text:
Talk:Alameda

The Alameda Chevys is now closed. (WT-en) Dmarti 09:25, 16 November 2006 (EST)

Reorganization Station
Alright - very bare-bones article here, so, will start out with a few basics.

1. Splitting Eat and Drink into sections: Budget/Mid-Range/Splurge and Pubs/Bar&Nightclubs/Coffee, Tea & Chocolate.

2. Filling the sections out.

3. Cleaning up Buy, adding and separating out entries.

L. Challenger (talk) 17:19, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

Ready to feature?
What does this article need to be nominated at Dotm? Would it be a Destination of the Month, or Off the Beaten Path? /Yvwv (talk) 22:26, 3 January 2023 (UTC)
 * No, the image on the right should summarise everything. -- SHB2000  (talk | contribs | meta) 22:41, 3 January 2023 (UTC)
 * If the article is featured, I think it should be an otbp. I'm not sure I understand the problem with the screenshot – is the concern that there are no "splurge" restaurants listed? There may not be many restaurants in that category in Alameda. With an online search, I found Utzutzu and Ceron Kitchen, but I don't know if they're good enough to recommend. —Granger (talk · contribs) 13:56, 23 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Ceron Kitchen appears to be an overpriced spot with fancy names on very common foods. Utzutzu, I'll look into more closely. L. Challenger (talk) 00:22, 10 December 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Alameda


text:
Talk:Alamo (North Dakota)

vfd discussion

 * Delete. Can't sleep there.  (According to Yahoo! YP, nearest motel is 21.9 miles away.) -- (WT-en) Jonboy 09:05, 4 April 2006 (EDT)
 * Keep. Even though it's small this place is a town, it has its own dot on the map, and there aren't any other nearby towns that this could be incorporated into.  Additionally, the "can you sleep there" test is merely a guideline - the policy is that "geographical units should have their own article".  There is some value in having an article about a town that says "There are no hotels in this town" since someone driving across North Dakota may want to know which map dots have lodging and which don't. -- (WT-en) Ryan 21:20, 4 April 2006 (EDT)
 * Keep. I think this might be one of those exceptions, 'specially if it's on a major-ish highway... (WT-en) Majnoona 08:22, 5 April 2006 (EDT)
 * Keep. The can't sleep there rule is a rule-of-thumb, and is mostly for things that aren't incorporated cities or towns (like parks or retreats). --(WT-en) Evan 12:32, 5 April 2006 (EDT)

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

title: Talk:Alamo (North Dakota)


text:
Talk:Alamogordo

Per Project:Avoid negative reviews, I removed the following from the article. Since the poster didn't leave any reasons why the QI is that bad, feel free to add it back if you had a positive experience. -- (WT-en) Fastestdogever 14:12, 2 May 2007 (EDT)

 * Do NOT stay at the Quality Inn.

Added zip code back in minus link to google maps. Please let me know if there is some kind of rule against that. (WT-en) Oaktreezulu 22:48, 3 May 2012 (EDT)

 * There is no rule against mentioning what the local zip code is.

 * All the best,

 * (WT-en) Ikan Kekek 23:14, 3 May 2012 (EDT)

Picture
This looks like the Alamo at San Antonio, TX to me... but maybe I'm wrong... really don't know.

2014
Ikan, I see the changes you've made. Please explain what I did wrong so as to avoid such mistakes in the future. Thanks! Oaktreezulu (talk) 05:34, 16 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Original page
 * Alphabetized listings, deleted "Learn" section, which wasn't obviously directed at people visiting for 2 weeks or fewer.
 * Reverted in order to restore Wikivoyage:Listings|listing templates]]. Will restore your substantive edits.)

 * Hi, Oaktree. The issue I saw immediately was that you changed the listings from the current standard format to the deprecated previous format. Please see Listings for more information. Another issue I see is that you inputted dates from the past for events. That is not useful for anyone making plans. Ikan Kekek (talk) 07:36, 16 July 2014 (UTC)

title: Talk:Alamogordo


text:
Talk:Alampur

Copyvio
9 Oct 2004: The original content of this article was a copyvio from http://www.templenet.com/Andhra/alampur.html. It has since been blanked.

title: Talk:Alampur


text:
Talk:Alanreed

Alanreed
Tiny village with no hotels and no restaurants. The couple of Route 66 sights can be summed up in the McLean (Texas) article.
 * Merge and redirect - (WT-en) Texugo 00:15, 15 April 2008 (EDT)
 * Merge and redirect. (WT-en) Jpatokal 05:30, 15 April 2008 (EDT)

title: Talk:Alanreed


text:
Talk:Alanya

More information will come once I actually visit the place and come back from my holidays! -- User:(WT-en) Aidan 17:13, 24 Mar 2005

title: Talk:Alanya


text:
Talk:Alappuzha

Split?
Should this page be split into Alappuzha (district) and Alappuzha (city)? It says it is a district but there is also a town here of the same name. There are also smaller regions to subdivide the district into. See Edathua, for example. -- (WT-en) Huttite 08:10, 7 December 2009 (EST)

Sleep listings
Why do very few of the sleep listings include addresses? Also, I think that the houseboat agencies have to go, based on our external links and apartment listing policies. Your comments, please. Ikan Kekek (talk) 09:11, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Pagebanner
Why am I seeing the pagebanner for Thiruvananthapuram on this page, when the edit screen shows ? In any case, the pagebanner for this article must be different from any other page's banner. Ikan Kekek (talk) 13:39, 8 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Because Wikidata settings apparently overrides everything. I can try to remove it from there. ϒpsilon (talk) 13:55, 8 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Had to reload the page several times before the old banner disappeared but now it's gone. ϒpsilon (talk) 14:02, 8 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Thank you very much. Ikan Kekek (talk) 14:03, 8 February 2015 (UTC)
 * I still see Thiruvananthapuram's pagebanner here. I found this image that might be a good contender for a page banner - Houseboats_in_Alleppey_(7063566949).jpg from wiki commons (Alappuzha is sometimes called Alleppey, that is why I am suggesting a picture with the name Alleppey in the title, it's the same place). I defer to those of you who have more experience in this matter, especially since the image may not meet the ratio requirements of 7:1.

Houseboats: "Do" or "Sleep"
I've been trying to organize and listify and came across this conundrum. It seems that houseboat listings appear in both the "Do" and "Sleep" sections. Sometimes the tours are for a few hours, and would be considered a "Do", often they are an overnight or many night stay, hence a "Sleep". Both lengths of time are offered by many companies, so I don't think it would be good to separate listings based on length of time. I also like the "cleanness" of keeping them segregated to a single section. Any thoughts on which section would be best to place these? DethDestroyerOfWords (talk) 20:30, 28 January 2016 (UTC)

Rename to "Alleppey"
It looks like "Alleppey" is more common than "Alappuzha" as the name of this city, at least in travel guides. Therefore, I think this article should be renamed to "Alleppey" and mention "Alappuzha" as the official name à la Bangalore (Bengaluru), Belgaum (Belagavi) etc. Sbb1413 (he) (talk • contribs) 04:11, 2 June 2023 (UTC)

 * Our standard is not just what spelling or name is used in travel guides; it's what name is most commonly used in English. Would that still be Alleppey? Ikan Kekek (talk) 03:37, 3 June 2023 (UTC)
 * May be. I have not googled the individual names yet. Sbb1413 (he) (talk • contribs) 03:48, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Alappuzha


text:
Talk:Alaska

Animal articles
Why do we have an article about bears, which is a double redirect? Why do we need articles about whales, fish, foxes, and eagles? -(WT-en) phma 22:36, 31 Jan 2004 (EST)

Why shouldnt there be articles about wildlife which are key reasons for visiting alaska?

Uh, according to our goals and article policy, none of these things should be articles. Now if someone whanted to make an itinerary about seeing one of these animals in Alaska, that might be a possibility. (WT-en) Majnoona 23:39, 31 Jan 2004 (EST)

Another region?
Just wondering if there should be another region to cover in between Central_(Alaska) (listed as around Fairbanks) and South-Central_(Alaska) which incorporates Ancorage southward. Thinking of where places like Denali / Talkeenta should go. I'm leaning more towards Central and perhaps making Denali a seperate region. - (WT-en) Arcae 06:40, 7 Feb 2005 (EST)

 * I'd vote no...Southcentral Alaska is officially considered to be everything south of the Alaska Range and Interior Alaska is everything north of it. That would put Talkeetna in Southcentral and Denali, er, right on the border, I guess. (I'd place Denali in Interior.)

 * Note that the terms "Southcentral" and "Interior" are the official ones as designated by the State of Alaska. (WT-en) Cluth 20:28, 28 Apr 2005 (EDT)

Transportation
Much of the section on getting in and getting around was copied from the Transportation section I wrote for the Wikipedia Alaska article. I copied it directly from the history page that shows what I edited. Based on reading other discussion pages on WikiTravel, this appears to be legal and complies with both the GFDL and the CC Attribution-ShareAlike license. I also added some original information.

Much of the material is from that which I posted on Wikipedia's Alaska page. When copying it, I removed the Wiki links as most were not applicable here. As time allows, I'll study the article database of related articles to see what types of Wiki links you guys here on WikiTravel like, and then I'll go back through and Wikify the appropriate ones...unless someone beats me to it.

(WT-en) Cluth 20:14, 28 Apr 2005 (EDT)

 * Great contributions, thanks! The rule of thumb is that place names should be linked the first time they are mentioned, but nothing else — unless it's a travel topic that happens to have an article. (WT-en) Jpatokal 20:41, 28 Apr 2005 (EDT)

 * OK, so I'll go back in and wikify the city names like Homer, Palmer, etc. (My original article had a bunch of links to things like the Alaska Marine Highway System, the Iditarod, etc. (Surprisingly, the Wikipedia has a pretty extensive Alaska article collection! Most places ignore us...) I noticed that the Anchorage article is titled simply "Anchorage," presumably because we are the most famous Anchorage (there is an Anchorage, KY US, but how can there be when they're landlocked? :-) ). However, should I link other city names--especially to uncreated articles--as, say, "Palmer (Alaska)" (which is the format I've seen elsewhere on WikiTravel? How about towns with decidedly unique names, like Talkeetna? Should I link it as "Talkeetna (Alaska)" just to preserve consistency? (WT-en) Cluth 03:23, 29 Apr 2005 (EDT)

Edit Wars...Sort Of
I've noticed some adding and deleting in the External Links section with some comments about some being commercially oriented. (I'm not speaking of the recent spaming by 210.214.89.130.) There are a couple that I believe do fit with Wikivoyage's external links policy. Might I clarify three links that I'd like to add or add back in, pending no objections:

- http://www.travelalaska.com: This is the Alaska Travel Industry Association's Web page. The Alaska Travel Industry Association was created by the State of Alaska to promote the tourist industry. It also serves as the travel industry's lobby. While the site ends in .com, it's not a commercial organization--as I said, it was created by the state government.

- http://www.anchorage.net: This is the Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau's site. It's a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting travel and tourism to Anchorage. They also create the most annoying TV/radio ads possible (picture animated moose singing "Wild! Wild about Anchorage! Wild about Anchoraaaaaaaage!" over and over while dancing New York, New York...), but that's beside the point.

- http://www.alaska.org: This is a nonprofit organization that prints good free guidebooks and produces a TV channel featured in many hotels. The site features tips on things to see and restaurant reviews done by local residents (primarily bellhops/concierges and other local down-in-the-gutter tourist industry folks), lending a very honest and knowledgeable feel.

- http://www.adn.com: The Anchorage Daily News is the primary newspaper for the state. They also operate http://www.alaska.com. While it is a commercial site, it's operated by a journalistic organization and might be useful.

(WT-en) Cluth 04:31, 31 Aug 2005 (EDT)

 * Under the external links policy, the first link above can be put into Alaska, the second can be put into Anchorage (not the Alaska article), and the third and fourth should not be added. "Useful" and "Non-profit" are not exceptions to the policy. -- (WT-en) Colin 09:46, 31 Aug 2005 (EDT)

Regions

I am a big anti-fan of articles with names such as "North (Somewhere)". With rare exception, no one actually called these places "North"; they call them "North Somewhere" or "Northern Somewhere". And the region names for Alaska are inconsistent, which is another pet peeve. Along those lines, I'd like to rename a few of the region articles for Alaska as follows: Objections? - (WT-en) Todd VerBeek 22:58, 25 July 2006 (EDT)
 * Southeastern Alaska - as is
 * South-Central (Alaska) -> Southcentral Alaska
 * South-Western (Alaska) -> Southwestern Alaska
 * Central Alaska - as is (though the semi-official Alaska Travel Industry Assoc. calls this Interior Alaska, which I kinda like)
 * Arctic (Alaska) -> Arctic Alaska

 * I vote yea. Same could be done for Arizona and several other places as well. -- (WT-en) Ryan 23:07, 25 July 2006 (EDT)

 * Arizona's gonna be more work. But Alaska's been done. - (WT-en) Todd VerBeek 21:21, 27 July 2006 (EDT)

I've tried to work these into a regions map (see right), but have come up short with a "leftover region." So, frigid climate experts, where should the borders actually lie? And are there other cities/towns/public lands/labels that I should include?

And by the way, seeing this discussion, I like Interior Alaska a lot better than Central Alaska, since it's after all not in the center of the state. --(WT-en) Peter Talk 06:17, 14 May 2009 (EDT)

 * Leftover region should be included in SW Alaska. Interior Alaska is generally forests, while Arctic is generally tundra. Interior Alaska should be much larger, extending west much more and a little further north. When the map is at full size, there is a thin white line between the Yukon River and the Norton Sound, use that as the western boundary of the Interior Alaska. On the north, the thin white line running east out of the Gates of the Artic NP is a bit too far north. Draw a straight line running East from the point where the Dalton Hwy enters the GotA NP to use as the northern boundary. Another boundary which could be fixed is the eastern boundary of South-Central Alaska, there's a little corner between the "l" in "Southcentral" and the Hwy 1 symbol...the eastern boundary should keep going straight south from there. "Anchoridge" is spelled "Anchorage". A few towns which could be added are (by importance to tourists): Sitka (SW), Nome (Interior), Valdez (SC), Talkeetna (SC), Delta Junction (Interior), Circle (Interior), North Pole (Intrerior), & Kotzebue (Arctic). (WT-en) AHeneen 15:07, 14 May 2009 (EDT)

 * Great! I've made these changes. I left off North Pole, since it's basically a part of Fairbanks (from a geographical perspective at least). And I'm not positive I got the eastern Southcentral border correct—with regards to where it falls on the coastline. Anyway, I'll introduce this to the article now. --(WT-en) Peter Talk 03:07, 15 May 2009 (EDT)

I like the regions as listed above, but would like to mention that the light green on the map, which is representing Southeastern Alaska, also includes a huge section of Southcentral Alaska. The description of Southeastern Alaska as the panhandle is correct, but the map doesn't agree. I think, Peter, if you change it close to the point where the corner of Canada comes closest to the ocean and if you follow the borough boundary lines there, it will be accurate. (WT-en) AlaskanAtHeart 10:02, 21 August 2009 (EDT)

 * Would it work to just move the "Valdez-Cordova" borough into Southcentral? That way we'd stick to a clear boundary. (Also, lest you think I've lost interest, I won't be around until September, so the map change will have to wait until then!) --(WT-en) Peter Talk 19:06, 21 August 2009 (EDT)

The other subject I wanted to bring up here is the discussion on using boroughs for breakdowns of the larger regions. I have two questions/comments regarding their use. If we use boroughs as subregions, is there any reason we cannot further breakdown the boroughs into smaller areas -- such as islands, in the Aleutians East Borough? If we don't use boroughs, I think it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to define some areas. I could say the Tanana Valley or Matanuska Valley is a subregion, but being able to define the boundaries of these would be a fairly impossible task. Alaska is a huge mass of land with largely undefined areas. So I would be interested in hearing other suggestions on how to define subregional areas. (WT-en) AlaskanAtHeart 10:04, 21 August 2009 (EDT)

 * I've changed the map (although you may need to refresh your browser window to see the updated map). We absolutely can break down the regions into smaller areas. Islands that don't have more than one city/town, though, usually work better with just a small city template. For larger regions w/o clearly defined boundaries, we don't necessarily need an exact line in the dirt—if we can define a region by the geographical features and cities/towns contained within it, that's good enough. --(WT-en) Peter Talk 03:06, 15 September 2009 (EDT)

Volcano threat over?
User:(WT-en) AHeneen removed the volcano warning threat box, stating in the edit summary that the threat is over. However, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory, the threat isn't over--the volcano is still at orange alert, and the AVO is still being staffed 24 hours per day with active observations of the unstable lava dome. If that lava dome collapses, volatile ash emissions are extremely likely.

It may seem like it's over (especially to us locals, who haven't seen anything in the last couple of months and may feel like the AVO is crying wolf), but the threat is very much still alive

Should we post the warning box back up? (WT-en) Cluth 23:54, 6 June 2009 (EDT)

Fish
The eats section is very opionated.... I happen to like fried fish. —The preceding comment was added by 72.234.74.42 (talk • contribs)
 * It's supposed to be opinionated. I'm glad that you like fried fish, but it's still unfortunate that fish served so close to a major source is not able to be prepared well in a variety of ways.  (WT-en) LtPowers 09:10, 2 February 2010 (EST)

Alternative banner
The quality of the current banner is mediocre, so I have cropped a new banner:

I nominate this one as an alternative to the current banner. --Comment by Selfie City  ( talk  |  contributions ) 19:28, 20 April 2019 (UTC)
 * I added the current banner for comparison. IMO, suggestion 1 is better. /Yvwv (talk) 20:14, 20 April 2019 (UTC)
 * I prefer the great big sky of the current one, which is something I would associate with Alaska. Ground Zero (talk) 21:21, 20 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Are you on a mobile device or a desktop? --Comment by  Selfie City  ( talk  |  contributions ) 21:26, 20 April 2019 (UTC)
 * A tablet. Maybe that's why I don't notice any quality problem with the current banner. Does it look bad on a desktop? Ground Zero (talk) 21:28, 20 April 2019 (UTC)
 * I wouldn't say bad, exactly, just not as clear as the alternative. I'd say, when you have the time try looking at it on desktop for yourself and then the exact issues with the image will perhaps stand out more. What I'd say is that the whole image (on desktop) tends to look just a little blurry, which on its own doesn't have much of an effect but when you take in the whole image, it does. That's why I chose to create an alternative page banner. --Comment by Selfie City  ( talk  |  contributions ) 21:31, 20 April 2019 (UTC)
 * I'm on a laptop and definitely notice the quality problems with the current banner and the technical superiority of the photo excerpted in the proposed replacement, but the composition and beauty of the current banner more than overrides quality issues for me. Ikan Kekek (talk) 05:37, 21 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Agree the quality of the current is not particularly good but the composition of proposal could be better. I am sure we can find another alternative that is better than both. --Traveler100 (talk) 07:28, 21 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes, that would be ideal. Ikan Kekek (talk) 07:37, 21 April 2019 (UTC)
 * I agree that the Alaska banner needs to be of higher quality, and your proposal certainly does improve upon that. But I must agree with the comment that the "composition and beauty" of the current banner makes for a far more attractive banner (or to put it another way the current banner is more majestic). Zcarstvnz (talk) 12:22, 21 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Sure, I'll go for #3 to keep the same mood of the image. Perhaps the others could be used for other destinations? --Comment by Selfie City  ( talk  |  contributions ) 13:53, 21 April 2019 (UTC)

 * What I don't love about the suggested replacement banners is that in all of them, the mountaintops are cut off. Ikan Kekek (talk) 14:14, 21 April 2019 (UTC)
 * I believe #4 is an exception, but in that one it is not easy to tell where the mountains end and the sky begins. --Comment by Selfie City  ( talk  |  contributions ) 14:18, 21 April 2019 (UTC)

Actually, I think we should use #4 in Anchorage. --Comment by Selfie City  ( talk  |  contributions ) 14:19, 21 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Yeah. A photo of tall buildings definitely should not represent the vast expanse of the state of Alaska! Ikan Kekek (talk) 22:30, 21 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Right! Do you think it would be OK to just replace the image at Anchorage or should I start a discussion at Talk:Anchorage? --Comment by Selfie City  ( talk  |  contributions ) 00:03, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Start a discussion. I'm not sure how obvious replacing the existing banner is. Ikan Kekek (talk) 08:26, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure this banner is going to work too well for Anchorage. The lower portion of all of the buildings is going be hidden by the ribbon across the bottom of the photo and only the tallest buildings are going to poke out the top. If the ribbons were below the photo, instead of on top of them, the banner photos would fully show, and then two row ribbons wouldn't take up so much photo space. My vote with the Alaska banner still remains with the current banner over everything else. —The preceding comment was added by Zcarstvnz (talk • contribs)
 * Actually, I think User:Zcarstvnz is right, so I won't start a discussion or change the page banner. --Comment by Selfie City  ( talk  |  contributions ) 19:00, 22 April 2019 (UTC)

lil help?
I may be a bit out of my depth here: Tried to add Kenai National Wildlife Refuge to the other destinations section. Got coords from WP, but they don't record them quite the same way, |coords|60|20|N|150|30|W| is how it's recorded there but WV doesn't use the "coords" template and I apparently fudged the translation as it is showing up in east Asia instead of the Kenai Peninsula. I'm guessing/hoping someone watching this page knows how to uncork it? Beeblebrox (talk) 20:44, 17 May 2019 (UTC)
 * It looks like you had a sign error. However, manually adding coordinates is complicated and usually unnecessary. It is simpler to just get the Wikidata ID (click "Wikidata item" in the sidebar of the article here or on Wikipedia) and add that to the marker via the wikidata parameter, leaving lat and long blank - that way, the correct coordinates will be fetched automatically. I've done this for you. ARR8 (User talk:ARR8 | Special:Contributions/ARR8) 21:12, 17 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Thank You! Beeblebrox (talk) 21:23, 17 May 2019 (UTC)

Is most of the state in the Arctic?
From the lede:

most of the state is in the Arctic

But:

(a) Does Arctic Alaska cover most of the state?

(b) Isn't most of the state below the Arctic Circle?

(c) Are we using the second definition in the Arctic article? "The Arctic is formally defined as either the area within the Arctic Circle (at 66°33′46.7″ N), or all northern areas normally colder than 10°C (50°F), year-round." (emphasis added) And given the rapid advance of warming in the Arctic, how much longer will this be true? Ikan Kekek (talk) 08:36, 26 January 2020 (UTC)

New banner
Here's some new ones I've made. While the current one is nice, for me, it looks like any other mountain that either is near the poles or has a high altitude. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 10:22, 24 October 2021 (UTC)

 * My preferences are: 2, 3, 3a, 4 (pity the hilltop in the center had to be cropped out), 0 (whose filename ends with the number 2), and then a pick 'em between 1 and 5. Ikan Kekek (talk) 19:55, 24 October 2021 (UTC)

 * I didn't give my preference, but it's 3, 4, 3a and then 2. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 09:11, 27 October 2021 (UTC)
 * ✅ SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 04:10, 7 November 2021 (UTC)

Another History
Why does this phrase got reverted, and does not belong here?

"Natural disasters also shaped the history of Alaska, for example, 1964 Good Friday Earthquake that struck in Anchorage."

There is nothing wrong about this. Some did an edit and it got reverted. --204.129.232.191 15:09, 11 May 2022 (UTC)

 * We need to keep the Understand short, and that phrase adds little value. It doesn't tell why that earthquake is relevant, and neither does it tell how it changed the history. The only thing it tells me is that there probably was a disastrous earthquake at that day in Anchorage – but perhaps it just changed some VIP's travel plans and thus avoided having him murdered. Either we write a paragraph on it or, and I assume that's the better route, just leave it out (I checked the Wikipedia article – yes it was big, but disasters happen, and the article mentions few lasting effects). –LPfi (talk) 15:58, 11 May 2022 (UTC)

US maps or Mercator?

The text
 * "Most maps of the US represent the size of Alaska inaccurately"

was (in edits by two different people) changed into
 * "Most maps using the Mercator projection represent Alaska a lot larger than it actually is"

When reading the original wording I assumed that Alaska is included in a smaller scale in some corner of most maps of the USA. That's quite different from the Mercator distortion, which makes Alaska look larger. –LPfi (talk) 13:18, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

 * I restored the original wording, adding a clarification. If the Mercator thing is an issue, a comment on that should be added, but I think people will mostly get their impression on Alaska from maps of the United States, not from maps of North America. –LPfi (talk) 10:30, 17 August 2022 (UTC)
 * This could be true in the US, but I certainly don't get my impression of Alaska from looking at maps of the US – I get mine from looking at Mercator maps, hence why I changed the wording. But the key thing to take from this is context. There are some people who get their impression of Alaska from Mercator maps, making it look way larger than it actually is (it really took me quite a while to conceptualise that Alaska is smaller than Queensland). Others get their impression from maps on the right, getting an impression that Alaska is way smaller than it actually is.
 * The wording should be changed so it reflects both. May I suggest the following wording:
 * "Most maps represent the size of Alaska inaccurately – Mercator maps overrepresent the size of Alaska, while most US maps exhibit Alaska smaller than its true size."
 * Does that work out? SHB2000  (talk | contribs | meta) 10:46, 17 August 2022 (UTC)
 * I made a try with a different wording, check what yo think. –LPfi (talk) 11:23, 17 August 2022 (UTC)

Respect for natives
now says:
 * "When visiting Alaska Native villages or communities, it is important to be respectful of cultural sensitivities. This includes asking permission before taking photos or videos, and dressing respectfully. It is also important to be aware of specific cultural protocols, such as how to greet people and how to address elders."

