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Wikivoyage:Article status

Wikivoyage articles evolve and mature, as they are edited by various contributors, over time. When assessing an article's status, many factors must be taken into account. The following subjective guidelines are to assist editors in making this assessment, considering the amount of information in an article, and its quality and usefulness. The article's compliance with Wikivoyage's goals and Manual of Style should also be considered.

Status criteria
The status is on a 5-point scale:

 * 1) Symbol plain grey.svg Stub – An article with little or no information in it, or not formatted even close to the manual of style. An article with no skeleton template would have this status, which tends to be short-lived: If the article's subject is valid, adding the standard section headers will quickly bring it to "outline" status. If the page has no real chance of ever becoming an article (or even being redirected or merged to an existing article) that meets Wikivoyage's goals, it will typically be tagged delete and removed. An article unrelated to travel, or a page of graffiti with a nonsense title would be speedily deleted; an article whose ability to meet the criteria is merely questionable or borderline could be nominated for vfd.
 * 2) Start-icon.svg Outline – Has at least an introduction and a template outline laid out for the article, but not much more. Some of the sections may have content, but others are empty. You can tell what this article is going to be about, but it doesn't have enough information to be useful (e.g. get you to a destination and keep you alive there) or it needs major content or Manual of Style fixes.
 * 3) Symbol keep vote.svg Usable – An adventurous person could use the article without recourse to other information sources. For most articles, this means they could probably get to the destination, eat, and sleep with just this information. It would probably enable them to find at least the most prominent attraction there. For countries and regions, linked sub-destinations like cities and other destinations should have meaningful content too.
 * 4) Symbol support vote.svg Guide – The article would be helpful for the average voyager, offering alternatives (where applicable) for where to stay and eat, what to see and do, how to get in and out, etc. It provides enough information for at least a few days there, but at least a few things are missing to make this a star article. It follows the manual of style in spirit if not in detail.
 * 5) Symbol star gold.svg Star – The article is essentially complete. It meets all of the above criteria.  It follows the manual of style exactly or is the exception that proves the rule.  Prose is not only near-perfect grammatically but also tight, effective, and enjoyable. It has appropriate illustrations, such as photos and a map.  Enough breadth and depth of material is presented that anyone familiar with the subject of the article would have little to point out as absent. Future changes to this kind of article would reflect changes in the subject (e.g. a museum closes, a hotel price changes, a new airport is built) more than they'd require improvements in the coverage.

Objective criteria for each status vary depending on the kind of article it is. For more concrete guidance on assigning status, see:
 * City article status (also for districts and rural areas)
 * Region article status (also for continents and continental sections)
 * Country article status
 * Itinerary status
 * Travel topic status
 * Phrasebook status
 * Park article status
 * Airport article status

A similar system for article status exists on Wikipedia, however the categories have different names:

Changing status
Only articles in the main namespace have a status. Extra-hierarchical regions, disambiguation pages and redirects do not have one.

The status is expressed by the status tags at the end of the articles, such as and. In these templates the status is the first word and the article type is the second word, with no space between the two words. See the links above for the full article status list.

Anyone is strongly encouraged to plunge forward and update the status tag of articles to stub, outline or usable as appropriate. If you're not sure, or if you don't feel comfortable judging your own work, then you can ask on the article's talk page or on a help page such as the Travellers' pub. If you do change the status and somebody objects and reverts your change, that does not mean you have made a faux pas: on the contrary, as anyone can revert you, don't be too concerned about whether others agree with your assessment.

Don't ever edit war over borderline cases. Someone might rate the page a little generously or a little stingily, and the borderline cases are just not important. If you think the status should be raised, then address any deficiencies by adding listings, contact details or whatever the other party thought was needed for the higher status. If you don't see any significant deficiencies, or those you see cannot be addressed because of the nature of the destination, ask or explain on the article talk page (or in the Pub) and try to reach a consensus. If you think the status should be lowered, similarly express your concerns (or improve the article to meet the higher rating!).

Upgrading to guide can also be done by anybody, though it is common to ask on the talk page whether there still are improvements to be done before upgrading.

To change an articles status to or from star status they must go through a nomination process.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Wikivoyage:Article status


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Wikivoyage:Article skeleton templates

To provide for a more consistent layout for readers of Wikivoyage, we use article skeletons for most destination-style articles. You can use the following templates either to start a new article, or as guidelines for reformatting or adding to existing articles. If you want a rapid way of adding the necessary categories to an article, you should just add the boilerplate template eg.   to an article, press save and all the categories will appear. When creating a new page, the buttons above the edit window will do this for you automatically.

An overview of the various template categories (region, city, etc.) can be found at Geographical hierarchy.

Descriptions of each of the sections in the article templates can be found at Article skeleton templates/Sections.
 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left;width:90%;"

!Full article template !Copy and paste version !Substitution version !Used for How to use the templates
 * Continent
 * (quick version)
 * continents
 * Country
 * (quick version)
 * countries and political units that function like countries
 * Region
 * (quick version)
 * regions, states, counties, divisions and provinces within a country
 * Small region
 * regions, states, counties, divisions and provinces within a country, too small to be divided further
 * Large region
 * regions, states, counties, divisions and provinces within a country, to be divided into subregions without their own articles
 * Huge region
 * regions, states, counties, divisions and provinces within a country, to be divided into subregions with their own articles
 * Small city
 * (quick version)
 * villages or towns, and cities without a lot of tourist attractions
 * Big city
 * (quick version)
 * bigger cities with lots to do
 * Huge city
 * (quick version)
 * cities so big that they must be broken up into districts
 * District
 * (quick version)
 * districts within a huge city
 * Park
 * (quick version)
 * national parks, large natural areas, and large archaeological sites that need their own articles
 * Rural area
 * (quick version)
 * for a collection of sights outside of cities that need their own articles
 * Airport
 * (quick version)
 * singularly huge and complex airports the size of small cities such as Kansai International Airport or Heathrow Airport, but not typical metropolitan or regional airports.
 * Itinerary
 * (quick version)
 * travel itineraries
 * Phrasebook
 * (quick version)
 * language phrasebooks (see also: Phrasebook Expedition)
 * Travel topic
 * (quick version)
 * travel topics
 * }
 * District
 * (quick version)
 * districts within a huge city
 * Park
 * (quick version)
 * national parks, large natural areas, and large archaeological sites that need their own articles
 * Rural area
 * (quick version)
 * for a collection of sights outside of cities that need their own articles
 * Airport
 * (quick version)
 * singularly huge and complex airports the size of small cities such as Kansai International Airport or Heathrow Airport, but not typical metropolitan or regional airports.
 * Itinerary
 * (quick version)
 * travel itineraries
 * Phrasebook
 * (quick version)
 * language phrasebooks (see also: Phrasebook Expedition)
 * Travel topic
 * (quick version)
 * travel topics
 * }
 * travel itineraries
 * Phrasebook
 * (quick version)
 * language phrasebooks (see also: Phrasebook Expedition)
 * Travel topic
 * (quick version)
 * travel topics
 * }
 * Travel topic
 * (quick version)
 * travel topics
 * }
 * }

There are two main ways these article templates can be useful.

 * For creating new articles: when you're creating a new article, look for the template that most closely fits the subject of your article. For example, if you're making a new article about a region, click the Region button above the edit window (in the empty new article) to automatically fill in the article skeleton, and then start adding in the information that you know. Don't forget to change the city and region names in the first line! You could also copy and paste the content.
 * For editing existing articles: if you want to add a new restaurant listing to New York City, you can refer to the huge city article template to see how it's done. Similarly, if someone else has added in a bunch of stuff to an article, and you want to reorganize it, you can refer to the appropriate template to see how we like to have stuff organized.

Note that these templates are not MediaWiki templates. See Using MediaWiki templates.

Why does every city article have to look (about) the same?
We think it's great to have simple, logical sections to each destination guide on Wikivoyage. This makes it easier for readers to find the piece of information they need on any particular destination. Sure, it cuts down somewhat on contributors' creative license, but the traveller comes first around here. We want travellers to get the info they need as easily as possible.

There are really no hotels or campgrounds in [name of small city]. Do I still have to have a Sleep section?
Yes. Travellers want to have a place where to lay their head, and they should be able to make arrangements in advance, using our articles. If a town has absolutely no places to sleep, then you should note this in the Sleep section (and suggest alternatives, if possible). If you just don't have any information at hand, then leave the section empty, and somebody else will come along to fill it up.

The following sections are obligatory for city articles and should never be removed (although some can be combined, if they'd otherwise be silly):
 * Get in
 * Get around
 * See
 * Do
 * Eat
 * Sleep

Subsections, on the other hand, can and should be removed if it makes sense to do so. For example, Easter Island doesn't need a By train section under Get in or Get around, because it's a trainless island in the middle of the ocean.

What are all the possible section names that can be in a destination article, and their correct order?
A destination guide can have the following headings in the following order. Please see the templates above for which ones are best for use for each type of destination. Article skeleton templates/Sections has some more discussion.

A destination guide can have the following headings in the following order:

 * Understand
 * Talk
 * Get in
 * Fees/permits (parks only)
 * Get around
 * See
 * Do
 * Learn
 * Work
 * Buy
 * Eat
 * Drink
 * Sleep
 * Stay safe
 * Stay healthy
 * Respect
 * Connect
 * Cope
 * Go next

Region and country articles can also have the following headings:

 * Regions
 * Cities
 * Other destinations

Huge cities (that have been districtified) can also have the following heading at the start of the article:

 * Districts

Why do all the sections have such weird names? What about Lodging and Restaurants instead?
The main reason we do this is because we don't want Wikivoyage guides to look just like any existing commercial guides. Why not? Well, first, so Wikivoyage looks distinctive. People should see a guide and say, "Hey! See, Do, Eat – this came from Wikivoyage! Those guys rock!" The other is to discourage wholesale copyright violation by well-meaning but ill-informed contributors. We don't want folks copying stuff in directly from their tattered 1974 Europe on a Shoestring guidebook. We figured that if the formatting was different enough, that would be too much of a hassle to deal with.

I have a section I want to add, but it's not about Eat, Do, See, Sleep, Get in, or any of those. What do I do?
First, make sure it really doesn't fit in with the templates. Where you can stick it gives some ideas for where to put different kinds of info. Usually you can fit it in as a sub-section of one of the main sections – such as Understand.

If your information really doesn't fit anywhere, discuss it on the talk page, and give an explanation of what it is for. If the consensus is that a new section is required, it can be added to the template.

I have an article I want to add, but it's not a city, region, country, or anything else with a template. What do I do?
First of all, make sure that your contribution is really something we want to have on Wikivoyage. Check our goals and non-goals as well as What is an article?.

Anyway, we have lots of articles on places that don't really fit the templates. No worries: pick one that comes close, add sections that make sense but are missing from that template, perhaps even new sections (which probably will be integrated in the standard structure by other editors).

If you really think using the templates makes things awkward, then just start the article without a template. Perhaps what you are writing isn't a destination article at all, but a travel topic article. Those do have a template, but not any standard sections (although our usual ones are used where they fit). You might also want to ask for advice in the travellers' pub.

