197 Fun Facts About Travel

Which Paris landmark was built as the centrepiece of the 1889 World's Fair?

The Eiffel Tower went up in just over two years while artists and writers petitioned against it, calling it a 'hateful column of bolted sheet metal'; it has since become the symbol of the city.

Which US airport covers the largest area?

Denver International, which replaced Stapleton in 1995, sits on about 53 square miles of prairie, twice the area of Manhattan, a site chosen to leave the airport plenty of room to grow.

Which country received the most international tourist arrivals in 2019?

France drew about 91 million foreign visitors in 2019, far more people than actually live there, and stayed ahead of Spain on about 84 million and the United States on about 79 million.

The ancient city of Machu Picchu is located in which country?

Peru's Machu Picchu was abandoned only about a century after the Inca built it, around the time of the Spanish conquest, and went largely unnoticed by the outside world until Hiram Bingham publicised it in 1911.

Which airline is Dubai's government-owned flag carrier?

Emirates began flying in 1985 with just two aircraft, provided by Pakistan International Airlines, and grew into one of the world's biggest long-haul carriers.

Route 66 runs from Chicago to which city?

Route 66's western terminus was extended from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica in 1936; the highway covered about 2,448 miles from Chicago across eight states.

What is the currency used in Japan?

Yen became Japan's currency in 1871, when the new Meiji government replaced a tangle of feudal coins and clan banknotes with one decimal system; the name simply means 'round', after the coins' shape.

Which UNESCO World Heritage Site is a massive sandstone temple complex in Cambodia?

Angkor Wat in Cambodia is the largest religious monument in the world. Originally built as a Hindu temple in the early 12th century, it gradually transformed into a Buddhist temple.

Which island nation in the Indian Ocean is famous for its overwater bungalows and coral reefs?

The Maldives' islands rise only a metre or two above the sea, so in 2009 its president and cabinet held a meeting underwater in scuba gear to demand cuts in carbon emissions.

Who completed the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight in 1927?

Charles Lindbergh flew the Spirit of St. Louis from New York to Paris in 33.5 hours to claim the $25,000 Orteig Prize, on offer since 1919 for the first nonstop flight between the two cities.

Paella, Spain's best-known rice dish, was first cooked in which region?

Valencia gave the world paella, named after the wide, shallow pan it is cooked in; the traditional local recipe uses chicken, rabbit and beans rather than seafood.

The Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef system, is located off the coast of which country?

Australia's Great Barrier Reef is not one reef but nearly 3,000 separate ones, strung along about 2,300 km of the Queensland coast and large enough to be seen from space.

What is the IATA airport code for London Heathrow?

LHR is Heathrow's own code, taken from the airport's name; LON is a real code too, but it stands for the whole London area and also covers Gatwick, Stansted, City, Luton and Southend.

Which ancient trade route connected China to the Mediterranean?

The Silk Road carried goods between China and the Mediterranean from the 2nd century BC, but nobody called it that then: the name was popularised in 1877 by German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen.

Which liner's sinking led to the first international Safety of Life at Sea treaty?

Titanic sailed with 20 lifeboats, room for about 1,178 people and far fewer than were aboard; the 1914 treaty that followed set lifeboat numbers and round-the-clock radio watches for passenger ships.

Rome's Colosseum was built over the drained lake of which emperor's palace, the Golden House?

Nero seized the heart of the city for his Golden House after the great fire of AD 64; the later emperor Vespasian drained its ornamental lake and put a public arena on the spot.

What is the official language of Brazil?

Portuguese arrived with Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed Brazil for Portugal in 1500; a 1494 treaty had already split the New World, giving Spain the lands to the west and Portugal those to the east.

Which country is home to Santorini, the volcanic island famous for its blue domes?

Greece's Santorini is the rim of a volcano that blew itself apart about 3,600 years ago, burying the Bronze Age town of Akrotiri in ash and leaving the flooded crater its villages now overlook.

