diff --git a/doc/vimwiki.txt b/doc/vimwiki.txt
index a22c473..8b7a1b3 100644
--- a/doc/vimwiki.txt
+++ b/doc/vimwiki.txt
@@ -1860,7 +1860,7 @@ See |vimwiki-option-template_path| for details.
 *vimwiki-option-template_ext*
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Key                 Default value~
-template_ext        .html
+template_ext        .tpl
 
 Description~
 Setup template filename extension.
diff --git a/plugin/vimwiki.vim b/plugin/vimwiki.vim
index 8d3a577..fc2e6aa 100644
--- a/plugin/vimwiki.vim
+++ b/plugin/vimwiki.vim
@@ -385,9 +385,9 @@ let s:vimwiki_defaults.ext = '.wiki'
 let s:vimwiki_defaults.maxhi = 0
 let s:vimwiki_defaults.syntax = 'default'
 
-let s:vimwiki_defaults.template_path = ''
-let s:vimwiki_defaults.template_default = ''
-let s:vimwiki_defaults.template_ext = ''
+let s:vimwiki_defaults.template_path = '~/vimwiki/templates/'
+let s:vimwiki_defaults.template_default = 'default'
+let s:vimwiki_defaults.template_ext = '.tpl'
 
 let s:vimwiki_defaults.nested_syntaxes = {}
 let s:vimwiki_defaults.auto_export = 0