What's the difference between a small, big and huge city?
Well, it's more a matter of the size of the article than the size of the city. But you could break it down like this: small cities are cities that aren't going to have a ton of information on them. We just take some of the most important sections about a city – where to eat, where to sleep, what to see – and put them in the small city's article. Big cities are cities big enough that we need all the sections about a city in there. A huge city is a city that's so big that we can't fit all the information into one page. So we just get some overarching information and highlights about the city onto the main city page, and then put other info into the pages for the districts in the city. So, there's nothing really rigid about the differences, just different ways of writing about the cities. Feel free to add any section heading from the big city template to your small city article if that makes sense.

What of a tiny village?
An article should contain a reasonable number of things to see or do, as one of our goals is to create pages of reasonable length which the voyager can print and carry in their travels.

Often the small city skeleton will be the best fit, if a village, however tiny, has enough to offer to justify an article of its own.

When the one village doesn't merit an article, you can combine a group of small villages, or a town and a group of surrounding communities, to one common article:

 * A village which is a suburb of a small city may be simply listed as part of that city. This avoids many small articles which will only have one thing to see or do.
 * Collections of rural villages like Rural Montgomery County or Prince Edward County may use the rural area skeleton, or a city skeleton as if the group were one single community.
 * A separate section may be created within a city article to cover a small nearby (but non-contiguous) village (or several). Depot Harbour is an Ontario ghost town; we list it at Parry Sound. Likewise, the biblical ruins of Nineveh were listed at Mosul.
 * If a village (with an eatery, sight or lodging) really doesn't make sense visiting other than for people travelling along a specific route, which has an itinerary article, then it is probably best described in that article. If visits from a nearby city are probable, then describe it as a nearby destination as above, and link it from the itinerary as usual.
 * Occasionally, a free-standing ghost town in an isolated location may have its own article, even if this means sending the voyager to some other town in search of food or lodging. This may be needed if the village is nowhere near anything else. Glenrio can't be easily merged into another destination as it's an isolated site divided by the Texas-New Mexico boundary. Listing it at Adrian or Vega would force it entirely into Texas, while listing it at Tucumcari would push it into New Mexico. Sometimes the park skeleton is a better fit in these cases – at least check whether advice on park or rural area articles make sense, and add information (perhaps Understand subsections) accordingly.

What template should be used for islands?
Firstly, make sure that the island merits an article—we don't create articles for every rock in the sea.

Which template to use depends on the island. If the island is itself a country, like Madagascar, use the country article template. If the island contains several cities/towns that each merit an individual article (like Maui), make it a region article. If the island contains one huge city (like Montréal), create it as a huge city and divide it into districts as needed. An island which contains part of a huge city (such as Odaiba in Tokyo) might be a district itself. Conversely, if the island is small and only has one city, or a handful of tiny settlements, don't subdivide it but instead, just use the small city or rural area skeleton. For example, there's no reason to create a separate article for Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda. If an entire large island or a group of islands is a national or provincial/state park, where any settlements really aren't destinations in themselves, use the park skeleton. If there is a park and a city, consider whether the park can be described in the city article, or whether it is better to have separate articles.

Where do external links or links to other travel information sites go?
See the external links policy for details of how external links should be used.

To avoid slippery slopes only external links to primary sources are allowed within the body of Wikivoyage articles. A link to a hotel's official web site is a primary source, but a link to a site that reviews hotels or makes bookings is not. There are a few exceptions, see the policy.

We used to have an External links section but removed it for the following reasons:
 * It was was being abused by spammers and others who didn't read the external links policy.
 * It meant that relevant links to another website got separated from other information in the article.

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Wikivoyage:Article skeleton templates/Sections

This guide explains each of Wikivoyage's standard article sections and what sort of information each should contain. If you have a specific type of item in mind and want to know where it goes, check out Where you can stick it. If you have a specific type of article in mind and want to know what sections it should have, use Article skeleton templates. The individual article skeletons also include more detailed information specific to each kind of article.

Lead section
The lead section does not begin with a header; it's all the text before the first section heading. The main purpose of the lead paragraph is to hook the reader's interest and identify what the article will talk about.

For destination articles, this is where you should put identifying information about the destination, so that the traveller has some idea what you're talking about. Try to link to the next higher level in the geographical hierarchy – link to the country for top-level regions, for instance. Rough borders for the area help give context here, too. You can pull off a few sentences of interesting tidbits, but try to leave detailed information on history, culture, etc., for the Understand section.

On many search engines, text from the lead section will appear under the article title in the search results.

An indication of the population of a city or town can be useful for letting travellers know what level of services to expect. For places with more than 500 people, Wikivoyage generally rounds population figures to 2 significant figures, e.g., "3.4 million in 2024" instead of "3,357,890 in 2024", or "8400 in 2022" instead of "8409 in 2022". (The date should be added to let editors know when the figure should be updated.)

Regions
Only used in Continent, Country, and Region articles. Not required; use only if there are subregions to list.

Most countries can and should be divided into smaller areas, called "regions", with articles about each region giving more detailed information. Regions can also be divided into sub-regions.

Try to divide an area into traditional or well-agreed regions, according to the guidelines on the geographical hierarchy page. List them here, with links to the article pages for each region, and a short description of the region to give travellers some idea of what the region is about.

If the regions have specific names ("county", "state", "province", "canton", etc.) feel free to change the name of this header to "Counties", "States", etc. Remember, though, that legal divisions don't always make the best divisions for a travel guide.

Be sure to provide a 1–5 sentence description of each region, per One-liner listings.

Countries and territories
Only used in Continent and Continental Section articles. Required in Continental Section articles. Each continent is a little different though, so use best judgement.

