How to Use Muse to Find Things to Do Near You

Recommendation-gathering is Muse at its most everyday-useful: it can browse the web, check multiple sources, and cross-reference against what it remembers about you — the kids' ages, that you hate parking downtown, that you went to the aquarium last month. Meta's positioning leans into this proactive mode: Muse suggests ideas unprompted and can even maintain a feed of ideas in the app. Expect candid, current options — but verify hours and tickets before you drive anywhere, because local-listing pages aren't always up to date.

• Opening hours and ticket availability change; confirm before you go
• Muse knows what you've told it — a new city means starting fresh on preferences
• Sponsored-looking listings can skew web results; ask for a mix of sources

1. 1

   Anchor the when and where

   This Saturday afternoon, within 30 minutes' drive, indoors if raining. Constraints first produce usable shortlists instead of top-10 listicle mush.

2. 2

   Say who's coming

   A 4-year-old and a 12-year-old is a completely different brief than date night. Ages, mobility, energy levels all matter.

3. 3

   Set the budget and effort ceiling

   'Free or under $40 total' and 'nothing requiring reservations' filter out 80% of disappointing options.

4. 4

   Ask for the anti-shortlist too

   Tell Muse what you've already done or disliked. Its memory means 'not the aquarium again' is a durable instruction.

5. 5

   Request a decision, not a directory

   Ask for a top pick with a backup — the difference between an answer and homework.

New-in-town adults with no kids want to build a shortlist of go-to spots without endless searching.

Goal:
Build us a starter list of 10 things to do in [our new city] for a couple in our 30s.

Context:
We just moved and know nothing. We like live music, weird museums, hiking, and cheap eats. We don't drink.

Requirements:
Mix of free and paid; nothing over [$30] per person.
Spread across neighborhoods so we learn the city.
Mark which ones need reservations and which are spontaneous.

Actions:
Research across local sources and recent reviews.
Organize by neighborhood with a one-line 'why' for each.

Approval:
Nothing to purchase — just the researched list.

Output:
A neighborhood-grouped list we can keep as a reference artifact.

• Date and time window

  'This weekend' is mush; 'Saturday 1–5pm' produces real options with real hours.

• Starting point or radius

  Drive time beats distance in practical value; give a neighborhood or a minutes cap.

• Group ages and energy

  The single biggest filter for family plans; adults-only changes everything again.

• Budget ceiling

  Muse can filter hard or get creative within a number — free options exist everywhere if asked.

• History and dislikes

  'Been there, hated parking' feedback compounds — Muse remembers and stops suggesting repeats.

For this task, it is smart to make Muse check with you before it takes certain actions. Decide your rules up front and include them in the prompt.

• Buying tickets or booking tables — Spontaneous plans should stay spontaneous; also the oldest agent-mistake category. Require approval.

• Sharing your location history patterns — No need for Muse to over-learn routines; give each outing's context fresh rather than letting it assume.

• ✓Ask for a comparison table (cost, drive, why-it-fits) — far more scannable than prose recommendations.
• ✓Make the rain plan explicit; 'indoor backup for each outdoor pick' is a great standing instruction.
• ✓Tell Muse your repeats policy: some families love traditions, others never want the same place twice.
• ✓Ask it to check recent reviews, not just listings — 'recently closed' is the classic local-search failure.
• ✓Save the final list as a reference — Muse creates Artifacts like documents, perfect for a city guide you reuse.