Feeling Adventurous? Let This Travel AI Tell You Where to Go Based on Your Budget

(SPOT.ph) Revenge travel is real—and we're well into it. Filipinos are itching to go places but many are left clueless as to where to start. Planning an itinerary for hours on end can be such a chore, especially for non-savvy travelers. So if you're brainstorming on a budget, check out the Travel Budol online platform.

Travel Budol won’t ask you to pay or to log into an account. You’ll only have to input where you are from and where you want to go in the Philippines. The most important part is inputting the amount you’re willing to spend for the trip.

Behind Travel Budol is web developer Timothy Ouano, a travel enthusiast himself. He created Travel Budol in a day as part of his tech company's challenge to launch 30 AI applications in one month.

In a few seconds, Travel Budol will come up with a list of transportation, accommodations, and activities that you can choose from within your budget.  You can also share this itinerary with friends with a click of a button.

For example, Travel Budol gave the following itinerary for a Quezon City to Siargao trip with a P10,000 budget:

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If you’re feeling spontaneous, you can also check out the “I’m feeling lucky” tab, which will save indecisive thinkers time.

“When I came up with the idea of Travel Budol, I took inspiration from Google's ‘I'm feeling lucky’ button,” Ouano told SPOT.ph. “I liked how spontaneous and fun that is so in the same way, the ‘I'm feeling lucky’ feature in Travel Budol generates a random travel destination and itinerary based on your current location and budget.”

Based on experience, the “I’m feeling lucky” button is usually biased towards popular tourist locations like Boracay and Palawan. Check out this Cebu to La Union itinerary created with “I’m feeling lucky” on a budget of P7,000:

“This feature is still based on budget so it serves our main users, the budget-wise travelers,” Ouano told SPOT.ph.

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Using travel AI as a launchpad

Last month, My Philippines Travel Level Map blew up for allowing users to keep track of how many provinces they've been to in the country. It was only a matter of time before artificial intelligence was integrated into travel plans—and Ouano's tool happens to be one of the local firsts to offer something practical. 

"It's a much more efficient way to plan your adventures around your personal preferences and budget constraints," Ouano told SPOT.ph. Travel Budol isn't like other online travel guides in that it “focuses on quickly generated, personalized, budget-friendly options for your trips."

It’s important to note that Travel Budol sources its information from ChatGPT technology, which can only provide data until 2021 so it's not as accurate as real-time data that can be searched on Google.

“This is why we recommend users to double-check the information and confirm the details before making any bookings or decisions,” Ouano said.

So, how can travelers make the most out of this helpful, but sometimes unreliable, AI-powered platform? Use it as a starting point to create better itineraries, Ouano said. That way, travelers won't have to deal with the stress that often comes with starting from scratch.

“Right now, the best approach for utilizing this tool is to use it as a launchpad for your travel plans,” Ouano said. “Generate an initial travel plan with Travel Budol, then you can start hashing out your itinerary from there. You can visit the suggested sites and verify the pricing for your desired dates since the app provides only a general estimate of costs.”

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