This study assessed the nature of the spatial representations of an environment acquired from maps, navigation and virtual environments. Participants first learned the layout of a simple "desktop" virtual environment (VE) and then were tested in that environment. Then, participants learned two floors of a complex building in one of three learning conditions: from a map, from direct experience, or by traversing through a virtual rendition of the building. VE learners showed the poorest learning of the complex environment overall, and results suggest that VE learners are particularly susceptible to disorientation after rotation. However, all conditions showed similar levels of performance in learning the layout of landmarks on a single floor. Consistent with previous research, an alignment effect was present for map learners suggesting they had formed an orientation specific representation of the environment. VE learners also showed a preferred orientation, as defined by their initial orientation when learning the environment. Learning the initial simple VE was highly predictive of learning a real environment, suggesting that similar cognitive mechanisms are involved in the two learning situations.