For this special holiday edition of AI Playground, I asked ChatGPT and Anthropic's powerful new Claude 4 chatbot for recommendations for my Tahitian trip. I'm on vacation with my wife and a group of friends to celebrate the birthday of one of our oldest friends, Theresa. We're staying in Moorea for about seven days. There are four couples ranging in age between roughly 50 and 60 years old. I requested suggestions such as activities during the day and evenings, along with restaurant and bar recommendations. Finally, I asked what would be the best event and location to celebrate Theresa's birthday.

Then, I asked Theresa and another friend, Lisa, to review the AI responses. My buddies had already spent a ton of time planning this vacation, so they immediately knew whether the chatbots had done a good job, or not. Here's what they thought:

Theresa, the birthday girl:

Both chatbots gave similar recommendations, such as a cultural tour, 4x4 rentals, a lagoon cruise plus snorkeling, and what I hadn't even thought about: a sunset cruise on my birthday. ChatGPT recommended three restaurants that we booked: Rudy's, Moorea Beach Cafe, and the Manava Polynesian show. Claude recommended one place we booked, Cocobeach. Both recommended Holy Steak House, but it's a 40-minute taxi ride from our hotel, which seems not worth it when there are so many other restaurants nearer. I preferred the ChatGPT format of a day-by-day itinerary. Claude's seemed like it was too heavily focused on marketing from the Cook's Bay hotel.

Lisa:

ChatGPT's answer was more comprehensive, listing a sample daily itinerary with pricing estimates and source/reference links. There was overlap, but ChatGPT offered more options and parsed its suggestions in an easy-to-read bullet format. The icons were a bit gimmicky, or maybe just overused. The response from Claude was easier to read, and I preferred its visual layout, but it proposed a smaller selection of activities, restaurants, and other things to do. Neither site mentioned scuba diving as a possibility, despite the fact that there's excellent diving around Moorea and many of us are doing this on the trip. (She gave ChatGPT 4.5 stars out of 5. Claude got 3.5 stars from her.)