THE TRAVEL CHRONICLE · METHODOLOGY & SOURCES
Every claim on this site belongs to one of three families, and we try to make it obvious which is which. Measured facts come from an identified source and carry it. Editorial judgments (who a trip is for, which neighborhood suits which traveler) are ours, informed by the facts and labeled by their plain-opinion voice. Relative signals (our $–$$$$ budget tiers, “crowds: moderate”) are honest orders of magnitude, never fake precision. Here is how the machine works.
Climate: 30-year normals, not last Tuesday
Temperatures, rain days and sunshine figures in our guides are 1991–2020 climate normals: the 30-year reference period used by the world’s weather agencies.
We compute them ourselves from the ECMWF’s ERA5 reanalysis (via the Open-Meteo archive) for each destination’s reference point, or taken from national weather services where noted. Two things follow: our numbers describe a typical year, not a forecast for your dates; and they describe a grid cell near the city, which can read a degree or two off the airport thermometer. When a station figure differs meaningfully, we say so in the sources panel.
Crowds: measured where possible, labeled when not
Where official data exists (Eurostat’s monthly lodging nights, the US National Park Service’s visitation statistics, national tourism boards), we use it and cite it, usually as a percentage of the destination’s own peak (August = 100). Where only informed judgment exists, we write “our assessment” and keep it relative. We never invent a number of visitors.
Time-sensitive facts: dated, and outranked by the source
Entry rules, advisories, fees, opening hours and prices change without asking us. These facts carry a checked date inside each guide’s “Sources & data” panel, and the rule is printed there too: the linked official source always wins. If a guide and a government website disagree, believe the government website. Then tell us, so we can fix the guide.
Where our facts come from
In rough order of how often they appear: national weather and ocean agencies (NOAA and its Hurricane Center, ECMWF/ERA5, national meteorological services), the US National Park Service, the State Department’s advisories and country pages, official statistics offices (Eurostat, national institutes), official tourism boards, transport operators and airport authorities, and, for astronomy, plain calculation. Aggregator blogs are not sources here.
Images
Photographs are credited to their photographers with their licenses. Some pages use editorial illustrations instead, always labeled “Illustration” in the caption. We never use an illustration to depict a specific factual claim about a real place’s current condition.
Money
Budget tiers ($–$$$$ and lean/middle/high) are relative signals within a page, not quotes. Some pages contain affiliate links, from which we may earn a commission at no cost to you; they never determine a verdict, a ranking, or a month’s grade. The full policy lives in our About page.
Mistakes
With this much data, some errors will get through. When they do, we correct the page and note it. The contact page reaches the desk fastest.