Cities
Only used in Country and Region articles. Required unless there are no individual settlements within a region.

Some regions (and even some countries) are so small that they only have a few cities; you can simply list them here, rather than making up regions or sub-regions. Otherwise, don't list every single city in the area! List the main cities alphabetically, to a maximum of nine. For Countries, and for Regions that are legal divisions of a country (such as a U.S. state), list the capital city first.

A bottom-level region (such as Adirondacks) may need to list more than nine small villages. Splitting a "Cities" section into small geographic subsections on the same page may be a means to keep these lists manageable without creating additional subregion articles.

Be sure to provide a 1–5 sentence description of each city (shorter descriptions are suggested for higher level regions), per One-liner listings.

Unless the region is not subdivided (in which case every constituent city must be listed), avoid changing an established list without gaining consensus for the change first. For many regions (and especially countries and continents) the selection of cities can be controversial because there is no objective way to pick just nine, but we've done our best and it doesn't help the site to allow frequent changes.

Other destinations
Only used in Country and Region articles. Optional, but only if no Other Destinations exist.

Sometimes an area has destinations that aren't really cities; for example, large national parks like the Grand Canyon, or archaeological sites like Angkor Wat. List other destinations alphabetically, to a maximum of nine.

Be sure to provide a 1-5 sentence description of each destination (shorter descriptions are suggested for higher level regions), per One-liner listings.

Districts
Only used in Huge City articles. Required.

Most of the meat of the information about a huge city is divided up into the individual district articles. You should list the districts here, as well as a short blurb (per One-liner listings) about the district that lets readers know what is most relevant about the district for travel, what neighborhoods constitute the district, etc. Every district listed should have clearly defined borders to make it easy for other Wikivoyagers to know where to stick new listings. See the District article template for the structure of district articles.

Understand
Recommended in all destination articles. Required for Country, Region, Large City, Huge City, and Park articles.

This section of the page is where you give deeper background information about the destination. It's largely free-form, paragraph text which can be used to educate the reader, add a bit of local colour and flavour or explain why this destination is different and unique.

Content can vary widely depending on the destination type. For countries, information about its culture, its people or peoples, and relationships to other countries is useful. For cities, focus on what makes the city unique within its country. Don't duplicate information that can be found in other sections. Also, try not to go too deeply into information about lower levels in the hierarchy, except perhaps in how they relate to each other; leave that for the region or city articles.

Understand has a few standard but completely optional sub-headings:
 * Orientation (geography, city articles)
 * Name
 * History
 * People (for country/region articles)
 * Climate
 * Talk (for city and some region articles)
 * Holidays (for country articles)
 * Read (for iconic literature about the destination, not for travel guides)
 * Watch (for travel documentaries, films and series, not for video links)
 * Visitor information (for tourism information offices and contact information)

Feel free to add others as necessary.

Keep in mind that all of this information should be useful for travellers. For example, the 'history' section should not compete with ample Wikipedia articles, but help the traveller to link specific places and events to a larger historical period. The 'climate' section should contain what a traveller has to know, not what meteorologists find interesting.

Talk
Used in Country and Region articles, and very rarely in city, park and rural area articles (where it should be a subsection of Understand). Required in Country articles.

Describe the language or languages used in the area. How well can you get by with only English or another foreign language (French in Vietnam for example)? Also include information about the writing system – will travellers need a bilingual map? It is often useful to link to the phrasebook for each language used. If English is the only language used, you can just state that, and that should be enough.

For other than Country articles, only include information that differs from that of the surrounding country; if it's simple, you can make Talk a subsection of Understand. Don't include the section unless there's something notable to say.

Get in
Used in any destination article. Required in all cases except the global, top-level Destinations list.

This section should contain information on how to get to the destination.

For countries, and territories with an independent immigration system, give visa or other legal information, as well as warnings about border crossings.

Information should involve getting to the location primarily from within the next highest levels in the hierarchy. For example, for getting into California, focus on overland routes from adjacent US states (Oregon, Nevada, Arizona) as well as Mexico. For getting into a city, list driving directions from nearby cities, not from a city on the other side of the country, and don't include extensive customs information (which belongs in the country article).

"Get in" sections should have a subsection for each of the major modes of transportation used to get to the destination, in order by prominence. The subsections should be named (but not necessarily ordered) as follows:
 * By plane
 * By train
 * By bus
 * By car (for all private motor vehicles)
 * By boat (or "By ferry")
 * By thumb (for hitchhiking)
 * By bicycle
 * By foot (for walking; rare)

Fees and permits
Used in Park articles. Required.

Entrance fees, camp site fees, hiking permits and fees along with any notable rules and regulations.

Get around
Used in any destination article. Required in all cases except for District articles.

This is a spot to give general information about how to get around the destination 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 in the articles covering larger areas, with more specifics as you get down further in the hierarchy.

Use the same subsections as those for Get in. Only include subsections that make sense for the level in the hierarchy and the specific destination.

See
Used in any destination article. Required in all cases except for region articles, where it is strongly recommended for high-level regions and optional for lower-level regions. May be combined with "Do" if making a distinction between attractions and activities is difficult or unnecessary (as with amusement parks or very small destinations).

This is for attractions in the area. Attractions are passive by nature, involving things that are more-or-less permanently available for viewing. Galleries and museums, zoos, parks, and landmarks are examples. Scenery and observation towers also fall under "See".

For articles using the Small City, Big City, District, and Park templates, you can include a brief overview, but the majority of the section should be made up of listings for individual attractions.

For articles using the Country, Region, and Huge City templates, don't give full details about each attraction. Use prose, not a listing template. If there are some attractions that people are going to be expecting, or just attractions that people really shouldn't miss, make sure to call them out and link to the location where the full listing can be found.

