You wouldn’t go on holidays to the backstreets of a foreign city without a guidebook, and nor should you explore online virtual worlds without a bit of local know-how. Some of the synthetic places that exist only in cyberspace are becoming so complex that it’s hard for new players and visitors to know where to even start, let alone what’s going on.

Enter Synthravels, the first travel agency to offer a guide service for online worlds such as “World of Warcraft” and “The Sims Online”. Two savvy Italian entrepreneurs have set up a service that takes curious explorers by the hand and shows them the wonders – and dangers – of cyberspace territories.

A customer first registers with Synthtravels, picks a destination in their online world of choice and, within a few days, receives an itinerary by e-mail. Before meeting their guide, users will need to download the software needed for the virtual world off the web.

Then it’s a matter of simply logging in on the selected day and time, and an expert guide will be waiting to show their visitor the ropes – everything from the basics of moving around to finding elusive and exclusive virtual hot spots on specialist sightseeing expeditions.