Leonida Keys
Resort islands strung along the coast: tourists, beach bars, water sports, and the smuggling routes underneath all of it.
The Keys are Leonida's holiday coastline, running along the Atlantic and Gulf sides: resort towns, beach bars, dive boats and water sports.
They are also where Jason was working for drug runners before the story starts, and where Brian Heder still pushes product out of a boat yard. The tourist economy and the smuggling economy use the same water.
Why the real Keys work for this
The Florida Keys are a chain of islands connected by a single road running out to sea, with open water on both sides and the Caribbean beyond. That geography made them one of the most heavily used smuggling corridors in the United States for decades, because a small boat leaving a shallow harbour at night is very hard to find and the distances involved are short.
The result is a place where the holiday economy and the trafficking economy have coexisted openly for two generations, often using the same marinas and occasionally the same people. Rockstar has not had to invent much. The premise of a boat yard that also moves product is close to documentary.
What it means for the map
A chain of islands is a distinctive thing to drive. Everything is linear, the water is always on both sides, and the escape options are limited in a way that a city grid never is. If the evidence-based wanted system works as shown, being pursued along a causeway with nowhere to turn off is a very different problem from being pursued in Vice City.
It also puts boats at the centre rather than the edge. Grand Theft Auto has always had boats and has rarely needed them. Starting the game in a region where the water is the road changes that.
Starting here rather than in the city
Opening outside the main city is a Rockstar habit worth noting. Grand Theft Auto V started in the desert town of Sandy Shores for a large part of Trevor's material, and Red Dead Redemption 2 spent its entire first chapter in the mountains before letting you near anywhere populated. Beginning in the Keys gives the eventual arrival in Vice City somewhere to arrive from.
What is not known
How far the Keys extend, how many settlements they contain and whether the chain is continuous or broken have not been detailed. No named towns have been confirmed.