See How Crowded Travel Destinations Really Get

PackedPlaces.com visualizes tourist crowdedness for 700+ destinations worldwide, week by week, powered by school holiday data and major events from 100+ countries.

127

Regions

700+

Destinations

6,000+

Patterns

50+

Events

100+

Countries

How It Works

1

Track School Holidays

We collect school holiday schedules from 127 regions using three data providers: hand-curated dates, the OpenHolidaysAPI, and the date-holidays library.

2

Model Travel Flows

Over 6,000 travel patterns connect source regions to destinations, weighted by real tourism statistics from UNWTO, Eurostat, and national tourism authorities.

3

Track Major Events

Over 50 major events — from the FIFA World Cup and Olympics to Oktoberfest and Carnival — are layered on top, boosting destination scores during event weeks.

4

Calculate Crowdedness

Raw traffic scores are divided by each destination's capacity — accounting for category and month-by-month peak season data. Demand is dampened by weather patterns like monsoons, extreme heat, and cyclone seasons. The result: how packed a place feels.

Data & Methodology

Data Sources

  • PopulationEurostat, US Census, ABS, UN World Population Prospects
  • Tourism flowsUNWTO Compendium, Eurostat overnight stays, NTTO, JNTO
  • School holidaysManual curation, OpenHolidaysAPI, date-holidays library
  • Major events50+ recurring and one-time events including Olympics, FIFA World Cup, festivals, and Grand Slams
  • GeographyCoordinates, per-month peak season profiles, category assignment

Capacity by Category

Each category has a peak and off-peak capacity. A monthly attractiveness model interpolates between them based on each destination's peak months, accounting for monsoons, dry/wet seasons, and other weather patterns.

CategoryPeakOff-Peak
City5.04.0
Beach2.00.5
Ski1.50.3
Island1.00.4
Safari0.80.3
Desert0.50.2

Open Source

PackedPlaces.com is fully open source. Browse the code, report issues, or contribute new regions and destinations.

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