Ferdinand Magellan's expedition was the first to do what, completing the journey in 1522?

Magellan's expedition (1519-1522) was the first to circumnavigate the globe, though Magellan himself died in the Philippines in 1521. Juan Sebastián Elcano completed the voyage.

Which Southeast Asian country moved its capital from Yangon to the purpose-built city of Naypyidaw?

Myanmar moved its government in November 2005 but only revealed the new capital's name on Armed Forces Day in March 2006; the planned city sits outside any state or region.

Which building was the tallest in the world in 2025?

Burj Khalifa was called Burj Dubai until its opening night in January 2010, when the 828-metre tower was renamed after the ruler of Abu Dhabi, the neighbour that had just bailed Dubai out of its debt crisis.

Which African country is home to the Kushite pyramids of Meroë?

Sudan was the heartland of Kush, whose kings came to rule their northern neighbour as pharaohs of the 25th Dynasty; they were buried under pyramids back home, and Meroë became their later capital.

Which Japanese dish is thinly sliced raw fish served on its own, without rice?

Sashimi is just the sliced raw fish; sushi is defined by its vinegared rice, so a sushi dish can hold cooked seafood or no fish at all.

Which two bodies of water does the Suez Canal connect?

The Suez Canal joins the Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea; since it opened in 1869, ships sailing between Europe and Asia have been spared the long voyage around Africa's Cape of Good Hope.

Which city is split between Europe and Asia by the Bosphorus Strait?

Istanbul's residents can cross continents on the daily commute, by ferry, by bridge or, since 2013, through a rail tunnel under the strait; about two-thirds of them live on the European side.

Which small European country is completely surrounded by Italy?

San Marino sheltered Giuseppe Garibaldi and his retreating volunteers in 1849; when he later helped unite the peninsula, the mountain republic that had taken him in was left independent.

Which airport was the world's busiest by passenger traffic in 2023?

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta handled about 105 million passengers in 2023, topping the Airports Council International ranking it has led every year since 1998 except 2020, when Guangzhou Baiyun briefly overtook it.

Tromsø, a favourite base for seeing the Northern Lights, lies above the Arctic Circle in which country?

Norway's Tromsø sits more than 300 km north of the Arctic Circle, inside the auroral zone, so the lights can show from late August to early April; in summer the midnight sun never lets the sky go dark.

Which three-tower resort hotel, opened in 2010, is topped by a SkyPark with a 150-metre infinity pool?

Marina Bay Sands opened its SkyPark in June 2010 with a race in which teams of top rock climbers scaled the glass faces of the hotel towers; the 340-metre deck joins all three at the top.

Which country's passport stood alone atop the Henley Passport Index in July 2024?

Singapore's passport gave visa-free or visa-on-arrival entry to 195 destinations in July 2024, a year after it had overtaken Japan for first place in the ranking.

Which international rail service links London with Paris and Brussels through the Channel Tunnel?

Eurostar began running through the Channel Tunnel in November 1994, linking London with Paris and Brussels; its London terminus moved from Waterloo to St Pancras International in 2007.

Petra, the ancient city carved into rose-red cliffs, is located in which country?

Jordan's Petra grew rich as a Nabataean caravan city on the incense and spice routes, then slipped out of Western knowledge until the Swiss traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt reached it in 1812.

Which Hawaiian island is known as the 'Garden Isle' due to its lush tropical vegetation?

Kauai owes its greenery to Mount Waialeale at its centre, one of the rainiest spots on Earth, whose runoff has carved the island's deep valleys and canyons.

Which stir-fried rice noodle dish with shrimp, peanuts and lime is sold at street stalls across Bangkok?

Pad Thai is widely said to owe its fame to Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram, whose 1940s government pushed noodle dishes to ease a rice shortage and to build a national identity.

Which waterfall system on the Argentina-Brazil border is wider than Niagara?

Iguazu Falls is not one curtain of water: islands along its 2.7 km rim split the river into anywhere from 150 to 300 separate falls, depending on the water level.

