Google Just Added Some AI Features to Its Vacation Planning Tools

Summer is on the way—at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere—and Google has pushed out some useful upgrades across several apps to make your travel planning a little easier (and a little more reliant on AI).

First, the AI Overviews that you've no doubt noticed up at the top of Google search results are being expanded to cover travel itineraries for regions and countries, as well as cities. All you need to do is ask for a plan for a certain place (like the south of France), together with any requirements (such as kids or a specific budget), and the AI will do the rest.

You get a day-by-day breakdown of where you should go and what you should do, and you can check out photos and reviews left by other users—as well as quickly share recommendations via Google Docs or Gmail, if you have fellow travelers. This is live now for U.S. users, but heed Google's own warning that generative AI is experimental: Double-check the details with information from actual human beings.

AI Overviews can now produce itineraries for regions and countries. Credit: Google

Secondly, there's a new price tracking option over at google.com/hotels. This works like it already does for Google Flights, where Google will email you if prices change for certain dates at a hotel you've got your eye on—so you can grab a bargain quickly. It's a useful feature for saving money on plane tickets, so it's good to see it available for hotels too. This feature is now rolling out globally.

Third, there's going to be a new Screenshots feature in Google Maps: If you choose to enable it, the app will scan your screenshots for place names, and quickly get you to those spots on the map. If you're someone who's always collecting screen grabs of places you want to visit, this should prove helpful, and all the AI text detection work is done locally.

This place recognition feature seems to be based on text alone, rather than combining images and text, so your screenshots will need recognizable locations that appear as text. This is appearing now in Google Maps for iOS for U.S. users, and is apparently "coming soon" to Google Maps for Android.

Google Maps is now able to pick out places from your screenshots. Credit: Google

And there's another recent AI upgrade for Google Maps that isn't mentioned in Google's latest official blog post. As spotted by Android Authority, if you select a place in Google Maps on Android and then enable Gemini with a voice command or button push, you get an Ask about place shortcut above the main input box. You can then ask whatever you want about the selected location. It's not a new feature, but it's now easier to get to.

Back to Google's official announcements: The last two are more reminders about features that have already gone live. As Lifehacker reported a couple of weeks ago, custom Gemini Gems AI bots are now available to all users, with or without a Gemini Advanced subscription—so anyone can create a Gem specifically for travel advice (from popular spots to visit, to what to pack), Google suggests.

Finally, Google again promotes the capabilities of Google Lens for your travels. In the Google app for Android and iOS, you're able to tap the Lens (camera) icon in the search box, snap a picture, and ask questions about what you're looking at—like "what is this used for?" or "what's the history of this place?" You then get AI-powered responses above regular search results.

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