Wikivoyage:Region article template

Regions are somewhat nebulous organizational groupings we use on Wikivoyage to organize all the many cities in a country into some kind of navigable and comprehensible hierarchy. They can be sub-national political territories, like Minnesota or New South Wales, or more nebulous "tourist" regions like the French Riviera, or the American Southwest. Region articles tend to be more "soft", discussing the people, culture, climate, and cuisine in the region, rather than the legalistic stuff that's in a country article, or the addresses-and-phone-numbers stuff that's in a city article.

Before you plunge forward creating a region, keep in mind that we only add a new level of regions when there are too many cities or too much content in the existing breakdown. The regional hierarchy at Wikivoyage doesn't always follow the official breakdown—and frequently is much "flatter" than the official breakdown.

Almost always, individual listings (including detailed contact info for restaurants and hotels) do *not* belong in a region or sub-region page. The region-level description is a brief overview only; it will mention that Walt Disney World is near Orlando but not list full contact info. Don't name every hotel and eatery in the area. General descriptions like "many hotels in Orlando accommodate visitors to the Disney park", "multiple restaurants offer patios facing the river" or "various marinas in Ontario and New York rent boats to Thousand Islands visitors" are fine but leave it at that and save the lists of individual hotels, cafés and marinas for the city or local-level articles.

Individual listings should be placed at the lowest available level of local page (a district of a huge city or the city page for a small town). If something is in a tiny rural village too small to justify its own local article, alternatives include:

• creating a single local-level page for a broad, sparsely populated rural area (such as Rural Montgomery County) with multiple villages on one page,
• adding the listing in the appropriate main section (see/do, eat/drink, buy, sleep) in the nearest city page if the town is just a suburb of that city, or
• adding a section "Nearby" in an adjacent city article (before the "Go next" section). Divide this into a subsection named for each village in the surrounding area. Note that "Go next" normally lists the next destination which actually has an article in Wikivoyage.

Also, points of interest (such as those mentioned in "See" sections) should not usually have markers in region articles but should be linked to the bottom-level article where they have full listings.

To quickly insert a complete blank region template, copy-and-paste the quick version into the edit box on the page you are editing, or simply use {{subst:region}}, which will expand into the region template on save.

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

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The introduction to a region does not have a heading. This is the place for rhetorical flourish, not a list of dry facts; try to leave detailed information on history, culture, etc, for the Understand section. While some identifying information, rough borders, and links to the surrounding region – like New England in the Connecticut article – are helpful (so that the traveller has some idea what you're talking about), the main purpose of the lead paragraph is to hook the reader's interest.

Regions

Regions can have sub-regions, and those can have further sub-regions, and so on and so forth. If this region contains other regions, list them here with brief info about each. If not, leave this section out.

If the sub-regions have specific names ("county", "state", "province", etc.) feel free to change the name of this header to "Counties", "States", etc.

• The South - 1-5 sentences describing the highlights of this sub-region.
• The North - 1-5 sentences describing the highlights of this sub-region.
• The Coast - 1-5 sentences describing the highlights of this sub-region.
• Inland - 1-5 sentences describing the highlights of this sub-region.

Cities

It's usually a good idea, if there are a few prominent cities and towns in the region, to list them here, since that's often all that travellers are looking for. Regions without sub-regions, though, just have cities in them. List links to each city or locality, with a brief description for each. If the region has subregions, don't list more than 9 cities, but list the ones that are most important or most interesting to visitors. If there are more than nine cities in a bottom-level region, grouping them can make sense, such as by having minor towns share a bullet with a nearby city, or splitting the list by subregion; also consider dividing the region into proper subregions. If there really aren't any cities to list, leave out this section.

Per Wikivoyage:One-liner listings, cities and towns should be listed in alphabetical order. If the region corresponds to a political entity (such as a state or a province), always list its capital city first.

Lastly, if calling the settlements in this region "cities" is a real stretch – say, for remote or rural areas with only towns or villages – it's OK to rename this section 'Towns' or 'Villages' or 'Settlements' or whatever. But if there are lots of different kinds and sizes of settlements, just leave it as "Cities".

• City 1 - 1-5 sentences describing the highlights of this city.
• City 2 - 1-5 sentences describing the highlights of this city.
• City 3 - 1-5 sentences describing the highlights of this city.
• City 4 - 1-5 sentences describing the highlights of this city.

Other destinations

Sometimes a region has destinations that aren't really cities: for example, large national parks. If so, list them separately here, with descriptions. Otherwise, leave out this section. This section, too, can be renamed if all destinations fall into a nice category, e.g. "Islands" or "Beaches". As with the "Cities" section, if the article is for a region that's subdivided into sub-regions, no more than nine "other destinations" should be listed in this section.