Some destinations have too many attractions to list them all. A cluster of similar landmarks, art galleries etc, could be described with one entry.

Itineraries
Used in any destination article. Optional, but only if there are no relevant itineraries.

This subsection of "See" is a list of itineraries related to the destination. Give brief descriptions for each itinerary per One-liner listings.

Do
Used in any destination article. Required in all cases except for region articles, where it is strongly recommended for high-level regions and optional for lower-level regions. It may be combined with "See" if making a distinction between attractions and activities is difficult or unnecessary (as with amusement parks or very small destinations).

This is for activities in the area. Activities are usually active by nature, plus scheduled events. Sports (both participatory and spectator), casinos, theaters, and tours are examples. Recreational activities like hiking, boating, or skiing also fall under "Do".

For articles using the Small City, Big City, District, and Park templates, you can include a brief overview, but the majority of the section should be made up of listings for individual activities.

For articles using the Country, Region, and Huge City templates, don't give full details about each activity. Use prose, not a listing template. If there are some activities that people are going to be expecting, or just activities that people really shouldn't miss, make sure to call them out and link to the location where the full listing can be found.

Events
Used routinely in city articles. Brief local activities which recur on a scheduled, periodic basis (often annually) – festivals, parades, winter carnivals, celebrations or fireworks on national holidays.

Learn
Used in any destination article, but mostly in Country, Big City, and District articles. Optional.

For larger destinations, this should include general information about schools and classes for language, culture, or other activities that international travellers may be interested in. City guides can include specifics, as well as unique opportunities for learning. Don't just list local colleges, though; make sure they have specific value for a traveller.

If a local university is being listed primarily for its architecture, its concert halls or its museums, it may make more sense to include it as an attraction ("See") or activity in its home city.

Work
Used in any destination article, but mostly in Country articles. Optional.

What options are there are for travellers to find work in the area? Ideas on jobs, work visas, volunteer opportunities and resources. Be wary of Project scope; the "Learn" or "Work" opportunities must target an audience of travellers, not long-term residents or permanent immigrants.

If a country is part of a trading bloc which allows citizens of other member countries to seek paid work, this section (in the Country article) should say so.

Buy

 * See Listings for details on what to list.

Used in any destination article. Required for Country and City articles; optional otherwise.

This section varies widely depending on the level in the geographical hierarchy. For countries, this section must include information on currency and currency exchange, shopping customs, duties and taxes, and attaining funds from home.

For all other levels, the section should contain information on goods that can be purchased in the area. Be general in Region and Huge City articles; specific listings should only be in Small City, Big City, District, Rural area and Park articles.

In bottom-level articles, each shopping mall, shopping centre, and market hall usually has a single entry, with stores and services described in brief. A street or neighborhood with a cluster of similar competing stores could be listed as one single entry.

Individual retailers could be listed if they are in a historic building or otherwise an attraction in its own right, large, unique, the only retailer of its business in the city, or due to favorable price, product range, location or opening hours.

In some very sparsely-populated and remote places, it may be necessary to list the "last" or "only" opportunity to obtain provisions, fuel, repairs or other essentials for the next few hundred kilometres or miles.

Eat
Used in any destination article. Required in all cases except for region articles, where it is strongly recommended for high-level regions, and optional for lower-level regions.

Information on location-specific food. Keep this as general as possible, except in the lowest-level articles, which should contain the actual restaurant business information. Do mention any general types of restaurant that travellers should look for (or avoid!). Mention national/regional/local cuisines, and hints for vegetarians or other people on special diets. If there is a lot to write about the cuisine of a country or a region, consider creating a cuisine article (Bavarian cuisine, Mexican cuisine, etc).

Restaurant listings should be divided, if necessary, by price, by location or by cuisine.

Supermarkets and food retailers may be listed if they offer food ready-to-eat (such as deli takeaway) or if they are the only food supplier within the area.

An article might describe a national park or a rural region without any restaurants or food retailers (e.g. Gotska Sandön). In this case, the Eat section should advise readers to bring their own food. A truly remote location may require special precautions, such as protecting food from bears.

In large cities and districts, restaurants and food suppliers might be too numerous to list. Still, every lowest-level article should list at least a few eateries, if possible. In places without restaurants, add advice on alternatives.

If you have to choose, a venue could be listed if it is an attraction in its own right: it might be in a historic building, have an astounding view, provide live entertainment, be recognized by a gastronomic authority such as Guide Michelin or be famous for some other reason. It could also be listed if it has a cuisine unique to the city, or if it is worth mentioning for size, product range, favorable location, price or opening hours.

Restaurants and food suppliers at a larger venue (airport, theme park, shopping mall, hotel, etc) are only described within the listing of that venue, unless they meet any of the criteria above.

Drink
Used in any destination article. Optional.

Information on location-specific nightlife. Keep this as general as possible, except in the lowest-level articles, which should contain the actual bar or nightclub business information. You can and should mention areas with especially good nightlife, or interesting musical traditions. Also give an idea of bar and club etiquette, if it differs from the surrounding region.

Bar and nightlife listings should be divided, if necessary, by price, by target audience or by type — piano bar, coffee shop, blaring discotheque, whatever.

In city and district articles, they might be too many to list; use the criteria for restaurants as a guideline. A cluster of small venues along a street or in a neighborhood can usually be described in one entry.

Sleep
Used in any destination article. Required in all cases except for region articles. Recommended for high-level regions but often omitted from lower-level regions, where it is prone to fill with individual listings which belong in the City or District articles.

