Wikivoyage:India Expedition Voyage Tips and guide

Cities

Delhi is a Guide but needs districting; Bangalore is Usable; Chennai is Usable; Hyderabad is Usable; Jaipur is a Guide; Kochi is a Guide; Kolkata is Usable; Mumbai is a Guide; Varanasi is Usable. More detailed comments about the articles for these cities are in the subpages of this page for the states they're in, but since all are at least Usable, they aren't keeping this article from being advanced to Guide.

Other destinations

Main temple complex in Bodh Gaya: Bodh Gaya is now Usable.

Ellora/Ajanta: Ellora is an Outline; Ajanta redirects to Aurangabad, which is Usable.

Golden Temple: Amritsar is Usable.

Hampi has been upgraded to Usable. However, it still needs an editing pass for grammar/spelling/formatting.

Temple complexes in Khajuraho: Khajuraho is Usable.

Konark is Usable.

Meenakshi Temple in Madurai: Madurai is Usable.

Taj Mahal: Agra is Usable.

So work is most needed on Ellora to bring it up to at least Usable status.

This won't be sufficient to turn India into a Guide-level article, because the region articles still need to be improved, but it would help a lot.

Region articles are covered below:

Regions

Himachal Pradesh is divided into four regions, of which Central Himachal Pradesh, Eastern Himachal Pradesh and Southern Himachal Pradesh are Outlines, while Northern Himachal Pradesh is a redlink and is divided into Chamba (district) and Kangra (district).

Cities

There is a separate chart of city article statuses at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Himachal Pradesh. Two are former Destinations of the Month - Shimla and Dharamsala - both still good articles but not above a brush up. No other city's article is close to ready.

The list of Uttarakhand#Cities is not consistently given 1-liner listings: Many of them are too full of unimportant lists of names of schools and the like, while some have no description at all. The "Understand" section is OK but could say something more about the history or culture of the state. The format of Uttarakhand#See is not standard for this site, but some of the content there might be good to use in relevant local guides. "Do" is a long bulleted list. Finally, the article has no state map.

Regions

Uttarakhand is divided into 2 regions - Garhwal and Kumaon. The Garhwal article contains more information, but it is irregular that it has a bunch of "See" listings that are actually in towns with linked articles, all of which are shown (more or less) on a dynamic map. The Kumaon article needs more information, and "Get in" should be restructured for ease in reading. Uttarkhand has 13 districts. It would be more logical to list districts under each of the regions, rather than the Uttarakhand article, since we are not using District pages. The districts are Almora, Bageshwar, Chamoli, Champawat, Dehradun, Garhwal (Pauri Garhwal), Hardwar (Haridwar), Nainital, Pithoragarh, Rudraprayag, Tehri Garhwal, Udham Singh Nagar and Uttarkashi.

Cities

There is also a separate Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Uttarakhand sub-page, where the status of region and city articles can be discussed in more detail. Dehradun is currently a weak Guide, not yet good enough to nominate for Destination of the Month, and it would be a good place to feature when ready. Rishikesh and Haridwar are also important holy cities for Hindus, and their articles are currently Usable and should be improved to Guide status whenever possible. Nainital is quite weakly Usable, Mussoorie more strongly Usable, and the rest of the articles are all Outlines.

Regions

All three "Regions" articles (not counting Chandigarh, which is discussed in "Union Territories" below) are skeletons. Should we eliminate the Majha, Doaba and Malwa articles and make Punjab (India) a bottom-level region with more than 9 (or 10) cities, or should we expand the region articles into something more than repositories of city links plus brief introductions?

Cities

There is coverage of the articles listed in Punjab (India)#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Punjab. The short version is that while User:Gobbler, User:Matroc and others have helped a lot, all of the articles still need more improvement. The Punjab is a highly visible state, so it should be a rather high priority to make all the articles at least close to Usable, if not better, and Amritsar, which has been downgraded to Usable because of numerous problems is a Guide, should be turned into a genuine Guide article, good enough to nominate for Destination of the Month.

