GTA Vice City Places & Locations

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Grand Theft Auto is one of the most recognized and highly decorated open-world game series. The GTA series changed the meaning of sandbox games as we know them and brought us a new style of gameplay that will keep you hooked for years.

Each installment in the series has its special properties and most importantly, different maps and locations. Some are better than others, and some have qualities that make them shine brighter than the rest. However, the one thing that all GTA games have in common is that they all have memorable maps.

The game under the spotlight is GTA: Vice City.

I played this game (God knows how many years), and I still can’t get enough of it. The map is not the biggest in the franchise but has its attraction point. It is well laid out and has enough neighborhood to get you lost for days on end.

And the best part! It’s based on the tropical haven of Miami, Florida!

Welcome to a Guide to GTA Vice City Places and Locations.

Major Islands

Vice City Islands Map
Image from Wiki Fandom

The map features two main islands Vice City Beach and Vice City Mainland. Both islands are connected by a couple of bridges and two minor islands in between, Starfish Island and Prawn Island, respectively. All the islands are surrounded body a massive body of water dubbed Ocean Bay.

Vice City is heavily inspired by the Magic City of Miami during the 1980s, which explains the game’s theme and storyline.

Vice Beach

Vice City Beach, also known as Vice Beach, takes the entire east side of the map. From Starfish Island on the west to Ocean Bay on the east end. The beach itself stretches from the far south near the lighthouse to the far north occupying half of the landmass of the Island. Hence, the name.

The Island is comprised of three major boroughs/ districts: Vice Point, Ocean Beach, and Washington Beach.

Vice Point

Vice Point
Image from Wiki Fandom

Vice Point is the biggest borough in Vice City Beach Island and takes up about sixty percent of the entire land space. The Standing Vice Point building is one of the main places of interest. You will find a PCJ-600 parked at the south corner that activates a side mission called “PCJ Playground”. You will also find armor at the entrance of the building. This massive lump of concrete represents Vice Point’s southern borders.

The theme of tall buildings continues alongside the main street in Vice Point from the south end to the north. I don’t like the fact that you can’t get into these buildings, but the majority of them have cars parked out front or in a small parking lot.

Well, you can access one of the buildings (Vice Point Langer, aka WK Hotel), but only during a mission.

The fun stuff happens on the left side of the main road.

At the northwest corner of the Standing Vice Point building, is the Malibu Club. The latter is an asset that you have to buy to progress in the storyline. This place is used as an entertainment center and as headquarters for several missions (the heist and Kent Paul missions).

Malibu Club
Image from Wiki Fandom

Behind the Club, you will find an Adrenaline Pill. I don’t recommend taking it, at all, because it slows down time. This will give the chance to shoot someone or make an escape, but I don’t think it’s worth it. On the west side of the bridge, there is a dead-end street with many houses and a hidden machine gun.

Additionally, Avery Carrington’s construction site is south of that. Remember this place because it will make your journey a living hell (Demolition Man mission).

There is a Well Stacked Pizza restaurant just before the bridge on the east side. Behind it, a pizza delivery faggio is parked, which you can use to work as a delivery boy.

Continuing up north toward the middle of Vice Point, a couple of places you should know about:

  • Shady Palms hospital: you can head to the hospital and pick up some hearts that will take your health back to 100%. Plus, you can steal the ambulance and make more money as a paramedic.
  • Vice Point Police Station: it’s a couple of blocks south of the hospital. You can use a police car or the SWAT truck to work as a vigilante or drive around with the siren on. Whatever floats your boat!
  • El Swanko Casa safehouse: it’s a house you can purchase for 8,000$. It has a useless swimming pool and a garage to store a car. On the west side, there is a hidden Ruger.
  • Dispensary: north of El Swanko Casa. An open store where you can pick up health and adrenaline.
  • Pay ‘n’ Spray: it’s a repair shop south of the El Swanko Casa. You can use it to fix your car and get a new paint job. Moreover, it can help you lose the wanted level.
  • Links View Apartment: another safe house with a garage that you can buy for 6,000$. It is south of the Pay ‘n’ Spray shop.
  • Jocksport: a sports equipment and attire store south of the golf course. It has a black tracksuit and golfing clothes available.
  • The Jewelers: you need to rob this store to complete the game (100%). It’s near the pizza place. There is a hidden package behind the clerk’s desk, ad it’s the last place Mrs. Dawson visited before getting eviscerated by Vercetti.
  • The Corner Store: it is a big pink building next to the hospital. You have to rob this store to complete the game 100%. It’s also a popular destination if you work as a taxi driver.

