Traveling Salesman Problem: Shortest-possible Walking Tour Through The Pubs Of The UK

[6Foot2]

Link 1: UK Pubs Traveling Salesman Problem

 

Nearly everyone in the UK knows by heart the best path to take them over to their favorite public house. But what about jotting down the shortest route to visit every pub in the country and return home safely? That is what we set out to do.

 

Okay, maybe every pub is overstating the goal. Pubs in the UK are closing shop or starting up, fresh and new, all of the time. Any route would be out-of-date by the time it was created. So we set a more modest goal: find the shortest route to visit some 24,727 stops found on the great Web site Pubs Galore - The UK Pub Guide.

 

This is a concrete target. But still an overstatement. Only a real local could possibly know every shortcut, slipping between buildings and along dark allies, to find the absolute best way to reach The Fiddler's Elbow or The Bald Faced Stag. This is well out of reach for a humble team of mathematicians...

 

Looking at my hometown there are three pubs omitted, all of which are long-established (one of which started as an ale house in the 16^th century, but I don't want to pick holes here, just acknowledging that this study does have its limitations and they are not difficult to find)

 

Link 2: 24,727 UK Pubs [interactive map of the tour (takes a while to load)]

 

[DalekSec]

My local isn't on there!

 

I'm from a small town and there is currently 2/6 pubs on that map!

[pscott]

They missed the good pub in my village!

[unixman_again]

There are five pubs where I live. They've managed to include four, but omitted the one in the High Street and included one that is closed, although we can probably forgive that as you'd need local knowledge to know.

[Duranis]

No idea if it gets all the pubs we have here. For a small coastal town we certainly have a lot of places to get a drink in (I counted at least 20 in my head but probably missed some).