AI Travel Oddities
Strange, wrong or outdated things AI assistants say when travelers ask where to go, eat and stay.
Each oddity below was observed in a real answer from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity to one of the travel questions TakeScout asks every month. Every one was then checked by a human against a source before being published here.
- Two AIs still send families to a zoo that closed in 2012
Recommended as a family attraction in 7 answers across 4 questions.
- Gemini can't agree with itself on who Thompson is named after
Gemini says Thompson is named after explorer David Thompson; in another answer it says both David Thompson and John F. Thompson.
- Ask Claude where to eat in Thompson and you get no names
Claude names zero restaurants in 4 Thompson food answers.
- Gemini keeps moving Thompson's giant wolf mural
Across different answers, Gemini places the mural on a grain silo, on a water tower near the Vale Inco greenhouse, and on a 10-story 'Vale high-rise', calling it 'The Batoche Mural'.
- AI still calls it Dover Downs, five years after the rebrand
Recommended under its old name for rainy days and family stays.
- The Green Room keeps coming back in AI answers
Presented as Hotel du Pont's current fine-dining restaurant in luxury-hotel answers.
- GPT-4o's top Massachusetts romantic hotel is in Vermont
Listed first among Massachusetts' most romantic hotels, placed in the Berkshires.
- Claude still thinks the Original Pantry never closes
Described as open 24/7.
- Gemini turned a Trois-Rivières sugar shack into a snack bar
Listed as a budget casse-croûte for club sandwiches and poutine.