I had three days in Istanbul and an impossible wish list: the Blue Mosque, the Topkapi Palace, the Grand Bazaar, Kadıköy on the Asian side, a cruise on the Bosphorus, and at least a couple of hours in Beyoğlu. Anyone who knows the city knows that it is geographically ruthless: traffic can turn a 4 km journey into 45 minutes, and the ferry from Eminönü to Kadıköy departs every 20 minutes but you have to know that. I needed something smarter than an Excel sheet.
I started testing Secret World AI Trip Planner six months ago, just in time for this trip to Istanbul. What follows is an honest review, based on daily use of the tool, with concrete examples of what I asked for and what I received. Not a 20-minute test: six months, three destinations, a city among the most complex in the world.
What I asked the AI and how it really responded
My first request was straightforward: “Organize three days in Istanbul starting from the Sultanahmet district, with a medium budget and interest in history and local cuisine”. In less than 30 seconds, Secret World provided an itinerary that grouped visits by geographical area, not by category. Day one entirely in Sultanahmet: Hagia Sophia (free entry with online reservation, recommended to arrive at 9:00 to avoid queues), Blue Mosque (free, closed to tourists during prayers), Topkapi Palace (ticket about 30 euros, harem excluded, plan for 3 hours). The AI also pointed out that the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, 400 meters from Topkapi, is often overlooked by tourists but is worth at least 90 minutes.
The second day included crossing the Bosphorus to Kadıköy by public ferry from Eminönü (about 1 euro with Istanbulkart), a walk through the Kadıköy market, lunch with köfte at Meşhur Filibe Köftecisi, and return via Beşiktaş. The logistics were precise: the AI knew that Kadıköy is on the Anatolian side and that combining it with Üsküdar in the same afternoon is feasible. No generic planner would have made this spontaneous geographical reasoning.
Istanbul tests any planning tool
Istanbul is a city that lies about distances. The Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar seem close on the map, but in between is one of the busiest streets in Eminönü. Secret World knew this: it included a note in the route about which exit of the Grand Bazaar to take to reach the Spice Bazaar on foot in 8 minutes without crossing the main traffic. This type of operational detail is what distinguishes a useful tool from a decorative one.
I also tested more complex requests: “What to do in Istanbul with a 6-year-old on a rainy morning?” The answer suggested the Miniaturk Museum (entrance about 10 euros, outdoors but with covered areas), the Rahmi M. Koç Science Museum in Hasköy (interactive, child-friendly, ticket about 8 euros), and a visit to the Topkapi Palace limited to the covered pavilions. Nothing made up, nothing obvious.
Honest comparison with Wanderlog and other competitors
I used Wanderlog in parallel throughout the testing period. Wanderlog is a solid tool for organizing lists and maps, with a clean UI and the automatic import function from booking emails that is really convenient. But its AI component remains superficial: when I asked for the same itinerary for Istanbul, it returned a list of attractions without geographical logic, with Topkapi and Kadıköy in the same afternoon — a choice that anyone who has visited Istanbul knows to be chaotic. Wanderlog excels as an organizer, not as an intelligent planner.
Tripadvisor offers invaluable reviews for restaurant quality, and Google Maps remains the reference for real-time navigation. But neither of them thinks in terms of a coherent itinerary. Secret World positions itself in a different space: it does not replace these platforms, it integrates them with a planning logic that takes into account real times, distances, opening hours, and declared personal preferences.
Why I gave 9/10 and not 10
The final score is 9 out of 10. The missing point concerns the depth of information about restaurants: Secret World suggests correct and well-located places, but the listings do not yet have the richness of detail of Tripadvisor or The Fork. In Istanbul, where the difference between a mediocre köfte and a memorable one is played out over a few blocks, this matters. I also noticed that the information about museum prices always needs to be verified: they change often, especially for UNESCO sites like Hagia Sophia.
For everything else — route logic, adaptability to preferences, real geographical knowledge of the city, response speed — Secret World is the most useful tool I have found for planning a complex trip. If you are organizing a trip to Istanbul and want to avoid wasting half a day in a taxi because you scheduled Topkapi and Üsküdar in the same morning, try Secret World AI Trip Planner: it’s free to start and you get the first itinerary in less than a minute.
