Wikivoyage:Arrivals lounge

Welcome to the Arrivals Lounge Shortcuts: WV:Arrivals WV:AL The Arrivals Lounge is a place where learners on Wikivoyage can ask questions about the website; in particular, questions about formatting, templates, or any problems or concerns. Experienced users can answer their questions and help them learn more about how to use the website. For discussions about travel (including questions), please go to the travel forum instead. To start a new topic, click the button below entitled "Click here to ask a new question", so that the new topic gets added at the bottom of the page, and sign your post by appending four tildes (~~~~). To see the archives, please visit the archive for the month you are looking for. For example, Wikivoyage:Arrivals lounge/Archives/2018/September gets you the archives for September 2018. Archiving is done automatically after one month per discussion. There is also a page with links to archives; see Wikivoyage:Arrivals lounge/Archives. Click here to ask a new question You can also try some other pages for getting information. Press the "expand" button to see more. Our Help, FAQ, and Policies pages. For general questions, the pub is a popular destination. If you have a question or suggestion about a particular article, you may use the article's talk page to keep the discussion associated with that article. If you'd like to draw attention to a comment to get feedback from other Wikivoyagers, you can try Requests for comment. If you are wanting travel advice on a specific matter, you can ask the question at the travel forum. If you there is vandalism you need to report, you can go to Ongoing vandalism. If you are having a problem that you think has to do with the MediaWiki software, please post that on Phabricator rather than here. If you want to celebrate a significant contribution to Wikivoyage by yourself or others, you can hold a party at Celebrate a contribution. Discuss issues related to more than one language version of Wikivoyage in the Wikivoyage Lounge on Meta.

Numbers on Listings

Hi. I was wondering how numbers on listings work. I've added listing, but they don't have numbers - there's seemingly nothing different with the parameters. Help would be appreciated. Axolitl (talk | contribs) 19:07, 24 June 2026 (UTC)

Listings show numbers when they appear on the map. In most cases this is because the lat and long fields have the correct location information. It can also happen indirectly when the wikidata field is completed and the linked wikidata page has the location. There is nothing wrong with having some listings which don't have numbers, sometimes it is better to avoid cluttering the map if a few words of direction is clearer (e.g. next door to X). AlasdairW (talk) 21:19, 24 June 2026 (UTC)

Thanks! Axolitl (talk | contribs) 22:15, 24 June 2026 (UTC)

Seasonal Stuff

How would I list a seasonal attraction? (in this case a water park, theme park, and festival that are all only open for the summer)

Also what abo annual festivals?ut Nova 37 (talk) 15:09, 15 July 2026 (UTC)

• please take a look at Derby#Events to see a nice example of how this can be done. Ibaman (talk) 15:14, 15 July 2026 (UTC)

  thank you! Nova 37 (talk) 16:39, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

@Nova 37, for something like a water park that is only open in the summer, I usually put that information in the opening hours. See the third item in Grinnell#Do for an example. For a festival, if there's a settled schedule, I'd probably say something like "Third Saturday in September" (if it's always the same Saturday) or "usually late September" (if the exact date varies). WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:52, 15 July 2026 (UTC)

thanks! ^^ Nova 37 (talk) 16:39, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

Portugal

vacation in September Vaykay003 (talk) 18:09, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

I'm not sure what your question is, but note that there are a lot of holidays in Portugal compared to the United States (where I am from and where this site is hosted--no idea your location), but September is a bit of a dry spell for national holidays. Depending on where you visit, there are many municipal or regional festivals that could be held. Additionally, September is probably a great time to visit the beach, but it can get a bit chilly, so prepare for warmer or cooler weather. ―Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 21:18, 6 August 2026 (UTC)

How this place works

Hi! I'm a tourist here myself, and enjoying visiting a foreign country. As a Wikipedian who wants to be more of a Wikimedian, do you have any advice? Should I know a place before I edit (stark contrast to Wikipedia's amnesia test)? Is original research allowed, and is unsourced stuff even considered a problem? WikipediholicRat (talk) 21:02, 6 August 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for posting and for being interested in helping. As for advice, I posted {{welcome}} on your talk page, which should give a nice overview (if it doesn't let us know and we can fix it). As for knowing a place, there are certainly small style fixes or formatting things you could change or improvements to the language that you can make anywhere, so it's not necessary to have firsthand knowledge of a destination or topic before editing. That dovetails to your other question about original research: the idea here is that the guide is primarily made up of original research (or at least, that's the most important stuff). So you can add anything you want from your experience that you think is helpful to the traveler and don't need to worry about citations or being neutral. But instead of an NPOV policy, we have WV:TOUT for instance, that helps moderate our tone. For that matter, the style of writing is much less dry and academic, so you can put some personality and flair into how you write. I hope that's a helpful overview. ―Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 21:17, 6 August 2026 (UTC)

As someone who similarly started on Wikipedia, I recommend reading Wikivoyage:Welcome, Wikipedians to get started.

In terms of what to edit, try searching up your home city/state, and look for any outdated information. Personally, I have seen many outdated content in Singapore and its subarticles, and have gone ahead and updated the information. For edits to places where you live, do check out Wikivoyage:Welcome, locals.

