What The Tech App of the Day: Lonely Plant
BY JAMEY TUCKER, Consumer Tech Reporter
For more than 50 years, Lonely Planet has been one of the best-known names in travel
guidebooks. Now, the company has brought much of that experience to your phone with a new
app that uses artificial intelligence to help plan a trip.
The Lonely Planet app lets travelers search for destinations they’re visiting or considering and
browse recommendations for restaurants, hotels, attractions, and things to do.
There are also curated lists and guides built around popular places and experiences, along with
interactive maps that can help travelers locate attractions and get walking or driving directions.
One of the biggest differences between the app and Lonely Planet’s traditional guidebooks is its
built-in AI guide.
You can ask it a very specific travel question. For example: “I have an afternoon in Belfast near the Titanic Museum. I’m looking for a few pubs nearby, but I don’t want to do a lot of walking.”
The AI then builds recommendations around that request.
That may sound similar to what you can already do with ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI
assistants. Lonely Planet’s pitch is that its AI draws on the company’s own travel content and
decades of experience producing destination guides.
The app also includes travel articles on topics such as the best places to visit in 2027 and where
to go in the Caribbean, along with photos, short videos, and other travel stories.
Recent updates have added even more video and editorial content, making the app feel like a
combination of a traditional travel guide, trip-planning tool, and AI assistant.
Lonely Planet is free to use on iPhone, Android, and the web. The company also offers paid
subscription options that include additional travel content, including digital and printed
guidebooks.
For travelers who remember carrying a Lonely Planet book through airports and unfamiliar
cities, this is essentially the modern version of the same idea, only now the guide can answer
questions.
I’m Jamey Tucker, and Lonely Planet is the App of the Day.
