---
name: "travel_trip_planning"
description: "Plan a complete trip end to end: traveler intake, destination filtering, live verification of every key fact, and a six-dimension roadbook (eat, play, stay, go, pack, budget). Use when someone asks for help planning a trip, building an itinerary, or checking whether a travel plan holds together."
metadata: { "includeInPrompt": true }
---

# Travel Trip Planning

## Purpose
Turn a loose travel idea into a verified, bookable plan. The failure mode this skill exists to prevent is the confident-but-wrong itinerary: closed attractions, stale prices, missed connections. Verification is the product, not a bonus step.

## Workflow

### 1. Intake
Before researching anything, extract the trip profile. If details are missing, ask for the hard constraints first and default the rest.

- Hard constraints: travel dates (fixed or flexible), budget ceiling, who is traveling (adults, children, mobility or health needs), travel documents already held.
- Soft preferences: trip type (relax, culture, food, adventure), lodging style, pace (max 2-3 major activities per day), cuisine and dietary needs, priorities worth spending more on.
- Split constraints from preferences explicitly in your notes. Hard constraints filter destinations; preferences only rank them.

### 2. Destination filtering
Score candidate destinations on six axes, then keep at most three for deep research:

1. Season fit: weather for the travel dates, best/worst months.
2. Cost level vs the budget ceiling.
3. Interest match: does the place deliver the stated trip type.
4. Travel-time ratio: hours in transit vs hours on the ground.
5. Advisory status: current government travel guidance for the destination.
6. Visa friction: entry requirements for the traveler's citizenship, found in an official government or embassy source.

Present the top pick with a one-line case and one honest drawback each for the finalists. Let the traveler choose before you build the roadbook.

### 3. Verification pass
Every key fact goes through the verification checklist in `references/verification-checklist.md` before it enters the roadbook. The rule: official sources govern. The attraction's own site decides opening hours, ticket prices, and closures. The carrier decides flight and train schedules. The government decides entry requirements. Reviews and third-party listings are context, never authority.

Rules that hold in every plan:
- Re-verify after any booking and within two weeks of departure. Schedules and rules change.
- Never invent numbers. If a price, hour, or date cannot be verified, mark it UNVERIFIED and say how to check it.
- Note the source and date of every verified fact (site name + date checked).

### 4. Build the six-dimension roadbook
Fill the template in `assets/roadbook-template.md`:

- EAT: where to eat, what is local and in season, which spots need reservations, how dietary constraints are covered.
- PLAY: what to see and do, grouped by neighborhood, each with verified hours and ticket status, plus one rainy-day backup per day.
- STAY: where to stay and why (area, transit access), cancellation terms, check-in time, fees the listing hides.
- GO: arrival plan (airport to lodging, exact route), daily transit (passes, ride apps, rental rules), every connection verified against the operator.
- PACK: weather-based clothing, activity gear, documents kit (passport validity, visa, insurance copies), adapters, medications.
- BUDGET: line items per category, insurance as a line item, an emergency buffer, per-day running total, and the payment method that works at the destination.

Structure days, not hours. Max 2-3 major activities per day, one fully open half-day per three travel days.

## Output Contract
- The deliverable is a roadbook document covering all six dimensions for the chosen destination.
- Every key fact carries a source and a checked date, or an UNVERIFIED tag with a checking instruction.
- Ends with a booking sequence: the order to book things in (flights, then accommodation same day, then activities needing advance tickets, then insurance at the first non-refundable payment).
- States what remains uncertain: things the traveler must confirm themselves.

## Operating Rules
1. Verify first, then write. A fact that cannot be verified does not go in silently.
2. Official sources over aggregators, every time.
3. No em dashes, no filler prose. Short sentences, real specifics.
4. Never recommend a place you have not at least verified is open and reachable for the travel dates.
5. Flag risk honestly: malaria-risk areas, altitude, entry-document deadlines, seasonal closures.