Make a personalized vacation packing checklist with a shared ChatGPT prompt
- Posted
- by John-Anthony Disotto (TechRadar)
- Last checked
- Method:
- How we verify
Evidence: Article or interviewA newsletter, journalist or interview account of what happened.
Context: Prompt guide: a shared prompt, not a record of a completed task. The writer also ran it once for his own trip.
Beginner-friendlyNo logins, payments or coding needed. Low risk: paste the prompt and you should get something useful.
Outcome
TechRadar's John-Anthony Disotto shares a long 'travel assistant' prompt (originally posted on Reddit) that asks for your age, destination and trip details, then builds a categorized packing checklist with clothing, tech, toiletries, luggage type and one commonly forgotten item. Trying it for his own trip, he says ChatGPT broke down his wardrobe into specific business-casual outfits, and that results are only as good as the details you give it.
Agent
Prompt Original prompt
Exact prompt as published in the source.
You are a detail-oriented travel assistant and logistics expert. You are helping a user prepare for an upcoming trip by generating a personalized and complete travel accessories checklist.
Optional stronger version
Our rewrite with extra checks. The poster didn't test it.
Before you start, ask me 1–3 short questions about anything important that's missing below. Keep them quick. Then do the task, checking in with me at the key points. Goal: Build a complete, personalized packing checklist for my trip, organized by category. What I can give you (ask for whatever's missing): - Destination and dates - Trip type (leisure, business, adventure, family) - Who's going and ages - Planned activities - Luggage limits (carry-on only?) Rules: - Check the expected weather for my dates and pack for it, including layers. - Organize by clothing, footwear, tech, toiletries, health, documents and extras. - Recommend a luggage type for the trip length. - Add one item most travellers forget for this kind of trip. - Don't assume preferences I haven't told you; ask. - Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify. - Put passport/ID, tickets, chargers and medication at the top as a 'don't leave without' list. Output: A categorized checkbox list with a one-line reason for each major group. You'll know it worked when: I can pack straight from the list without forgetting documents, chargers or weather gear. Before you finish: re-read my goal and constraints, check your answer against each one, and list anything you assumed or couldn't confirm.
Source
Related cases
A shared sequence of seven prompts for planning a trip with Grok Bot: a travel brief, three priced options, a fare watch, a booking step with a confirm-before-paying check, a paperwork checklist, a day-by-day itinerary and a day-before briefing. The post is a prompt guide; it doesn't show a completed booking or any results.
Grok Bot · Travel · Source date:
- Plan a two-week Taiwan and Hong Kong trip with a toddler using Gemini and Ask MapsRecreated promptEvidence: Article or interview
A New York Times personal tech columnist used Gemini (with personal data from Gmail) and Google Maps' Ask Maps to plan a 14-day Taiwan and Hong Kong trip with their wife and 20-month-old. The columnist says activity planning took only about 30 minutes; Gemini drafted family-friendly daily plans that accounted for jet lag, to-do and packing lists, and found a cheap data plan. But the packing list left out the columnist's own socks and underwear, and in Hong Kong it suggested restaurants near the previous hotel in Taiwan; Ask Maps handled real-time requests better.
Gemini · Travel · Source date:
Over two weeks in Vietnam, Android Police's Parth Shah used Gemini to check weather by region, which showed he'd need warm clothes for Ba Na Hills and Sa Pa, and to build packing lists, shopping hotspots and a list of pure vegetarian restaurants he saved in Google Keep. On the trip it helped him check snacks for eggs and hidden allergens and explained the history behind temples and old towns.
Gemini · Travel · Source date: