How this works

Every guide is dated

The top of every guide shows the day it was last checked: the last time the recommendations were gone back over, not the last time a typo was fixed. When that date is more than 6 months old, the guide is marked Due a re-check until it gets one.

First-hand, or research-led

Every guide carries one of two labels. First-hand means the editor has been to that destination in person. Research-led means the guide is built from current sources: operators’ own sites, timetables and menus, official sources and recent reporting.

We don’t pretend to know somewhere we haven’t properly researched, and a research-led guide never claims experience the editor doesn’t have. First-hand describes the destination, not every place in the guide: a first-hand guide can still recommend somewhere the editor hasn’t been, and it won’t say otherwise.

What to skip

Many guides end with the places we’d steer a friend away from, and why. Those sections are marked Skip it so you can find them. Sometimes the famous thing is worth it, and the guide will say so; sometimes it isn’t.

Why there are no scores

Citorah doesn’t give places a score out of 100. A number is only worth something with a published method behind it, and a fair score needs more first-hand checking than one editor can do across every destination. If that changes, the method will be published here before any score appears.

How AI is used

Citorah is one editor working with AI tools for research and drafting. AI doesn’t get the final say: what’s recommended, and what’s left out, is the editor’s call, and every guide goes out under the editor’s name.

How the site is paid for

Citorah, a TicketWave HQ brand, takes part in affiliate programmes, including Booking.com through CJ Affiliate and OMY Transfers’ own programme for airport transfers in Cancún. When you book through one of those links, Citorah may earn a commission. You pay the same. Links that earn are marked, and commission never decides what a guide recommends.

The Plan the trip links at the end of each destination and guide hand you to partners’ own search: Booking.com for places to stay, which is an affiliate link, and GetYourGuide for things to do, which isn’t. Cancún pages add OMY Transfers for airport transfers, which is an affiliate link too. There is no advertising and no paid placement, and no partner has a say in what a guide covers.

Prices, hours and timetables

They were right when the guide was checked, and they change. Check anything you’re booking against the operator’s own site.

Locations

Place locations come from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors, under the Open Database Licence.

The maps are drawn from Citorah’s own copy of OpenStreetMap, prepared by Protomaps, with the fonts and icons served from this site too. Opening a map doesn’t send anything to a map company.

Corrections

If something is wrong or out of date, email hello@citorah.com. Corrections are made in the guide itself, dated at the end of it, and listed on the corrections page.