Vice Point includes the biggest accessible mall in Vice City, the North Point Mall. The latter is a knock-off of the Aventura mall in Aventura, Florida.  It is so massive on the inside; you’ll need a bike because running takes longer.

Inside, there are several shops for clothes, a pizza shop, and a gun store. It is inhabited mainly by ladies carrying shopping bags, homeless people, gang members, Patrol Invest Group members (aka the PIG), and police officers. The same people can be seen outside the mall beating and chasing each other. There is a brand new Infernus displayed as a prize. You can steal the car and drive it inside the mall which can be very handy. However, you can’t take it out to the streets.

Tip: try to memorize the location of all the stores inside the mall that has glass fronts. You will be asked to destroy them all in a mission. The Mall is linked to a multi-story car park. Sometimes great cars spawn there and sometimes they don’t. On the other hand, there is a top fun van parked on the top floor that activates an RC plane race.

All in all Vice Point is a residential and commercial area thriving with hotels, apartment buildings, and nice houses for lower-upper-class people similar to the neighborhoods on the north side of South Beach in Miami, Florida.

Washington Beach

Washington Beach
Image from Wiki Fandom

It is located between Vice Point and Ocean Beach. It starts from the Standing Vice Point building and ends halfway down Ocean Drive (it is the main road that runs alongside the beach). The main attraction in the area is the bars and hotels on the main road overlooking the beach which you can’t really access.

Some locations that may grab your attention are the DPB Security headquarters, which you will have to visit during a mission and shoot everyone in sight.

There is an open police station at the intersection on the north side near the bridge. It has a car parked with two police cruisers, one of which is always locked, and grenades. On the west of the bridge, there is a hardware store and a big apartment complex.

South of that (crossing another bridge), is the Hotel Morrison. It is the office of Ken Rosenberg. Across the street, you will see the 1102 Washington Street safehouse.

In the alleyways behind the hotels of Ocean Drive, you can find several melee weapons and a police bribe to pick up.

Ocean Beach

Ocean Beach
Image from Wiki Fandom

The remaining area of Vice City Beach, and possibly the most beautiful part on the entire map. It includes many places that most definitely will spark curiosity inside you.

The most important place you should remember is the Ocean View Hotel. It is located on Ocean Drive (the main outer street) and it is the first safehouse you get for free. You can use it at the beginning of the game when you have no money to buy other properties.

Once you fill your pockets with some cash, you can acquire another safehouse in the south part of the vicinity. It is called the Ocean Heights Apartment, and it costs 7,000$. It comes with a garage for a single vehicle.

If you need a change of clothes, you can head to Rafael’s or Collar and Cuffs to switch outfits, and they are close to each other. In the middle of these shops, there is a multi-story parking lot. Make to enter it with a nice car so other nice cars spawn in.

Just like Vice Point, Ocean Beach also includes a mall but it is smaller and open from the top. It’s connected to a multi-story car park and a parking lot on the side with four cars in it. A cross the street from the mall is the hospital. And you know what a hospital does.

Lastly, the south end features a lighthouse with a nice boardwalk and a marina with speed and sailboats. The players will frequent this area to initiate Colonel Cortez’s missions. Not to mention, there is an Ammu-nation and a Pay ‘n’ Spray.

The second most important place in the area, alongside the Ocean View Hotel, is the Pole Position Club. It is a money-generating asset that you must buy to complete the game.

Leaf Links
Image from Wiki Fandom

Leaf Links is the golf course west of Vice Point near the Links View Apartment. It is accessible, but the guards at the gate will take all the player’s weapons. Thankfully, you can jump over the fence and keep your guns. There is a Comet parked upfront, lots of gold carts inside, and a golf club.

All in all, the entire area of Vice City Beach is nice and cozy to roam around thanks to the palm trees and the long beach.