Districts

The same remarks I made about "Regions" articles for Punjab (India) apply to Haryana's district articles.

Cities

There is a discussion of articles linked from Haryana#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Haryana. The short version is that except for Gurgaon, which is a Usable article with moderate problems, all the articles are more or less poor and in many instances, not only lacking in information but also messed up in various ways.

Regions

Same remarks as above.

Cities

There is a discussion of articles linked from Uttar Pradesh#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Uttar Pradesh. Not a single one is a Guide, and that is bad in a state with cities as important as Varanasi and especially Agra. It might not be important to feature the Agra article on the front page, but given that Agra contains the Taj Mahal, which might be the single most famous tourist attraction in India, and that the famous royal city of Fatehpur is also covered in the article, bringing it up to Guide status should be one of the highest priorities for the India Expedition.

Regions

Most of the region articles are pretty skeletal, except for Mithila — which has a lot of content but I suspect some of it may be copyvio, and some of it is definitely too encyclopedic.

Cities

There is a discussion of articles linked from Bihar#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Bihar. Only two of the cities in the list have articles that are even good enough to be Usable — Patna, the capital, whose article is only so-so, and Gaya, which has only two images and no custom pagebanner.

Regions

All skeletal. I suppose there are too many cities to merge these articles into the state article, so the region articles should be expanded.

Cities

There is a discussion of articles linked from Madhya Pradesh#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Madhya Pradesh. Of the 9 cities listed, Bhopal,Gwalior, Indore and Jabalpur are Usable, though the Indore article lacks a custom pagebanner.

Regions

All region (division) articles are pretty skeletal.

Cities

There is a discussion of articles linked from Rajasthan#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Rajasthan. These articles are generally in much better shape than many other states' city articles, and Jaipur was Destination of the Month for November 2015. They are very interesting destinations, and a bit of good editing could make several more ready for a dotm or otbp nomination soon.

Cities

There is a discussion of articles linked from Gujarat#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Gujarat. There has been great progress, with most of the listed cities now at Usable status, but every article needs some organizational edits and most could use more information in listings, even if completely listified now; Ahmedabad needs to have its loads of listings all moved to existing district articles.

Regions

South Maharashtra is barely more than a skeleton and needs a lot more content. Marathwada has templated listings, which is not standard for a regional article. North Konkan and South Konkan are pretty filled out. The Vidarbha article is useful, but again could use a lot more content.

Cities

There is a discussion of articles linked from Maharashtra#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Maharashtra. To summarize, the Mumbai article, though a Guide and fairly recent Destination of the Month, still has a lot of listings that need to be moved to district articles. Improvements have been made to most articles. Aurangabad and Pune are Usable and would be great to bring up to Guide level; Nashik is also Usable, as is Kolhapur, weakly. The rest are Outlines, in need of more information.

Regions

North Goa and South Goa, further subdivided into talukas, not all of which have their own articles. North Goa is pretty informative, and the structure is fine except for the specific "Eat" listing, which should be moved to the local article for whichever town it's in or closest to. South Goa is more nearly skeletal, but more than that, primarily because of the "Beaches" section under "See" (which I think is fine and appropriate for the state).

Cities

There is a discussion of articles linked from Goa#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Goa. 5 cities are linked there, and while it would be good to bring all of them up to Usable status, the really important one, Panaji, is a weak Usable article at this point, and given that it's such a big tourist destination, making it at least more solidly Usable if not a Guide should be a high priority.

Regions

Northern Coast and Rayalaseema are skeletal. Southern Coast is skeletal plus a "See" section which needs a thorough edit, with the specific listings listified and moved to the appropriate locality articles. Guthikonda Bilam is close to Karampudi, but there is no Karampudi article, and there probably should be, if the cave is such a major attraction.

