We order by season, by whether the operator confirms straight away, by how much you feel like doing, and by who you are going with. Places that nobody sells — a hill town, a ruin, an abbey you simply walk up to — score full marks on that second one, because there is nothing that can fall through. We never order by commission — and we never order by how far it is: how much of a journey a day is worth is yours to weigh, not ours, so the distance is on every card and nowhere in the score.
They multiply together, so a zero on any one of them removes the activity rather than burying it. Where that happens we say which one it was.
1
Peak weeks push an activity up.
Out of its season it disappears entirely — we would rather show you less than send you to a closed gate. Where an operator publishes no calendar at all we keep the day in the list and say so on the card, because a gap in our notes is not a closed gate: it is a phone call, and we print the number.
2
Instant confirmation ranks highest: you know tonight, not on Thursday.
Booking by phone or by email nudges a day down a little, and nothing more — half the best operators around Rome take bookings no other way, and we print their number on the page so you can. It is not a mark against them: it is only that knowing tonight beats waiting.
3
Matching the age, effort and group size you told us.
A hard limit — a minimum age, a minimum group of eight when you are travelling alone — removes it, because finding out afterwards is worse.
4
Closer to the level you picked.
Further from it, gently. Nothing is removed for this.
5
Comfortably inside your window.
Travel plus activity longer than the time you have removes it.
Kayak on Lake Albano — how it scored for someone travelling by train on 24 August.
| Is it running on your date | × 1.35 (lifted) |
|---|---|
| Whether you can actually book it | × 1 (neutral) |
| Who you are going with | × 1 (neutral) |
| How much you feel like doing | × 0.80 |
| Whether it fits the day you have | × 1 (neutral) |
| Where it ended up | 108 points |
No line in that table is what we earn. There is no such line.
Nothing. No operator can pay to move up, and the figure we earn is not read by the code that builds this order — there is a test that fails the build if it ever is.
Links marked affiliate pay us a commission — you pay the operator's own price and we never take your money. How we rank