The brief
Two travellers. 21 days. Bangkok to Bali. Budget: $3,000 per person total, including flights. Constraints: vegetarian-friendly food, no party hostels, prefer slow travel over rushing between cities. We wanted markets, temples, nature, and street food — not beach clubs and full-moon parties.
We entered all of this into Limmello during onboarding, answered ten follow-up questions about pace and interests, and let the AI generate a draft.
🗺️ Route: Bangkok (4 days) → Chiang Mai (5 days) → Luang Prabang (3 days) → Hanoi (3 days) → Hoi An (3 days) → Bali (3 days)
What the AI got right
The pacing was excellent. Four days in Bangkok felt generous without being wasteful — enough time for Chatuchak, the Grand Palace, canal boat rides, and a cooking class without rushing. Chiang Mai got five days, which let us do a day trip to Doi Inthanon and still have downtime.
The AI also nailed the vegetarian constraint. Every meal suggestion had vegetarian options flagged, and it avoided seafood-heavy areas where we'd have struggled. The budget allocation was realistic — it front-loaded cheaper destinations and saved room for slightly pricier Bali at the end.
What we adjusted
The initial draft had us flying between every city. We swapped two flights for overnight trains — Bangkok to Chiang Mai and Hanoi to Hoi An — which saved money and gave us the experience of sleeper trains, something we specifically wanted. One chat message to the AI and it rebuilt both days.
We also added a half-day buffer in Chiang Mai because the original schedule had us arriving at 6 AM from the overnight train and immediately visiting a temple. The AI adjusted the rest of the Chiang Mai days to compensate.
Budget performance
Limmello estimated total spending at $2,640 per person. Our actual spend came in at $2,810 — about 6% over the AI's estimate. The variance came mainly from two unplanned splurges: a nicer hotel in Hoi An and a sunset dinner cruise in Bali that wasn't in the itinerary.
The budget tracker was genuinely useful. By day 10, we could see we were under budget, which gave us the confidence to upgrade the Hoi An hotel without stress.
What we'd do differently
Three days in Bali wasn't enough — we'd extend to five next time and cut Hanoi to two days. We'd also add Luang Prabang earlier in the trip when our energy was higher, since it's the most physically demanding stop (lots of hiking and early-morning alms ceremonies).
Overall though, having a structured plan with time slots and costs made the entire trip smoother. We didn't waste a single morning figuring out what to do — the plan was there, and we could deviate from it intentionally rather than by default.