Cities

There is a discussion of articles linked from Andhra Pradesh#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Andhra Pradesh. In brief, the condition of all but one of the articles is pretty disastrous, and that's bad because at least Nellore and Kurnool are fairly important destinations. The Vizag article is Usable but still lacks the information needed for it to be truly fully usable, as a fair number of the listings even in that article lack location and/or contact information. So there is a lot of work to do, and anyone who chooses to start on it will be doing readers a good turn.

Cities

There is a discussion of articles linked from Telangana#Cities at India Expedition/Telangana (which is now incomplete as more cities have been added to the article). Only Hyderabad is Usable; the rest are Outlines except for those that are red links and not yet listed in the table. The highest priorities would seem to be (1) bringing the quality of Hyderabad up to Guide; (2) restructuring as necessary and adding a bit of flesh to the bones of some of the other articles; and (3) making Bhadrachalam Usable.

Regions

Malabar contains some information, but the weird formatting of "Do" suggests copypasta and also contains too much information that should be in linked articles and replaced by a summary here. Central Kerala contains a lot of information but needs a thorough copy edit. Central Travancore is mostly a skeleton, but with an interesting "Eat" section. Northern Travancore is skeletal. Southern Travancore is mostly a skeleton, but with a brief though useful "Eat" section.

Cities

There is a discussion of articles linked from Kerala#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Kerala. Kochi is an excellent and previously featured Guide. The top priorities for this project should include making the very lacking Kozhikode article Usable. Kozhikode, in its alternative name of Calicut, is one of the most famous Indian cities for students of European exploration of Asia, so having a poor-quality unusable article for the city is embarrassing and ill-serves the traveller. Other important tasks would be to make the Thiruvananthapuram article a Guide and nominate it for a Dotm feature and improve any of the other articles. Every one of the cities seems worth visiting, and if we make all these articles Usable, we will go a long way toward making the Kerala article itself a Guide, which would be wonderful. Featuring the entire state as a Dotm would be really excellent.

Regions

Northern Tamil Nadu is fairly skeletal, except that it has a full entry for a temple in Malaikodi. If it's an important temple, a Malaikodi article should be created, with the entry moved there and listified. Tamil Nadu North Coast has a lot of cities but only some are described; empty sections should be filled in, plus some photos. Western Tamil Nadu is better than many district articles but still fairly empty. Central Tamil Nadu is better but needs copy editing and has mostly empty sections. Southwestern Tamil Nadu is pretty skeletal. Tamil Nadu South Coast has some city descriptions but is otherwise pretty empty. Ditto for Far Southern Tamil Nadu, and Northeastern Tamil Nadu is the emptiest of all.

Cities

There is a discussion of articles linked from Tamil Nadu#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Tamil Nadu. None are at Guide level, and deciding whether to district Chennai and how to better organize the mountain of information in that article should be one of the top priorities of this project, because it's such a large and important city. Next in priority would probably be work on the Madurai article, because that city is such an important and ancient centre of pilgrimage, and making something out of the "See" section of the Tuticorin Outline article.

Regions

Every region of Karnataka is further subdivided into "Districts" or "Regions". All top-level region articles are pretty skeletal, except Karavali, which on a quick inspection looks outstanding and in some ways exemplary, though it could still use further work, including 1-liner listings in the first few sections.

Cities

There is a discussion of articles linked from Karnataka#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Karnataka. The most pressing issue is what to do with Manipal, which is currently a redirect to the article about Udupi city. A close second in priority is to bring Bangalore up to Guide status, given that it's one of the most important cities in India.

Cities

There is a discussion of articles linked from Chhattisgarh#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Chhattisgarh. All are at Outline level and need basic edits for content, copy editing and/or format. Since Chhattisgarh is a lesser-known state, these edits are relatively low-priority, but some of these towns, such as Mainpat, seem like interesting destinations, and Raipur is a state capital, so it would be nice if the articles for those places could be at least closer to Usable.

Cities

There is a discussion of articles linked from Jharkhand#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Jharkhand. None is better than Usable, and even the Usable articles are a bit questionably usable, for practical purposes. This is a lesser-known state, though, so none of the articles is a top priority.

Cities

There is a discussion of articles linked from Odisha#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Odisha. There are two Usable cities: Bhubaneswar and Sambalpur, both of which need more work but are in much better condition than the rest, which are all Outlines. Of the Outlines, Koraput is closest to Usable.

Towns

There is a discussion of articles linked from Sikkim#Towns at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Sikkim. Pelling is now tenuously Usable but really needs more and more exact directions and Geo for its "See" listings. After that, but Gangtok and Yuksom and are closest to Usable, probably in that order, followed by Dzongu. It would be great to make all four of those articles truly Usable and make any one of them a featurable Guide. Ravangla is also a really interesting and beautiful destination, but bringing its article up to Usable would take more work, because some sections are blank.

Regions

The North Central Bengal article is the most filled-out of all the state's regional articles, but it still could use more 1-liner listings. North Bengal has an informative "Understand" section but otherwise has a lot of white space. Rarh, Southwest Bengal and Southeast Bengal are underdeveloped articles.

Cities

There is a discussion of articles linked from West Bengal#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/West Bengal. Only Siliguri is a Guide, and several are quite interesting as destinations. Making Kolkata a Guide is, of course, the highest priority among tasks relating to city articles in this state, but Darjeeling is India's most famous hill station because of its tea, and Murshidabad, not quite Usable yet, has a good enough article to already come across as a compelling place to visit. And that's not all, so read the rest of the discussion at the link.

Cities

There is a discussion of articles linked from Arunachal Pradesh#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Arunachal Pradesh. All are either Outlines or Redlinks, but Tawang is off to a promising start and would make a fascinating Off the Beaten Path, if we ever got that far. In the meantime, Arunachal Pradesh is certainly an off-the-beaten-path frontier land, so the improvement of any article in the state is not a top priority, but making Tawang Usable and adding more content to the article for the state capital, Itanagar, are secondary priorities for this expedition that would be nice to accomplish.

Regions All three regions are Outlines and are in poor conditions.

Cities

There is a discussion of articles linked from Assam#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Assam. They're all in poor condition - all Outlines except Guwahati.

Cities

There is a discussion of articles linked from Nagaland#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Nagaland. None is close to Usable, though the article for the state capital, Kohima, is closest. Nagaland is a frontier area with a history of civil unrest, so none of the articles is a priority for this project, but it does sound like an interesting and beautiful state.

Cities

There is a discussion of articles linked from Andaman and Nicobar Islands#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The article for Port Blair is a good Usable article, and Guide status is clearly on the horizon if we're willing to do some work.

Regions

Jammu Division has very little content, but Kashmir Valley has a lot of content and nice photos.

Cities

There is a separate chart of city article statuses at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Jammu and Kashmir. All the rest of the city articles are Outlines at various stages of development. Jammu is an important centre of Hindu pilgrimage, so improving that article to Usable should be a fairly high priority. Srinagar and Jammu are both close to Usable now, so it would be great to advance both those articles' statuses.

On the other hand, there's the Pondicherry article that's actually about the city of the same name, which is Usable and in much better shape. It's a nice article through "Get around", but "See" is only partly fleshed out and partly just a list of names, with no further info about most of them. "Do" is looking better. "Buy" gives the reader some ideas but doesn't direct him/her to any particular part of town. "Eat" and "Drink" sections are now alphabetized. "Sleep" sections are now alphabetized, too, but need to be checked for listings that are actually in Auroville — if any remain — and updated as necessary. The article should be thoroughly geocoded, copy edited with a fine-toothed comb and brought up to Guide level. Pondi city might be a decent Otbp feature if the article were improved sufficiently (which would take a fair amount of work).

The Auroville article is Usable, is an interesting counterpart to this one, and it should probably be improved concurrently with the Pondi article. Its usefulness is actually quite limited, as many establishments are named but with no location, contact information or opening hours mentioned.