Flights

The Travel MCP Server lets you ask complex travel planning questions by combining flight searches, hotel options, and up-to-date maps context. It connects specialized tools to help you plan trips, compare options, and get timely recommendations all in one conversational flow.

How to use

You interact with the Travel MCP Server through an MCP client. Connect to the travel and maps capabilities, then invoke the available tools to get flight options, hotel recommendations, and contextual date information. Practical patterns you can try include asking for the latest flight that meets a deadline, asking for reasonably priced hotels within walking distance of a landmark, or requesting current date context to anchor plans.

Available tools you can call include: search-flights to find flights between two airports, search-hotels to locate accommodations, and today to retrieve the current date for accurate timing. Use these tools in combination to build end-to-end travel plans, such as routing a flight and nearby hotel options for a given date, or checking availability across multiple hotel options near a destination.

How to install

Prerequisites you need before installation: Node.js, Docker, and access to the required API keys.

Obtain API keys: you require a Booking.com API key and a Google Maps API key. Acquire them from the respective provider portals and keep them secure.

Create the MCP configuration file from the example below. This defines two MCP servers: travel (stdio) and google-maps (stdio). Save this as a file named claude_desktop_config.json or an equivalent path used by your MCP client.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "travel": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["travel-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "BOOKING_COM_API_KEY": "<YOUR_BOOKING_DOT_COM_API_KEY>"
      }
    },
    "google-maps": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY",
        "mcp/google-maps"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY": "<YOUR_GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Additional sections

Notes on configuration and usage follow from the setup shown above. The Travel MCP Server exposes two stdio-based MCP endpoints that you can start locally, each designed to provide travel-focused tools. Keep your API keys secure and do not expose them in client-side code.

Security and best practices: store API keys in environment variables or secret management systems, rotate credentials periodically, and restrict access to the MCP endpoints to trusted clients only.

Available tools

search-flights

Searches for available flights between two airports via Booking.com's API.

today

Provides the current date to the LLM, ensuring it has up-to-date temporal context.

search-hotels

Search for available hotels and accommodations.