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Ask HN: How do you find stuff to do in your city?
Building out a new start up to compete with City Guides. I want to focus it on things to do rather than just venues.<p>For example: Restaurant X vs. Friday nights at Restaurant X with a Jazz band and ask for Dish Y.<p>I just got a launch page up at UpOut.com. Just want to ask HN how people find stuff to do.
- T-hawk 16y agoIncredibly low tech, but printed newspapers. I'm in NYC so there's an abundance. amNY (the free one) and Newsday are pretty consistent with a small section listing concerts and comedy and other performers, usually in the Friday editions.
- martinshen 16y agoWhich NYC newspapers do you typically use? Also, what's the coolest thing you do in NYC?
- murtza 16y agoVillage Voice is good. They have a listing of different shows on their site. You could probably data mine from there.
- topcat31 16y agoFor music last.fm does a wonderful "gigs in your city" RSS feed.
- ig1 16y agoTimeout
- matdwyer 16y agoCool landing page (I like how the pictures are localized) I have a few ways, they are pretty specific to Toronto but I'll mention them anyway so you get the idea. 1) Redflagdeals.com - this is my primary source as it is the largest forum in Canada (with a huge center around Toronto). Basically it is a "deals" forum like slickdeals or fatwallet in the states, but there is a TON of talk about things to do in Toronto, great restaurants, and of course, deals on stuff. For me I browse this often and if I find something I like then I'll check it out. For example, I found out about "O'Noir" here, which was a restaurant where you eat in pitch black, and all the waiters are blind. 2) Local blogs - things like blogto.com show me a lot of the independent type stuff around (festivals, smaller shops, bands, etc.). Torontoist is another one. For example I just learned they are opening a Ping Pong bar in downtown Toronto from here. 3) Deal sites (like groupon, living social, etc). Basically it isn't just about buying the deal (as I only buy maybe 1 per week) but I keep an eye out for the new things to do that they feature - I might find a paintball place and keep it in mind even if I don't buy the deal, or some sort of trade show/exhibition, etc. For things like a) sports and b) music I'd basically either know that it was coming (I'm a huge sports fan with seasons tickets to baseball and basically never miss a leafs game) so I don't really have to search out that info. I try to be pretty frugal with what I do so that is certainly a bias - If I'm going to a new city the first thing I do is save the Wikitravel page to my iPad, then I'll check out some of the past groupons there, etc. I'll then check out some of the online coupon places (for example I got coupons for 2-4-1 mini-golf & bowling in Florida, etc). Last resort when I get there I'll check out the rack cards at tourist type places (in Florida I found out about a pirate tour boat, lol). If I were you I'd be skimming forums as your best bet for crowd sourcing data, there are two different opinions for "things to do" one being a local and one being a tourist, but usually locals don't do enough tourist stuff, and tourists don't do enough local stuff... so there is an interesting middle you could find there (for example, I've never been to the Royal Ontario Museum, or the Bata Shoe Museum after living in Toronto for 5 years - these would be done by 75% of tourists). Of course you could skim foursquare data too but it seems to be done already. Good luck
- martinshen 16y agoI'm actually a Toronto local.. Can I send you a beta invite with my personal 100 plus random awesome things to do in Toronto? For example: Friday night drop in Flying Trapeze classes? Thanks for the feedback
- matdwyer 16y agoAbsolutely! - my username @ gmail
- martinshen 16y agoThanks.. I'll keep you posted!
- matdwyer 16y agoNo problem... P.s. I'd love to help add some things if you'd like, as I'm the "planner" of my group! Make sure you have things a bit north too (Tree Top Trekking, zip lines, old steam train, steam ship cruises, etc - I split my time between the city & Barrie )
- martinshen 16y agoThat's awesome. I'll email you as soon as the site is ready (probably in a week or two).
- djb_hackernews 16y agoI've been working on a similar but different solution at http://impromptudo.com http://impromptudo.com. I'm currently focusing on quantity and breadth, saving quality and depth for later. Edit: checked out your project, looks very similar to http://usehipster.com http://usehipster.com, which was recently acquired (?) and it hasn't even launched. So, theres confirmation of the idea.
- martinshen 16y agoLooks cool.
- martinshen 16y agoI've looked at Hipster and don't think their solution is stellar. It's more of Q&A for location which I think is too far away from a city guide. City guides just need a quick web 2.0 uplift in my opinion.
- speakeasy 16y agoI started ThisCity.com in Calgary, AB. We have a new version launching next month. If you want lessons from being in the biz and potentially to link up, email me. Chris
- martinshen 16y agoWe're doing something similar but got it going for most major cities out there. We have a different UI though. Your site reminds me a lot of Toronto.com
- staunch 16y agoI hate to say it but I really want a Groupon for Activities (ONLY). Horseback riding, trap shooting, skiing, fishing, and that kind of thing. A site that gives me something to do on the weekends when I'm in the mood for an activity.
- martinshen 16y agoThis is exactly what I'm trying to do. Please sign up for our beta test at UpOut.com. We also have simple and clean filters... already have 200+ submissions just from my friends. We're also planning to put in a bunch of great plug ins.
- staunch 16y agoCool, I will try it. Side note: How much did you pay for UpOut.com? It's pretty good.
- martinshen 16y ago40 bucks. namepros
- jkjeldgaard 16y agoI use http://www.songkick.com http://www.songkick.com for music, and http://www.meetup.com http://www.meetup.com for social stff. London resident.