How to use kite-travel website
What do you look for when you are looking for a next kite trip? This is a very general question and probably it will have a wide answer as well, where one can drown easily.
There are few low hanging answers:
First. Seasonality. Kitesurfers need to know if the destination is working in a given month or not. Estimate of ‘workiness’ of the destination can be subjective. Some places can have only 1-2 hours of good wind in a day. It can be probably enough for a high level super intense training for the competing pros, their session are rarely more than that. But for those who just enjoy being out on a water that is way too short! Personally I prefer at least 6 hours a day, maybe split in two session with a nice lunch and chill in between.
Second. Flights. Kite-travel has been built around the idea of helping people who work 5/2 to get the best from their OOO time. It works as follows: imagine you have 2 day holiday allowance you want to spend in December.
What happens next:
→ algorithm checks which spots are ‘active’ in December
→ search engine goes through all possible 1 week trips in December. That will include different options for leaving london, like Friday evening or Saturday morning and preferably to come back next Sunday evening. Those options will be centered around the idea of spending most time at the beach with the least days of holiday allowance used.
→ When looking for a trip engine is not just choosing the outright cheapest option, but the option which will give traveller more time at the location. For example there might be a one week trip starting on Friday evening and back Sunday morning which is 20 pounds cheaper than the one with the flight back on the Sunday evening. The weight of this selection will be different with the duration of the trip, for the shorter ones it will be greater.
→ On the next page you can see the trips for 1 week in December with the prices and Covid restrictions indicator. We still keep the three light system, but consider switching it back to red/non-red indicators.
-> There is table on top of the page where the month and the duration can be changed
-> Results change on the map as well
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-> There is more information on each destination under the map with wind statistic, air and water temperature and remaining season for this year
-> There is more info under the ‘i’ button, the most valuable is the map - very easy to see how far is the kite beach from the airport and if there are few kite beaches around. Also a video from the spot, some more statistical data and instagram feed.
Another way to look at it, is to go to the ‘all spots’ page. All the spots which are covered by Kite-travel are there, with an average prices which are derived from historical average for the most popular trip duration (ec for tarifa that would be 3 day trip, while for Brazil it will be a 2 week duration)
Coming next
- Hotels booking. The idea was to have the whole trips to compare in a summary mode, including the hotels. Unfortunately COVID-19 came and this plan had to be amended. Once we are up and running that will come next.
- Next-weekend trip. Another important update to come is for those who are itching when there is no wind in Camber sands, Lancing and Whitstable. There are lots of easy to get to destinations for a ‘just weekend trip’ with no days off the office. This will come with a relevant wind forecast in a summary mode as well (realistically for spring 2022)
- Stay tuned! Your ideas are more than welcome!