About
We started Must Lists because the internet broke discovery.
Every "10 best" listicle online is SEO sludge or affiliate bait. TripAdvisor is gamed. Google is enshittified. Atlas Obscura is great but narrow. Eater is great but food-only. Nobody owns the cross-category, high-bar, locally-verified hub.
That hub is the brand. The brand promise is the moat: if it isn't a must, it isn't on the list. We hold the bar. We do the cutting. We say no for a living.
Five lists per city: Must Do, Must See, Must Try, Must Eat, Must Drink. One curator per city. One editor reviewing every entry. Zero paid placements.
House rule No. 1
The point of a list is the things that are not on it.
House rule No. 2
Specific over general. Always.
House rule No. 3
Living, not static. The list updates when the place changes.
How it makes money (so you can trust it).
Must Lists is funded by the audience and by editorially clean revenue lines that do not touch the lists. Specifically: a paid newsletter for deeper city dispatches; a small membership product for a city's full archive; and clearly disclosed affiliate links inside travel-planning sidebars (never inside the body of a Must).
We do not sell list spots. We do not accept comped meals or stays in exchange for inclusion. We do not run sponsored content disguised as editorial. The lists are the product. The lists stay clean.