After the fiasco where all players ran through the Dark Portal at the start of the Burning Crusade expansion, the WoW developers decided it made more sense to let players decide where to start their journey in a new expansion. They do this by giving them multiple zones to level up through at the start of the quest.

In Wrath of the Lich King, those two zones were the Borean Tundra and the Howling Fjord. And in Cataclysm, they're Mount Hyjal and Vashj'ir.

Here's how to determine where to start your WoW Cataclysm Classic level journey: in the two zones Vashj'ir and Mount Hyjal.

We personally recommend Mount Hyjal over Vashj'ir to almost every player in the game, as it's a much more convenient area and should be more recognizable to a traditional WoW zone. Vashj'ir isn't necessarily a bad zone, but its completely underwater nature can make travel difficult at times, and it doesn't have the same easily accessible amenities as Hyjal (or any other WoW zone for that matter).