Talk:Virgin Gorda

I first visited Virgin Gorda in the early 1970's. Back then, there was no electricity and only a few paved roads. The posh hotel, Little Dix Bay (owned and managed by RockResorts), had already been established, but at the time it was an alien presence on the primitive island. In the intervening years, Virgin Gorda has gained electricity and a few more paved roads. It has also undergone a subtle shift from a very British ex-pat kind of place (the Lord Nelson Inn was a favorite hang-out) to a much more Americanized resort island. Is there fast food there yet? Gosh, I hope not.

The Baths is Virgin Gorda's most famous beach, due to its hidden caves and pools nestled amongst giant volcanic boulders. As a result, it will be crowded much of the time. But, there are numerous other beautiful beaches, several of which you might have all to yourself on any given day. Give Spring Bay or Pond Bay a try.

If Speedy is still in business, you can rent a jeep or similar island vehicle and toot about. Note that the driving is British-style, on the wrong side of the road. Currency is US dollars.

- Pip Nosher

3/15/08. I've added some entries (forgetting to log in). I am aware that we ought not list places twice, but I did include some resorts in Eat because of a common theme--eating lunch and looking around--and because people looking for food might not look under Sleep. OK?

(WT-en) RogerR 14:01, 15 March 2008 (EDT)

More than OK—you're doing fantastic work with this article! And such a wonderful destination deserves it too. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 14:06, 15 March 2008 (EDT)

Thank you for your kind words. I'm also aware that towns customarily get their own listings, but the boundaries of the sprawling village of Spanish Town are imperceptible or nonexistent. Having been there, I'm sure you'll agree. (WT-en) RogerR 17:27, 15 March 2008 (EDT)

Yes, I would assume that there should be no more than one article for the island, and accordingly the listings should be placed in this article. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 17:58, 15 March 2008 (EDT)

Sleep - rental listings (villas)

I've noticed a few entries in the Sleep section for (privately rented) villas and one new entry on WT for an agency that rents out "independently owned" villas. While I haven't been to Virgin Gorda yet, it seems to me that private rentals/villas are a popular option for accommodation. For example, TripAdvisor presently lists 232 rentals in Virgin Gorda vs only 18 traditional accommodations (hotels, inns, B&Bs, etc).

Per Rental Listings, at the first instance, rentals should not be listed in the article. However, given the apparent popularity of rentals, do we have consensus to list a few?

If we go that route, how should we handle the listings? Do we want a separate "Villas" sub-section after the four "districts" or do we want a "Villas" sub-sub-section in each of the four "districts"?

Alvanson (talk) 04:54, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

I do think we should allow villa rentals for the reason you identify. I think it's probably easiest to just keep listing them right in there with the resorts, since they're all helpfully named X Resort or Y Villa. Now as for the question of how to choose which rentals of the 232... I don't have a great answer for that one! Citing reviews on review sites like TripAdvisor is something allowed (on the talk page) to justify the removal of listings, so we can just list the ones that we care to write about, and worry about removing items if they're added later, I guess. --Peter ^Talk 06:02, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

Ok, I've updated the listings that are already in the article (minor corrections). We should still forbid rental agency listings (e.g. Villas Virgin Gorda which was recently listed in WT) in the article. If there is a particular villa or complex worth writing about, specific information on that particular villa/complex could be included in the article. Alvanson (talk) 16:34, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

Geocoding

Geocoding data sources include: Wikimapia and BVI Tourism Info. -- Alvanson (talk) 03:12, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

The coordinates of Yacht Harbour, Long Bay and CocoMaya was ascertained using Google Maps satellite imagery and the LatLng dropper. -- Alvanson (talk) 23:25, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

Star potential

I've marked this article as having Star potential. Please see Star nominations for the Star criteria. I have reproduced the checklist below with some commentary:

• Grammar and spelling must be perfect — See definition above. Prose should be stylistically superior and effective.

• A catchy lede has been requested. -- Alvanson (talk) 02:23, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

• Illustration: the article should be appropriately illustrated with pictures and a Wikivoyage-style map, with all attractions marked.

• In the alternative, if we geocode all attractions, will the automatic slippy map will take care of this criteria? -- Alvanson (talk) 02:23, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

• Listings should be in alphabetical order — geographical order is also acceptable if it is deemed better.

• Done, but someone else please double-check. I seem to mess this up more often than I feel comfortable admitting! -- Alvanson (talk) 02:23, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

• No duplications: a listing should appear under one section only — if there is ambiguity, put it under the section that it most applies to.

• Many of the resorts could be listed repeatedly throughout the article (rentals, restaurants, bars and suites -- so Do, Eat, Drink and Sleep). They've been listed under Sleep, but perhaps there's a better way to draw out the full value of a resort within the article. -- Alvanson (talk) 02:23, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

• Time and date formats: Use: M,Tu,W,Th,F,Sa,Su; "...daily" not "Daily..."; "midnight and noon" not "12AM and 12PM"; "AM PM" not "am pm". (Examples: "M-F noon-11PM" and "9AM-9PM daily").

• Hours still need to be added to a few listings. -- Alvanson (talk) 02:23, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

• Section introductions are not mandatory but should be present when they serve to improve a section.

• More interesting intros to Drink and Sleep have also been requested. -- Alvanson (talk) 02:23, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

• Use "—" (mdash) for breaks in thought.

• Done—I think. -- Alvanson (talk) 02:23, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

• Use abbreviations for addresses, e.g., St, Ave, Ln, Blvd.}}

• What addresses? Not often used on the island! -- Alvanson (talk) 02:23, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

Please plunge forward and address any one of the issues above, or feel free to add your latest discovery. If you feel an item above is complete, please mark it as such.

-- Alvanson (talk) 02:23, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

This looks about right. Dealing with resorts that have dining and nightlife for non-guests is really hard in a place like this—our policies that usually make sense are a bit out of step with reality on the ground. I think the best way to deal with this is to dedicate a paragraph in the section intros to eat and drink noting that resorts [[#Sleep|below]] also have some great restaurants for non-guests, in particular X Resort Restaurant for its grouper and views over the..., etc.

The dynamic map will need more work too, which we are hammering out at Wikivoyage talk:Dynamic maps Expedition, where this article has been a useful example. I think it will be worthwhile to create a GPX track showing the boundaries of what this article covers (a line grouping with VG all the little islands surrounding). An urban example of this is at Singapore/Chinatown#Museums and galleries. It would also be really great to get the bay names on the dynamic map, which will involve editing at OSM. I want more experience with both GPX tracks and editing OSM, so if you want me to take care of that stuff, I'll gladly do it. --Peter ^Talk 21:49, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

You dynamic maps expedition people are doing some excellent work in quite a short period of time! I'm looking forward to the point where a suitable-for-print map is (semi-)automatically generated from the geodata for the print edition. I'll definitely leave you to the GPX tracks and editing OSM. -- Alvanson (talk) 23:33, 29 July 2013 (UTC)