Do we give any advice on how to greet people and how to address elders, or how to get to know how to? Are the ways very different across native peoples or is there something that could be said here? Are there resources in some standard locations, which could be used before visiting a local community?

Is how exactly to greet people important, or is it enough to do that respectfully? Is greeting people at all more important than elsewhere (cf shops in France)? Is there more to addressing elders than that they should be shown respect?

Is "respectful clothing" the same as in Arab countries and most holy sites, where shorts and tops are seen as disrespectful? Or is this about things that can be seen as mocking, such as fake native clothing details, or true ones that shouldn't be worn by outsiders? Or something entirely different?

–LPfi (talk) 10:18, 29 March 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Alaska


text:
Talk:Albania

Factbook removed (WT-en) Professorbiscuit

Is there a policy on linking to other guide sites? ---(WT-en) Professorbiscuit 10:07, 15 Apr 2004 (EDT)

 * I answered this on the travellers' pub, but figured I'd do it again here for completeness. We have a style guideline about external links; we generally don't link to other guide sites, since we should have the same information here. External links are mostly for the "definitive" Web site for something, like the tourist board site for a city or the home page for a restaurant or hotel. --(WT-en) Evan 13:45, 15 Apr 2004 (EDT)

Edits by 66.76.207.23
66.76.207.23 has done a long series of edits to the article, many useful, but many also removing lots of negative-sounding -- but quite possibly accurate -- commentary by previous writers. Hopefully somebody who knows the present situation can strike a balance. (WT-en) Jpatokal 22:30, 18 Dec 2005 (EST)

WTF is "potted water"??? 213.166.84.234 11:01, 26 February 2007 (EST)
 * No idea, but at a rough guess I imagine that it is water that has been decanted into some kind of large earthen ware pot. Anyway, now you have a good reason to visit Albania: to check out the potted water (don't forget to report back). (WT-en) WindHorse 11:07, 26 February 2007 (EST)

Potted water is water than you can drink safely.

"Potted Water" Actually it's "Potable Water"

The Obsesion with islam and Albania
In every line and comment it is noticed a strange line of communication. Albania is muslin but people drink etc etc. I would like to note that religion does not matter in any description of other European  countries as much as in the case of Albania,. I think that most of the foreigners that speak on Albania as a Muslim country are very ignorant in religion tradition and practices and can not consider them self even Christians.

I am Albanian and I still do not know what Albanians are because there are buildings and ruins from 5000 years old to modern ones and before Christ there were no Christians and the latter Muslims and others. In few words Albania is eternal old and new all mixed up. To make comparisons and labels is wrong unless you stay there for more than three years and understand it properly.

what is sure is this "albanians are one people speaking one language that is heavy like German" surrounded from oceans of slavs, latins and arabs in the south( greece included in arabs). By any calculations the albanians should have dissapeared but we survived.

Someone should change the information about languages used in Albania.
First of all, Turkish will not work anywhere in Albania. The most common non albanian language is actually Russian since it was obligatory to learn this language in the communist regime. --83.249.127.60 14:31, 6 September 2009 (EDT)

 * I speak some Russian and I've lived in Albania for nearly a year. No one under 40 understands Russian, and those who do speak only a few words.  More often than not, when people refuse to communicate with me in Albanian it is in Italian, followed by English, and Greek in the south.(WT-en) Sethinthebox 08:46, 3 February 2010 (EST)

So [plunge forward! [[User:(WT-en) Globe-trotter|(WT-en) Globe-trotter]] 08:14, 7 September 2009 (EDT)

Albanian Bus and Minibus Travel Times
So I haven't seen any reliable bus or minibus schedule for anywhere in Albania. I went ahead and created one on a blog . If someone wants to fix the html or put it in the article in an appropriate way, please feel free

2009-04-05. I've made my own publicly-editable list of furgon and bus locations and "schedules" -- if anybody can help me to fill in all the missing information, edit away!

Regions
We need some travel regions for Albania. Any ideas? --(WT-en) Burmesedays 05:26, 16 April 2010 (EDT)
 * Looking more at this, I think we could have four regions. Adriatic Coast, Ionian Coast and then two inland regions, north and south.--(WT-en) Burmesedays 05:58, 18 April 2010 (EDT)

 * I don't think there is a reason (or a sensible dividing point for that matter) to divide the coast into Adriatic and Ionian. It's essentially one, long coast of Mediterranean, and can simply be one region, though not sure about what the name should be (Albanian Coast?). As far as I can see from this satellite image, there is no other geographical divide in the country other than coast/inland, as all of inland is dominated by seemingly endless chains of mountains, so I suggest we divide inland areas into north and south by Shkumbin River. In addition to being it lying almost in the middle of the country which makes it a convenient dividing line, it is also the dividing line between two distinct dialects of Albanian language, which may substitute the lack of a distinct geographical division. And also that means some material for "talk" sections of region articles. I also suggest we attach the Lake Shkoder/Lake Skadar area (NW of the country) to the Coast, since the lake is surrounded by lowlands and is only slightly higher than sea level (its surface elevation is just 6 metres). This will give us:

 * Coast - 5 linked cities (Durres, Shkoder, Fier (though slightly inland, this one is close enough to the coast), Vlore, Lezhe (again, slightly inland)), 2 ODs with articles (Butrint, Dhermi)
 * North inland - 3 linked cities (Tirane, Kruje, Librazhd), an OD with an article (Albanian Alps)
 * South inland - 4 linked cities (Berat, Gjirokaster, Pogradec, Korça/Korçe)

 * However, I am not sure how we should call these north and south inland regions. – (WT-en) Vidimian 08:59, 18 April 2010 (EDT)

 * On the inland regions, it will probably have to be boring old Northeastern and Southeastern terminology. The Shkumbin River is a sensible divide. On the coast, I am happy either way. Reading around, the tourist board try to position the Adriatic Coast and the Ionian Coast as separate destinations. It can though just as easily be one travel region.--(WT-en) Burmesedays 10:14, 18 April 2010 (EDT)

 * Hmmm, seperating Adriatic and Ionian will look like this, given the dividing line is the mouth of Shkumbin River here as well:
 * Adriatic Coast (+Lake Skadar) - 3 cities (Durres, Shkoder, Lezhe)
 * Ionian Coast - 3 cities (Fier, Vlore, Sarande), 2 ODs (Butrint, Dhermi) (please note that I have somehow forgotten to mention Sarande in my initial post, so the number of cities of the Coast region proposed there should be 6).
 * Dividing at the Strait of Otranto (the usual dividing line between the Adriatic and Ionian Seas) instead of Shkumbin would give the horrible result of having only Sarande and Butrint (and possibly Dhermi) on Ionian while having all of the rest of the coast on Adriatic.
 * Though this division will provide room for further expansion and avoid the need for a further (sub)regionalization in the future as it will take much longer to reach the magic number of 9, I am not sure a country in size of Albania really needs 4 regions. Compared with the recent regionalization of Bulgaria, a country almost 3.5 times larger than Albania, we've managed to come up with 5 regions for the whole country. I don't mean here that the number of regions in each country should only be based on their (and their neighbours') relative size, just I don't know... So I'll let you (or anybody else) to decide on this. – (WT-en) Vidimian 13:58, 18 April 2010 (EDT)

 * Although currently listed as an OD, Dhermi is a village according to Wikipedia, so that should really be counted as a "city", which makes 4 cities for Ionian Coast, or 7 cities for the Coast in total. – (WT-en) Vidimian 14:55, 18 April 2010 (EDT)

Map done. Comments welcome of course. I have also done the regionalisation which bar the unholy mess caused by diacritics in place names, (double re-directs, re-directs to nowhere etc) was quite straightforward.--(WT-en) Burmesedays 11:05, 20 April 2010 (EDT)