What is the world's smallest country by area?

Vatican City became a country only in the Mussolini era, when the Lateran Treaty with Italy recognised the pope's enclave as an independent state; Monaco, the runner-up, is more than four times its size.

Which African mountain is the tallest freestanding mountain in the world?

Mount Kilimanjaro stands alone on the plains rather than in a range, and though it rises close to the equator its summit carries glaciers, which lost more than 85 percent of their ice between 1912 and 2011.

Which country created the world's first national park, signed into law in 1872?

The United States kept Yellowstone in federal hands in 1872 because it straddled territories that were not yet states; Yosemite, set aside eight years earlier, had simply been given to California to run.

Which remote island territory of Chile is famous for its giant moai statues?

Easter Island got its European name from the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who came upon it on Easter Sunday in 1722; its own people call it Rapa Nui.

Which ocean trench holds the deepest known point in the world's oceans?

The Mariana Trench bottoms out at Challenger Deep, nearly 11 km down in the western Pacific; Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh became the first people to reach it in 1960, in the US Navy bathyscaphe Trieste.

Which ancient Syrian oasis city was the capital of Queen Zenobia, who challenged the power of Rome?

Palmyra, an oasis in the Syrian desert, was the seat of Zenobia's breakaway Palmyrene Empire until the emperor Aurelian captured her as she fled toward Persia and, in 273, levelled the city.

Which US president backed Panama's 1903 break from Colombia to build a canal?

Theodore Roosevelt sent warships after Colombia's congress rejected his canal treaty; the new republic of Panama promptly signed over a ten-mile-wide strip, and the canal opened in 1914.

What is the traditional greeting in Thailand, involving pressing the palms together?

Wai changes with rank: the higher the hands are held and the lower the bow, the more respect it shows, and the same gesture also serves to say thank you, sorry or goodbye.

The Trans-Siberian Railway, the world's longest, runs from Moscow to which Pacific port?

Vladivostok is where the future Tsar Nicholas II inaugurated construction in May 1891; the finished line runs 9,289 km from Moscow and crosses eight time zones.

Which Caribbean island is divided between two countries: France and the Netherlands?

Saint Martin's split dates to 1648 and runs roughly 60:40 in France's favour by area, though the Dutch side, Sint Maarten, has more people.

Which river do cruise ships follow through ten countries, from Germany to the Black Sea?

The Danube rises in Germany's Black Forest and reaches the Black Sea some 2,850 km later; since 1992 a canal to the Main has let river ships sail on to the Rhine and the North Sea.

In which country would you find Cappadocia, famous for its hot air balloon rides over fairy chimneys?

Turkey's Cappadocia is volcanic ash hardened into soft rock, which wind and water sculpted into fairy chimneys and people hollowed into homes and underground cities; Derinkuyu could shelter up to 20,000.

Which airline, founded in October 1919, is the world's oldest operating under its original name?

KLM was founded on 7 October 1919 and has never changed its name; its first flight, the following May, was a leased de Havilland DH-16 carrying two journalists and a stack of newspapers from London to Amsterdam.

Which river carved the Grand Canyon?

The Colorado River is thought to have cut the canyon in only five to six million years, a blink beside the rocks at the bottom, which are almost two billion years old.

In which Indian city did the emperor Shah Jahan build the Taj Mahal?

Agra holds both the Taj and the fort where Shah Jahan ended his days: deposed by his son Aurangzeb in 1658, he was confined there within sight of the tomb he had built for his wife.

Which dynasty built the Great Wall sections that tourists visit near Beijing?

The Ming rebuilt the wall in brick and stone after 1368 and added its watchtowers; almost nothing survives of the rammed-earth barrier the Qin had joined together many centuries earlier.

In which Mexican state is Chichen Itza located?

Yucatán's Chichén Itzá draws crowds at the equinoxes, when the afternoon sun throws triangles of shadow onto the main pyramid's staircase and a giant serpent seems to slither along it.

