Wikivoyage:Continent article template

[NOTE: This is a skeleton for creating articles about a continent. Continent articles contain links to regions and countries within the continent as well as general information about travel in that country. Detailed info is left up to country articles and particular travel information is left up to city articles, which contain the details of addresses, phone numbers, reviews, directions, etc. for attraction, restaurants, hotels, and the like. Continent articles are just a very brief overview of the countries and regions that it contains.

There should be no need to create new continent articles, because every continent already has had an article created for it, and if one disappears or a new one develops you'll likely have larger things to worry about than updating Wikivoyage to reflect it.

Stuff in italics below is editorial comment, with suggestions for what should go in each section. You should plan on ruthlessly eliminating it if you copy this code to a new continent article.]

The first section of the continent article does not have a heading. This is where you should put identifying information about the continent, so that the traveler has some idea what you're talking about. You can pull off a few sentences of interesting tidbits, but try to leave detailed information on history, culture, etc., for the Understand section.

Regions

This section is for listing any specific regions of a continent. For instance, Asia is divided into 6 areas (East Asia, Southeast Asia, etc) to make it easier to digest. List regions that make up the continent, with a brief one line description:

Region A - A mountainous wonderland that will change your life
Region B - warm beaches and slow lifestyle
Region C - ancient castles and inspiring museums

If a continent is not divided into regions and only lists countries, rename this section "countries" and list only the countries.

Cities

It can be tedious for travelers to traverse through a lot of articles to find the city they're looking for. That's why we list the most prominent cities of the continent here. When listing cities, do so alphabetically with a maximum of nine cities listed.

City A - fun and funky, great nightlife
City B - warm beaches and slow lifestyle
City C - ancient castles and inspiring museums

Other destinations

There are many destinations that aren't really cities; for example, large national parks like the Grand Canyon, or archaeological sites like Borobudur. Pick especially famous destinations that deserve a mention. It can be tedious for travelers to traverse through a lot of articles to find these destinations, that's why we list them here for quick navigation.

Park 1 - incredible mountainous park, great hiking
Park 2 - great rock formations and wildlife viewing
Ruins 1 - amazing ruins of an ancient civilization

Understand

This section of the page is where you give deeper background information about the continent: its history, culture, its people or peoples, relationships between the countries, etc. Some information about present-day situations in the continent that are relevant to travelers are broken out in separate sections below, so don't duplicate that information here. Also, try not to go too deeply into information about the separate countries, except perhaps in how they relate to each other; leave that for the country pages.

The CIA Factbook information for the country may be helpful to you in composing this section. The CIA Factbook information is broken down into tabular form; please integrate it into some readable prose text. Some information that may be helpful: location, climate, terrain, elevation extremes, natural hazards, population, nationality and ethnic groups, religions, languages (but see Talk below), economic overview, industries and agriculture.

Talk

Describe the languages used on the continent. How well can you get by with only English or another foreign language (Spanish in the non-hispanophone parts of South America, for example)? Also include information about the writing system -- will travellers need bilingual maps? It's often useful to link to the phrasebook for each language used, though for continents with many languages you can leave that info for the country pages.

Get in

Arrival overview for getting to the continent. This section should just contain a very brief overview of things the traveler might need to know and that applies to the whole continent (or a large part of it). Leave specific information about the individual countries for the country pages.

Get around

This is a spot to give general information about how to get around the continent once you are there. An overview of travel possibilities: air, train, and bus travel, long-distance taxis, ferries, etc. Try to keep the information general, with specifics left to the country articles.

See

Describe the types of attractions that can be found in the continent. Include the most famous attractions in the continent.

Do

Describe the most popular things to do in the continent and the best places to do each activity.

Buy

This section can be just a brief overview of things you may need to know about buying or that haggling is common. If there's broad info about ATM's or how best to access your money while no the continent, state that here. If it's complicated, leave the specifics for the country page.

Costs

Give rough estimates of how much one day of travelling on the continent costs, in three price brackets: bare-bones backpacker travel, luxury hotels and a comfortable medium between the extremes. Note if something (accommodation, transportation etc) is particularly cheap or expensive, or if there are major regional variations.

Eat

If there's something interesting about the food on the continent that applies to large parts or the whole, briefly describe it here. Keep this as general as possible and save the more detailed descriptions for the country articles. Do mention any general types of restaurant that travellers should look for (or avoid!). Mention national dishes, local or minority cuisines, and hints for vegetarians or other people on special diets.

Drink

Information on the continents's bars and nightlife. As with most other continent information, this as general as possible and save the detailed descriptions for the country articles. You can and should mention countries or regions with especially good nightlife, or interesting musical traditions. Also give an idea of bar and club etiquette.

Sleep

General information on the type of accommodations (pensions, guest houses, hostels, motels, etc.) travellers will encounter.

Stay safe

Words of warning for international travelers not familiar with the continents's climates or cultures. Include crime safety, natural hazards, regions of war and civil unrest, and any other potential dangers that the traveler mace face throughout the continent, but if it only applies to one country, leave it for that page.

Stay healthy

This section is for medical information, significant outbreaks of contagious diseases, recommended shots, and requirements for obtaining medicine or medical attention on the continent.

Connect

General information about staying in contact on the continent. How developed are phone networks in the continent? What Internet connectivity is available? Are Internet cafes plentiful? What is the post system like? How much are postage stamps, more or less? Are there other private services that provide delivery or mail service across the continent? As usual, don't list individual telephone centers or Internet cafes; save those for the city listings where they're located.