 * Also the cities list is way too long. All are included on the region pages. I will leave that to someone else to sort out :). --(WT-en) Burmesedays 11:15, 20 April 2010 (EDT)

 * I trimmed the cities list down to 9, and tried to pick as much relevant ones to the travellers as possible—they are either the ones I've heard of, or those with descriptions that sounded fine to list on the country page. I also tried to come up with a list that is as geographically spread as possible. I'll also work a bit on redirects for cities with a diacritic in their name, it seems a feature of Albanian language causes all the mess, as cities can, for example, both be called Shkodër and Shkodra, I am not sure there is an English name for most of these. – (WT-en) Vidimian 12:18, 20 April 2010 (EDT)

 * If I have not missed the odd one, all sorts of redirects Wikipedia gives and I can think of (with diacritics → diacriticless, diacriticless → with diacritics, and anywhere inbetween) for all Albanian locations have now been set. – (WT-en) Vidimian 16:06, 20 April 2010 (EDT)

 * I'm sorry but this map does not represent Albanian's cultural, linguistic, and transportation divide. People in Shkoder and Sarrande speak very different dialects, practice different religions, and travel times on a bus between them are over 10 hours! In both towns, they share much more culture with their inland neighbors than with their seaside partners, and this is true of the other coastal cities as well. Ideally Albania would be split into four regions, inland and coastal of north and south, but even just a north-south divide would more accurately describe reality! -- (WT-en) Sethinthebox 03:40, 10 May 2010 (EDT)

 * Don't be sorry - this is precisely why we open these sort of debates. I think then you would prefer to see my original proposal: 2 inland regions (north and south, using the Shkumbin as the divide) and two coastal regions (Adriatic and Ionian)? That's an easy amendment as all the work to create the map is done.--(WT-en) Burmesedays 03:49, 10 May 2010 (EDT)

 * Where would you propose as a dividing line between the coastal regions and what should their names be? Also, please note that the traveller comes first around here, so if the traveller would think the coast as a single coherent region, then we should not necessarily follow local cultural divides. (I am not saying this should be the case, however. Whenever possible, we try to use regions that are OK for both the travellers and cultural sensibilities of the area.) – (WT-en) Vidimian 04:56, 10 May 2010 (EDT)

 * I would think that diving Albania between north and south would probably be best unless there's a consensus to use four regions. (WT-en) Vidimian, I believe that the the traveller comes first concept would be better upheld if we were to at least split the country into two: north-south wise. For travel it is nearly impossible to take a train, bus, or minibus from the north to the south or vise versa without switching in Tirana, or somewhat less often in Durres. This almost always requires then a change of vehicle, if not a trip to another transit station. I think dividing along the Shkumbin (but perhaps keeping Librazhd, Elbasan etc in the southern section) as (WT-en) Burmesedays mentioned would be ideal. (WT-en) Sethinthebox 03:38, 13 July 2010 (EDT)

 * While I have no travel experience in the country, it seems the coast is substantially different from mountainous inland, so I'm in favour of keeping the coastal region. If you feel so strongly about dividing the coastal region in north and south, that may be OK, but what names would you propose for those regions? As discussed above, "Ionian Coast" and "Adriatic Coast" are a little problematic, since those coasts are geographically not divided on Shkumbin and that means making a very little fraction of southern Albanian coast a region on its own ("Ionian Coast"), while leaving elsewhere on the coast to another region ("Adriatic Coast"). – (WT-en) Vidimian 05:05, 13 July 2010 (EDT)

 * Topographically the coasts are a bit different from the mountainous inland, I'd agree. But they're also quite different from each other: the north's are often along a flat plain and sandy while those in the south are rocky and on the slopes of mountains and hills. Further, many travel itineraries will lead a traveler to explore cities by a north/south divide (Shkodra with Kruja, Thethi or Sarande with Gjirokaster and Butrint) and the transportation infrastructure demands it.  Given the Netherlands, perhaps only 35% larger in area and much smaller in terms of transport times, is divided into four regions, I will still suggest it's possible for Albania. Otherwise, north and south Albania regions (is there something wrong with those names?) still look better than the current setup. (WT-en) Sethinthebox 04:09, 21 July 2010 (EDT)

 * The Netherlands is divided into four, but those are divided in its 12 provinces and those are divided in a couple of regions per province. The Netherlands has a lot more content than Albania. It's hard for me having an opinion on the Albanian coast regions, having never been there, but 2 coastal regions does seem a stretch since there is little content for it. On the map, the Northern Coast would have Dürres and Lezhe and for the rest be empty? --(WT-en) globe-trotter 07:13, 21 July 2010 (EDT)

How to coordinate between us?
Hello to all of you, This page is about Albania. Please, feel free to add your comments. Albania has great touristic values, but due to lack of money, organization and information, they are not used. This is especially for the Albanians working abroad - promote your country to your colleague, friends and neighbors. For you that have come in Albania, please add information. At the end, its of course our - people that live in Albania - duty to fullfill all the neccessary information for all the cities in our country. We, Albanians, have a habit of constantly disparaging the government. Yes, it is true, especially for tourism, they do nothing to help tourism. So swearing at the government is fine; however, it is even better if you do something ourselves. —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) AM-TR (talk • contribs) 20:00, 25 August 2010

Blackouts
There has been a small scale edit war in the article on whether blackouts are common or not in the country lately. (WT-en) Amanda says here and presumably here that there are not blackouts anymore, and (WT-en) Seth, another Wikivoyager living in Albania, reports here otherwise. Sure, blackouts can happen anytime and anywhere, but if they are common enough to keep in mind while taking the elevator, then we should note that in the article. Having not visited Albania, I can't say anything for sure, but these are some of what I have come across after googling "Albania blackout":

 * "Power cuts have been endemic in Albania for many years."
 * "They’ve had plenty of blackouts before, but this was the first one to talke the whole country down. ... Albania has problems with electricity, and has had since… well, pretty much always."
 * "However, the game was not to resume for another hour and a half, as a power outage saw the electricity in the city of Tirana unexpectedly go out."
 * "Albania’s electricity supply returned to normal on Wednesday afternoon after the grid collapsed for 45 minutes, producing a near-total blackout."
 * "Post-communist Albania has suffered regular reliability problems ..."

These all are fairly new reports, with the oldest one dating back to 2007.

Besides, selling electricity to abroad, as mentioned throughout edit summaries and comments by Amanda, doesn't necessarily mean blackouts are impossible. Blackouts are usually a result of transmission problems, not generation. Even then, this Wikipedia article says, at least as of 2007, Albania exports no energy, and imports some.

And lastly, please don't take this as some sort of Albania-bashing. In fact, as a part ethnic Albanian myself (some of my maternal ancestors were ethnic Albanians from Kumanovë) I would like Albania to be represented in a good light here, but this, nor any kind of nationalism/patriotism/ethnocentrism shouldn't prevent us from fulfilling our primary goal here — serving the travellers. – (WT-en) Vidimian 10:05, 30 August 2010 (EDT)

I just want no wrong information. Since I work at KESH myself, as assistant for human resources, I can tell you that we DO export energy nowadays. Yes, blackouts have happened, but that happens everywhere. Just Albania has no problem with lack of electric energy. Please remember that the Albanian most important politicans and businessmen live in the highest floors. So travelling with an elevator is safe (I live in the 3rd floor and I always get the elevator, and I was never blocked). —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) AM-TR (talk • contribs) 22:01, 30 August 2010

 * So you are basically saying that the reports linked above are incorrect? I'm sure you are acting on good faith here, but I can't find your argument persuasive, sorry. Sometimes being in the centre of something may lead to a distorted view of reality of the periphery — everything may seem bright and well in the headquarters of KESH, but it's a whole different matter in the neighbourhood. Yes, the blackouts can happen everywhere but I have a hard time believing that Real Madrid players (one of the leading soccer teams in the continent) would be trapped in the dressing room of a national stadium for an hour and twenty minutes until they find a generator and turn it on because of a blackout in anywhere else in Europe or in wider western/industrialized world (and this happened in January 2010).

 * Maybe blackouts are common to certain parts of the country and/or certain parts of the year? If so, let's note that in the article.

