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Show HN: The best time to visit any city

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Re: Show HN: The best time to visit any city

#111

Post by stinos »

MattBlissett wrote: post #39
ignostic wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you! I am very glad others find the algorithm finding the "best times" to be accurate as well. This was definitely the hardest problem to solve as some places have two seasons, some have one, and I'm trying to find the best time on a scale relative to that place. I'm aware not everyone will be satisfied the "pleasant weather" parameters I used, but I don't think there's another way to give a range quickly. Perh…

GBIF, https://www.gbif.org/ , aggregates biodiversity occurrence data (observations, where specimens held in museums are from, etc). Everything is available through an open API, although we don't index threat status. Perhaps we should. Example: Ceratotherium simum , Southern White Rhinoceros [1]. (The threat status shown on the page is taken from an IUCN API.) The distribution data is available either as individual o…

Wow, thanks for mentioning this. Didn't know it but it looks pretty awesome especially becuase of the combination of all datasets.

Re: Show HN: The best time to visit any city

#112

Post by stephenr »

Humphrey wrote: post #110

Best time of year is subjective!! All Lonely Planet guide books solve this problems by explaining what each place is like at each time. Eg, for Yosemite, it describes how during summer it is rediculosy busy & hot, so you might prefer to go during the shoulder months, but then you risk having some of the park closed for snow. So, "best weather is subjective". Likewise, there are many locations, such as Thailand, where…

> there are many locations, such as Thailand, where the best time to travel is winter.

"Winter". Haha. Terminology aside, you're right of course. I was surprised that this actually showed the 'correct' time for most pleasant weather in Ayutthaya (Thailand) - Dec to Feb, the cold/dry season. (People here call it winter, but Thailand doesn't have four seasons so I hate using that term for it)

Weirdly, it suggested almost exactly the same time of year to visit Adelaide, South Australia, which is frankly ridiculous. It'll be hot and dry, and everything will be brown. Seriously.

If you must visit the 1970s. Sorry, I mean Adelaide.. go in Autumn (March - May).

Re: Show HN: The best time to visit any city

#113

Post by naiv »

Humphrey wrote: post #110

Best time of year is subjective!! All Lonely Planet guide books solve this problems by explaining what each place is like at each time. Eg, for Yosemite, it describes how during summer it is rediculosy busy & hot, so you might prefer to go during the shoulder months, but then you risk having some of the park closed for snow. So, "best weather is subjective". Likewise, there are many locations, such as Thailand, where…

Yes, we travel a lot and what is warm for you might be cold for me etc.

I have solved this problem analyzing more than 20 billion weather data points and created a nice search around it, so you can find the perfect spots that fit your needs depending on temperature, humidity etc. right now it's an internal page for my own use and one of my side projects that I never officially released but use frequently myself.

There seems to be demand so I will put it online in the next days. It will take the subjective out of the best time to go.

Re: Show HN: The best time to visit any city

#118

Post by andyjsantamaria »

ignostic wrote: post #15
andyjsantamaria wrote: post #10

This is super interesting idea and something I'd reference a lot. The big question I have is what are your factors for deciding the best time to visit? I'd argue setting up the context is really important because weather is a major factor but it isn't the only one. There are times of year that have cultural significance as well as annual events, etc. I like the safety advisory aspect and the population of travelers.…

> what are your factors for deciding the best time to visit? I used almost exclusively weather data. My scoring process is linked to near the date ranges I provide, so hopefully that is clear. I would love to make better use of the number of people visiting. I had a really hard time getting additional travel data for what times are busiest, but I did my best with Google data. I'd even be willing to pay for tourist da…

Nice. It's true NZ is small but it's worth standing on its own.

Weather is important but it's not the only factor or the most important one for everyone. If there was "One tool to rule them all" for travel I think this could be really powerful. :)

Re: Show HN: The best time to visit any city

#119

Post by malmsteen »

ygra wrote: post #103

It's a nice idea, for sure. I'm not sure I'd use it much since other considerations apart from weather also exist. A few things I've noticed: • The search could use some awareness about other names of locations. For example, München cannot be found, Munich can. Tübingen doesn't seem to exist at all (maybe too small). • For people outside the US (yes, they exist) it'd also be nice to have a site-wide switch to metric.…

omg the metric one is so important. it should even be default 8-o
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