Explorable area

An explorable area is your party's instance of a zone that lies between cities, outposts, and missions. Explorable areas are where most of the PvE content takes place (the other being missions.)   Mobs in explorable areas and missions are typically geared for a certain  level of player.

Explorable areas are different from missions
Explorable areas differ from missions in a few important ways:
 * When your team dies in a mission, the mission ends. When your team dies in an explorable area, your party is resurrected at a Resurrection Shrine.
 * Missions yield experience upon completion
 * Missions have a a number of goals, whereas explorable areas are more free-form.

Getting to explorable areas
To get to an explorable area you simply leave the city or  outpost you're in by walking through the zonepoint. There will be a sign near the zonepoint indicating which zone this exit leads to.