 * In the meantime, I've notified (WT-en) Seth of this discussion to see what he's got to say. – (WT-en) Vidimian 05:15, 31 August 2010 (EDT)

Hi, I am not pretending that Albania is an normal, European country. It is part of Balkan, and that means a lot of things. I want to explain something. First, I have to apology. I didn't understand your point at the beginning. You were saying blackouts are not rare. Yes, that is truwe. But I got confused with the problems we had before 2007. Sometimes, we had no capacity to produce enough power for the country, and because of that, there were power cuts for some hours a day. Nowadays, that problem doesn't exist - right now, the problem is that - since Albania uses mainly water to produce energy - we have too many water, so we had to open the doors of the main high-drop-power-plant and endure mini-floodings in the Northern part of Albania. I am sorry that I got confused. You are talking about deffects, and I was talking about the former problem. So - to clear it out - blackouts in Albania happen more often than in the rest of Balkan. Yet, me all use the elevator. What does that mean? That means that most of buildings in Tirana, as well as hotels, restaurants and all the rest have generators. Thats all. Dont be afraid to use the elevator. However, blackouts ARE more common than in the rest of the continent. Yet - we are a country in development, not a developed one. Once again, I apology for the confusion above. Thank you —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) AM-TR (talk • contribs)

 * Ah, OK, maybe I should have chosen a different wording in the first place, sorry for causing a misunderstanding. So is the following acceptable to add to the article:
 * Unexpected power outages without prior warnings are common in Albania, even more so than the rest of Balkans. This is largely dependent on the amount of rainfall the country receives in any given year, as virtually all of electricity is generated from hydro plants in Albania. Most hotels and restaurants in Tirana have back-up generators, however it is best to err on the side of the caution and ask—both in the capital and elsewhere—whether the place has a generator or not beforehand in order not to, say, stuck in an elevator.
 * And as an off-topic aside note, kudos to KESH for producing more than 97% of the electricity out of hydro plants—while dams have unique environmental problems, they contribute relatively little to global warming. ;) – (WT-en) Vidimian 19:20, 31 August 2010 (EDT)

Totally OK. Thank ytou for the understanding and sympathy. Hahahahaa you're totally right. Come on, power cuts have its own good sides :) —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) AM-TR (talk • contribs)

 * The above paragraph has been added to Albania. – (WT-en) Vidimian 14:04, 2 September 2010 (EDT)

2020s
The World Bank estimates 1.5 blackouts per month in Albania in 2019. There are about 30 or so countries listed there with 0 to 0.4 blackouts per month, mostly EU/rich countries. Related media items in 2022 include Sep 2022 and Dec 2022. So the current text still seems reasonable. Boud (talk) 15:44, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

 * Which text do you mean? 'Unexpected power outages without prior warnings are common in Albania...?
 * Actually, I have been in Tirana now for over a month and not once did I experience a power outage. One would expect the word "common" to mean something else, wouldn't one?
 * Cheers Ceever (talk) 11:33, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

 * Yes, that sentence. Your Tirana experience relates to this sentence: Only in Tirana you will not have power outages but expect so in other cities, which should be corrected to normal English grammar anyway, e.g. In Tirana power outages are rare, but expect them in other towns and cities. (Are there any other urban sites that are justified to be called "cities" in Albania?) I'm reluctant to edit here since I have very little knowledge about Albania and only scanned for sources rapidly. Boud (talk) 22:04, 3 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Hhhhmm, well my knowledge just relates to Tirana mostly. 🤷
 * Cheers Ceever (talk) 15:51, 4 July 2023 (UTC)

road tax
There seems to be some confusion about the fees you have to pay when entering Albania. The €10 entrance fee has been abolished. It is nevertheless possible for some nationals who need a visa for entering Albania to buy a visa at the border. This has nevertheless nothing to do with the former €10 fee. On the other hand there is a €1 road tax. According to the German Foreign Office it is €1 for the first 60 days and then another €1 for every single additional day. http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/DE/Laenderinformationen/00-SiHi/AlbanienSicherheit.html?nn=380754#doc380706bodyText3

Apparently it is also possible to pay the fee when leaving the country. But paying the fee twice has no legal basis. --77.10.16.206 17:40, 17 June 2011 (EDT)

Camping
I'm wondering how common campgrounds are in Albania, and is free/wild camping allowed anywhere? — (WT-en) Hippietrail 06:30, 31 August 2011 (EDT)

Train till Montenegro and till Vlora
The map ist a littel to old.... --92.60.22.127 06:28, 6 August 2013 (UTC)

Detailed info about getting in to Tirana
Albania should not have detailed information about taxis from the airport to Tirana. That belongs in Tirana. All that's necessary in this article is to state that there is one bus and numerous taxis that serve the airport and the city of Tirana, and that one should look at Tirana for more detailed information. For now, I will not edit the article to give time for people to merge any useful content from here into Tirana, but if this isn't done soon, I am quite likely to either do so my own way or move the details here as a temporary measure. Ikan Kekek (talk) 21:04, 19 May 2015 (UTC)

✅ Ibaman (talk) 21:12, 19 May 2015 (UTC)

"Cities"
Durrës is the second most populous city in Albania (see Durrës), and the Wikivoyage article about the city certainly doesn't indicate a lack of interesting things to do and see there. So why is it not listed in Albania? I find that jarring. Is it possible that one of the current list of 9 cities is less important than Durrës and should be replaced? Here's the current list, as of August 1, 2021:

 * (Tiranë) — the capital. Trees and mountains surround the city. Mt. Dajt is a popular tourist site for a great view of the city.
 * - A large, poor, intriguing industrial city that is full of life. The market is fascinating, and the breakfast "Bugace" legendary. The Via Ignatia, an old Roman road to Istanbul, runs through the city.
 * — Thought to be one of the oldest towns in Albania, it is a new member of the UNESCO world heritage list. Berat has long been known as the "city of 1001 windows" because of its unique Ottoman/Albanian architecture.  It has a well preserved castle with residents still living inside its protective walls.
 * — Lively seaside city, and only about 8 km (5 mi) away from the ruins of the ancient Illyrian city of Apollonia.
 * — another UNESCO city, located in the south is known for its unique Ottoman period architecture. There is a large castle on the hill in the middle of the city which served as a jail for many generations. A Military Museum and Art Gallery are now located inside. Gjirokastër is also the birthplace of former communist Leader, Enver Hoxha, as well as Albania's most internationally famous author, Ismail Kadare, their homes now serve as museums.
 * (Korça) — Located in southeast Albania, several miles from the Greek border, this city is full of life during the summer when you can find couples and families strolling through the city's main park, Parku Rinia. You can hike to the top of the beautiful mountain Moravia and view the city and its surrounding landscape.  Don't miss the Korça Brewery (famous throughout Albania) which sponsors a week long Beer Festival every August!
 * (Krujë) — ancient city of the national hero Skanderbeg. It consists of beautiful mountains; Skanderbeg's castle is now a museum. Kruje also contains an old style bazaar with shops selling traditional goods amid cobblestone streets. Kruje is known for its carpet craftworks.
 * — the biggest town in Northern Albania. Shkodra is considered the capital of Albanian culture. In Shkodra is located "Migjeni" theatre, the first in Albania and also was held the first cyclic race and also the first football match and the first photograph was developed (by Marubi). The Rozafa Castle is a major tourist attraction here, but also "The Great Cathedral", "The mosque Ebu Beker" etc.
 * — Lively seaside city, nice beaches south of town. Passenger ferries to and from Italy dock here.

Ikan Kekek (talk) 22:26, 1 August 2021 (UTC)
 * I think Elbasan should be replaced with this. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 22:36, 1 August 2021 (UTC)
 * You mean it should replace Elbasan. Ikan Kekek (talk) 22:39, 1 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Definitely agree that Durres needs to be added and I also agree that Elbasan is probably the best to cut. Local hero (talk) 13:24, 6 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks. It seems like a no-brainer. I'm going to do that now. Ikan Kekek (talk) 01:45, 7 August 2021 (UTC)

Entry Requirements
Unfortunately, Albania's entry requirements are not reliable. I visited Albania in early 2023, got asked some questions at immigration (purpose of visit - pleasure, confirmed bookings - none, do you know anyone here - nope), but was allowed to enter. I hold a passport that requires a visa for entry to Albania, but as a Schengen resident I get visa-free access. I enjoyed my visit very much (very friendly people), and decided to come back again soon. Visited again in summer 2023, but this time denied entry (purpose of visit - pleasure, confirmed bookings - this time yes!). Reason given: my nationality, even though I hold Schengen residency. Extremely disappointed.