Information on the type of accommodations (rooming houses, guest houses, hostels, motels, hospitality exchange, second homes etc.) travellers will encounter, as well as rough price ranges. Relevant regulation should be described (if foreigners are prohibited from owning a summer house, if foreign hotel guests need to register with the authorities, etc).

Small City, Big City, Rural area, Park, and District articles should include listings. Other articles should avoid specifics, but can mention national/regional chains and discount programs.

Listings should be divided, if necessary, by price, location or style of accommodation. For instance, camp grounds, caravan parks or bed-and-breakfasts could each be given separate subsections, separating them from subsections for conventional hotels, motels and inns.

Stay safe
Used in any destination article, and travel topics and itineraries when relevant. Optional.

Words of warning for travellers not familiar with the area's climate or culture. Include crime safety, dangerous traffic, natural hazards (pests, dangerous animals, severe weather etc), regions of war and civil unrest, and any other significant dangers, with links to relevant topics in the stay safe category. If there are local or national safety contacts, note them.

Keep the amount of information about a specific danger in proportion to the risk, as well as travellers' likely concerns for the danger. Very unlikely dangers (such as rare poisonous animals) might only have to be mentioned in brief.

When there are extreme dangers, such as armed conflict, the template Warningbox can be used.

Wikivoyage should not substitute professional legal or medical advice. In some cases, a disclaimer might be needed.

Keep a serious tone, and save the jokes for other sections.

Stay healthy
Optional but strongly recommended for Country articles; most other articles use Stay safe for warnings or Cope for local clinics and pharmacies.

This section is for medical information, including local health hazards, pharmacies, and the general standard and cost of health care. Note any significant outbreaks of contagious diseases, recommended shots, and requirements for obtaining medicine or medical attention in the country. If there are national hotlines for medical emergencies, or local numbers that are standardized (like 112 in Europe or 911 in North America), list them here.

Respect
Used in any destination article, but mostly in higher levels of the hierarchy. Optional, but strongly recommended for Country articles.

List here any common mistakes visitors make about the area in question. In many parts of the world, certain parts of the body, buildings, people, or other objects are subject to custom and etiquette that may be different from the traveller's home culture. Should short-sleeved shirts and short pants be avoided in churches or temples? Is it OK to eat with your left hand? What about respect for the elderly, children, government officials, etc.?

Don't repeat information that should already be known by a majority of visitors, or that is common to most cultures. Much of that information is already found in the travel topic "Respect", and we don't need to have it in every country article.

May have a separate LGBT subsection. If LGBT people risk harsh punishments or getting in danger without being unreasonably disrespectful, put the section in Stay safe instead.

Connect
Required in country articles, optional elsewhere. Usually present in city articles.

This section varies greatly depending on the level of the hierarchy. It contains information about staying in contact.

For country articles, discuss phone networks and the telephone country code; postal services; and prevalence of Internet access. For lower levels in the hierarchy, provide more specifics, including Wi-Fi hotspots, local mobile phone SIM cards and outlets, internet cafés, area codes, and the like.

City articles typically list public Internet access points, but may also mention post offices and parcel services. Libraries often appear in this section if they offer open Wi-Fi, public access computers or other communication infrastructure. If a remote community has no mobile telephone coverage or other specific obstacles to communication, say so here.

Cope
Used in any destination article, but mostly in lower levels of the hierarchy. Optional.

This section is for common non-emergency services that the traveller might need but which don't fit in any of the main categories: haircuts, babysitting, pet care, embassies, consulates, religious services, etc.

It's optional in Country articles too but, if present could contain subsections such as:

"Consular assistance" giving pointers to the city articles where individual consular listings are to be found, especially where the locations are not obvious

"Newspapers" especially local English language publications in non-Anglophone countries

"Radio" especially local English language stations in non-Anglophone countries or local AM/FM frequencies of broadcasters such as the BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, etc.

Nearby
Applies only to small City articles, where it is poorly-standardised and very rarely used.

Splitting "Nearby"/"Go next" is one option to handle the special case where a small town is separated by several miles of open pasture land from a handful of tiny villages.

Divide this into subsections, naming one for each village. Each subsection should contain a brief description of the village, its location and the individual listings for its one or two points of interest.

Don't create this if the "villages" are merely contiguous suburbs which should be treated as part of the main city. Don't create this for adjacent settlements which have enough content for their own article – links to adjacent destination pages belong in "Go next" (below).

Go next
Optional for Country articles. Optional but strongly recommended for Region and City articles.

Information about nearby destinations that would serve as a good "next stop". Provide a brief description of suggested next destinations, adjacent cities or day-trip ideas. If there are no destinations to sensibly suggest, leave the section out.

Don't use the section as a reverse "Get in". Descriptions of connections should be in "Get in" even when they make more sense for going next (except when it comes to day trips by bike or steam train or the like).

This section contains routeboxes and links to adjacent destinations which have Wikivoyage articles. It should not include detailed listings for individual venues. As listings for transportation companies and their local terminals are already in "Get in", don't duplicate that information here.


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Wikivoyage:Avoid HTML

The MediaWiki software allows editors to mix in HTML markup along with standard Wiki markup. In general, HTML should be avoided where possible, for the following reasons:

 * HTML is harder to edit. Wiki markup is designed specifically for editing on-screen in a browser, and to be really easy to edit. HTML is not. It intimidates casual editors and keeps them from making improvements to our content.
 * It's also more difficult to maintain. Fixing HTML formatting wastes time and attention that could instead be spent making valuable content.

