Want a Custom Motorhome Itinerary, Built Just for You? Ask AI

Thinking of taking a motorhome tour but aren’t sure where to go, what to see, what to do or where to eat out? Why not ask Artificial Intelligence (AI) for help? Seriously, this is now possible and I’ve been having a play to see what the results look like.

Here’s an Example Motorhome Itinerary Suggested by AI

Just how powerful is this AI stuff? More powerful than I could have imagined, that’s for sure. At the moment we’re all used to doing a search and a list of websites coming back, which we then trawl through to find the one we want.

AI doesn’t do that. It takes your question, goes off and searches all the websites it thinks it needs, collates the results and writes a response, like a human assistant might do. Only much, much faster and without complaining when you keep changing what you’re asking!

Here’s an example question I asked of the ChatGPT AI-powered tool:

Me (human): “Suggest a seven day motorhome itinerary of Pembrokeshire. Suggest campsites at each stop and show their address and phone number. Show the distance between each campsite. Suggest things to see and do at each location, and suggest budget places to eat.”

And here’s what the ChatGPT tool came back with (I’ve truncated it so it doesn’t take up half the page):

AI (computer): “Day 1: Arrival and Set up Start your Pembrokeshire adventure by picking up your motorhome at the hire depot in the nearby town of Haverfordwest. Once you have your vehicle, drive to your first campsite, Broad Haven Caravan and Camping Park, in the seaside village of Broad Haven. The site is located just a short walk from the beach, where you can enjoy a swim or a walk along the sand.

Campsite: Broad Haven Caravan and Camping Park, Broad Haven, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, SA62 3JH. Phone: 01437 781 776.

Distance travelled: Approximately 20 miles from Haverfordwest.

Budget eatery: The Ocean Cafe in Broad Haven serves up delicious food at reasonable prices.

Day 2: St Davids and Porthgain Start the day by driving to the charming city of St Davids, the smallest city in the UK, with a population of just 1,600 people. Visit the impressive St Davids Cathedral, which dates back to the 12th century. After exploring the city, head to the picturesque fishing village of Porthgain, where you can enjoy a seafood lunch at The Sloop Inn or The Shed Fish and Chips.

Campsite: St. Davids Camping and Caravanning Club Site, Caerfai Bay, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, SA62 6QT. Phone: 01437 720 473.

Distance travelled: Approximately 13 miles from Broad Haven.

Budget eatery: Try The Farmers Arms in St Davids for hearty pub grub.

…”

Impressed? I know I am. The AI engine remembers the ‘conversation’ you’re having too, so I tried this next:

Me (human): “Can you give me the same itinerary, but with the GPS co-ordinates of each campsite?”

AI (computer): “Day 1: Arrival and Set up
Campsite: Broad Haven Caravan and Camping Park
Coordinates: 51.8029° N, 5.0905° W
Address: Broad Haven, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, SA62 3JH
Phone: 01437 781 776″

Again impressive, but I checked, and the GPS co-ordinates are well out. The power is clearly there, but the results aren’t (yet) to be 100% believed. Next, I told it the co-ordinates were incorrect:

Me (human): “I’ve checked the GPS co-ordinates of the first campsite and they aren’t correct”

AI (computer): “I apologize for the mistake. Here are the correct GPS coordinates for the first campsite:

Campsite: Broad Haven Caravan and Camping Park
Coordinates: 51.7966° N, 5.1186° W”

Hmmm, different co-ordinates, only they’re in the middle of the sea! Plus I checked again, and the first campsite doesn’t appear to accept touring motorhomes, so I had to ask the AI engine to redo the itinerary but this time only including sites which accept touring motorhomes:

Me (human): “The first campsite doesn’t accept motorhomes. Can you refresh the itinerary and only include campsites which accept touring motorhomes”

AI (computer): “I apologize for the inconvenience caused by the error. Here is a revised seven-day motorhome itinerary for Pembrokeshire that only includes campsites that accept touring motorhomes:

Day 1: Arrive in Pembrokeshire

Campsite: Fishguard Bay Resort
Coordinates: 52.001755, -4.982191
Address: Dinas Cross, Newport, Pembrokeshire, SA42 0XN
Phone: 01348 811415
Distance from previous location: N/A”

The GPS co-ordinates are still wrong (they’re in the sea), but this site does at least accept touring motorhomes. If I were doing the query again from the start, I wouldn’t bother asking for GPS co-ordinates, but would tell it I only wanted sites which had touring pitches.

How Good is AI as of Spring 2023?

I’m no expert, I’ve only had a few weeks of playing about with it. My feeling is it’s amazingly powerful though, doing very complex queries very quickly. Itineraries are just one of many things the tools can do, but they’re a good way of demonstrating how AI goes away and draws together information from lots of different sources.

I was constantly surprised at just how far I could push the tool, asking it to get more and more information for me. I could go further, asking only for seafood places to eat, campsites with a sea view, sites which accept dogs or have swimming pools, ask for interesting facts about each place we’re visiting, tell it I want to snorkel and so on and so on. Crazy!

It’s just a shame the answers aren’t quite accurate yet, but given time I’m 100% sure these tools are the future of search.

How Do You Do AI Queries?

At the moment there are a few free websites/apps you can use:

• ChatGPT – head here chat.openai.com and create a log in, then you can start entering queries. The screenshot below shows the ChatGPT chat I’ve copied into the top of this blog post.
• Microsoft Bing – bing.com – you have to log into Bing and request access to the ‘new Bing’. Some days later I was sent an email saying I had access, then I could use the ‘Chat’ feature of the search engine, which is powered by AI. This works a bit differently to ChatGPT, as it answers your question, then asks follow-up questions to refine the results (see the screenshot further down the page).
• Some websites, like Roam Around (www.roamaround.io) use AI without it being obvious. This particular site suggests city tour itineraries.

Google is also releasing an AI tool called Bard. At the moment it’s only available to a few testers, but I guess it’ll come available to everyone later in 2023. Here’s a screenshot from my phone, where I asked Bing to suggest motorhome satnavs with large screens, and to get me the price from Amazon:

Would You Use AI?

What do you think of all this AI stuff? Is it far too weird for you? Have you given it a go yet? Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Cheers, Jay