Guides

How accurate is a 5-day forecast for planning a day out?

What a 3-, 5- and 10-day forecast can promise, in the forecasters' own words, and how to plan a Saturday around one without getting burned.

Gardening with kids: the best weekend this month to plant together

Not the frost date on the packet. The right weekend to plant with children is the first warm, dry Saturday after the risk has passed. How to find it.

First frost is coming: a last garden afternoon with the children

How to see the garden's last good afternoon coming, what to do in it with the kids, and why to watch for a warm dry Saturday rather than the frost.

Best beach day this week for kids: how to pick it

Wind, UV, tide and the nap decide a family beach day, not the sun icon. How to read each one and choose the day of the week that gets them right.

Your family's first hike: choose the day before the trail

A first hike with children is decided by temperature, wind, rain and daylight before anyone laces a boot. Pick the day, then the trail. With a checklist.

Outdoor date ideas for every kind of good-weather day

Outdoor date ideas sorted by the kind of day: warm and sunny, clear and cold, golden hour, a calm evening. With this week's best evening in 25 cities.

40 cheap outdoor date ideas that only need a nice day

Forty dates that cost nothing or two coffees, sorted by the kind of good day they need. With this week's best evening for a date outside in 25 cities.

How to plan a date around the weather without checking the forecast every day

Couples lack the right Thursday, not ideas. Five steps to plan dates around the weather so neither of you checks a forecast, and why it is worth it.

Clear-night date ideas: when the sky will actually be clear this week

Which night this week will actually be clear, in 25 cities, judged hour by hour. Meteor showers, full moons and the aurora as excuses to be out late.

Does time outside help your mood? What the research actually says

The 120-minute study, the weather-and-mood experiments and the nature-prescription review, quoted in their own words with their own caveats.

A day off, outside: ideas sorted by the weather

Mental health day ideas outdoors, sorted by the day you have: mild, warm, cold and clear, grey, wet. Low effort, no schedule, nothing to be good at.

How to get outside more when you don't feel like it

What stands between wanting to get outside more and the door, and what helps: decide in advance, lower the bar, remove the weather excuse honestly.

Best apps for couples who want to get outside more

Cupla, Paired, DateBox and Perfect Day compared by the job each does, with prices from their own pages. Which you need depends on what you are short of.

$5 a year: what family and couples apps actually cost

A year of each, side by side, from each company's own page: free newsletters and calendars, a $5 weather heads-up, and boxed dates at over $500 a year.

Mommy Poppins and the local weekend newsletters: what they do, and what they don't

The family weekend newsletters tell you what is on. None tells you which day to do it. What they cover, in their own words, and how the two fit together.

Golf weather apps compared: is a $30-a-year app worth it?

Weather4Golf at $29.99 a year against Perfect Day at $5, compared by the job each does: looking at golf weather, or being told which morning to book.

Best cycling weather apps: the forecast for the ride, and the day to ride

Epic Ride Weather forecasts along your route once you have decided to ride. Perfect Day tells you which morning to ride. Two jobs, compared honestly.

Best fishing forecast apps, and the other half of a good day's fishing

Fishing apps predict the fish; Perfect Day predicts the day you will be glad you went. Fishing Points, Fishing Forecast and When to Fish compared.