A world map drawn with stickers

MapVistas is a zoomable map of things worth seeing. At the globe you see only the world's biggest highlights; every zoom step reveals more, down to the chapel at the end of the street.

How it works

Every sight is a small hand-drawn sticker, never a label. Click one and a panel opens with a short description, a photo and links to Wikipedia and Wikivoyage. Four filters sort the map into Landmarks, Culture, Nature and Entertainment, and the Layers menu changes the mood of the whole map.

Which sticker appears at which zoom is decided ahead of time from how notable a place is: how many language editions of Wikipedia describe it, how often people read about it, whether a travel guide lists it and whether it is a World Heritage site. The result is the same for everyone, on every device.

Where the places come from

The map is built from open data: Wikidata for the places themselves, Wikivoyage for the travel-guide descriptions and Wikimedia Commons for the photos. The basemap is rendered from OpenStreetMap. The full list, with licences, is on the Data & credits page.

Help make it better

Anyone can draw and name an area, suggest a sight we missed or fix a description through the Contribute button. Suggestions are reviewed before they appear on the map.

Coverage

The Netherlands, Italy, Japan and China are curated in depth; the rest of the world follows from the same open data and is being extended country by country.