How we score

Every rating on the site is computed from evidence.

We show you the evidence, and a deterministic engine turns that evidence into the score. Nobody at Destinations for Family types a rating into a destination.

Six criteria that matter for families

Every destination is measured on the same six dimensions, then rolled into a single headline:

The headline and each sub-score are shown in plain English. A destination comes out as Outstanding, Very good, Good, Fair or Poor, and each sub-score gets its own few words (a world-class beach, a bit of a trek from the airport), so you can read at a glance how well a place is likely to work for your family.

The vibe dials

Two more things are measured from the same evidence and shown as dials, because both ends are valid wants. They’re taste:

Each dial also has a filter on both ends (“Quiet & authentic”, “Lively & buzzing”), so you can filter for your taste. The dials sit outside the family-fit score.

The scoring firewall

Curated content (the words, the editorial, the booking links) holds no number the engine can produce. Every score on a destination page is computed at render time from the underlying evidence file. If you can read it as a score, an algorithm made it.

This is enforced in code: the evidence files carry raw signals and their provenance only. The engine is the single thing allowed to turn a signal into a number.

Where the evidence comes from

Each signal records its source and the date it was gathered, so every number on the page traces back to where it came from.

The rubric, published in full

Every threshold, ramp and weight the engine uses is published, rendered from the engine’s own configuration so it can never drift from what actually runs. That page also shows how stable the rankings are when the weights are deliberately shaken.

See the full rubric →

Confidence, stated on every score

A sub-score built on thinner evidence is capped at “medium” confidence and labelled as such. Where the evidence is too thin to support a score, we say so rather than invent a number.

Booking: routes, verified per destination

We score the destination and leave the hotel choice to you: budget, apartment vs. hotel and kids-club preferences vary too much between families for a credible shortlist. What we verify for every destination is how it actually books from the UK: a package-friendly place lists the operators that genuinely fly there; a place with no UK package coverage says so plainly, with flight and stay linked separately. Booking links never touch a score.

Transfer options follow the same rule. At onboarding we verify the practical routes from the arrival airport and list the best option of each kind: public transport where it genuinely works well, pre-bookable transfer firms with strong ratings (every airport’s transfer firms are surveyed on Google Places), and the hotel shuttle where that’s the local pattern. A local operator that pays us nothing is listed ahead of a commission partner whenever the evidence says it’s the better option.

Photography

Destination photos are real, openly-licensed images of the actual place (Wikimedia Commons), credited to the photographer and licence. Each destination carries a zoomed-out establishing shot plus up to 2 street-level photos showing the feel of the place. Every gallery photo has to be a streetscape or landscape inside the destination boundary, a scene you could stand in; abstract shots and close-ups of signage don’t qualify, and where fewer photos pass that bar we show fewer rather than pad. What you see is where you’re going.

Who’s doing the scoring

The engine is built and run by Rob Smith and his wife Carolina, avid family travellers who made the site for their own trips first. Carolina’s Brazilian, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian roots set a high bar for sunshine; Rob’s Devon-and-Cornwall constitution sets a strict cap on it. The rubric exists so neither taste, nor anyone’s, can put a thumb on the scale. More about us →

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