032 - A REVIEW of AI travel itinerary generator, Magic Trips
The Pitch
Your next magical trip starts here.
Raise your hand if you enjoy going on vacations but hate the planning process. The point of vacations is to relax and enjoy your days stress-free. But far too often, we can get caught up in the hustle and bustle of planning a vacation itinerary. Magic Trip looks to help alleviate that headache through AI-powered personalization, which lets you get straight to the point of relaxing.
For this review, I used my experience planning my Hawaiian honeymoon as a baseline to measure Magic Trip's generative AI itinerary output.
The Experience
Getting Started With Magic Trips
Magic Trip's core function is simple: use AI to plan your itinerary. This simplicity is echoed throughout when using the app. You sign up with your email to create a basic profile, which is used to store your saved itineraries and that's it!
With your profile completed, the next step is to start making your itineraries with prompts. While basic, this setup has to be the quickest way yet into an app I've experienced throughout my app reviews. Here's to hoping it stays that way as the product continues to grow.
Assessing Magic Trips Usability
The interface is straightforward. It consists of a standard text field. You start your itinerary creation by entering a series of prompts detailing the specifics of your trip plans.
In that same text field, you can add the number of days for your trip and toggle between filters such as your trip's vibe, budget, and activity themes. I welcomed these filters, as they help to spark ideas for things to do while keeping them within your budget.
Given the app's simplicity, it was good to see that navigating it wasn't as cumbersome as planning trips can sometimes be. That said, some aspects could use improvement. The inclusion of a brief onboarding tutorial can make the experience even better for those unfamiliar with getting the best out of prompting an AI model.
When it comes to prompting in general, it is usually a process of refinement to get good results. Itineraries are no different; they undergo changes as well. Magic Trips currently can't refine your itinerary, so you'd have to start the process over to get the results you want. Another feature missing is a way to easily share your itinerary results. This would be welcomed, especially when planning with friends or family.
Magic Trips Features
The app does a decent job of delivering its promise of creating an itinerary. Like with any generative AI model, the better and more detailed your prompts, the happier you'll be with the output results.
The itinerary results are presented like a travel article featuring a list of the "best" things to do on vacation. This makes the content easy to digest and helps to sell the destinations even more.
I prompted the app based on my travels to the Hawaiian Big Island. Surprisingly, the results were solid. My prompts were about enjoying more of the cultural and local sides of the Big Island and less of the touristy stuff, so I got back an itinerary that reflected that. And because I've visited the locations in the results, I was genuinely impressed.
Your itinerary also includes hyperlinks to sites for hotel bookings, rentals, and activities. Regarding hotels or rentals, the links take you to listings relevant to your destination. Those seeking more granular things—like going through the booking process or room availability—won't find that here. Perhaps in a future update.
The Verdict
Why Should You Care
I'm no travel aficionado, and like most, I usually travel around the vacation seasons. That said, I see the benefit and simplicity of Magic Trips in helping you plan things out. Especially when you need ideas on what to do at your trip destination.
While the app feels like an early beta due to limited or missing features, it's off to a good start as an MVP (minimum viable product). Magic Trips is free as of this review and worth trying even if you don't plan on going anywhere. It gives you a good preview of the activities at your destination and may even spark some ideas along the way.
Learning Curve:
Very Easy
Easy
Moderate
Difficult
Very Difficult
Magic Trip Facts:
Free to sign up and use
No subscriptions
Does not book trips or rentals
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