[Worldbuilding] Creating an Interesting Region Map.

So I've been working on my Belgium inspired region and I have hit another roadblock. I can't get the Region map to flow right. Sometimes it feels linear and other times it feels like I'm making the player(reader) go back and forth.

This is what I got so far:

West Flanders(Troutbeck):
- Starter Home
- Gym Rival's Home
- Show Rival's Home
- Route 1

East Flanders(Hampstead):
- Normal Type Gym/Show city
- Mom's Jewelry Shop
- Aalst - Professors Lab
- Gravensteen Castle - Amir's studies
- Pokémon Center
- Clothing store
Route 2 - leads to Perlshaw
Route - leads to Waeldestone. Can't access without SUP gear

Antwerp(Perlshaw):
- Challenge registration
- Hotel
- Water/Fire gym
will receive SUP Surfing gear afterward.
- Clothing shop
- Battle Cafe
- Hair Salon
- Travelable water
You can take a boat ride into the next town for about 200 Pokedollars


Burrafirth
A Spring and Summer like Wild area between Hampstead & Perlshaw

Hainaut(Waeldestone):
Can only get there through SUP surfing.
- Historic Site
- Tall Grass
You can encounter some ghost type pokemon
Holbeck Cave (Neptune Caves) You can get to the cave through the route that leads you to Hainaut. It's a mix of a regular cave and a water cave. There are some areas you can't access without TMs

Walloon Brabant(Romsey):
- Historic Sites/Castle
- Psychic Gym/Show

Flemish Brabant(Easthallow):
- Digitalis filled forest
- Simple Farmhouse.

Brussels(Sirencester):
- Ghost/Fighting gym/show
One thing to note; The ghost type gym is in a run-down building outside the city.
- Restaurant
- Clothing shop/Hair salon
- Market/Trade Spot

Limburg(Goldenleaf):
Autumn like Wild Area

Namur(Lunaris):
Snowy city
- Ice gym/show
- Hotel
- Statue
Once you beat the game there is a secret route you can take to Frost Cavern(Kalos)

Ivywood:
- Flying/Electric Gym/show
- Hotel
- Battle Cafe
- Hair Salon
- restaurant
- Clothing shop

Liège:
- Fairy Gym
- Dragon Gym

Luxembourg(Halsworthy):
- Elite Four
- Champions
- Royal Castle




Are there any tips to fleshing out a region map?

Hi!

Assuming you have the player/reader's journey planned, I'd say it'd help you to plan the entire map by creating "dots" (cities, landmarks, caves, etc) where you know narrative events will happen and then connecting these dots.

Example: Imagine there's gonna be some point in your story when the main character will have a difficult battle against gym leader X, lose the battle and then embark on a mini journey to regain their confidence to then rebattle them and finally win.

Now, if you know this battle is gonna be against, say, a gym leader in Brussels, you make Brussels a "dot" in your map. Now you know you need somewhere nearby for said mini journey to happen, no matter what kind of place it is. It can be a simple route where something different happens, like I dunno the main character meets Victini and Victini acknowledges them after they save it from the evil team. So now your main character is like "Heck yeah I can do it! The victory Pokémon said so!" and then they return to Brussels and win the difficult battle.

So now you have two "dots". Brussels and said location. Now all you gotta do is connect them. Rinse and repeat, you'll end up with a map.

Hope it helps!