• Park 1 - 1-5 sentences describing the highlights of this park.
• Park 2 - 1-5 sentences describing the highlights of this park.
• Island 3 - 1-5 sentences describing the highlights of this island.

Understand

This is a more subjective description of the region – what it's like, why someone would want to go there, the culture and atmosphere, the history, the weather, what makes it different and distinct from other regions.

Talk

If there are any language issues with the region that are different from the country as a whole, or the surrounding region, point them out here. Regional dialects of the national language, for example, are worth listing, as well as large local minority languages. Even local slang or sayings can be helpful to a first-time visitor. Consider linking to the phrasebook for the local language, if it's different from the country's language. If there really aren't any language issues, just leave this section out.

Get in

This is where you would note the best arrival points to start exploring this region from. For example, it would be worth listing Phoenix and Albuquerque as good starting points for the American Southwest. You can also give driving directions from large nearby cities that readers might be coming from. Save the nitty-gritty details of how to get to the main entry points for a region for their city pages, though.

Get around

This is where you'd give general information about how to get around the region once there. What are ways to see this region: by train, by car, by bus? Are there other options? This is also a good place to list regional travel discount passes or other purchasing options. Save point-to-point details for the individual city articles, though.

See

This is for an overview of the types of attractions as well as the principal attractions in the region. Don't give full details about each attraction (use prose, not a listing template); you should have that in the article for the city where the attraction is. If there isn't anything to say about the region's sights that isn't already covered by the descriptions in the Regions/Cities/Other destinations sections, or in the Understand section, then this section can be omitted.

Itineraries

This is where you can list any relevant itineraries, giving suggested courses of travel through the region with tips of things to see and do.

For example:

• The Loneliest Road in America is a drive through the remote parts of Nevada.

Do

This is for a summary of activities in the region, that is, things that travellers will do themselves. More active participation is needed for Do things than for See things. For example, going to see a river goes under See; kayak trips down the river go under Do. Don't give full details about each activity (use prose, not a listing template); you should have that in the article for the city instead. Not every activity in the region needs to be mentioned – just ones that are so important people expect them to be on the main page for the region. If there isn't anything to say about the region's activities that isn't already covered by the descriptions in the Regions/Cities/Other destinations sections, or in the Understand section, then this section can be omitted.

Eat

This is a great place to describe the regional cuisine. Are there any specialties that travellers should try while they're in this region? Immigrant or minority populations with their own cuisine? Try to mention lots of types of food, and keep people on special diets – like vegetarians or people eating kosher – in mind. If one or two linked destinations have especially notable dining scenes, note that here, but don't mention individual restaurants or such in the region article – save that for the individual city articles. Do mention, however, which cities or subregions have an especially notable dining scene. If there isn't anything to say about the region's restaurants and cuisine that isn't already covered by the descriptions in the Regions/Cities/Other destinations sections, or in the Understand section, then this section can be omitted.

Drink

This section is for all kinds of nightlife, not just drinking. Are there regional specialties for alcohol, wine, beer, etc.? What about music and entertainment, like honky tonks for Texas or folk music in the Atlantic Provinces? What is there to do in this region that makes it different? If nightlife is concentrated in one or only some of the linked destination articles, note that here. If there isn't anything to say about the region's nightlife or specialty drinks that isn't already covered by the descriptions in the Regions/Cities/Other destinations sections, or in the Understand section, then this section can be omitted.

Sleep

The sleep section is optional, and often left out to discourage spammers from adding their hotels here. If included in the article, this section should explain what to expect in terms of accommodations; it should highlight region-specific types of accommodations. It is sometimes appropriate to also explain which cities have the bulk of the accommodations options.

Stay safe

If there are any particular safety issues – crime, weather, etc. – for the region in general, describe them here. If one section of the region is much more dangerous than the rest, that is also a good thing to note. If there isn't anything to say about regional safety issues that isn't already covered by the descriptions in the Regions/Cities/Other destinations sections, or in the Understand section, then this section can be omitted.

Go next

Information about nearby destinations that would serve as a good "next stop". Provide a brief description of other nearby destination suggestions, neighboring cities or day-trip ideas. Don't duplicate information that's up in "Get in". For really large regions, if it makes no sense to suggest a day trip at such a high level, just leave the section out. But be careful – while California is a big region, it should still have a Go next because Las Vegas is indeed a popular weekend destination for all Californians.

At the end of the article, you may find various templates like {{outline}} and interwiki links like [[de:Vorgabe für Regionen]]. These have special functions; please do not change or delete them unless you understand what they mean.