Vice City Mainland

It is the second island and takes the entire west half of the map.  It is divided into four districts and it’s bigger than Vice Beach.

Downtown

Downtown
Image from Wiki Fandom

This place represents the business sector of the Mainland and hosts a series of massive office buildings, skyscrapers (including the tallest building in the game), commercial properties, and a few houses.

Downtown Vice city takes the better northern part of the Mainland and there are some spots worth visiting. Even better, you need to visit some of these spots to:

  1. Have a lot of fun.
  2. Get 100% completion achievement.

The first place you should head to is the Hyman Memorial Stadium. It is on the northwest side and hosts a series of sporting events including stock car races, dirt bike stunt shows, demolition derbies, and even musical concerts.

East of the Stadium, you will find the Hyman Condo that you can get for 14,000$. It has one big garage, two smaller ones, and a helicopter on the roof. Plus, a secret hidden package. If you continue east, you will see the VAJ Finance building, where you first meet Candy Suxxx. The building has a hidden package as well.

Next to the finance building, is the Vice City Tower. This is the tallest building in the game. And no! it’s not accessible. Even a helicopter can’t reach its roof. Along that same road and heading deeper south, there is a massive locked building on the left. You will have to jump onto the roof of this building for a certain mission.

Vice City Tower
Image from Wiki Fandom

Across the street from that building on the right, you will see the rockstar building that has an open office you can enter, and the Hole building next to it.

If you keep heading south that way, you will reach a rundown shack (Skumole Shack) that you can use as a safe house and a motorcycle club. Beyond that, is the main thoroughfare that leads to the Moist Palms Hotel (southern borders of the Downtown area) and goes all the way down to the docks.

On the eastside south of the Stadium, there is the Schuman Health Care Center, V-Rock Recording Studio, and Vice City Arena. All are located on the same street alongside a pizza restaurant and a dispensary.

There is an alleyway near the pizza place that has an FBI sedan. Drive further on that lane, and you will find the church, the fire department next to it, and the Downtown police station. On the main boulevard that leads to Prawn Island, you can find a gun store with a usable shooting range.

At the end of the main boulevard near the bridge, there is a tall building called the Roxor International, and a small complex next to it that contains a helicopter on the roof.

Little Haiti

Little Haiti
Image from Wiki Fandom

Little Haiti is one of the poor districts on the Mainland. Its borders begin south of the Moist Palms Hotel in the north, down to the bank (not included). It is probably the most run-down neighborhood on the Vice City map. Still, it features a couple of places of interest and some small businesses like coffee shops and clothes stores.

On the northwest end, you will find Phil Cassidy’s place, where you can buy guns that are not available in the Ammu-nation. Go down south more you will encounter the Kaufman Cabs taxi company (an asset you can buy), and another Well Stacked Pizza restaurant.

A block away from the cab company is Auntie Poulet’s shack. In that neighborhood, you can find a big machine gun and a police bribe. Further down the southwest side, there is a junkyard where Lance will be held hostage. The print works asset is on the southern borders of Little Haiti, not far away from the bank.

Several missions will take place in this area; some are hard and time-restricted, so take your time to memorize and explore.

On the main road, there are a couple of coffee shops and food places. Unfortunately, they are not accessible. However, there is a drug store that you must rob for 100% completion and a Pay ‘n’ Spray shop.

The area is infested with the Haitian gang. You will see them standing or walking around in groups. Stare at them long enough, and they will put countless bullet holes in your body.

Little Havana

Little Havana
Image from Wiki Fandom

Little Havana is located on the southern borders of Little Haiti. It starts at the city’s bank and ends at the last turn before you enter the Docks.

Little Havana is larger in size compared to Little Haiti and controlled by the Cubans gang. On the main road, there are several businesses you will notice right away. That includes the bank and the hospital right next to it. Passing the medical center is the Cherry Popper Ice Cream factory (an asset you can buy).

On the corner next to the factory, is a restaurant with the police station across the street from it. What comes after is a series of old apartment buildings.

On the other side, there are multiple shops and cafés. Little Havana is also the home of two riveling taxi companies.

One of the main attraction points is Café Robina, the headquarter of Umberto Robina, the leader of the Cuban gang. The player will frequent the place to do some storyline missions for the gang.

The Sunshine Autos is located on the southwest side of Little Havana. It’s a showroom for several rare cars. To fill it up, you must steal a list of vehicles and deliver them to the garage at the back of the property. It also contains a Pay ‘n’ Spray shop and a few garages for storage.

One of my favorite parts about the showroom is getting access to races. At the corner next to the garages, there is a small map on the wall that shows you the available races you can join. Select the race you want and head to the grid location to start it.

Vice Port

Vice Port
Image from Wiki Fandom

Vice Port is located in the far south part of the Mainland, and there isn’t much to say about this place except it’s a port. It’s a commercial/ industrial area occupied mainly by workers. In addition, the traffic is comprised of commercial vans and massive work trucks.

There are a couple of freighter ships docked, and one of them belongs to the Triads. They use it to run their counterfeiting operations that will be taken down by Tommy Vercetti in a storyline mission.

The port also includes a boatyard, which is an asset the player can buy. There is a Pay ‘n’ Spray shop in case you need it, and an 8-Ball bomb shop as well. If you take your time to explore the port, you will find a Mac 10 weapon, a flamethrower, and armor.

Escobar International Airport

Escobar International Airport
Image from Wiki Fandom

The airport takes up a massive space from the Mainland’s mass. It’s on the southwest side of the map and includes three terminals. The first one is up north near the military base. In case you get lost, it’s the one that has an entrance on the top and another on the bottom with a parking lot across the street.

The second terminal is the most recognizable because it’s included in a mission. Plus, it will be the destination for a lot of passengers if you work as a cab driver. The third terminal is down south, and it’s for cargo only.

Fort Baxter Air Base

Fort Baxter Air Base
Image from Wiki Fandom

Possibly my most hated area on the GTA Vice City map, and for a good reason. Since it’s a military base, it is infested with soldiers carrying heavy weapons like M4s, which makes sense.

What doesn’t make sense is the fact that these soldiers will start shooting at you the moment they see you.

Do not fight back because you will last 3 seconds tops. The soldiers roll around in groups and will riddle you with bullet holes before you even draw a weapon.

Starfish Island

Starfish Island
Image from Wiki Fandom

It is a sweeping mass of land situated in the middle of Ocean Bay, in the center of the map between the Mainland and Vice City Beach. The Island is inhabited by wealthy people and features fancy houses with swimming pools and supercars in the driveways. Most of the area is guarded by the Patrol Invest Group. The southern half of the island is taken by Vercetti’s estate, Diaz’s former mansion, while the northern half is taken by the rich.

Prawn Island

Prawn Island
Image from Wiki Fandom

It is smaller compared to Starfish Island located in the far north between Vice Point and Downtown Mainland. Half of the island is taken by three abandoned mansions. Another small part is occupied by run-down apartments. The largest portion of the island is taken by InterGlobal Film Studios, another asset you can buy.

On this Island, you can find a gang van parked outside one of the mansions, a seaplane, and a truck inside the Studios. There is also a gun and a secret package on the island.

FAQs

Question: What city will GTA 6 take place in?

Answer: There have been a lot of rumors online circling GTA 6, its map, characters, and release date. According to Rockstar’s official announcement, a new entry to the GTA series is under development.  Yet, no further details were given.

As far as we know, the new entry can be a remastered or an updated version of a previous GTA title. Nonetheless, GTA VI could be on its way. Some forums claimed that the new installment will have a map as big as RDR2 and may include parts from the previous games like Vice City.

Question: What is the biggest map Rockstar ever created?

Answer: The prize for the biggest map Rockstar included in a game goes to Red Dead Redemption II. In the GTA series, Grand Theft Auto V has the biggest map.

Question: Which GTA game has the most missions?

Answer: Grand Theft Auto San Andreas takes the lead with more than 100 missions and is possibly the longest story in the entire series.

Final Thoughts…

Vice City is and always will be a legendary game thanks to its legendary map. Yes, it is not the largest or the best in the series, but the atmosphere, the layout, and the soothing Miami vibes are more than enough to make the game worth playing.

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