Help Before your Trip
- Personalized planning. At intoAsturias, we start with a conversation. We want to know who is traveling, how much walking feels good, what you love and what you’d rather avoid. Your tailor-made proposal is built on your distinct preferences and is completely customizable.
- Local insight. As year-round residents, we personally know the places that we recommend. We’ve developed close relationships with boutique hotels and casas rurales, as well as passionate local guides. We keep in contact with them to ensure that they continue to provide high quality experiences.
- We book everything. No need to call, email, or compare websites! We coordinate your trip from start to finish, so you can enjoy your holiday worry-free.
- One travel description. A few weeks before you leave, we send you all the information in a convenient day-by-day travel description. Here you will find all reservations, addresses, helpful tips, and other recommendations. We’ll also provide our phone numbers in case you need assistance while you are here.
How We Help During your Trip
ChatGPT can’t change the time on your bus ticket. Gemini doesn’t know the best vegetarian restaurant in the city. And Claude won’t be helpful if the rental car pops a tire. Whether it’s a follow-up question or an emergency, we are available to support you. Taking accountability for your holiday from start to finish is something we take seriously.
One way we do this is by creating a WhatsApp group for every trip. We set up a WhatsApp group that includes our team and your travelers. Ask a quick question, tell us when something isn’t right, or send us a photo of your morning hike. You get real answers from us in real time.
We hope that your trip runs smoothly—and most do. But travel is real life, and sometimes things go wrong. When they do, we’re there for you. Two examples from recent years:
An appendix operation in the middle of a family holiday
One morning, a young boy traveling with his family woke up with a growing pain in his lower belly. It turned out to be appendicitis, and he needed surgery. From the first phone call, we stayed in close contact with the parents. We advised them which hospital to go to, arranged a place to stay for the parents and his brother, and moved the family’s surfing activity to a few days later. After the operation, we checked in regularly. And once they were safely home, we made sure all the paperwork for the insurance company was in order.
A lost wallet and €15 left
A solo traveler exploring the region by public transport lost her wallet and was left with just €15 in cash. One of our colleagues lived nearby, picked her up by car, and helped her out with some extra cash, so she could enjoy the rest of her holiday.
No app will check on you after surgery, or drive over with cash when your wallet is gone. We will.
Do we use AI ourselves? Yes, but carefully
We’ll be honest: yes, we use AI too. Here’s why.
We’re a very small team. Every hour spent on repetitive administration is an hour we can’t spend on what really matters: visiting new accommodations, walking a route again before we recommend it, and keeping up our relationships with the families and guides we work with. So we use AI for repetitive, administrative, and internal tasks. That saves us time for the work that actually improves your trip.
What we don’t hand over to AI is the part you trust us with: getting to know you, choosing the accommodations and excursions, checking the details, and being there during your trip.
As a sustainable travel agency, we are committed to preserving the natural environment and protecting local communities. That means making efforts to limit our carbon, land, and water footprint as much as possible.
Since AI data centers emit greenhouse gases and use high amounts of water, land and energy (source: United Nations), we carefully and intentionally examine where AI really helps and where it doesn’t, with one question in mind: does this make the experience better for our travelers?
Streamlining our administration with AI in the end also helps us combat overtourism, which puts increased pressure on popular destinations across Spain. By creating meaningful experiences in less-visited areas, we help support small communities while easing pressure on overcrowded destinations. And by automating repetitive tasks behind the scenes, we can dedicate more time to market our thoughtful, small-scale approach to tourism in northern Spain and thus potentially reach a larger public.
Want Support from a Local (Human)?
We live locally in Spain and are excited to share our insider knowledge and plan an incredible trip for you! From Active Family Holidays to a Round Trip of Northern Spain, we take the time, energy, and worry out of trip planning. We personalize our itineraries based on the interests of you, the traveler, combined with our local knowledge and experience!
Whatever prompt you were planning to send to AI, send it to us instead. And if you’ve already made an itinerary with AI, send that along too! We’re curious to see what it suggested, and happy to tell you honestly what we’d keep, what we’d change, and where you’d find a quieter alternative.