Descriptions of each of the sections in the article templates can be found at Wikitravel:Article templates/Sections.
'''How to use the templates'''
There are two main ways these article templates can be useful.
Note that these templates are not [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Template MediaWiki templates]. See Wikitravel:using Mediawiki templates.
We think it's great to have simple, logical sections to each destination guide on Wikitravel. This makes it easier for readers to find the info they need on any particular destination. Sure, it cuts down somewhat on contributors' creative license, but the traveller comes first around here. We want travelers to get the info they need as easily as possible.
''Yes''. The following sections are '''obligatory''' and should be in every article:
For example, if a town has absolutely no places to sleep, then you should note this in the ''Sleep'' section. 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.
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.
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.
Region and Country articles can also have the following headings (at the start of the article for regions; after "Understand" for countries):
Huge cities (that have been districted) can also have the following heading at the start of the article:
The main reason we do this is because we don't want Wikitravel guides to look just like any existing commercial guides. Why not? Well, first, so Wikitravel looks distinctive. People should see a guide and say, "Hey! See, Do, Eat - this came from Wikitravel! 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.
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 here, 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.
First of all, make sure that your contribution is really something we want to have on Wikitravel. Check our goals and non-goals as well as What is an article?. But if you're really superabsolutelypositively sure, just start the article without a template.
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.
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 is small, and only has one city, or a handful of tiny settlements, don't subdivide it, use a small city article template. For example, there's no reason to create a separate article for Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda.
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 Wikitravel articles. A link to a hotel's official web site is a primary source, but a link to a site that reviews hotels is '''not'''.
We used to have an ''External links'' section but, removed it for the following reasons: