Trip Planning AI: How We Used ChatGPT to Design Our 10-Day Oman Itinerary

ChatGPT transformed our vague Northern Oman road trip dreams into a neat 10-day plan and here's how you can reuse our trip planning AI prompts for an adventure anywhere.

On top of Nizwa Fort in Oman.

Plot twist: the most helpful travel buddy for our upcoming Oman adventure isn’t a seasoned guide or a chatty hotel concierge—it’s ChatGPT. While you still need to double-check everything, honestly, its saved us from drowning in browser tabs and second-guessing when the Nizwa Friday goat market starts.

Here are five trip planning AI prompts we used that you can copy for your own adventure:

Prompt 1 | Gather inspiration

We started with a spark of curiosity and a vague outline: ten days in Northern Oman, starting and ending in Muscat in mid-October. But instead of blindly Googling “things to do in Oman” and drowning in listicles, we threw this into ChatGPT:

We're planning a 10-day road trip around Northern Oman starting and ending in Muscat in mid-Oct. Inspire us with a list top sights and the hidden gems by city/area.

What came back was a goldmine—everything from the obvious icons like Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque and Wadi Shab to tucked-away gems we hadn’t stumbled across in our research, like the crumbling village of Misfat Al Abriyeen. Suddenly, our hazy “Oman sounds cool” idea turned into a clear menu of experiences, ready to be shaped into an itinerary.

Prompt 2 | From wish list to WOW List

By the time we got done with prompt 1, we had a messy wish list: forts, wadis, souks, beaches, and the promise of a camel ride across a dune at sunset. Classic “eyes bigger than our stomach” problem. Instead of spending days arranging it all, we followed-up with this prompt:

Here’s a list of places we want to see on a 10-day Northern Oman road trip: Muscat, Wadi Shab, Wahiba Sands, Nizwa Fort, desert forts like Bahla Fort, Birkat Al Mouz ruins, and Jebel Akhdar. Please create an itinerary that orders them in the most efficient route, taking into account driving times, typical opening hours, how long we should spend at each sight and luxury hotels we should stay at. Make it clear how many nights we should spend at each hotel. We don't want more than 4 legs to the trip. Assume the trip starts on a Friday morning in Muscat and ends at 11AM at Muscat airport on the last day.

In seconds, we had a route that actually made geographical sense—a brilliant starting point. Did we just copy-paste ChatGPT’s version and call it a day? Of course not. It wasn’t perfectly tailored to us, but it did turbocharge the process—far better than staring at a blank spreadsheet with 47 tabs open knowing it would take hours to translate this wish list into a structured itinerary.

Prompt 3 | Avoiding the ‘Closed on Fridays’ Trap

Don’t assume closure days are the same everywhere—Fridays in Oman aren’t Sundays in Europe. Instead, try a prompt like this:

Check opening times for Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque and design our 4 days in Muscat to include all the major sights, some beach time, a snorkelling trip to the Daymaniyat Islands, plus a day trip to Wadi Shab and nearby spots—making sure everything works around opening hours.

Now that ChatGPT can reference sources, we felt pretty confident we wouldn’t be those travellers sulking outside a locked mosque at 9AM on a Friday. Did we take AI’s word as gospel? Of course not—we always double-check.

That said, ChatGPT won’t automatically volunteer everything you need to know—it only answers the questions you actually ask. For instance, the mosque runs free 20–30 minute English tours for non-Muslims between 8–11AM with no need to pre-book, but ChatGPT didn’t volunteer that helpful tidbit. Nor did it remind us of the strict dress code. Unless you ask very specific questions, you risk missing these little nuances—so try follow-up prompts like:

What am I not asking you (that I should) about visiting Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque?

Prompt 4 | Eating Our Way Around Oman

No road trip is complete without food stops, and this is where ChatGPT doubled as our foodie scout. Example prompt:

What's the most beautiful place to have coffee or afternoon tea in Muscat?

And this is how we stumbled upon The Atrium Tea Lounge in the Ritz Carlton, although we're sure it's also plastered all over Instagram.

Prompt 5 | When the itinerary gets overloaded

Every traveller hits that point where the wish list starts looking like a marathon. Instead of arguing over what to cut, we asked:

Prioritise the top five must-see sights in Mutrah and create an efficient itinerary based on opening times and average visiting times.

Bottom line

AI isn’t replacing our sense of adventure—it’s making sure we spend less time Googling and more time chasing wadis, forts, and sunsets. From structuring our 10-day loop to finding beautiful eateries along the way, ChatGPT has basically become our free travel assistant.

If you’re heading to Oman too and don’t fancy repeating our ChatGPT deep-dive, subscribe via the footer below—we’ll send you our tried-and-tested 10-day Oman itinerary as soon as it drops. Otherwise, happy prompting!