How to use Gemini to plan your next summer vacation - in minutes

Tharon Green/ZDNET

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Welcome to Prompt of the Day, where we show you an AI prompt, sourced from our community of AI experts and professionals, that you can use for work, play, or anything in between.

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Need some help planning a vacation? Today's prompt comes from ZDNET contributor Elyse Betters Picaro, who successfully used Gemini to build what she called a "starter doc" itinerary for her family trip to Disney World.

Prompt:

Create a Disney World itinerary for late August and compile everything into a Google Doc for review. I'd like flight details from Fort Covington, NY, including the closest and cheapest airports. I also want Airbnb suggestions for eight people - please find places near Disney World with a pool. I'd also like to go to the beach and visit Kennedy Space Center.

"Autopilot took over my screen, created a doc in one tab, opened Airbnb in another tab, and so on," Betters Picaro said. "I found a lot of what it returned very useful."

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Betters Picaro tested this with Auto Browse back in February, so I reran the prompt myself to see if the process had changed at all since. Google is always tweaking and refining Gemini, even outside of formal announcements and events like Google I/O.

Creating an itinerary: Attempt 1

I ran Betters Picaro's prompt in Gemini 3.5 in Chrome. Within a few minutes, Gemini created a new Google Doc, opened it in a new tab, and returned the following in our chat:

Here is a quick summary of what I found for your trip:

• Flights: Fort Covington is closest to Massena, but for cheap commercial flights to Orlando (MCO), your best bets are driving to Montréal (YUL) (about 1.5 hours away) or Syracuse (SYR) (about 3.5 hours away). For late August, a round-trip from Syracuse can be as low as ~$230 with United, or you can fly direct from Montréal on Air Canada for around $405.
• Airbnb: I recommend looking for properties in the Kissimmee or Davenport areas (like Windsor Hills or ChampionsGate). These areas are packed with 4+ bedroom villas that easily fit 8 guests, typically have private screened-in pools, and are only 10–20 minutes away from Disney World.
• Kennedy Space Center: It is about a 75-minute drive from the Disney area. For late August, they are open daily from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and general 1-day admission tickets are $77 per adult and $67 per child.
• Cocoa Beach: Since it's located directly next to the Space Center, I've scheduled a day for your group to hit the beach in the itinerary!

Let me know if you would like me to adjust any of these plans or if you need help finding a rental car!

Gemini did not open a tab for Airbnb, perhaps because I'm not logged in to my account on my work laptop. Gemini's summary included links to the suggested accommodations, but the doc it created didn't, which is somewhat inefficient. Otherwise, the information Gemini compiled was accurate, reliable, and useful. The summary also included a flight table imported from Google Flights that was truncated in the doc.

Also: I let Gemini Flows organize my Gmail, and it effectively filtered my inbox (with one sneaky catch)

"Did I do my own searches after? Yes, just to confirm everything and make sure it was thorough, like the flight prices and info," Betters Picaro noted. I double-checked that specifics like the ticket and time info for Kennedy Space Center, for example, were correct.

A few checks

For good measure, I ran the prompt using both Thinking and Flash modes to see if there were any significant differences in response quality. Each mode created fairly similar docs with the same core information, so you shouldn't have any issues running a lighter-weight query.

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I also tried this prompt in ChatGPT, which yielded very comparable results. The only difference is that it can't create a Google Doc without a Google Workspace connector, so you'll have to copy and paste the query response from the chat window.

Creating an itinerary: Attempt 2

Since Betters Picaro's prompt was pretty straightforward, I decided to try a version of the same prompt with more restrictions and specifications:

Create an itinerary for 4-day trip to Paris in late September and compile everything into a Google Doc for review. I already have my flights, so no need to show flight information. I'd like an Airbnb for two people under $600 total. We do not want to visit the Louvre, so please do not include that in the itinerary.

This time, Gemini did not include links to sample Airbnbs. Instead, it suggested neighborhoods that should have options within my budget, but it did offer links to specific listings when I followed up asking for them. The doc Gemini created correctly did not include the Louvre, per my request, and suggested other art museums instead, but it could have been more helpful had it specified which days of the week each museum is open.

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A new factor to watch for: As I was testing, Betters Picaro reran the second prompt in Auto Browse, which didn't show her Airbnb links. She asked it to show them again, but it only showed her one Paris Airbnb that wasn't available in September. She then asked for affordable places to stay in Paris in September, and Auto Browse opened Google Hotels instead of Airbnb -- something it didn't do in her initial experience. When she repeated that she wanted Airbnb options, Auto Browse ultimately returned to the Airbnb tab she'd opened earlier.

Gemini may favor Google's own platforms over others, even if it means explicitly misunderstanding or ignoring parts of your request, which may complicate using this prompt.

Add Auto Browse

While you can run this prompt with run-of-the-mill Gemini and book the flights and Airbnbs it suggests for you on your own, you can also let Gemini handle that for you, if you dare.

Also: I tested ChatGPT Plus vs. Gemini Pro to see which is better - and if it's worth switching

Betters Picaro tried the assistant's agentic Auto Browse feature in the past and also used it with this prompt. If your Google account includes Auto Browse, you can turn it on by going to the three vertical dots in the right-hand corner of your Chrome tab and selecting Settings > AI Innovations > Gemini in Chrome. Scroll down to Auto Browse and toggle the "Let Chrome browse for you" option on.

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