GTA 6 is set in Leonida, a fictional US state that Rockstar made up, and the real place it is based on is Florida. Its big city, Vice City, is based on Miami and Miami Beach, and the other five regions line up with real parts of the state, from the Keys and the Everglades to the Panhandle.
Rockstar has not confirmed a real-world basis for any of it, so this site says “based on” and means it. But fans have matched a lot of what the official footage shows, and every match below is a real place you can stand in. Here are the six regions Rockstar has named, with the best matches in each.
Vice City: Miami and Miami Beach
Vice City is the easiest region to place. The name goes back a long way: it was one of three cities in the first Grand Theft Auto in 1997, and the 2002 game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was set there in the 1980s. This one is based on Miami again, and the footage shows why: Art Deco hotels, causeways, a glass skyline and water everywhere. Lucia, one of the two leads, is from Vice City.
- Bayside: Rockstar named it as one of three Vice City districts, and its real-world anchor is Bayside Marketplace and the boat docks under the downtown towers.
- Ocean Beach: another named district, and a clear match for the pastel Art Deco strip of Ocean Drive on South Beach.
- Stockyard: the third, which Rockstar calls the mural district, and a clear match for the painted warehouses of Wynwood.
The toll booths on the Venetian Causeway and the Stiltsville houses out on the bay are clear matches too.
Going there: fly into Miami, stay on Miami Beach or downtown, and you can see most of it without a car. See the Vice City region and three days in Vice City.
Leonida Keys: the Florida Keys
The Leonida Keys are Jason’s home turf, and they are based on the Florida Keys: a chain of islands held together by one road, the Overseas Highway, which runs 113 miles to Key West over 42 bridges.
- Seven Mile Bridge: the long, low bridge over turquoise water in Trailer 2 is a clear match for the real one at Marathon.
- The Overseas Highway: a clear match for the two-lane road with water on both sides that the trailer keeps returning to.
- Jason’s canal home: fans have matched his raised house, boat on a lift behind it, to the canal neighborhoods of Key Largo and Islamorada. It is a type of home, not an address.
Going there: Key West is about 160 miles from Miami, 3.5 to 4 hours without stops, and stopping is the point, so give it two nights. See the Leonida Keys region, the Keys road trip and driving the Overseas Highway.
Grassrivers: the Everglades
Grassrivers is Rockstar’s name for the wetland in the middle of Leonida, and it is based on the Everglades, the river of grass west of Miami.
- The airboat ride: Trailer 1’s airboat flat out across the sawgrass is a clear match for the tours on the Tamiami Trail, and you can ride one.
- Shark Valley: the trailer’s alligators are a clear match for the real Everglades, and Shark Valley is where you walk past them.
- The gator in the pool: a clear match for the suburbs on the Everglades edge, where it really happens.
Going there: a day trip. Shark Valley is about an hour west of downtown Miami on the Tamiami Trail (US-41), and the dry season, roughly December to April, is when wildlife gathers along the water. See the Grassrivers region, a day in Grassrivers and the airboat tours guide.
Port Gellhorn: Panama City Beach and the Forgotten Coast
Port Gellhorn is the faded beach town in Leonida’s northwest, and it is based on Panama City Beach on the Florida Panhandle, with the quieter Gulf coast to its east. Nothing here is graded above likely, because Rockstar has not named a street or a pier.
- The fishing pier: fans have matched Port Gellhorn’s long concrete pier to Russell-Fields Pier at Pier Park.
- Front Beach Road: fans have matched the strip of low motels and half-lit neon to what survives of the old Miracle Strip.
- The Forgotten Coast: fans have matched the emptier coast that Rockstar’s screenshots hint at to Mexico Beach, Port St. Joe and Apalachicola.
Going there: Panama City Beach is nearly 600 miles from Miami, nine hours or more by road, and on Central Time, an hour behind Miami. Treat it as its own trip and fly into Northwest Florida Beaches International (ECP), 20 to 30 minutes from the sand. See the Port Gellhorn region and a Port Gellhorn weekend.
Ambrosia: the sugar belt around Lake Okeechobee
Ambrosia is Leonida’s farm country, and it is based on the sugar towns and cane fields south of Lake Okeechobee.
- The sugar mill: Ambrosia’s refinery in Trailer 2 is a clear match for Clewiston, home of U.S. Sugar and its mill.
- The cane fields: Trailer 2’s field on fire is a clear match for the harvest around Belle Glade and Pahokee, where cane is burned before it is cut.
- Lake Okeechobee: fans have matched the flat, watery country in Rockstar’s screenshots to Lake Okeechobee, on geography rather than any one shot.
Going there: Clewiston is about 95 miles from Miami, roughly two hours up US-27, a long day out. Go during the harvest, from October into the spring. See the Ambrosia region and the Mount Kalaga loop, which ends in cane country.
Mount Kalaga National Park: north Florida’s forests and springs
Mount Kalaga is the wild north of Leonida, and its pine forest, hunting country and clear springs point toward the forests and springs of north Florida. There is no mountain to match: Florida’s highest natural point, Britton Hill, is 345 feet above sea level, so the “mount” is Rockstar’s own.
- Ocala National Forest: fans have matched the pine forest and straight sand roads to Ocala.
- Silver Springs: fans have matched Trailer 2’s crystal-clear spring to it, though Rockstar has not named a spring.
- The hunt camps: fans have matched the trucks on dirt roads through the pines to the hunting country of the Apalachicola National Forest.
Going there: fly into Orlando; Ocala is about an hour and a half from the airport. Florida’s springs stay in the low 70s all year, a summer escape when the coast is too hot. See the Mount Kalaga region and the Mount Kalaga loop.
How the matches are graded
Every place on this site carries one of four grades, and each page’s wording follows it.
- Confirmed: Rockstar named it, or showed that exact place in official material.
- Strong: a clear match in official footage that the mapping community broadly agrees on.
- Likely: fans have matched it on a good visual or thematic fit, but Rockstar has not confirmed it.
- Possible: the game looks like it draws on it. Treat it as a travel idea, not a fact about the game.
Only Bayside is graded confirmed right now, and that is on purpose. Our sources are the official ones and nothing else: Trailer 1 (December 2023), Trailer 2 (May 2025), the screenshots on Rockstar’s site and the 26-minute Extended Look from August 2026. That is not much footage for a whole state, and we do not use leaked material. We would rather grade a match low and be right than send you across Florida for a street corner the game may not have.
Questions
Is Leonida a real place?
No. Leonida is a fictional state Rockstar invented for GTA 6. The real place behind it is Florida, and each of the six named regions lines up with a real part of the state. How closely the game’s layout follows the real map is something only the finished game will show.
Is Vice City Miami?
Vice City is Rockstar’s own city, based on Miami and Miami Beach. Bayside is a name Rockstar has used, and Bayside Marketplace is real; Ocean Beach and Stockyard are clear matches for Ocean Drive and Wynwood. Do not expect every hotel sign to have a real twin.
Can you actually visit the places from the trailers?
The real ones, yes. You can walk Ocean Drive at dusk, drive the Seven Mile Bridge, ride an airboat off the Tamiami Trail and watch cane smoke rise near Belle Glade. Some come with limits: Stiltsville is reachable only by boat, you cannot stop on the Seven Mile Bridge for the trailer shot, and the cane fields are private. For the practical side, start with getting around, when to visit and what a trip costs.
When does GTA 6 come out?
November 19, 2026, on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Rockstar has not announced a launch time; the release time guide lays out what it could be in your timezone. The date lands at the start of Florida’s dry season, the comfortable time for most of these trips.
Updated September 28, 2026. All guides