If HTML must be used for formatting reasons, it's hidden "behind the scenes" with Mediawiki templates whenever possible. For example, disclaimers should be added with Template:Disclaimerbox and country quickbars with Template:Quickbar, not by adding raw HTML. Not only is this more user-friendly, but it allows updating the design of all boxes or bars in one place. About the only common exception to this is a non-breaking space recommended to prevent elements being "orphaned" on a new, separate line: " "

title: Wikivoyage:Avoid HTML


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Wikivoyage:Avoid negative reviews

Sometimes a restaurant, bar, hotel, attraction or venue has such grave defects that it's just not worth going to. If this is the case, it's best to just leave it out of the destination guide for the place it's in. There's no reason to clutter the guide with lists of places travellers shouldn't go.

There is an exception to this rule if voyagers may be led to the attraction or venue by other information sources. For example:

 * The venue is prominently featured in other guidebooks.
 * The venue is widely advertised.
 * The venue is prominently located — across from the train station, right in the middle of town.
 * The place is the only one or one of very few options in town - state the venue's problems and let our readers make an informed choice

In these cases, write the listing but note in the description that the place isn't worth going to, explaining why it should be avoided.

If a destination has only a few reviews (or a few accommodation options), and some are negative, do not delete them — some information is better than none.

Comments about unsavory aspects of the destination in general are not "negative reviews". Examples include comments about unsafe areas, prostitution or drug use, police corruption, pollution, poor climate and so on; these are all welcome as long as they are sincere and fair comments for the traveller's benefit.

title: Wikivoyage:Avoid negative reviews


text:
Wikivoyage:Archive of Wikitravel (not Wikivoyage) awards

2007 Webby Award
Wikitravel was selected by the judges for the 2007 Webby Awards as the Best Travel Website.

''Hailed as the "Oscars of the Internet" by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video, and Mobile Websites. Established in 1996, the 11th Annual Webby Awards received a record 8,000 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries worldwide. The awards are judged by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences, a global organization that includes Harvey Weinstein, Arianna Huffington, Matt Groening, Jamie Oliver, Internet inventor Vinton Cerf, and RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser.''

2004 Prix Ars Electronica honorary mention
Wikitravel received an honorary mention in the 2004 Prix Ars Electronica (Electronic Arts Prize) in the inaugural round of their Digital Communities prize.

''The Prix Ars Electronica is produced by the Ars Electronica Center in cooperation with the ORF—Austrian Broadcasting Company’s Upper Austria Regional Studio, the Brucknerhaus Linz and the O.K Center for Contemporary Art. Ever since its inception in 1987, the competition’s focus has been on state-ofthe-art creativity in the key fields of digital media. With the inauguration of the Digital Communities category in 2004, the Prix Ars Electronica has devoted increasing attention to the impact art and technology are having on social developments.''


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Wikivoyage:Archived awards and mentions for Wikitravel (not Wikivoyage)

BBC Persian
Wikitravel is the featured site of the week on BBC Persian. --(WT-en) Evan 14:25, 27 Apr 2004 (EDT)

Prix Ars Electronica
My congratulations to Evan and all of the Wikitravel team for winning an honorary mention in this year's Prix Ars Electronica. --(WT-en) Earle 09:54, 4 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Thanks, Earle. Just to set the record straight, it was (WT-en) Maj who did most of the hard work applying for the Prix. And, of course, it's the hundreds of Wikitravelrs who make this digital community a success. --(WT-en) Evan 09:34, 4 May 2004 (EDT)

Highest Google Position?
I haven't done any research on this myself - yet - but just wanted to pose the question: What's the highest position a Wikitravel article has yet achieved on Google? Anyone got any insights into this one? Would be an interesting indicator for our progress..... (WT-en) Pjamescowie 13:39, 31 Jul 2004 (EDT)

 * Search for "Geneva travel guide". -- (WT-en) Mark 16:42, 31 Jul 2004 (EDT)

 * discount airlines europe. -- (WT-en) JanSlupski 18:03, 10 Feb 2005 (EST)

Alexa
I know Wikipedia is slightly obsessed with Alexa ratings - this is Wikitravels if people are interested: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=Wikitravel.org (WT-en) Caroline 16:26, 31 Jul 2004 (EDT)

There seem to have been a lot of new users recently. The Alexa daily reach has gone from a max of 20 per million at the end of Jan to 60 at the end of Mar and the traffic rank from 70,000 to 20,000. We've almost caught up with world66.com (WT-en) DanielC 22:23, 30 Mar 2005 (BST)

 * Rank of the day is 9,506. This seems to be the first time Wikitravel's made it into the top 10,000, and we've squeaked past World66 (#10,950) to boot.   They're putting up a good fight, but our growth rate is clearly higher...  (WT-en) Jpatokal 10:14, 29 Jul 2005 (EDT)

New users on Sep 7
There seems to be a (comparatively) huge flood of new users today — where was Wikitravel linked/mentioned? Referrer logs, anybody? (WT-en) Jpatokal 12:56, 7 Sep 2004 (EDT)

 * New users appear to be German. I also notice they're more clueful than most new user deluges we get. -- (WT-en) Colin 18:25, 7 Sep 2004 (EDT)

 * There's an article in Der Spiegel about wikis, and it mentions Wikitravel. Also, you can always see the Wikitravel referrer [sic] statistics at http://Wikitravel.org/webalizer/web. --(WT-en) Evan 11:41, 8 Sep 2004 (EDT)

These new folks seem to have enormous collections of relevant extlinks to share with us :-). If we were a web-only guide, that would be a good thing. -- (WT-en) Colin 11:46, 9 Sep 2004 (EDT)

Wikitravel mentioned
Hi, Wikitravel is mentioned here. (WT-en) Yann 06:15, 27 Sep 2004 (EDT) de:Project:Auszeichnungen und Erwähnungen

