For years, the gold standard for complex trip planning was simple: hire a travel agent. You pay for expertise, organization, and peace of mind. But times have changed. I recently discovered a better and infinitely more personalized way to build the trip of a lifetime using Google’s AI tool: NotebookLM.
By feeding all my relevant notes, articles, and YouTube wish lists, I unlocked a level of personalized itinerary creation and organizational clarity that no human agent could ever match. Read on to see the exact process I used and why this AI notebook is now the only travel planner I trust.
Creating a notebook with travel materials
It supports a range of file types and sources
NotebookLM is designed to consolidate all these formats into a single knowledge base. The beauty of NotebookLM travel planning is that it doesn’t force you to pick a single file type. I can pull in high-level strategy from a travel agent’s PDF, detailed suggestions from a blog post, and my own personal notes all at once.
For an upcoming two-week trip to Vietnam, here is the exact process I followed to create my ‘Vietnam Adventure’ notebook.
The first step is simply opening NotebookLM and creating a new notebook called ‘Vietnam Adventure: Hanoi, Ha Long, Hoi An.’
I didn’t want to buy a tour, but I wanted to study how the experts structured their tours. I searched for ’14-day Vietnam itinerary PDF’ from a couple of popular online travel agents and saved the PDFs to my computer.
I also keep all my quick thoughts and must-do items (local cuisines to try, some offbeat places, and more) in a Markdown file (using Obsidian). I added both these PDFs and the Markdown file to the notebook.
Next, I needed to bring in the outside world — the things I have read and watched that have inspired the trip. I had a couple of blog posts open that detailed things like ‘How to choose a cruise in Ha Long Bay’ and ‘The ultimate food guide to Hanoi.’
I also loved a particular travel blogger who did an amazing ’48 hours in Hoi An’ video. I wanted to use their transcript as a source of information.
Overall, my notebook had two PDF itineraries, one Markdown file, three web URLs, and one YouTube transcript.
Getting insights using NotebookLM
Where NotebookLM shines
Since I loaded all those PDFs, blogs, my wishlist, and the YouTube transcript into my ‘Vietnam Adventure’ notebook, I started asking questions to synthesize data into a usable itinerary.
I can ask the following questions and receive relevant answers in no time.
Please outline a 14-day schedule that hits all my ‘must-dos’ while maintaining a logical flow.
What is the cost of a tourist visa?
What are the opening and closing times for the UNESCO heritage site in Hoi An?
Assuming I want to spend no more than $50 per day on activities (excluding transport and accommodation), extract all the free or low-cost activities mentioned across all my sources and group them by city.
I’m a keen photographer. Which locations mentioned across all my sources — especially those in the YouTube transcript — are described as having the best sunrise or sunset views, and what is the best time of day to visit them?
By asking these detailed questions, I forced NotebookLM to look across every single file, find the connections, and structure the data according to my specific travel needs. At any point, I can select the source and refer to the original material from the sidebar.
Using NotebookLM core features
Take notes, invite others, and more
When NotebookLM provided me with a detailed answer — such as the one detailing the best places to witness sunsets — I didn’t want that answer to disappear in the chat history. The key is to capture it as a permanent note.
Every time the chat generated a section I wanted to keep (like the low-budget activity list), I would click the ‘Save Note’ button or the little pin icon next to the response.
I can even add a manual note using all the relevant formatting options and convert it to source. And once my notebook is ready, I can share it and invite others to have a final look at the plan.
That’s just one part of the story. You can even create a new notebook with all the relevant air tickets, hotel receipts, and adventure tickets, and ask questions about boarding time, luggage restrictions, check-out time, and more.
DIY travel planning
After successfully navigating the complexity of a major trip using NotebookLM, I can confidently say I won’t go back to the old methods. The time it saved me on organization and cross-referencing alone was invaluable.
The beauty of planning with NotebookLM is its simplicity: you provide the raw material of your dream trip, and it provides the structure, the insights, and the clarity. If you value efficiency, cost savings, and most importantly, control over your vacation, this is the system you need to adopt. Don’t just take my word for it — update the messiest folder of your trip ideas into NotebookLM this weekend and watch the magic happen.