Who built the metal framework of the Statue of Liberty?

Gustave Eiffel engineered the iron pylon and flexible armature that support Bartholdi's copper skin, taking over after engineer Viollet-le-Duc died in 1879; the statue was dedicated in October 1886.

Sagrada Família architect Antoni Gaudí died in 1926 after being hit by what on a Barcelona street?

A tram struck Gaudí on his daily walk to church; taken for a beggar, he was given only basic care until a priest recognised him the next day, and he died three days after the accident.

Which French king, who invited Leonardo da Vinci to his court, began rebuilding the Louvre as a Renaissance palace?

Francis I hired the architect Pierre Lescot in 1546 to replace the old fortress; he had also invited Leonardo to his court and acquired the Mona Lisa, which is how the painting came to hang in the Louvre.

Which Danish architect designed the Sydney Opera House?

Jørn Utzon's sail-like design won the 1957 international competition, but he walked out mid-construction after bitter rows over cost, seven years before Queen Elizabeth II opened the finished building in 1973.

Which Japanese volcano last erupted in 1707?

Mount Fuji's last eruption began in December 1707, seven weeks after a giant earthquake, and rained ash on Edo, 100 km away; the peak is still classed as an active volcano.

Which Venetian bridge, finished in 1591, was for centuries the Grand Canal's only crossing?

The Rialto Bridge crosses the canal in a single stone arch so daring that the rival architect Vincenzo Scamozzi predicted it would collapse; Antonio da Ponte's span has now stood for more than four centuries.

Under what historic name was Dubrovnik known?

Ragusa was the independent maritime republic that ran Dubrovnik from 1358 until the French general Marmont abolished it in 1808 and was made Duke of Ragusa.

Bora Bora belongs to which island group of French Polynesia, along with Tahiti?

The Society Islands include both Tahiti and Bora Bora, about 230 km apart; during the Second World War American forces turned Bora Bora into a supply base and built the airstrip that became its airport.

The Galápagos Islands, visited by Charles Darwin in 1835, belong to which country?

Ecuador annexed the islands in 1832, just three years before Darwin stepped ashore from HMS Beagle and began the observations that fed his theory of natural selection.

The wider Serengeti ecosystem spans which two countries?

The Serengeti ecosystem covers about 30,000 km² of northern Tanzania and extends into south-western Kenya as the Maasai Mara; its wildebeest migration crosses the border every year.

What does Mosi-oa-Tunya, the local name for Victoria Falls, mean?

Mosi-oa-Tunya, 'The Smoke that Thunders', describes the spray column that rises hundreds of metres above the Zambezi; David Livingstone named the falls after Queen Victoria in 1855.

Which Australian landmark was closed to climbers in 2019?

Uluru was handed back to the Anangu in 1985 and leased to the government as a national park; they had long asked visitors not to climb, and the ban began on the handback's anniversary in October 2019.

Which national park, Canada's first, grew from hot springs that railway workers found in 1883?

Banff began in 1885 as a small reserve around the springs, set aside to end squabbles over who owned them; it was called Rocky Mountains Park until 1930.

Which naturalist's campaigning made Yosemite a national park in 1890?

John Muir took a magazine editor camping in the high country in 1889, and the articles that followed pushed Congress to create the park; he then helped found the Sierra Club to defend it.

Which Bavarian castle, built by King Ludwig II, was the model for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle?

Neuschwanstein was built as a private refuge where the shy king could hide from public life; seven weeks after he died in 1886 it was opened to paying visitors, and the crowds have never stopped.

In which Spanish city does the Alhambra, palace of the last Muslim rulers in Spain, stand?

Granada held out as the last Muslim state in Spain until January 1492, when its emir Boabdil surrendered the Alhambra to Ferdinand and Isabella, who made the palace their royal court.

Which sixth-century cathedral became a mosque again in 2020?

Hagia Sophia went up in under six years for the emperor Justinian, became a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of 1453, was made a museum by Atatürk and returned to Muslim worship in July 2020.

