Travel with Claude: A Trip Setup from a Tokyo Local

I live in Tokyo, and I watch visitors every week standing at a station exit, switching between four apps, a screenshot of a booking and a group chat. The information they need exists. It is just scattered. A single Claude Project that knows your whole trip fixes most of that, and it takes about ten minutes to set up. This guide uses Japan as the example because it is what I know, but the setup works anywhere.

Set up one Project for the trip

A Project is a workspace in Claude with its own instructions and files. Every chat you start inside it already knows what you put there. Projects work on every plan, including free, which allows up to five.

Create one named after the trip and paste this into the project instructions, filled in:

This project is my trip to Japan, [dates].

Travelers: [who, ages if relevant]
Home currency: [currency]. Total budget: [amount].
Flights: [airline, flight numbers, times]
Hotels: [name, neighborhood, check in and out dates]
Plan by day: [rough outline, one line per day]
Food: [allergies, restrictions, things we love]
Pace: [e.g. one big thing per day, we hate crowds, early risers]

How to help me:
Answer short and practical. I am usually reading on my phone.
Use web search for opening hours, weather and train disruptions,
and tell me when something could not be confirmed.
Give station names in English and Japanese.

Add booking confirmations as files if you like, but keep them clean. Booking references and dates are enough. Leave out passport numbers, card numbers and anything you would not want in a screenshot.

Things a local would tell you to add

Japan runs smoothly once you know a few habits, and Claude plans better when those are in the instructions. From living here, these are the ones I would add:

• Transit. You will tap an IC card like Suica or PASMO on trains and buses, and it works at convenience stores too. Tell Claude so it plans routes around trains, not taxis.
• Last trains. In Tokyo the last trains leave around midnight, and missing one gets expensive. Ask Claude to flag the last train back on any late evening.
• Cash. Cards work in most places now, but small restaurants, temples and market stalls can still be cash only. Ask Claude to note which stops on a given day might need cash.
• Luggage. Hotels and convenience stores can forward suitcases to your next hotel. When you change cities, ask Claude to plan the day as if your bags went ahead.
• Onsen. Some baths still refuse visible tattoos. If that applies, say so, and Claude will check policies before suggesting one.

For official visitor information, JNTO's travel site is the source I point friends to.

Every morning, ask for the day

Open a chat in the Project and type something like:

Brief me on today. Weather where we are, our plan in order with
train routes and times between stops, anything that closes early
or needs a reservation, and the last train back to the hotel.

If you are on a paid plan, you can make this automatic with a scheduled task in Cowork. Scheduled tasks run remotely, so they work even when your laptop is closed, and the results wait for you under Scheduled in the Claude app. Paste your day by day plan into the task itself, so it has everything it needs.

Menus, allergies and the card that does the talking

Take a photo of a menu and send it to the Project. Claude reads Japanese well, including handwritten boards most of the time, and can tell you what each dish is and what to ask about.

If you have a real allergy, make a card before you fly:

Write a short, polite card in Japanese that I can show restaurant staff.
Say that I have a severe allergy to [ingredient], including small
amounts in sauces, broth and oil, and ask them to tell me if a dish
is not safe. Put the English meaning under the Japanese.

Save it as a screenshot and as a favorite in your photos. And for a serious allergy, show the card to your hotel's front desk once and ask if it reads naturally. Claude's Japanese is good, but a native check costs you one minute.

Reservations without the phone call

Many of the best small restaurants here take bookings by phone in Japanese, or through booking pages that are only in Japanese. Two ways to handle it:

• Ask your hotel. Have Claude write a short note in Japanese with the restaurant name, date, time, party size and any allergy. Hand it to the concierge. It saves everyone a confusing conversation.
• Let Claude fill the form. With Claude in Chrome, available on paid plans, Claude can open a booking page and fill it in for you. Review every field yourself before anything is submitted, especially the date and the cancellation policy.

Track spending in one chat

Start a chat in the Project called "Spending" and log as you go, in plain words: "lunch 1,400 yen, train 380 yen, museum 2,000 yen." Anytime, ask:

Show my spending so far as a list, totals by category, and the total
in my home currency at today's rate. How much per day do I have left?

Ask for the full list each time, not just the total, so you can spot a mistake. Keep everything in that one chat so nothing gets lost.

When the plan breaks

It will. Rain on your hiking day, a closed shop, a typhoon warning that stops trains in late summer. This is where having the whole trip in one place pays off:

It is raining and our afternoon in [place] is off. We are at
[station] now. Suggest two indoor options within 30 minutes by train
that fit our interests, and check they are open today.

Claude already has your plan, what you like and where you are sleeping. You get a new afternoon in a minute, instead of fifteen browser tabs.

Set up the Project tonight, even if the trip is weeks away. Fill in the instructions, make the allergy card if you need one, and ask for a packing list against the forecast a few days before you fly. When you get home, save the instructions somewhere. Your next trip starts by pasting them into a new Project and changing the details.