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Strange, wrong or outdated things AI assistants say when travelers ask where to go, eat and stay.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 GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet 5, Gemini 3.6 Flash or Perplexity Sonar to one of the travel questions TakeScout asks every month. Answers come from each provider's API model, not their consumer apps. Every oddity was then checked by a human against a source before being published here.
- Gemini declares Ottawa's famous jail hostel closed. It isn't
Gemini: closed permanently 2023; Claude: HI Ottawa Jail Hostel; GPT: Ottawa Jail Hostel (no brand); Perplexity: Saintlo (correct)
- Gemini moves a top Cape Breton trail across the island
Located in Ingonish
- Gemini invents a Grand Forks boutique hotel?
Boutique hotel in downtown Grand Forks
- AI still books you a table at a restaurant that no longer exists
All four AI assistants still recommend Chez Muffy at the Auberge Saint-Antoine. In the October 2 check it appeared in 25 restaurant and food-experience answers; Perplexity picked it first for a romantic dinner and GPT-4o ranked it #2 among the best restaurants for couples.
- 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.
- 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'.
- Gemini turned a Trois-Rivières sugar shack into a snack bar
Listed as a budget casse-croûte for club sandwiches and poutine.