Which upland town is considered Bali's cultural centre?

Ubud, in Bali's central uplands, grew into the island's arts hub after foreign painters such as Walter Spies settled there in the late 1920s; the Ubud Palace and the Sacred Monkey Forest anchor the town.

What does the name Ha Long, as in Vietnam's Ha Long Bay, mean?

Ha Long means 'descending dragon': in local legend the gods sent dragons to defend Vietnam, the jewels they spat out became the bay's limestone islands, and the bay took its name from the spot where the mother dragon came down.

Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe anchor which region of Japan?

Kansai was Japan's political and cultural heart for centuries: the emperors lived in Kyoto for more than a thousand years before the court moved east in the 1860s.

The first Shinkansen line opened just before which event?

The 1964 Tokyo Olympics opened nine days after the first bullet train left the capital, a launch timed for the Games; the new line cut the run to Osaka to four hours.

Belgian entrepreneur Georges Nagelmackers launched which luxury sleeping-car train in 1883?

The Orient Express first left Paris in 1883 but did not run the whole way east: Nagelmackers' company took passengers as far as Varna in Bulgaria, where they boarded a Black Sea steamer.

Which two Swiss resorts does the Glacier Express connect?

The Glacier Express links Zermatt and St. Moritz in about eight hours over 291 km, 291 bridges and 91 tunnels, earning the nickname 'slowest express train in the world'.

In which city is the luxury Rocky Mountaineer rail service based?

Vancouver is the base for Rocky Mountaineer, whose trains run only by daylight so that no scenery is missed; passengers break the journey overnight in Kamloops on the way to Banff or Jasper.

Which two cities does the Indian Pacific train link?

Sydney and Perth are the two ends of the Indian Pacific, named for the oceans it links; on the Nullarbor Plain it runs 478 km without a single bend, the longest dead-straight stretch of railway in the world.

Which airline launched the first scheduled nonstop flights between Australia and Europe in 2018?

Qantas flies the nonstop to London with Boeing 787s; when the airline first ran its 'Kangaroo Route' to London in 1947, the Constellation made six stops along the way, two of them overnight.

Which airline flew the first commercial Airbus A380 service?

Singapore Airlines flew the first A380 passenger service on 25 October 2007 as flight SQ380; instead of selling ordinary tickets it auctioned the seats online for charity, with bids reaching about $100,000.

Which airport was the world's busiest for international passengers in 2024?

Dubai International is above all a crossroads: a large share of its passengers are only changing planes between continents, which keeps it ahead of older hubs on international traffic.

Until 1966, Heathrow was known simply by what name?

London Airport was its only name from the 1946 opening until 1966, when it took that of Heath Row, the farming hamlet cleared in 1944 for a military airfield the RAF no longer needed once the war ended.

Which airline alliance uses Amsterdam Schiphol as a major hub?

SkyTeam counts Schiphol as a hub because the Dutch flag carrier based there joined in 2004, after merging with one of the four airlines that had founded the alliance in 2000.

Pan Am's demand for a jet 2.5 times the size of the 707 led to which airliner?

The Boeing 747 was Pan Am chief Juan Trippe's idea: he ordered the first 25 in 1966, before Boeing had anywhere to build them, and the vast Everett factory went up the following year for the jet.

In which city was the first Airbus A380 prototype unveiled in January 2005?

Toulouse is where Airbus assembled the A380: sections built in four countries were too big for normal transport, so they reached the plant by special ships, river barges and oversize road convoys.

Which two airlines flew Concorde in scheduled passenger service from 1976 to 2003?

British Airways and Air France began Concorde services on the same day, 21 January 1976; more than a dozen other airlines had once held options on the jet, but none of them ever took delivery.

Which airline began in 1985 with a single 15-seat plane flying between Waterford and London Gatwick?

Ryanair grew from that one turboprop into a low-cost giant with hundreds of jets, and is now run from offices in Swords, beside Dublin Airport.

