I let Gemini plan my weekend, and it did a better job than Google Maps

For the first time in years, I went away for the February long weekend. In Canada, we celebrated Valentine’s Day and Family Day.

Here’s the pinch: None of my friends have partners or kids, so this was the perfect weekend to plan a group getaway.

Another pinch: My daughter is a big Mommy’s Girl. As independent as she thinks she is, she gets a little antsy when I’m not immediately available for a cuddle or a chat.

I wanted to plan a special, foolproof, fun-filled weekend for my partner and daughter, to hopefully take the edge off of my absence. The idea is that if we kept her engaged enough, she’d barely notice I was gone!

The week leading up to a trip is always hectic between packing and wrapping up all my work tasks ahead of time. I didn’t have time to do all the research required to plan a whole weekend.

To make things easier, I did something I don’t normally do: I consulted Gemini, and I’m glad I did.

I gave Gemini almost nothing to work with

And it made the best of a poor prompt

I ran this experiment in the roughly 30 seconds I had in between taking my daughter to daycare and starting work.

I was impressed with the results I got from simply prompting Gemini 3 Fast with, “Help me plan my weekend.”

Gemini started with some helpful clarifying questions along the lines of “what’s the vibe,” and even offered some suggestions like “Deep Reset,” “Main Character,” and “Action & Energy.”

They all sounded absolutely lovely, featuring adorable coffee shops, waterfall tours, and decadent dinner suggestions.

This was a shockingly solid answer to a pretty vague, less-than-helpful prompt.

However, I needed something more toddler and budget friendly. So I narrowed my search.

The second search would have been perfect except for one thing

I’m not rich, Gemini

Next, I gave Gemini some important parameters around my weekend. “Help me plan a fun weekend with my 3-year-old,” predictably yielded much better results.

As cool as my child is, I can’t say she would enjoy a “Main Character” weekend all about curated aesthetics.

Gemini came up with a detailed plan for Saturday and Sunday, including morning and afternoon activities, nearby food suggestions, and logistical factors like parking at each location. Not bad at all!

The Sunday activities were a little on the pricier side. The Royal Botanical Garden and Flying Squirrel Trampoline Park together would have cost $55, which is completely ludicrous for our family. We try to keep our weekends low-spend or no-spend if possible.

Hamilton is full of inexpensive and free family activities, especially on Family Day Weekend. After I specified that I prefer budget-friendly options, Gemini really stepped up its game.

I had no idea about Winterfest, which is a two-week-long celebration featuring free and affordable concerts, crafts, dancing, theater, and fashion across the city.

Google Maps, in spite of its extensive discovery features and trending “near me” suggestions, didn’t seem to know about Winterfest either.

Even searching for “Things to do in Hamilton this weekend” on Google Maps didn’t quite yield the results I was looking for. Lots of restaurants and shopping, but nothing that really fit the “fun and free” vibe I was looking for.

I encountered a confusing hiccup

Gemini very nearly led me astray

Something odd happened while Gemini was helping me plan my weekend. It suggested the Tropical Greenhouse as a spot to get lunch. However, the Greenhouse doesn’t sell food.

When I brought this up, Gemini missed the point a little bit. “You’re absolutely right! You wouldn’t want to deal with a hangry toddler, here are some food options to tweak your plan!”

Gemini was absolutely correct that I wouldn’t want to deal with a hangry toddler because I value my life too greatly, but that didn’t explain why the Greenhouse was listed as a food option, so I pushed back, asking, “But why did you mark the Greenhouse as a food place?”

This is the mistake I flagged, and Gemini’s explanation.

Okay, so it was a miscommunication, fine. But if we hadn’t known already that the Greenhouse doesn’t sell food, my partner would have shown up with the aforementioned hangry toddler looking for lunch, which is a recipe for disaster.

The disclaimer is clear: Gemini is AI and can make mistakes. This felt like a big one though, with potentially catastrophic consequences. If you’ve ever met a hangry toddler, you know that I’m not even exaggerating.

I didn’t think this simple prompt would stump Gemini

Especially not after everything we’d been through so far

As I wrapped up my weekend planning, I asked Gemini to switch out one activity because the parking was going to be a nightmare.

I prompted, “I don’t really want to go to this library, can you swap that out with a different activity?” Gemini froze, just thinking and thinking, and never actually completed the request.

I had full confidence that this would be a simple ask, but even rephrasing didn’t help. It responded to other prompts, but anytime I circled back to swap out one activity with another, it seemed to get stuck.

Thankfully, I already had a comprehensive list of other options to choose from, and that wasn’t hard to just do myself.

This is my favorite part of planning with Gemini

You’re gonna call me a nerd, and that’s okay with me

The best part of this process was at the end when Gemini kindly packaged my weekend plan into a sweet little chart, with the option to export it to Google Sheets.

I love a good spreadsheet. Creating spreadsheets is an easy way to feel like at least one aspect of my life is organized and makes sense.

Even better if I don’t actually have to make them. Hand me a completed spreadsheet like Gemini did, and I’m a happy camper.

I exported the itinerary over to Sheets and shared it with my partner in a matter of seconds.

I was able to enjoy my getaway stress-free

I left my partner an excellent plan for the weekend, just in case. He didn’t end up doing everything on the schedule, but for my own peace of mind, it definitely helped to know he had it.

This whole process took probably five minutes total. So if you find yourself completely uninspired and out of ideas, or pressed for time, Gemini may be a good solution to get a plan together quickly.