I dont know how to feel. I fell in love with Albania the first time, and now I dont know how to feel. The people are great, the country is beautiful, I just dont know if I will ever be able to visit again. 89.80.14.127 01:33, 27 November 2023 (UTC)

 * I'm sorry to hear about your upsetting experience on your return visit. Please feel free to update the article as you see fit so potential visitors with a similar visa status can avoid similar disappointment. Vidimian (talk) 13:52, 27 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Thank you. I have made the change.  Hopefully it's acceptable.  And hopefully we can remove it soon once policies change/improve.  89.80.14.127 23:30, 28 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the edit. It looks good as far as I'm concerned. Vidimian (talk) 23:36, 28 November 2023 (UTC)

Ramadan
The infobox regarding Ramadan should be probably reconsidered/changed (not sure how). As average guy from central EU visiting the country during Ramadan I can't see anything special going on. The capital of Tirana works as any other city would work in the rest of the Europe. Everything is open, people drink alcohol and just live normal life. So in reality, no one should be afraid to visit the country even during the Ramadan period. The infobox in its current form doesn't really reflects the reality. Tomv85 (talk) 12:11, 13 March 2024 (UTC)

 * I guess that's the one downside of using a template that isn't localised specifically for each country. I don't know the solution, though. -- SHB2000  (talk | contribs | meta) 12:16, 13 March 2024 (UTC)
 * I made a try: I removed the template and wrote a paragraph in Respect, hopefully not misrepresenting the situation. Please check it, as I haven't been there. –LPfi (talk) 13:08, 13 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Might things be different outside of Tirana, in smaller towns or the countryside? Ikan Kekek (talk) 17:30, 13 March 2024 (UTC)
 * I would keep the infobox, though – as we don't want to manually update the dates every year for every article. -- SHB2000  (talk | contribs | meta) 20:44, 13 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Doesn't linking Ramadan take care of that? –LPfi (talk) 21:30, 13 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Maybe, but I prefer having the dates on the page. -- SHB2000  (talk | contribs | meta) 09:42, 14 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Well, since I'm staying in Tirana I can't tell much about countryside myself, but I did ask around the locals and they all say that even on countryside nothing really changes. So the Ramadan is "celebrated", but it doesn't really impacts anything. Was literally told "everything is open even on countryside, no need to worry". As is see it - it's religious event that might be celebrated by some, but it has no impact on anything else. People drink and eat as normal it seems. This is in huge contrast with other Muslim countries in the middle east, where things are way more serious even outside Ramadan.
 * The template as it is might be off-putting for someone (it was for me, hence I did my research and as I've read elsewhere on internet it doesn't really matter here). In some countries it's completely relevant and a major game changer, here it's not.
 * Tomv85 (talk) 12:28, 14 March 2024 (UTC)
 * In that case, I agree with removing the infobox. -- SHB2000  (talk | contribs | meta) 12:33, 14 March 2024 (UTC)
 * I believe that after the recent edit, it's just fine. All these Balkan countries with a Muslim majority are still technically secular (Bosnia, Kosovo, Albania) as far as I know. Kosovo probably has the largest share of Muslims among them (though I haven't been there), but even a brief search shows that they aren't as serious about their religion as other Middle Eastern countries. (For instance, during my recent visit to Jordan, I observed locals struggling to obtain beer, whereas in Albania, it's common to attend mosque and then enjoy a beer afterwards, or something similar.) So, just to conclude - we can't lump all countries with a Muslim majority into one category; it's all much more nuanced. Tomv85 (talk) 13:12, 14 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks for helping make this a better, more accurate travel guide! Ikan Kekek (talk) 18:06, 14 March 2024 (UTC)
 * We all try to make this a better source for travelers and for each other. No need to thank for anything. Now I'll just have a beer with these wonderful people here in Tirana since there's some unmentioned pagan festivity that's going on (that actually predates religion in this region - some kind of "summer" festivity, ). I'll try to include that later on. Tomv85 (talk) 18:23, 14 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Enjoy! Ikan Kekek (talk) 18:25, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Albania


text:
Talk:Albanian phrasebook

"Gj"
In Albania, the pronunciation of "Gj" is not like that of the "J" to "Jet", but rather a cross between the French "J" and Albanian, German, Scandinavian, Dutch or Slavic "J".

151.46.56.224 18:47, 27 November 2014 (UTC)

"Q"
The "Q", in Albanian, is not pronounced like the English or Italian "Q", but has a particular sound, which is not present in any other language in the world, however, the German "-CH" is the sound that resembles more!

151.46.56.224 18:58, 27 November 2014 (UTC)

 * If you see things in articles that should be edited, please edit them. Thanks a lot. Ikan Kekek (talk) 20:50, 27 November 2014 (UTC)

"Ëë"
The pronunciation guide saying u in up or a in above makes no sense, the u in up is ʌ, the same sound as the o in above, whereas the a is ə - what is correct? —The preceding comment was added by Julian Andres Klode (talk • contribs)
 * I am sure the first statement is false, considering that the 'ë' in Albanian is pronounced as a schwa sound (ə), e.g. in English language, the 'a' in 'above'. In other words, the second statement is correct. Also, take into consideration that the 'ë' is mostly silent, especially at the end of a word. --Berishasinan (talk) 19:29, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Albanian phrasebook


text:
Talk:Albany (California)

This article is lifted from the SF Chronicle guide to East Bay neighborhoods... probably need copyright permission.
 * Copyright permission is extremely unlikely given that the Chronicle is trying to make a money doing this. I've hard reverted the article back to before the copyright violation was added. -- (WT-en) Colin 15:35, 14 February 2007 (EST)

Hotels?
I searched Google Maps for hotels in Albany and the only results that came up were hotels in Berkeley and other places in the region. Should we include the northernmost of the Berkeley hotels and keep the article or should we merge it with Berkeley? Selfie City (talk) 16:58, 23 June 2018 (UTC)

 * There's enough content in this article not to merge it. No, we shouldn't list hotels in two different articles. Instead, in the "Sleep" section, we should suggest for people to stay in Berkeley and link the Berkeley article. Ikan Kekek (talk) 19:12, 23 June 2018 (UTC)

 * Thanks. Selfie City (talk) 19:18, 23 June 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Albany (California)


text:
Talk:Albany (New York)

Hotels?
We need a hotel section. When created, definitely mention the Crowne Plaza.(WT-en) BayernMann 02:04, 18 Aug 2005 (EDT)

Toning down 'bad area' language
Recommending that people 'avoid the Arbor Hill exit' without giving a reason is misleading. Should they stay away because it's not the prettiest area for new visitors to see when entering the city? I don't disagree, but it is an authentic part of Albany and not without its historical and neighborhood charm. Is it because it's a high crime area? I take that exit several times a week for the past several years and couldn't imagine that the vast majority of people would feel threatened as they did the same.

In my opinion, in real estate and travel in the US, the term 'bad area' is often used to indicate that an area is a predominanty Black area--whether or not it's true, it can used to justify refusal of real estate and business loans, tourism, and shopping. On a side note, recently I pretty seriously looked into buying investment property in areas including North Albany, I quickly realized that bank loan officers and real estate professionals communicated quite clearly via this sort of code language that I should live in a 'nice area' and stay away from 'those sorts of people'.

Anyhow, I'll get off my soapbox...just wanted to provide some justification for adding reasons people might choose to avoid Arbor Hill or not. I think it's important that they make a concious choice rather than doing so out of a vauge fear.(WT-en) Antonrojo 09:29, 16 Feb 2006 (EST)

I agree - I believe that it is inaccurate to state that the only safe area in Albany to walk is Center Square. Albany has numerous neighborhoods - not just Arbor Hill and Center Square. Are you saying that the downtown business district is unsafe? Pine Hills? New Scotland Ave.? The uptown SUNY area? I think the safe and crime free areas greatly outnumber the "bad areas".

Conversion to templated listings
These edits converted a lot of entries to use templates. The problem is, the entries were written to include the name in-line within a sentence, but our templates place a period after the name of the listing.

For example,

 * Hudson-River Bikeway is a long trail for biking, walking, jogging or skating which starts in the Corning Preserve in downtown Albany, right along the Hudson River, and stretches out to Rotterdam Junction in Schenectady County.

has become:

... which is grammatically incorrect and looks unprofessional.

I want to be clear that I don't support rewording the content to be complete sentences, either; sometimes a simple in-line bolding is the most suitable option for listings and we shouldn't remove those just because our listing templates can't handle it.

I think these changes should be reverted and the old grammar restored.

