Travel · Adventure · Unique Places · Simulation
About Tausim
Tausim is an independent travel and adventure portal about unique places. We write about them, and we build simulators that give you a number instead of a mood board.
Why simulate a journey
Travel media is good at longing and bad at arithmetic. It shows the lagoon and not the month the lagoon is dry. It shows the summit and not the night at 4,800 metres that decides whether you see it. Tausim starts from the other end: what does the place actually do in the month you can travel, and what does it do to you. A simulator is a small, honest model of that. It will never replace the day itself, but it catches the mistakes that were computable in advance.
How a place earns a page
Twenty-four places, eight realms, three each. A place has to pass three tests. It has to behave like nowhere else, which rules out most beautiful places. It has to be reachable by somebody with a normal budget, some fitness and patience, which rules out a few of the most spectacular ones. And it has to be describable with numbers we can defend: months, temperatures, daylight, altitude, days, money. Where a figure is an estimate, the page says so.
How the simulators are built
Every simulator runs entirely in your browser from the data on the page. The Daylight Simulator uses standard solar geometry. The Altitude Simulator uses the barometric formula and the usual acclimatisation rules of thumb. The climate figures are monthly normals rounded to the degree. The budget bands are our own estimates for three travel styles. The thousand-trip run is a Monte Carlo model with weather and delay probabilities we assign by place and month. Each page lists its assumptions under the tool. When you can get a better number from a local operator, take theirs.
No paid placements
Operators, hotels and airlines cannot buy a mention, a ranking or a place in a simulator. Where a page names one, it is because we would use it. There is no affiliate tracking on this site and no advertising network. If that ever changes, this page changes first.
Safety, and the limits of a model
Remote travel carries real risk. Everything here is written for people who will still make their own judgement in front of the actual weather, the actual sea, the actual guide. A simulator that says a day is within your range is doing arithmetic, not standing on the ridge. Travel with people who know more than you, hire local guides where the page says so, and turn around earlier than your pride suggests.
Pictures and videos
The photographs and clips on Tausim were produced for this portal. They illustrate places and conditions; they do not document specific people or moments unless the text says so.
Write to us
Corrections, trip reports, a number we got wrong and questions about a simulator are welcome through the contact page. We read everything and usually answer within two working days.
The Simulation Brief
One place, one simulator, one honest number. Every second Sunday.
No newsletter theatre. A short e-mail with the place we modelled, what the model said and what the ground said back.