Gangsters in Osaka and Wikitravel
On October 8, Wikitravel's Osaka page got hit 25,000 times on one day — I tracked it down to an article (in Japanese) in Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's biggest newspaper, on a report analyzing Osaka's image in foreign media and guidebooks. Links were provided to three places: Yahoo Japan, Wikitravel, and Lonely Planet, in that order. Osakans duly attempted to excise all negative comments about Osaka in the article, but evil ex-Tokyoite that I am, they're all back there now... (WT-en) Jpatokal 13:45, 10 Oct 2005 (EDT)

Alexa rating
Alexa Looks good. What happened at the end of september? --(WT-en) elgaard 10:29, 22 Nov 2005 (EST)

World's gone wild
This article, which talks about Wikitravel in its first three sentences and quotes (WT-en) Colin later on, was syndicated by Knight Ridder and thus plastered all over the US press. (WT-en) Jpatokal 01:35, 3 Jan 2006 (EST)

2007 Webby
Although we didn't win the open-voting People's Choice award in the category, the panel of apparently more-discerning judges chose Wikitravel as the best Travel Website. - (WT-en) Todd VerBeek 09:17, 2 May 2007 (EDT)
 * CNet News.com mention:. (WT-en) Maj 10:03, 3 May 2007 (EDT)

Simple reference
This isn't an article about Wikitravel, but a simple reference to it, quoting from our Svalbard article "according to Wikitravel" without explaining what that is, no different from citing Some Other Guide. - (WT-en) Todd VerBeek 07:43, 1 June 2007 (EDT)

Wikitravel:es appears on the news
In case you're able to understand the Spanish language, I guess you'll love to read the piece of news that a very important newspaper in Spain El País has published this moorning. Please, visit the Spanish Portada and clik in to the link to the article. (WT-en) Nanow jesús madrid 06:50, 26 July 2007 (EDT)

 * Direct link: http://www.elpais.com/articulo/portada/Wikiviajeros/elpeputec/20070726elpcibpor_1/Tes

 * Pero para guías viajeras, Wikitravel. Nada mejor que los consejos de quienes han viajado para saber cómo realizar el viaje, qué es lo que hay que ver, cuánto cuesta comer, dormir, entrar en un museo o tomar un café. Los escritores especializados en viajes siempre han sido los encargados de facilitar esa información. Ahora, los wikiviajeros comparten sus conocimientos y experiencias a través de Internet.

 * Looks really good! Positive tone and no mistakes as far as I can see. (WT-en) Jpatokal 07:18, 26 July 2007 (EDT)

 * Congratulations! That looks like some of the most high profile publicity for Wikitravel (and certainly for Jesús) that I have seen—and it is overwhelmingly positive! --(WT-en) Peter Talk 13:21, 27 July 2007 (EDT)

 * Hey, congratulations! Lot's of good news about Es lately! – (WT-en) cacahuate  talk 00:45, 28 July 2007 (EDT)

Just to update here: Since these two articles came out last week, we have seen a huge increase of traffic to es:. Over 600 new registered users and a lot of anonymous edits as well. We can hardly keep up with the welcome messages! (WT-en) Texugo 23:48, 29 July 2007 (EDT)

 * In the torrent of new edits on :es, I saw at least one comment saying that the contributor found out about Wikitravel after hearing about it on the television—has there been even more fantastic press recently in Spain? --(WT-en) Peter Talk 01:27, 30 July 2007 (EDT)
 * Yes, a local station did a story about it after seeing it in the newspaper. (WT-es) NJM told me he's going put the coverage on YouTube so we can watch it. (WT-en) Texugo 03:06, 30 July 2007 (EDT)

Wikitravel propaganda en español
Shortly after our publicity in El País some local tv station in Spain aired this one-sidedly positive advertisement for our guides, featuring our Spanish celebrity, Jesús. If you are interested, here is the youtube link. Note: it's in Spanish. --(WT-en) Peter Talk 03:40, 7 August 2007 (EDT)
 * That's awesome! -- (WT-en) Tim (writeme!) 12:20, 7 August 2007 (EDT)

Congratulations!
Swept in from the pub:

I just wanted to send out a big thank you and congratulations to the Wikitravel community. As you may have seen, Wikitravel has been nominated for a 2008 Webby Award! The site is up for a Webby in the Travel category as well as the "People's Voice" category. This is a testament to all the hard work you do and the strong spirit of collaboration you foster here on Wikitravel. So, congratulations! And don't forget to vote! (WT-en) JuCo 21:03, 14 April 2008 (EDT)

Congratulations...again!
Swept in from the pub:

Wikitravel has been named one of Time Magazine's 50 Best Websites for 2008! Thank you and congratulations to the Wikitravel community for all your amazing work.(WT-en) JuCo 14:09, 18 June 2008 (EDT)

YAY! (WT-en) Edmontonenthusiast 20:09, 22 October 2008 (EDT)Edmontonenthusiast


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Wikivoyage:Babel

User language templates aid multilingual communication by making it easier to indicate language(s) one can speak. The idea originated on the Wikimedia Commons and has also been implemented to varying extents on some other sites using Mediawiki software, including Wikivoyage.

Instructions
To participate, you can add the Babel template to your user page by following these instructions:

 * Start off with

So, for example,   would indicate a native speaker of English with basic knowledge of German.

Languages
Note: This list is sorted by language name, not language code.

title: Wikivoyage:Babel


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Wikivoyage:Badges

We'd like to have some Wikipedia userboxes for people to show off their travel writing credentials on their Wikipedia pages (and other wikis that encourage them). We'd also like to have some images for contributors to display on their blogs. So, if you feel creative plunge forward and make some, and then add them to this page.

title: Wikivoyage:Badges