First Steps
The NomadMania Series were initiated as far back as 2016, starting with our list of 201 Capitals of the world. Gradually, we saw the need to develop a nicely organised listing of things to see and do. The easier Series to develop were a list of Islands and, given our founder’s interest in aviation, a list of Airports and Airlines. Soon, a listing of Cities also followed, neatly sorted into Continents as well as a summary of World Cities.
There were calls to expand these to places that can be specifically visited. Museums and National Parks were mentioned specifically. These then led to an initial general ‘Museums’ Series. Natural sights were harder to classify because of their variety and it initially seemed daunting to lumber them all into just one Series.
NomadMania also developed its very own Series ‘ranking’, much like that of regions, so that our community could see just how far they have gone in terms of the Series.
More and more people came to us saying that their way of travel has changed somewhat, as they now aim to fit in that distant church or that unlikely village that they would have never otherwise heard about. And this has been the aim of NomadMania all along … to change the way people travel.
Development
Over time, we have proposed a number of general categories into which we fit our specific Series. These have changed slightly over the years. One of our initial Series, which was called Sights, was devolved into other categories. Similarly, our much loved XL Series, featuring geographical extremes, has given way to our DARE list of places, which now includes 1501 truly ‘extreme’ and quirky corners of the world. DARE is no longer a Series, but a listing of places in its own right.
Nowadays, the Series feature the following general categories:
- Geography, which includes Capitals, Islands and Borders.
- Urban, including Cities by continent, our Villages and Popular Towns, as well as Urban Legends
- Transport, which includes Series for air, road, rail and sea
- Museums, classified into 17 different Series categories
- Intellectual, featuring Castles/Palaces/Forts, Vestiges of the Past, Architecture, Religious Temples and Religious Monuments and (general) Monuments
- Outdoors, with 10 Series of activities that are generally nature-linked, including our largest Series ‘World of Nature’ which has almost 5,000 items
- Family, including Zoos, Aquariums, Planetariums Beaches and Theme Parks
- Mini-Series, with 15 diverse categories including Lighthouses , Well-being (which includes breweries, spas and eco-experiences), markets, as well as our popular ‘Dark Side’ and ‘Bizzarium’ (deliberately misspelled)!
Our latest Series was splitting off Museums further by including a specialised Decorative Arts Museums Series.
All of these have their individual pages and also their individual rankings; these lead to a Cumulative Ranking of all Series categories. In this ranking, four Series are excluded, these being:
- World Cities (as these are taken from the Cities by continent Series)
- Vintage (as these can no longer be visited so it would be unfair)
- Culinary Delights; while we want to give ideas to those interested, we don’t feel we want to ‘force’ people to eat anything that goes against their desires
- Virtual Series; this one was developed during the pandemic and we are keeping it for those who wish to ‘travel’ while stuck at home.
Top of the Tops
Given the increasing numbers of Series, which now count more than 65,000 items, we decided that we would identify the best sights, the ones that are ‘must see or do’ in every country and category. This has led to the inclusion of ‘Top of the Tops’, which encapsulates around 3,000 items, or 5% of the total more or less.
These can be sorted both by Series item and by country for ease of use. We have tried to be as balanced as possible here, so that countries’ listings match their general size and importance in terms of travel and tourism.
Current developments
Suggest Series
In the spring of 2024, we launched our direct Series Suggestions online function. While previously some of our Series enthusiasts sent us ideas by email, this was not systematic enough and often our community did not understand why ideas were accepted or not. With this new tool, sending Series ideas becomes much more systematic.
Our team has within four months received over 3,000 suggestions for Series across the board from more than 250 people in our community. Some are corrections or amendments, but the vast majority are for new Series items. Our ‘star’ contributor has sent no less than 336 suggestions!
Our team aims to process all suggestions within two weeks of submission, however this is not always guaranteed. Generally, every single contribution needs to be reviewed and considered against our own criteria for inclusion within every Series category. While we don’t have specific statistics, we believe that around 75% of ideas have been accepted.
Reasons for rejection are commonly either not understanding the standard that we use or that a proposal is deemed as too obscure or ‘regional’ to be included in what we attempt to have as a global listing. Moreover, as the correct GPS location is required, if this is not correct and our team cannot find the location itself, then we cannot add the proposal.
Series in the App
By improving our app we have also payed a big attention to Series as one of the central features. They automatically appear as you zoom in the map. Also you can now disable Series to be shown by default or chose to see only visited or not visited landmarks.
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Additionally you can filter which Series category to be shown on your map. Enjoy.
The Future of our Series
We have often been approached for new Series categories, however we wish to stress that we aim to remain a generalist site. We feel that our Series appeal to the average traveller who may have general interests, but the categories as they stand now are not too narrow or niche. We prefer not to add categories such as ‘Sports Venues’ or ‘Theatres’ as these are too limited in scope; already these are covered by our existing Series where needed.
Based on our NomadMania community’s current suggestions, we have seen a big growth in our Hospitality Legends Series, which is one of our favourites, listing historic hotels and restaurants that deserve to be visited if only for their many years in business – our general guide to these is that they have existed since before WWII. We have also found that ‘Religious Temples’ are particularly popular in terms of suggestions, however we will ensure that the balance is maintained by not adding too many new temples in this category.
We must also ensure that suggestions remain balanced in terms of countries. It is natural that people often ‘promote’ their own country. We have therefore received a lot of suggestions for Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Ukraine, for example, while very few for some other countries. We may need to limit or close suggestions for specific geographical areas to ensure that the balance is maintained.
Fergana Valley – the location of our next Conference #5
Our future plan is for you to have your say in our ‘Top of the Tops’. We are developing a tool where you will be able to give your ‘thumbs up’ for Series items. Those with most ‘thumbs up’ which are not yet in ‘Top of the Tops’ will then be considered for addition. What better way to discover hidden gems than to have the community itself suggest them?
We aim to continue adding Series items, with a maximum number of 100,000. But given it has taken us eight years to reach 65,000, we expect we may be a long way still until we reach our goal.
For now, we are going back to our roots and for the first time since 2016, we are increasing the items in our very first ‘Capitals’ Series, just to jazz things up a little bit…This is by the way the only Series where we have accepted duplication in the cumulative ranking. You get your listing for Capitals and for Cities for the same item. Because Capitals are special, right?
We wish to thank everyone who has contributed to our Series so far 🙂
