We’re back from our trip to Iceland & Ireland.  We were only gone 12 days, but that was the perfect amount of time for those two countries in one trip. .

When we got home, we were marveling at how much easier travel is now compared with 10, 20, 30 years ago.  We’ve gone from having to buy American Express Travel Checks before we leave to simply tapping our iPhone to pay for things as we go.  On this trip we only stopped at a ATM machine once – to get 100 euro to cover simple tipping occasions.

It’s not just paying that is made easier with technology.  The best I can remember, the last trip I had paper airline tickets for was in the early 2000s, the last time I brought a CD player was around 2006, the last camera I brought with me (SLR) was around 2008, I started using Uber about 2012, and employing Apple CarPlay for maps & Spotify in rental cars since at least 2016.

This trip was unique because now AI has really become integrated into our travels.  I’ve had my ChatGPT account since 2022, but it’s really become a travel essential for me now.  It helped me plan the trip & itinerary before we left in hundreds of ways, and is now a hand-held travel companion.  

Here are four ways we used it regularly on this trip …

First, it’s become my travel guidebook.  I like Rick Steves’ tour books, but they are clunky to carry around and sometimes out of date.  On this trip, I would simply say, “We are at the entrance of St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin.  Tell me 8-10 things we should know about the history or sights inside before we enter.  Put them in a logical order to walk between them.”  No more clunky book.

Second, we started “talking” with AI in the rental car.  As we were driving between towns – say Killarney and Kenmare, we could simply say, “Siri, me about Irish folk takes like leprechauns and faeries?”  CarPlay would engage ChatGPT and “speak” us the answer in a very conversational way.  We could ask unlimited follow-up questions or easily jump to different topics.  Real conversations.  We even specify when we want a short answer (“50 words”) or a magazine article (“400 words”).

Next, I used it in editing photos.  Oftentimes you are going quickly through a sight and get a blurry shot or a shot with a lot of people in the way.  Now I simply say, “Make less blurry, remove the lights or glare from the photo, or remove the people standing behind the harp”.  ChatGPT is very good at this and the AI built into Apple AI is helpful, too.

Lastly, I upload pictures of things we are looking at and don’t understand for a quick, smart explanation.  “Tell me about this ship & flag (Lithuanian Navy in Reykjavik).  Explain the drum that musician is playing (a Gaelic Bodhran).  Tell me about Molly Malone (the ‘Tart with a Cart’)”.   

Once, we were at a Pub in Cork and I took a picture of the soccer game on TV and asked it to tell mw about it.  AI explained which team were playing, what tournament they were in, and who some of the star players were.  It was clever enough to even tell me that the Irish people in the pub were probably cheering for Aston Villa, as their team has had a lot of Irishmen in the past and their captain is a Scotsman John McGinn.  Sure enough #7 scored the next goal!

We have T-Mobile and simply bought a $75 upgrade to unlimited data for the trip on our phones.  The only issue we had was maintaining battery life for all of the things we were using them for (especially pictures).  For that, I have a little battery brick that I brought with me to charge when we were out-and-about.  A little clunky, but not bad.

Are you integrating AI into your travels?  What other technologies are you now using when on holiday overseas?

Image: Pixabay