-- Powers (talk) 20:24, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

 * Your point makes sense to me. Ikan Kekek (talk) 22:10, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

 * Most of the changes in that diff look OK to me, so I'd suggest that if anything is reverted it be done on a case-by-case basis instead of a wholesale revert. In general we want business listings to use the templates unless there is a specific reason not to do so. -- Ryan • (talk) • 22:40, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

 * Sure, but I didn't interpret Powers as suggesting reverting anything but these particular types of listings. Ikan Kekek (talk) 23:20, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

 * As there is a style tag against the do section any positive contribution from others on how to improve it would be welcome. --Traveler100 (talk) 06:45, 27 November 2014 (UTC)

 * I don't know for sure why there's a style tag, but I believe it's because quite a few listings lack addresses, and in the case of "Pick apples!", not even names of orchards in the area are given. Some of the listings probably should not be templated, by analogy with the example given above. Ikan Kekek (talk) 07:10, 27 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Adding listing format is my usual first pass through a page. Next stage is adding detail which always highlights out of date listings and issues like the one you mention. As this is a time consuming task any assistance on updating the page would be great. --Traveler100 (talk) 08:34, 27 November 2014 (UTC)

 * Sorry, I've been very busy doing professional work tonight. I won't have the time to deal with this today, most likely. Ikan Kekek (talk) 09:20, 27 November 2014 (UTC)

Well, let's take the Bikeway example I posted above. Is there a compelling reason to have that be templated? Most of the fields in the template have no applicability to the listing, and using the template would require that we re-word the entry to avoid the sentence fragment. Powers (talk) 20:27, 27 November 2014 (UTC)

 * No, there is no compelling reason for that to be templated. I fully agree with you. What do you think, Traveler100, Ryan and anyone else who'd like to comment? Ikan Kekek (talk) 09:07, 28 November 2014 (UTC)
 * The bikeway listing now has a URL and lat/long coordinates, so it would seem that the template fields are now being used. -- Ryan • (talk) • 17:04, 28 November 2014 (UTC)
 * URLs are easily (and frequently) used without a template, and I question the utility of lat/long coordinates for a long trail. Isn't there some way to include things like this within prose without forcing it into the standard listing output format?  Powers (talk) 16:26, 29 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Maybe I don't understand - is the goal simply so that we can have a listing that reads "The Bike Path is a..." instead of "Bike Path. A..." ? The whole point of the listing templates (and the XML format before that, and the listing formatting guidelines before that) was to bring some consistency to how information is presented, so in cases where there is a URL or other additional data, I don't think the desire to use slightly different prose is a good reason to ignore our listing guidance that "Wikivoyage uses standardized formats" and, more importantly, to undo the work of someone who has tried to convert listings to that standardized format. -- Ryan • (talk) • 17:18, 29 November 2014 (UTC)
 * It's perhaps an overly simplistic example; as you note, the difference is small. But sometimes prose is more appropriate than listings.  Powers (talk) 01:40, 30 November 2014 (UTC)
 * The reason I supported Powers' point about this listing and still have very strong doubts about the use of coordinates that pinpoint a particular point in this case is that this is a bike path that has a length, not a single building or something. Would you support giving "Erie Canal" a geocoded, pinpointed listing in New York (state), to take an extreme example? Or maybe not all that extreme by comparison with this bike path, which the article describes as an "86 mile long trail" [my bolding]. Ikan Kekek (talk) 10:34, 3 December 2014 (UTC)
 * I think it's a fair argument that the lat/long coordinates should be removed for an 86 mile long bike path, but I also think that it would be strange to convert the listing back to prose when that listing is making use of templated listing fields such as URL (and, in the future, possibly directions, hours, or anything that might be added to the listing tags). While some businesses or attractions don't naturally fit into our listing scheme, if someone has spent time making conversions and the listing fields are in use, it seems odd to me to revert.  That said, I think this is a minor matter and I don't want to unnecessarily extend this discussion, so if those who are actively working on this article think it should be converted back then let's just do so and move on. -- Ryan • (talk) • 15:37, 3 December 2014 (UTC)
 * I don't have a strong view about any issue other than geocoding. Ikan Kekek (talk) 16:10, 3 December 2014 (UTC)

Guide status?
As I read City guide status, the only thing that's preventing this article from being a Guide now is the guidelines of using 1-liner listings for "Go next." If we disregard that, I think it's already a Guide.

That said, we might want to consider using strategic bolding to make the "Go next" section easier to read. For example, should we bold the names of the various state parks (I think so)?

In terms of the info about Saratoga, I think it should be possible to summarize the appeal of the place in a single sentence. There's some nice prose in the description, but that would arguably be more appropriate in the Saratoga Springs article, itself.

What do you all think, and what other improvements remain to be done on this article? Ikan Kekek (talk) 11:24, 29 November 2014 (UTC)

 * Agree the Go next section needs some rework. There are also a number of listings that should now be moved to other city pages that have been created. --Traveler100 (talk) 12:25, 29 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Done --Traveler100 (talk) 12:56, 29 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Also I have just gone through the Sleep section, one hotel has changed ownership, one no longer existed and 2 had bad links to web pages. Need to go through the same checks for Eat and Drink sections before considering this article for guide. --Traveler100 (talk) 12:28, 29 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Diligent work. Kudos! Ikan Kekek (talk) 12:57, 29 November 2014 (UTC)
 * See section also needs addresses for many of the attractions and some are missing web links. --Traveler100 (talk) 13:01, 29 November 2014 (UTC)

 * Most of them have Geo, though, I think. By the way, when the time comes, do you think Albany is small enough to be "Off the Beaten Path"? Seems a bit borderline to me, but probably so. Ikan Kekek (talk) 13:03, 29 November 2014 (UTC)
 * State capitals aren't off the beaten path. Powers (talk) 16:25, 29 November 2014 (UTC)
 * You just can't possibly make such a rule. Obvious counterexamples: Pierre, South Dakota; Montpelier, Vermont; Bismarck, North Dakota; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Concord, New Hampshire; Augusta, Maine - should I go on? You tried to claim in a discussion on the Dotm page that there was such a rule about national capitals, and I don't think anyone agreed with you that places like Majuro, Naypyidaw, Yamoussoukro and Malabo should be DotMs just because they're national capitals. Trying to make such a rule for state capitals is even sillier, in my opinion. But I guess we might as well hold off on this side discussion until the article is ready to nominate, which is still some ways off. Ikan Kekek (talk) 16:45, 29 November 2014 (UTC)
 * I don't have a problem naming all of them DotMs. Being state capitals, lots of people have to travel there for government/civic business, if nothing else.  Powers (talk) 01:40, 30 November 2014 (UTC)
 * In 2013, the estimated population of Montpelier was 7,755. Yet you wouldn't consider it off the beaten path for a traveler. Your opinion is noted. In any case, Albany is a real city, and not small. Ikan Kekek (talk) 01:44, 30 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Surely you're not implying that population alone is a good metric to use to determine DotM status? Powers (talk) 02:42, 1 December 2014 (UTC)
 * No. But you're outright stating that merely being a capital of a country or state is conclusive. Ikan Kekek (talk) 02:44, 1 December 2014 (UTC)
 * It's possible there may be some exceptions, but Albany, to me, clearly cannot be one of them. Cohoes is off the beaten path. Maybe Troy.  But not the capital of the third most populous state in the U.S., which lies at the junction of two major rivers and two major Interstate highways, has an international airport, and is the center of a metropolitan region of almost a million people.  Most state capitals can say the same or similar.  Powers (talk) 14:38, 1 December 2014 (UTC)
 * We can point to this discussion any time this article is good enough for a nomination. Ikan Kekek (talk) 20:02, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

Thacher State Park
The park is listed in the See section and Go Next section. Which should it be in, or should a page for the park be created? --Traveler100 (talk) 19:53, 29 November 2014 (UTC)
 * kept in the Go Next section. --Traveler100 (talk) 20:52, 30 November 2014 (UTC)
 * I just checked - it's in Voorheesville, New York, but as you can see, there's no article for that village. Albany in fact seems to be the nearest city that has an article. I haven't been to the park, so I don't know whether it justifies its own article or not. In terms of creating an article about the village of Voorheesville, I'm pretty uncertain about that, too. For what it's worth, Tripadvisor lists 2 things to do there, one of which is the park.

 * I think that since this park needs a listing, it could be put in "See#Outside of town" or some similar subsection. Ikan Kekek (talk) 08:13, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

title: Talk:Albany (New York)