What was Pan Am's round globe logo nicknamed?

The Blue Meatball was the nickname for Pan Am's blue globe; its planes all carried 'Clipper' names because the airline cast its flying boats as heirs to the fast sailing clippers of the 19th century.

Which American guidebook author self-published 'Europe Through the Back Door' in 1980 before hosting his own public-television travel series?

Rick Steves wrote the book from the travel classes he taught at a student-run college, and printed a page promising to thank profusely anyone caught copying it; he runs his company from Edmonds, Washington.

Which guidebook publisher takes its name from a misheard lyric in a song recorded by Joe Cocker?

Lonely Planet came from co-founder Tony Wheeler mishearing 'lovely planet' in 'Space Captain', a Matthew Moore song Joe Cocker recorded in 1970; the firm began in 1973 with a stapled 94-page guide to crossing Asia.

Which 19th-century publisher's surname became a byword for travel guidebooks?

Karl Baedeker's guides were so familiar that the Luftwaffe's 1942 raids on historic English cities such as Bath and York became known as the Baedeker raids, after a reported threat to bomb every building given three stars.

Whose travel business began in 1841 with a one-shilling rail excursion taking temperance supporters from Leicester to Loughborough?

Thomas Cook, a Baptist preacher, persuaded a railway to run the special train to a temperance meeting on 5 July 1841; its success led him to organise more trips and, in time, the tours that carried his name worldwide.

The Michelin Guide was first published in 1900 for what audience?

French motorists got the first guide free: the tyre-making Michelin brothers gave away nearly 35,000 copies with maps, repair tips and garage listings, hoping that more driving would sell more tyres.

Which three men founded Airbnb in 2008?

Chesky, Blecharczyk and Gebbia started Airbnb in San Francisco in 2008; the name shortens 'Airbed and Breakfast', after the air mattresses Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia rented out during a 2007 design conference.

Which pass should non-European residents buy instead of Interrail?

Eurail is the pass for people who live outside Europe, and it came first: it launched in 1959 to bring overseas tourists onto the trains, while Interrail followed in 1972, at first only for Europeans under 21.

At the end of 2025, which two EU member states were not in the Schengen Area?

Cyprus and Ireland were the only EU members outside Schengen at the end of 2025; Ireland opted out to keep its Common Travel Area with the UK, while Bulgaria and Romania became full members on 1 January 2025.

What colour is the cover of an ordinary passport in almost every European Union country?

Burgundy was recommended as the common cover colour in a 1981 resolution, and every member state but Croatia adopted it; Britain switched from navy blue in 1988 and went back to blue in 2020 after leaving the EU.

Which hormone do many travellers take to help reset the body clock after long flights?

Melatonin is released by the body each evening to signal sleep, which is why travellers take it, though doctors disagree on how much it helps; jet lag is usually worse flying east, when the body clock must shift earlier.

Crossing the International Date Line eastbound does what to the date?

Decreases it by one day: an eastbound traveller repeats a date, which is how Phileas Fogg, who went east around the world without resetting his calendar, got home a day earlier than he believed.

After crossing Europe and the Sahara, the Greenwich prime meridian reaches the sea in which West African country?

Ghana is the last of eight countries on the line set by George Airy's telescope at Greenwich in 1851; an 1884 conference chose it as the world's zero, at a time when nations still measured from their own observatories.

The Camino de Santiago leads to the shrine of which apostle?

James gives the route its English name, the Way of St James: tradition holds that the apostle's remains lie beneath the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, a goal for pilgrims since the 9th century.

Which two states hold the southern and northern ends of the Appalachian Trail?

Georgia and Maine: the trail runs almost 2,200 miles from Springer Mountain to Mount Katahdin through 14 states; forester Benton MacKaye proposed it in a 1921 article, and it took until 1937 to link the whole route.

Which three US states does the Pacific Crest Trail pass through?

