I’m Excited To Use AI To Plan My Daughter’s College Tour Across Southern California. My Ex-Husband Thinks Its a Waste of Time. Let’s See Who Is Right.

Planning a trip can be stressful, but when it's across the country to visit six colleges in Southern California in five days, it can be downright daunting.

It's especially tricky when one college is in Beverly Hills, and the other is in San Diego. Add the fact that we want to layer some sightseeing, picturesque sunsets and a hike to the Hollywood sign, and you can see why I was feeling overwhelmed at the sheer thought of it all.

The easy part (kind of) was booking all the college tours. I based the visits on the colleges' availability. (That's one reason why it's a good idea to book your tours early.) Only after this step could I plan an itinerary in a city that I'm not too familiar with.

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Can I make it to both California State University, Dominguez Hills, and California State University, Long Beach in one day? Should San Diego State and UC Irvine be on the same day? What about traffic? Will I get stuck in LA's notorious rush hour and miss a tour completely? Where should we stay to minimize drive time? Is it one, two, or three hotels?

All of those questions were whirling through my head and, not surprisingly, leading to procrastination. "I'd rather not think about it" was my default mode when it came to this college tour trip. But as the days passed by, I knew I couldn't put it off anymore. Instead of doing all the time-consuming research on my own or enlisting a travel agent, I decided to give AI a whirl.

With all the talk about how AI can improve pretty much every aspect of our lives, why couldn't it help plan this trip? My ex-husband wasn't so convinced. But I was on a mission to save time and make this as painless as possible, and I put my fate in the virtual hands of AI, namely ChatGPT.

How I used AI to plan our trip

Admittedly, I'm not an expert when it comes to using ChatGPT or any other AI tool. Sure, I've asked it to help me fix a bad hair dye job or to figure out the best place to park at a nearby mall, but for traversing Southern California? This was new territory for me. Who knew it would be so easy?

The first question I had for ChatGPT was where we should stay to be central to everything and reduce driving time. I was open to staying in up to three hotels if it meant we could avoid hours in traffic.

Writing an AI prompt:

I knew that asking a question of AI is a bit different than asking one in a search engine like Google. Instead, I wrote a "prompt" that provided as much detail as possible in plain language, treating ChatGPT like a travel agent. (You can even tell ChatGPT, "Be my personal travel agent.") I entered the colleges we planned to visit in order, along with the times of each tour and asked ChatGPT to find a central location for us to stay.

Remember that you can edit your prompt for clarity. You should always check an AI's work, and you can ask an AI agent like ChatGPT to tell you if it needs more information.

Here's the itinerary I gave ChatGPT:

Day 1: Arrive at Los Angeles Airport at 10:30 a.m.

Visit California State University Dominguez Hills, 1:00 p.m.

Day 2: Visit California State University, Fullerton, 10:00 a.m.

Visit California State University, Long Beach, 3:30 p.m.

Day 3: Visit UC Irvine, 2:00 p.m.

Day 4: Visit San Diego State University, 1:30 p.m.

Day 5: Hike to Hollywood Sign 8:30 a.m.

Visit California State University Northridge–self-guided tour 1:00 p.m.

Fly home from LAX 9:30 p.m. (Be at the airport around 6:00 or 7:00 p.m., depending on airport traffic.)

A map of a recommended itinerary for a Southern California college tour. Generated by ChatGPT 3/23/26.

The results

ChatGPT said Long Beach would be the perfect central location for our whirlwind of a visit, to make it even less driving, suggested we stay in Long Beach for the first two nights, then head over to either Irvine, Costa Mesa or Newport Beach for the third night, and finish our stay in Beverly Hills for the remaining two nights. According to ChatGPT, doing that:

-Minimizes hotel changes
-Is the smoothest driving schedule
-Gives us a relaxing Saturday in LA
-Only includes one long drive from San Diego back to LA, which it said can be scenic.

Scenic?!? My daughter, like most teenagers, is all about the Instagram pics, and I thought it would be a great idea to drive back up to LA along the Pacific Coast. So I asked ChatGPT if that is doable after visiting San Diego State, given our tour ends at 3:30, which I assume, if it's anything like New York, is when LA traffic starts.

To my surprise and delight, ChatGPT not only gave me an estimate of how long that would take — 3.5 to 4.5 hours, depending on stops — but an exact place to see the sunset: Laguna Beach.

We would have to leave right after the tour, but that would give us a nice scenic drive and plenty of places for my daughter to get her social media-ready pictures. If we didn't feel like driving up the coast, ChatGPT gave us a faster option on the freeway that cut about an hour off the drive time.

Not only did ChatGPT lay out the best way to visit all these colleges, but it also broke it down into driving details, including the time it will take between each college, recommended hotel stays (I found my own), and the scenic drive option.

While I didn't rely on AI to help me select my hotels in each location or to find a hiking tour to the Hollywood sign, it was able to do in seconds what would have taken me hours and likely a lot of hand-wringing and hair-pulling to figure out.

The verdict: AI to the rescue

My college tour trip is still a few weeks away, but I am happy to say that I was right (and my ex-husband was wrong)!

AI can be a great planning tool, and while I didn't use it to choose hotels based on my preferences or decide when we want to stop, it proved to be a super helpful, time-saving tool that I plan to use again.

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Donna Fuscaldo is the retirement writer at Kiplinger.com. A writer and editor focused on retirement savings, planning, travel and lifestyle, Donna brings over two decades of experience working with publications including AARP, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Investopedia and HerMoney.