Wikivoyage:Discover Voyage Tips and guide

Here we collaborate on future discover facts that are featured on the Main Page (and on the Discover page).

• At a minimum, [[link]] the article that contains the fact in question. The fact must be taken from a Wikivoyage article.
• '''Boldface''' the fact of interest.
• Linked articles don't need to be perfect, but preference should be given to those with a status of "usable" or higher.
• Relevant images are required for one in every three facts. They should be placed above the fact in question, with the following formatting:

[[Image:imagename|right|200px|description]]
The interesting fact linked to this image goes here.

• When looking for fun facts to add, Special:Random (also accessible in the left sidebar) which displays a random Wikivoyage article can be a useful tool. As many articles unfortunately are short on content, you may want to hit the link multiple times while opening up new articles in new tabs.

Now a renowned fine art museum, Galleria degli Uffizi (interior pictured) in Florence translates to "Gallery of the offices" as the building first served as the magistrates' offices and state archives. First celebrated in 1737, the current incarnation of the St. Patrick's Day Parade in South Boston has been running every year since 1901. Rosenfeld Palace in Žilina is described as one of the most beautiful art nouveau palaces in Slovakia.

• The content in Template:Discover is automatically updated on a daily basis and each Discover entry is displayed for three days.
• If the box above is empty, it means that the template ran out of entries. If this happens you can add new entries from the nominations below. Remove entries from the nominations list as you add them to the template.
• If you are unsure about how it works, feel free to try out things in the Discover sandbox first.
• When an entry isn't shown on the Main Page any longer, it should be added to the Discover archive, not just deleted from the template.

Add your entries to the end of this list. Do not leave any space or other commentary between entries. However, feel free to rearrange the list, because geographic variety in what's displayed is good (e.g. if the next three items are all from Europe, it's good to intersperse something from somewhere else).

• Point Moore Lighthouse (pictured) in Geraldton, Western Australia, was built in Birmingham, England and shipped out in sections for local assembly.
• The waters of the Gulf of Mexico on the northern Yucatan coast are so shallow that docks must be built longer...like the 6.5-km pier in Progreso, the longest pier in the world.
• Whoosh train of Indonesia is the first high speed train in the Southern Hemisphere.

• Gol Gumbaz (pictured) in Bijapur, India, is a 17th century mausoleum housing the second-largest unsupported dome in the world.
• The Frank DeRosa Railroad Museum in Havre showcases how the town moved all businesses into basements connected by tunnels after a fire destroyed everything above ground in 1904.
• The monkey grave at Donovan's Hotel in Clonakilty honors Tojo the monkey who died here drinking rum just 24-hours after he and his American owner survived crash-landing a plane nearby in WWII.

• The Shizutani School (pictured) in Bizen is said to be the world's first integrated school where all classes from samurai to farmer were welcome.
• The Malay Technology Museum in Bandar Seri Begawan has many exhibits featuring the different styles of houses and the lifestyle of those who live in water villages.
• True to its nickname "the town in the lava", Hafnarfjörður was built over a lava field with many lava formations visible around the town.

• A British tropical gardens remaining nearly unchanged for over 100 years, the Botanic Gardens (pictured) are Singapore's only UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• If you're in downtown Mexico City and need to put a curse on someone, you'll want to visit the Mercado de Sonora which has a reputation as the place where witches and sorcerers can shop for all their nefarious voodoo magic needs.
• Snow tubing in Tsaghkadzor has all the fun with none of the hill-climbing, thanks to the rope engine that pulls you and your tube back to the top from the bottom of the run.

• The Brown Trout Statue (pictured) that stands at the entrance of the the town was built to declare Gore as the World Capital of Brown Trout Fishing.
• Until 1969 the One o'Clock Gun in Birkenhead was controlled from Bidston Observatory, and used to set the marine chronometers of ships on the Mersey.
• Many monarchies have only survived through buildings, written records, and archaeological remnants.

• Ploiești's Clock Museum (pictured) features a collection of over 1000 sundials, astronomical clocks & vintage watches.
• The building of the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum in Baku is itself shaped as a carpet.
• Chad is the quintessential destination to experience the Sahara desert.

• Tatshenshini-Alsek (landscape pictured) was one of the last areas of British Columbia to be mapped and explored.
• The earliest fortifications were most likely additions to an already defensible positions afforded by natural topography.
• Canton Fair, the largest trade fair in China, is held in Guangzhou several times a year.

• The Parliament House of Tasmania (pictured) in Hobart was built to serve as a customs house.
• Different Colorado University sports teams are among Boulder's best-known attractions.
• Founded in 1551, Vitória is the third oldest capital of Brazil, after Salvador and Recife.

• One Dortmund's most iconic landmarks is the Dortmunder U (pictured), a high-rise former brewery building built in 1927.
• When it comes to lodging, there are no budget options in Djibouti city - because accommodation is very expensive for what you get.
• The Eden sculpture in Buffalo's Elmwood Village is one of three identical sculptures cast from the same mold.

