Photo: Yelp!

Yelp Worldmap: What's the Hipster Density in Your City?

Technology + Gear Entertainment
by Katka Lapelosová Jul 9, 2013

Yelp is great for finding the sloppiest burger in Toronto, or which strip clubs to avoid because the dancers have sub-bar boob jobs. But did you know some areas of a city are more densely populated with people / things than others? Check out Yelp’s Worldmap — a few keywords on the left-hand sidebar provide you with a “heat map” layout of areas that may be better, or worse, for your travel needs.

Want to be surrounded by bacon in NYC? Head to the East Village. Desire to go broke in Paris by finding the most expensive spots? You’re in luck, because that’s basically the whole city!

But the real help, for me at least, is the hipster-locating function. On days when I want to squeeze into my skinny jeans and pretend my college degree in Medieval Studies actually means something, I’ll check out London’s Hoxton Square or Brick Lane, or Mission and Duboce Triangle in San Francisco. On the other hand, to restrain myself from punching someone dressed like an 1800s sea captain, or having to listen to someone at a bar clapping a pair of shoes together “because it’s art,” I’ll travel to places like Boston or Washington DC, where the hipster populations are more spread out across the city.

This map might be only slightly better if it happened to chart useful things, like where you might get mugged, or where there are high concentrations of open manholes for you to possibly fall into and die. Play around with some of the other keywords (I particularly enjoy how Philadelphia maps out the density of PBR in the city).

How useful is a map like this while traveling?

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