Wikivoyage:Destination guides to rural areas
Wikivoyage has a hierarchy of articles, the lowest level being termed a city article. However, a city article can be about a collection of settlements or points of interest in a rural, low-populated area.
Before creating an article for a small community it is recommended to consider adding information to an existing article or creating an article that covers a reasonably large area. It is not always useful or helpful to readers to create a page that has just one listing, blank articles are just frustrating for readers to click through. The author should aim for an article that has at least three points of interest (attractions, specific activities or places to eat, drink, sleep), preferably a destination/area someone would consider staying overnight, but if not at least visiting for most of the day. If covering a larger area in the article seems sensible, choose name and description accordingly.
If you want to add an interesting location such as a castle, or a good restaurant or hotel that is not near any town is in a settlement with no other attractions and facilities, consider the following options:
1. Add to a nearby town
- Identify a village or administrative town nearby that already has an article. You can try the related Wikipedia article for suggestions.
- Add the listing information there.
- On that page maybe mention in the Understand or introduction section the name of nearby settlements that are to be included.
- Create a redirect of the small location to the page
- Example: Scharfenstein Castle near Kiedrich and Hotel Kronenschlösschenis in Hattenheim are on the Eltville page.
2. Create an article on a rural area
- A city article can be for an island, a group of islands or a rural area with a number of settlements/hamlets
- Examples for islands: Thousand Islands, East Frisian Islands
- Examples for rural areas: Rural Montgomery County, Worcester Hills, Brookfields, The Catlins
3. Create a Park article.
- If the area is a notable area of natural beauty or conservation or know as a rural tourist destination then a park article can be used
- This will allow definition of remote attractions and lodgings but can contain a town/city within its boundary if there is a concentration of points of interest.
- Examples: (Banff National Park which contains the towns of Banff and Lake Louise).
4. Add to the region page the location is in, either as listing (See, East , Sleep) or as text in the city/town/village list with a red link to the settlement.
- Example red-link city Vaihingen an der Enz
- Example of listings at region level Orkney Islands
5. Add additional city article to existing region that represents an area of an existing, administrative area, city article.
- Examples in Suffolk County (New York), such as Montauk hamlet in East Hampton town.
As with any Wiki site, Wikivoyage is a dynamic and evolving project. If the number of listings in a rural area or region page becomes relatively large, then it may be a good idea to create a page for a small settlement that contains or is close to some of them. Information should then be moved to the new page.