Enjoy your time here! Hason-LEK-SIN (talk) 04:48, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

Question regarding bias/factuality

I've found a "Stay Safe" section with a very slanted discussion of history, which reads like it was written by a state security agency or propaganda agency. The way it describes Chechnya is not a typical way that you would read in English (calling them "radicals" and "islamists" rather than more neutral/typical language (such as "Rebels", "revolutionaries", etc).

Is this against the rules, if so am I allowed to just change it, or is there a method which I am meant to do.

Dagestan#Stay safe Chiltern Turbo (talk) 20:36, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

Tone here is not the same as a place like Wikipedia, where they expect a more dry and neutral approach. We can have more engaging and informal writing but we do advise against excesses such as with WV:TOUT. That said, if you think that the language is needlessly provocative or slanted, then definitely do change it: the goal is that the traveler comes first, so if some language is distracting or unhelpful or misleading, it should definitely be changed. ―Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 20:47, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

Yes, much of the language (such as in my original post) follows the dont's of WV:TOUT. Is is against the rules/will it be undone if I change the language to be more neutral (not changing tone, but changing some wordings/removing the substantive praising of russian security forces.) Chiltern Turbo (talk) 21:09, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

Excuse me if I didn't answer your question directly: yes, you may change wording to be more neutral. ―Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 21:20, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

Whether a group are rebels or not is definitional, not a function of ideology. If you take up arms against the government, you are a rebel. And Chechnya is in fact ruled by Islamists. I wouldn't think that would be controversial to state, and keep in mind that Wikivoyage does not go by a neutral point of view, but instead Wikivoyage:Be fair dictates that we should be accurate. That said, if you believe there are inaccuracies that you could uncontroversially edit, go ahead. Otherwise, my suggestion would be for you to start a discussion on the Talk:Dagestan page (or Talk:Chechnya if relevant), copying the existing text you'd like to propose changes to and putting your proposed new language below that, so that we can have a specific discussion.

Best,

Ikan Kekek (talk) 20:51, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

Alright, thank you. It also seems contradictory to the large warning at the header, as the header warns of danger/terrorism, whilst the stay safe section says that the "Federal Government . . . has allowed peace to return to Dagestan since 2016-2017". Chiltern Turbo (talk) 21:06, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

By all means, update conditions if you know what they are like currently. A lot of that sounds out of date. Ikan Kekek (talk) 21:17, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

I am not familiar with the area, I was more reading out of interest and saw a lot of language which appears to be slanted (and would potentially turn off many western/non-Russosphere readers). I ask how I would update/get information for it though, and if I would be able to update the language itself - as to remove some of the bloat and to make it feel a bit less state-written (as that was it somewhat appears like to me.) Chiltern Turbo (talk) 21:23, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

@Chiltern Turbo, I suggest that you Wikivoyage:Plunge forward and do your best. It doesn't have to be perfect on the first try. Maybe someone else will see what you did, and be able to improve it even further. WhatamIdoing (talk) 22:01, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

Looking at this further it is a whole mess of a "stay safe", and has a crazy level of slant compared to the "respect" section (as if someone had put in their own sanitized version.)

Its facts are completely outdated, its claims are all contradictory - some examples:

• Attacks against police stations and Russian officials were regular events throughout Dagestan until 2013
• terrorist attacks have become a rare event in Dagestan since 2015.
• has allowed peace to return to Dagestan since 2016-2017 I am currently in the process of rewriting much of that "stay safe" section

Chiltern Turbo (talk) 23:22, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

Y'know, this is helpful stuff to raise. But, in contrast to user:WhatamIdoing's suggestion to plunge forward, I'd advise you not to make any big changes to these pages. You said yourself that you don't know the area personally, so therefore you don't actually know the info there is outdated or biased. I second User:Ikan Kekek's idea to start discussions on the relevant talk pages, and wait for input from people who do know. Stay safe sections are very important to travellers; they can literally be life and death, so somebody (anybody, not just you) drastically editing them based on a hunch about the 'slant', and not based on actual knowledge, is not something I encourage. --ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 01:59, 9 August 2026 (UTC)

I did the edit several hours ago following the "plunge" advice, but I have written to the talk page saying a proper rewrite is needed (as my edits were mostly to structure/language, not the advice itself.) I can't attest to local things (like town xyz is unsafe), but I am aware more of the local wars, and that it was very biased - giving attribution to "federal russia" or the police in a very unnatural way.

I would appreciate however, if you read through my edit and compare to the old. Chiltern Turbo (talk) 02:16, 9 August 2026 (UTC)

I am mostly following what koafv said in terms of edits, the only "new" thing is editing out there have been no terror attacks, and adding that protests in russia need ot be certified, and entering protests in russia, particularly if you are a citizen of a hostile nation towards russia is a bad idea. Chiltern Turbo (talk) 02:19, 9 August 2026 (UTC)

I'll take a look, but I am also not the best person to read and assess your edits, as I do not have much knowledge of the facts with respect to Dagestan and Chechnya, have no travel experience in Russia, and am personally very biased against the Russian regime. Sorry to push back on this, but no, you don't actually know it was biased or unnatural before; you just suspected it was - perhaps rightly, perhaps not.

When it comes to life and death advice, I think we should rely on knowledge (personal knowledge, or knowledge gathered from trustworthy sources via research), rather than hunches. Still, appreciate your collaborative approach. --ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 02:32, 9 August 2026 (UTC)