• Peshawar is known for its Kawa (green tea, pictured) which has a unique flavour, and is usually served sweet.
• There are many phonological and lexical differences between the French spoken in Quebec and that spoken in France.
• The natural area of Laguna de Rocha is intended to provide a protected habitat for wildlife and as such has no developed infrastructure for travelers.

• Takkoku no Iwaya Bishamon-dō (pictured) in Hiraizumi is dedicated to Bishamon, the god of war, but was called Iwaya Bishamondo — a place to pray for peace.
• The Evil Clown of Middletown is a large outdoor sign, advertising a liquor store.
• In the largest cities, there is often one neighbourhood which was traditionally a "gay village".

• The Yyteri beach (pictured) in Pori is one of the largest and certainly one of the best beaches in Finland.
• The old state penitentiary of Mulegé was a jail without bars - the prisoners could go out to work during the day, they just had to be back at night.
• The Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, Ontario displays watercraft from Canada and around the world, plus exhibits on the role canoes and kayaks have played in Canada.

• Reaching a height of 187 m, and visible from most of downtown Cairo, the Cairo Tower (pictured) offers great day and night views over the city and to the Pyramids.
• The wooden roof of the 11th century Ancona Cathedral is in the shape of an upside-down boat.
• By Indian standards, Hyderabad's monuments are not very old, which means that they are better preserved.

• Sulphur Springs is known as "The Dairy Capital of Texas", with a museum (pictured) cultured to that very point, even if the dairy industry has waned a bit around here.
• There are two main versions of rugby football: rugby union with 15 players a side (with a 7-a-side variant), and rugby league with 13 players a side.
• Lewis and Harris is the third largest island in the British Archipelago, only Great Britain and Ireland being larger.

• At the Naran Tuul market in Ulaanbaatar you can haggle over cheap clothes, toys, fur hats, vintage Soviet propaganda pins, or anything you can imagine (merchandise pictured).
• The Tchimpounga Animal Sanctuary in Pointe-Noire is a chimpanzee sanctuary for rescued primates who have been caught up in illegal bushmeat trade.
• One activity in Langmusi is horse trekking into the beautiful surrounding grasslands, hills, and valleys.

• Mont Saint-Michel (pictured) is best known as the site of the spectacular and well-preserved Norman Benedictine Abbey of St Michel at the peak of the rocky island.
• Many of Japan's draws are distinct types of arts and culture from bunraku theater to J-pop.
• La Tuque was named after a nearby rock formation that resembles the famous French Canadian hat.

• Afyonkarahisar means "opium black fortress" and the city indeed is in an opium growing area and has a fortress (pictured) perched on a black volcanic crag.
• When buying travel insurance, you should review the dates of coverage, whether it protects you enough financially, and the exclusions.
• In Puerto Maldonado you can visit a Rescue Snake House.

• The medieval Häme Castle (pictured) is not just the symbol and main attraction of Hämeenlinna, the city is named after it.
• Udawalawe National Park is famous for its large wild elephant population, making an excellent destination for safari-style tours.
• At the Correctional Services Museum in Pretoria you can learn about the development of the penal system in South Africa from the most barbaric methods to the modern penological system of today.

• Uqsuqtuuq, the Inuktitut name of Gjoa Haven (pictured) means "lots of fat", referring to the abundance of sea mammals in the nearby waters
• The Cavaleriemuseum in Amersfoort presents early and modern cavalry of the Dutch army, spanning more than four centuries.
• As a Buddhist country, the Thai language has been strongly influenced by Sanskrit and Pali.

• Bendigo (pictured) is known for its grand Victorian architecture, built during the gold rush of the mid-19th century.
• One of Portugal's historical jewels, Tomar was founded by the Knights Templar.
• There is no road connection through the Darién Gap connecting North America with South America and it is the missing link of the Pan-American Highway.

• Chicagoland's Metra commuter train system (train pictured) is one of the most connected and advanced in the United States.
• The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat features the second largest hand made Persian carpet in the world.
• The town of El Valle in Panama is actually inside the caldera of a volcano.

The articles linked in from the entries below need to be improved before they're ready to go. Plunge forward, edit them, and move to the main queue. If you move trivia to this list, please provide a reason for doing so.

• I've self-reverted an item I'd added about an ice hotel as novelty architecture. I see nothing in Wikivoyage talk:Discover#Overlinking that should prohibit me from linking both novelty architecture and the article about the town. Comments? K7L (talk) 02:26, 18 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. As you said, use as many relevant links as there are. Ikan Kekek (talk) 04:26, 18 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It seems I have misinterpreted what the consensus was (or rather wasn't; the discussion doesn't seem to have come to any conclusion). This being the case, I apologise for interfering with your edits and citing a consensus that doesn't exist.

However, I do agree with Ypsi's original concerns that the entry should generally only link to the page where the fact is mentioned; in nearly all cases that is the destination / travel topic that is the entry's subject. Novelty architecture (as an article covering an entire field of study) is only tenuously related to this one specific ice hotel in Sweden. It's a bit like linking to Historical travel (very broad and general topic) in an entry about Herculaneum (a specific Roman archaeological site).

But we should really try to conclude that discussion one way or the other. --ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 10:55, 18 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

What if the fact is mentioned in more than one place? For instance, Chicken AK being named for ptarmigan is mentioned in both the town's article and places with unusual names. Likewise, it would make sense for the "ice hotel" concept to be mentioned both in their host cities and in the novelty architecture article. K7L (talk) 11:17, 18 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Well, ice hotels in general, and the specific hotel in question are both mentioned on novelty architecture, like you say. There are lots of cases like this where the same or similar information appears on more than one page. But the discover fact is about this hotel in particular (it being the very first of its kind), so that's the article we should link to, in my opinion. There could be a future discover entry specifically for the novelty architecture article, though, no problem. --ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 11:48, 18 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The novelty architecture is the whole point of the item; the bit about "being first" was merely an arbitrary line drawn to avoid having to list all of the other hotels of the same genre - which are too numerous to fit in a twenty-word blurb. K7L (talk) 12:44, 18 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I still think we should link to just one article, the article where the fact appears. If we are to link to several articles, like the factoids in Wikipedia's Did you know (upon which our Discover section is based), I'd say we should also write the name of the article where the fact appears in bold letters, just like they do. --ϒpsilon (talk) 14:25, 18 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The facts do appear in places with unusual names (for Chicken) and novelty architecture (for the ice hotel). K7L (talk) 02:47, 19 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

In these cases I still see the destination is the "main article" which should be highlighted somehow. It's Jukkasjärvi that has become famous because of the ice hotel representing Novelty architecture, not the other way around (ie. novelty architecture would still be around if they had built it in Gällivare instead, or not at all). In the same way, Chicken is famous because it has a funny name. --ϒpsilon (talk) 10:50, 19 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

If the rest of you think it's best to have only one link per entry, I'll accede to that. Ikan Kekek (talk) 10:57, 19 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

That's for the best. We can still have a fact relating to novelty architecture in the future, whereas linking two or more articles in one fact is basically using those articles up for the foreseeable future, in that we don't like repeat coverage of the same articles within a period of time. --ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 11:26, 19 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I believe the concerns about duplication are that we don't want the same fact twice, not that we are trying to prevent two facts about the same destination from appearing at different times. This was raised at Wikivoyage talk:Discover#Repeating Discoveries and Same-type Discoveries before the WT split, and I think there was one we'd removed the better part of a year ago here as the same fact was mistakenly submitted twice, one month apart. K7L (talk) 13:34, 20 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

We can certainly feature a single destination as many times as we like but I think there should be a couple of months between them at least. Intentionally featuring the same fact again is something we should avoid, though if this occasionally happens by accident (maybe because there have been so long time since it was featured that nobody remembers) I don't think it's a huge problem. For instance, the fact we had a few weeks back of Michigan's map resembling two hands was featured in October 2015 with a different wording. ϒpsilon (talk) 08:34, 21 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I'd prefer not to feature the same fact twice, or have three facts from the same country appear in the same three-day interval (like The [[Aleutian Islands]] of Alaska are the easternmost U.S. point", "[[Texas]] is the second-largest state, behind Alaska", "[[Wyoming]] is the second least-populous, behind Alaska")... unless this were April 1 or some occasion where the pattern is the joke. Conversely, I can't see a fact on big things in Australia being precluded because a fact on ice hotels had already run previously; both are technically novelty architecture. K7L (talk)

• The 2½-mile boardwalk is the central focus of Ocean City's attractions.

This is a disambig page – which Ocean City is it?

New Jersey, it's in the lead. I opened the three articles and searched the for the sentence, that took a fifth of the time writing this reply. Ypsilon (talk) 10:23, 30 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

• St. Johns Maroon Church (pictured) in Freetown was built by Maroons, former slaves from Jamaica returning to Africa.

The image is too low quality that is too dark and focused on the overcast sky and streetposts not the church. The church is technically there, but it's far away in the background and hard to see. This appears to be the only picture on Commons with the church. I'm putting this here in case it was chosen as a photo feature for a special reason. If that's the case, it should stay here until a quality photo of the church is uploaded. If not, it can quickly be re-added as one of the facts without a photo. ChubbyWimbus (talk) 15:25, 20 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• The 133-foot diamater dome of Gol Gumbaz in Bijapur features a unique "Whispering Gallery" where faint sounds echo up to 9 times.

This was added on to another fact about Gol Gumbaz, which made it too long so I separated the two distinct facts. The original was featured in 2026, so this can be readded a year or more later. ChubbyWimbus (talk) 13:55, 30 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

The following calendar-related items are "ready-to-go" criteria-wise and should be moved to the main queue at a date appropriate to the trivia featured: