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The VirtualTourist Destinations Database contains over 2.2 million locations at which you can build pages. The locations range from large Continents and Countries to tiny Towns and Hamlets. Political and Geographic regions like States and Provinces, Islands and Lakes are included as well as features like Parks and Monuments. You can build pages for as many locations as you've traveled to.

The easiest way to find a location is by simply typing the name into a the search box at the top right of the site. You'll get a page of results and then you can choose the correct location your were looking for. You can also use the clickable maps. Many places share the same name, please take a moment to make sure you're writing about the correct place in the correct country, region, state or province.

You must spell the location correctly. If you see no results on your first try, please try alternate spellings. Going forward we will be able to fine tune the database to make corrections, add alternate spellings, and use more common names. If you have corrections, please compile a list of the most important ones and send them to feedback@virtualtourist.com

No, you must enter atleast the first word of the location correctly in order to search for it. For example, enter atleast Manhattan to locate Manhattan Beach.

VT's database is HUGE and exhaustive. It has 2.2 million locations - that's almost every small town in the world. It's a great feat to have adapted this database from raw mapping data, and we're very glad we were able to do so. However, when we got the raw data for list of locations, Italy, UK, and New Zealand among some other places did not have any sorting of cities and towns into their regions. They appeared like this:
Europe > Italy > Rome
Instead of as they should have:
Europe > Italy > Lazio > Rome

Consequently, we had to do sort towns thousands and thousands of cities and towns entirely by hand (with the guidance of sharp VT members) Still there are some locations that are NOT sorted into their region, so you might come across a city or town that is listed only in its country. Like this:
Europe > United Kingdom > Pitlochry
It should read:
Europe > United Kingdom >Scotland >Tayside > Pitlochry

If you do encounter any towns like this, we'd like to hear about it! Simply drop a note to feedback@virtualtourist.com, tell us the name of the town and the VT region into which it should be sorted. In some cases there are many towns with the same name in a country (there are 16 Monterreys in Mexico) Please try to specify exactly which town goes into which region. You can use the "» See all locations nearby" link that appear in the bottom right of any city page to help guide you.

We're more than happy to sort cities into their proper region, so drop us a note at feedback@virtualtourist.com.

When we show a city or town or other location, we show the location's continent, country & region in this manner. Continent>Country>Region(state, province, territory)>Location. Many location names are very common and appear in numerous Continents, Countries and Regions...London for example appears in approximately 60 different entries. Please make sure you are choosing the one you mean. For example, you might want to build a page for London, Ontario, Canada, not London, England. In some rare cases, you will find the same name in the same Country and Region. In these cases you might need to check to see what locations are 'In and Around' the locations in question. This link can be found in the pull down menu that is entitled 'Tips and Reviews'.

There are many ways of spelling English language versions of names. Please try various versions of the name. For example, the Italian city Torino, could be listed as Turin and its region could be Piemonte or Piedmont. In our database, it's Torino and Piedmont. Going forward we will be able to fine tune the database to make corrections, add alternate spellings, and use more common names. Please compile a list of your most important suggestions and send them to feedback@virtualtourist.com

Usually, the city IS listed in the correct region. (though there may be a few exceptions.) Please carefully check all the results when you search for a place. The VT Destinations Database is huge. Many places in the world share the same name. For example, there are over 60 'London' destinations around the world and atleast 10 'Monterreys' in Mexico. Here are the results just for Mexico alone:

North America > Mexico > Estado de Sonora > Monterrey

North America > Mexico > Estado de Tamaulipas > Monterrey

North America > Mexico > Estado de Sinaloa > Monterrey

North America > Mexico > Estado de Sinaloa > Monterrey

North America > Mexico > Estado de Nuevo León > Monterrey

North America > Mexico > Estado de Durango > Monterrey

North America > Mexico > Estado de Campeche > Monterrey

North America > Mexico > Estado de Tabasco > Monterrey

North America > Mexico > Estado de Chiapas > Monterrey

North America > Mexico > Estado de Baja California > Monterrey

Yes. As a matter of fact, we'd appreciate your help fine tuning the database. Please keep a list of the places that are missing or in the wrong state or incorrectly listed as a capital or something. Please make sure they are NOT already in the database, cause it's time consuming to go looking for something that actually is correct. But after things calm down, we'll start correcting errors and even including alternate names for some places. Hey and if you can get the GPS coordinates, and a link to a governmental or other authoritative source as evidence, that would be great and will make getting corrections made quicker and easier. You can send compiled lists of corrections to feedback@virtualtourist.com

In many places there are so many cities that it is impractical to list all of them and it's probably less interesting to list all the cities when so many of them would be empty of content. So what we do is to list the cities that have content. Right now many locations are empty as the database has just now gone into effect and we haven't started the index to account for the new pages yet. When people start building pages for new locations, like for example, Lake Rotorua, then the locations will be explicity displayed and can be easily seen. In a little while, when the locations have started to fill out, we'll also provide a list of all locations with content for each Country/Region.

The VirtualTourist database usually uses the standard English names when such a name exists. For example, in Egypt, the VT database uses the city name 'Cairo' as most English speakers would not recognize the Arabic version of the city's name, 'Al Qahirah' However, for Cairo's Administrative region, 'Muhafazat al Qahirah,' we use the Arabic version since no commonly used English term for the Administrative Regions exist. It also helps to avoid confusion about where to post - the region or the city.

Just click on the 'Your Travel Pages' link in the top bar. Once there you'll see a map of the locations you've visited along with the pages you've built. Just click the 'Add a Location To Your Map' and follow the easy steps.

VirtualTourist is not only about the most popular destinations that everybody knows about. We are eager let people introduce their hometowns and out of the way places that would never appear as tourist destinations.