Bachelor party : optimize your itinerary with a network problem
July 31, 2013

Your best buddy is about to put the old ball and chain (or tie the knot if you prefer). As you will be the best man, obviously you have to organize him the best bachelor party ever.

You know that Montreal is a pole for nightlife and everything. Seriously, in which other city can you get out of your university and find a Stripclub on the other side of the street? True Story.

So you made up a list of the hypiest places in town. Microbreweries, great restaurants, cigars and whiskeys, strippers, bars and late night snack places are on the menu. Problem is : there are a few places of each type and they are not in the same area of the city. The other thing is that you have to take into account your hotel. You will drop your stuff there in the afternoon and have to go back to the same place at (unspecified time) in the morning.

If you're curious, here's the list »
 1 The Start Hotels 2 The Extreme Wow Suite at the W Hotel 3 The Medium and Large Hospitality Suites at the Centre Sheraton 4 The Presidential Suite at the Hotel 10 Micro-breweries 5 Broue Pub Brouhaha 6 Dieu du Ciel 7 L’Amère a Boire 8 St. Bock 9 Vices et Versa Restaurants 10 Buonanotte 11 Cavalli 12 Gibbys 13 Globe 14 La Queue de Cheval 15 Moishes 16 Rib’n Reef Steakhouse 17 The Keg 18 Vargas 19 Wood 35 Cigars Clubs 20 La Queue de Cheval 21 Rib’n Reef Steakhouse 22 Stogies Cigar Lounge 23 whisky café Strip Clubs 24 Chez Paree 25 Club Downtown 26 Kamasutra 27 Kingdom 28 Wandas Clubs 29 Buonanotte 30 Muzique 31 Pinq Taco 32 Rouge 33 Velvet Late night snack 34 Boustan 35 La Banquise 36 Maison VIP in Chinatown 37 Moe’s (Casse-Croute du Coin) 38 The Main Back to the Hotel 39 The Extreme Wow Suite at the W Hotel 40 The Medium and Large Hospitality Suites at the Centre Sheraton 41 The Presidential Suite at the Hotel 10 42 The end

As you want to spend the least possible time and money in a cab in order to party more and better, you need me to plan your evening. A nice network problem will definitely solve your case.

The trick in networks is to put more emphasis on the sequence of steps of your travel rather than on the geographical position of the places. What is important is only the distance between two amazing entertainment venues.

Because the network looks like a real monster, you can see it here »

You’ll understand that because of the size, I refrained myself from indicating the distances.

The numbers math those of the previous list.

To find the best route, it’s better if we have a goal. Because you can’t predict traffic, we’ll try to minimize the mileage, so the Distance.

Min Distance

The variables are each edge (edge = line between two places).

Let $x_{from, to}$ be equal to 1 if we use this part of the route and 0 otherwise.

The total Distance will then actually be

Distance = sum of all $distance_{to, from}* x_{to, from}$ so what we consider is the distance between those two places.

Because what we mainly want to know is WHERE to go, we have to tell our model that if you enter a place, you also have to go out of it. What goes in = what goes out. Nothing is lost, nothing is created, this thing is called the flow conservation constraints.

The constraints will look like something like this : $\text{ sum of }x_{restaurants, stogies} =\text{ sum of }x_{stogies, strip clubs}$. And we repeat this for all the other entertainment venues.

That’s all!

But I know that what you want to know is the results.

So here is what my model suggests you to do :

• Go first drop your stuff at the Presidential Suite of the Hotel 10.
• Go to l’Amère à Boire to consume your afternoon.
• Go eat to the Cavalli and take a cigar to the Queue de Cheval.
• Stripclub time at Wanda’s for naked girls and Club time at Pinq Taco to pick-up girls. You’re the Best man, enjoy yourself.
• Late night snack at the Main.
• Sleep time. Or wathever-you-prefer time.
• And everything in about 7.5 km. That’s pretty good.
To see the route »

What I think of that :

• The Benelux wasn’t in your microbrewery list but it’s definitely an economic mileage alternative. (Trip reoptimised in 6.3km)
To see the new route »

• Why dine at the Cavalli? Go directly eat and take a cigar at the Queue de Cheval
• Your question : why do the model think that the distance between l’Amère à Boire, the Cavalli and the Queue de Cheval is shorter that to go directly from l’Amère à Boire to the Queue de Cheval?
• My answer : Google Maps is a capricious kid. For ‘him’ the shortest path goes most of the time on the biggest roads to go faster and not to limit the mileage. Because seriously, it is never shorter to add a stop to a route. Like never.
• You don’t really have to go to the Pinq Taco. The Buonanotte, the Muzique and the Rouge are all located at 500m or less from the Pinq Taco. You can even go bar hooping if you like.

As you may know, I am not a guy. I’m not about to be bestman nor to have the skills to be one. To be breasted in those kind of situations is not a plus apparently. Therefore, I’d like to thanks those websites to exist because it educated me and allowed me to have the resources to entertain you :  Boys Night Out Montreal et Connected Montreal

PhotoCredits : Pathethic/Deviantart