Meridian Dispatch

Search Meridian Dispatch travel guides: long-form dispatches, country guides, town guides, venues (sights, museums, beaches, parks), trails, events and ski resorts. Returns ranked pages with a summary and a citable URL.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "query": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "What the traveller wants, e.g. \"glacier hike Iceland\", \"Kotor\", \"festivals in Japan\"."
    },
    "type": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "dispatch",
        "itinerary",
        "country",
        "town",
        "venue",
        "trail",
        "event",
        "ski_resort"
      ],
      "description": "Only return pages of this kind."
    },
    "country": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Only return pages in this country (English name)."
    },
    "limit": {
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 20,
      "default": 8
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "query"
  ]
}

The Meridian Dispatch guide to a country or a town: why go, how long to stay, when to go, getting there and around, practical FAQ answers, a structured fact sheet where one exists (nights, months, travel times, areas to stay, ranked top things, day trips, watch-outs), the places worth your time (with their own guide links), the hotels it recommends, and the related dispatches.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "name": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "A country or town name, e.g. \"Slovenia\" or \"Bled\"."
    },
    "country": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The country, to tell apart towns that share a name (Granada, Valencia, Mérida)."
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "name"
  ]
}

The Meridian Dispatch field record for one place: the best time to go, how long it takes, effort, season, access, how to get there and what goes wrong. Works for sights, trails, scenic drives, events and ski resorts. Takes a meridiandispatch.com page URL, or a name with its town or country.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "url": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "A meridiandispatch.com page URL."
    },
    "name": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The place name, e.g. \"Kotor Old Town\" or \"Grunas Waterfall\"."
    },
    "town": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "country": {
      "type": "string"
    }
  }
}

A Meridian Dispatch long-form dispatch (a reported piece on one place: headline, standfirst, opening excerpt, links to the town and country guides) or itinerary (a country route over N days: the bases in order, nights in each, where to stay and every day's activities by part of the day, each linked to its guide). Pass a URL, slug or place name.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "query": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "A dispatch URL or slug (e.g. \"hallstatt\"), or the place it covers."
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "query"
  ]
}

Festivals and events worth planning a trip around, from the Meridian Dispatch events guide: dates of the current edition, the best day to go, when to book, where to stay and practical tips. Filter by month and/or country.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "month": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "A month name or number, e.g. \"October\" or \"10\"."
    },
    "country": {
      "type": "string"
    }
  }
}

Meridian Dispatch's ranked lists of the best places to visit, for the world or one country, overall or by category (landmarks, museums, towns, beaches, parks, wilderness, hiking trails, scenic drives, viewpoints, wildlife and more). Use for 'top things to do in X' and 'best beaches in X'.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "country": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "A country (English name). Omit for the world list."
    },
    "category": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "e.g. \"beaches\", \"museums\", \"hiking trails\". Omit for the overall list."
    }
  }
}

Best time to visit, from the Meridian Dispatch guides. Give a destination for its best months in the guide's own words plus events there, or a month for the countries, towns, trails, ski resorts and festivals the guides recommend then ('where to go in March').

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "month": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "A month name or number."
    },
    "destination": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "A country, town, trail or ski resort."
    }
  }
}

Places covered by Meridian Dispatch near a place or a coordinate, nearest first, with straight-line distance: day trips from a base, what else to see near a sight.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "place": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "A place name or meridiandispatch.com URL, e.g. \"Kotor\"."
    },
    "lat": {
      "type": "number"
    },
    "lng": {
      "type": "number"
    },
    "radius_km": {
      "type": "number",
      "default": 40,
      "maximum": 200
    },
    "type": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "dispatch",
        "itinerary",
        "country",
        "town",
        "venue",
        "trail",
        "event",
        "ski_resort"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Generate an itinerary import link: turn a day-by-day travel itinerary into a shareable "Add Itinerary to Meridian Dispatch" link. Opening the link on an iPhone with the Meridian Dispatch app shows the trip and adds it to the Plan tab as a new plan, after the traveller picks the first day; anywhere else it opens a web preview of the days. Days are numbered (day 1, 2, 3) or dated, and every day needs a hotel stay. A place given with its meridiandispatch.com page URL arrives with that page's field record. Links are public and permanent: booking references, emails and phone numbers are removed.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "title": {
      "type": "string",
      "maxLength": 120,
      "description": "The trip, e.g. \"Six days on the Montenegro coast\"."
    },
    "summary": {
      "type": "string",
      "maxLength": 400,
      "description": "One short paragraph shown under the title: what the trip is and why it works."
    },
    "country_code": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "ISO 3166 alpha-2 code of the main country, e.g. \"ME\"."
    },
    "days": {
      "type": "array",
      "minItems": 1,
      "maxItems": 30,
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
          "day": {
            "type": "integer",
            "minimum": 1,
            "maximum": 30,
            "description": "Day number, from 1. Use this or date on every day."
          },
          "date": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "YYYY-MM-DD. Use this or day on every day."
          },
          "city": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "Where the traveller is that day."
          },
          "country_code": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "ISO alpha-2, when this day is in a different country."
          },
          "summary": {
            "type": "string",
            "maxLength": 300,
            "description": "One line about the day."
          },
          "items": {
            "type": "array",
            "maxItems": 15,
            "items": {
              "type": "object",
              "properties": {
                "title": {
                  "type": "string",
                  "description": "The place or activity, e.g. \"Kotor Old Town\"."
                },
                "kind": {
                  "type": "string",
                  "enum": [
                    "activity",
                    "restaurant",
                    "note"
                  ],
                  "default": "activity"
                },
                "time": {
                  "type": "string",
                  "description": "HH:MM, 24-hour."
                },
                "part_of_day": {
                  "type": "string",
                  "enum": [
                    "morning",
                    "afternoon",
                    "evening"
                  ]
                },
                "meridian_url": {
                  "type": "string",
                  "description": "The meridiandispatch.com page for this place, when there is one."
                },
                "category": {
                  "type": "string"
                },
                "note": {
                  "type": "string",
                  "maxLength": 500,
                  "description": "A tip for this stop."
                },
                "lat": {
                  "type": "number"
                },
                "lng": {
                  "type": "number"
                }
              },
              "required": [
                "title"
              ]
            }
          }
        },
        "required": [
          "items"
        ]
      }
    },
    "stays": {
      "type": "array",
      "maxItems": 30,
      "description": "Where the traveller sleeps, by hotel name. Required: every day must fall between a stay's check-in and check-out (inclusive), or the app shows that day without its places. check_in_day and check_out_day on a numbered itinerary, check_in and check_out (YYYY-MM-DD) on a dated one.",
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
          "name": {
            "type": "string"
          },
          "city": {
            "type": "string"
          },
          "check_in_day": {
            "type": "integer",
            "minimum": 1
          },
          "check_out_day": {
            "type": "integer",
            "minimum": 2
          },
          "check_in": {
            "type": "string"
          },
          "check_out": {
            "type": "string"
          }
        },
        "required": [
          "name"
        ]
      }
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "title",
    "country_code",
    "days",
    "stays"
  ]
}