Grok: Travel

Draft a 13-day cross-country motorcycle route with Grok and ChatGPT, then catch a badly wrong route map

Planning a 13-day cross-country motorcycle ride for a year ahead, the poster asked Grok and ChatGPT for an initial route and itinerary. Grok's itinerary was 'a little wonky'; ChatGPT's schedule and route looked great. But when asked to draw a map of the route it had described, ChatGPT produced one that the poster says gets worse the more you look at it, making them question whether the itinerary itself was accurate.

Find the best Starbucks detour on a family drive with Grok in a Tesla

About 90 minutes from their destination, with the family wanting hot chocolate and coffee, Shiva Arunachalam asked the Grok integration in their Model Y to find the best Starbucks on the way, with the shortest detour, the right direction of travel and timing so drinks would be ready, and to adjust the route. Arunachalam says it picked the right store and re-routed cleanly; they placed the mobile order by hand in the Starbucks app, and the drinks were ready on arrival.

Plan a parent-and-daughter road trip from the Bay Area to Texas, with a halfway stop and hotels, using Grok

A parent asked Grok on an iPhone to plan a road trip with their daughter from the Bay Area to Tesla Giga Texas, with a stop halfway and hotel recommendations; then booked the hotels and added them to the calendar. On the road they asked Grok for food and rest stops when needed. The poster says LA traffic added 7 hours to one day, and they missed the factory tour because tickets sold out.

Plan a Hong Kong trip with Gemini, Grok and ChatGPT (some addresses were made up)

A traveller planned a Hong Kong trip mainly with Gemini, using Grok and ChatGPT as extras, to organise locations, build itineraries, make packing lists and turn store addresses into Google Maps links. The traveller says routes were logical and personalised, but the AIs sometimes produced convincing addresses that didn't exist, and got names, opening hours or whether shops were still open wrong. Next time they'd verify every important detail on maps and official sites.

Get back to the US without a passport book after being denied boarding, with Grok's plan

Denied a flight back to the US because they only had a passport card, not the book, a traveller asked Grok what to do. The traveller says it suggested taking an Uber to the border, linked them with a private car from the border to the airport, said which security checkpoint to use and calculated the travel time; they missed the first flight but caught the layover after a 4-hour drive.

Win an airline's reimbursement appeal for a cancellation hotel and meals with Grok's step-by-step help

After a crew time-out cancelled their Miami flight, Chris Bernasconi was told by a gate agent that passengers were entitled to a hotel, transport and a meal, and saved every receipt and the airline's email. Delta declined the reimbursement claim. Bernasconi asked Grok, which spelled out what to do, how to frame the appeal and what to upload, and offered further steps if it failed. Within an hour of appealing, Delta said payment was on the way.

Let a teenager run a California road trip itinerary with Grok and update it daily from family feedback

On a week-long drive north from Los Angeles on Highway 101, David Stevenson handed the itinerary to their daughter, who produced one with Grok within minutes and ran it through CarPlay. As the family spent longer at places they liked, the daughter kept Grok updated and it revised the plan, adapting each day to their feedback. They visited places and restaurants they'd never have found themselves, all of which were great, with manageable driving between stops.

Handle parking, road tolls and EV charging questions on a European road trip with ChatGPT and Grok

On a family road trip through Germany, Austria, Italy, Croatia and Slovenia, a poster used ChatGPT and Grok as an on-the-go assistant: planning village visits, walks and beaches, finding fairly-priced safe parking, choosing local beers and wines, and answering first-time EV road-trip questions such as where to buy national vignettes online, road taxes and trip-time estimates.

Turn booked appointments into a realistic Washington DC itinerary with restaurants using Grok

Ahead of a trip to DC, a poster gave Grok the appointments already set, the hotel locations and the remaining sights the group wanted to see. The poster says it produced an itinerary and, when prompted again, restaurants near the must-do stops to save searching once there, and called the result incredible.

Plan a month-long family road trip with kosher meals using ChatGPT and Grok

Planning a month-long road trip for a family of seven, a poster used ChatGPT and Grok to map routes between national parks without backtracking, break long drives into kid-friendly segments, find lodging that fits, research kosher food and the kitchen kit needed for Shabbos, and create packing lists. They note it didn't understand kosher certification symbols and that it's not perfect.

Get an Expedia cancellation refund with Grok's help reaching the right agent

Stuck in Expedia's cancellation process and not getting the refund they believed they were owed, a poster asked Grok for help and found the Expedia phone number. They say the Expedia agent then helped them get a refund.

Get restaurant and transport tips on a Hong Kong family trip with Grok

On a 6-day family trip to Hong Kong and Macau, the PickEnough author checked AI travel advice against reality. ChatGPT and Claude were blocked by regional restrictions; of the tools that worked (Grok, Gemini and Perplexity), the author rated Grok the most accurate overall (7.2/10), with correct real-time navigation and local restaurant picks. Asked what was good to eat within 5 minutes while walking the Mid-Levels, Grok suggested a nearby egg-tart shop the author rated 4/5. Across the tools, transport predictions were within 10%, but restaurant cost estimates assumed 2 people even though the group was 4.

Plan a family road trip with playground stops and a dog-friendly hotel with Grok

Jeff Binek, a gym owner in Dublin, Ohio, asked Grok to plan a two-day drive from Columbus to Hilton Head via Charlotte with three kids under four and a dog, stopping every 2.5 hours at safe playgrounds near gas stations. They say it gave precise timing and distances, gas prices, three park options per stop and a dog-friendly hotel, and the family reversed the same plan on the way home.

Compare 7-day Bali itineraries from ChatGPT and Grok

An X user asked both Grok and ChatGPT for a 7-day solo travel itinerary to Bali and says ChatGPT did a better job, with tables and accurate breakdowns of the expenses the poster expected.

Plan a travel itinerary with map-ready stops, food and restroom finds with Grok

An X user recommends Grok for planning travel itineraries, saying it can create a timeline, give written driving locations to plug into any map app, offer restaurant suggestions and find public toilet locations, and that it created an itinerary the poster calls amazing when asked what to do.

Plan a 3-day Tokyo tech trip with a budget in USD and yen with Grok

In Tom's Guide's ChatGPT-vs-Grok test, Ryan Morrison asked both for a 3-day Tokyo technology trip with hotels, transport, a robot restaurant and a budget in USD and yen; they judged Grok's itinerary more focused, realistic and detailed, with a fuller budget breakdown.