The Pacific Crest Trail runs about 2,650 miles through California, Oregon and Washington, from near Campo on the Mexican border to the Canadian border at Manning Park.

In which country did a schoolteacher open the first permanent youth hostel, inside a hilltop castle, before the First World War?

Germany: teacher Richard Schirrmann had the idea after a storm disrupted a school hiking trip in 1909, first putting up walkers in his own schoolhouse before opening the hostel in Altena Castle, now a museum.

Which Asian country admitted its first foreign tourists only in 1974?

Bhutan opened its doors to raise revenue but chose a 'high value, low volume' policy, charging visitors a daily fee rather than chasing numbers; 1974 was also the year its young king was crowned.

From which US city did Icon of the Seas, then the world's largest cruise ship, begin its maiden voyage in January 2024?

Miami also hosted the naming ceremony, where footballer Lionel Messi christened the ship days before it sailed on 27 January 2024; the 248,663-gross-ton vessel was built at the Meyer Turku yard in Finland.

Which cruise line's flagship is the ocean liner Queen Mary 2?

Cunard built Queen Mary 2 to succeed the QE2 as flagship in 2004; when the older ship retired in 2008 she became the only ocean liner left in regular passenger service.

The Wright brothers designed and built their 1903 Flyer at their bicycle shop in which Ohio city?

Dayton was home to the Wrights' bicycle shop, where mechanic Charlie Taylor built the Flyer's 12-horsepower engine in six weeks; they then shipped the machine to windy Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to fly it.

Which organisation for female pilots did Amelia Earhart help found?

The Ninety-Nines took their name, at Amelia Earhart's suggestion, from the 99 women who signed up as charter members after all 117 licensed female pilots were invited in 1929; she became the first president.

At which London gentlemen's institution does Phileas Fogg make his famous wager?

Phileas Fogg makes his £20,000 wager at the Reform Club on Pall Mall in Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, setting out that same evening, 2 October 1872.

Which New York World reporter circled the world in 72 days in 1889-90, beating Phileas Fogg's fictional 80?

Nellie Bly finished in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes, even after detouring to meet Jules Verne at his home in Amiens; a rival magazine's reporter, sent the opposite way, was still travelling when Bly got home.

Which Mongol emperor did Marco Polo serve for about 17 years during his travels in Asia?

Kublai Khan employed the young Venetian across his empire; Polo left Venice in 1271, got home in 1295 and, by tradition, told his story only after being captured in battle, dictating it to a cellmate in a Genoese prison.

Which Chinese admiral led seven treasure-fleet voyages across the Indian Ocean between 1405 and 1433?

Zheng He, a court eunuch, sailed for the Yongle Emperor as far as East Africa; the fleets came home with envoys and exotic animals, including a giraffe that the court identified as the mythical qilin.

The aristocratic Grand Tour traditionally reached its climax in which country?

Italy drew upper-class young men of about 21, usually with a tutor in tow; the custom flourished from about 1660 until railways arrived in the 1840s.

The Hajj pilgrimage is made to which sacred structure?

Pilgrims on the Hajj circle the Kaaba, the cube-shaped shrine at the centre of Mecca's Masjid al-Haram, seven times; the Hajj is one of the Five Pillars of Islam.

Which Hindu pilgrimage festival, held in turn at four Indian river cities, draws the largest peaceful gatherings on Earth?

The Kumbh Mela rotates among Prayagraj, Haridwar, Nashik and Ujjain; pilgrims come in their millions to bathe in the sacred rivers, in the belief that it washes away sins.

Walt Disney World opened in 1971 with which single theme park?

Magic Kingdom opened on October 1, 1971, five years after Walt Disney died; his brother Roy put off retirement to finish the resort and insisted it be called Walt Disney World in his memory.

The Las Vegas Strip lies mostly in which two unincorporated towns?

Paradise and Winchester hold most of the Strip, just outside the city limits; they date from the early 1950s, when casino bosses had the county create a town so that Las Vegas's mayor could not annex the Strip for its taxes.

Which of Niagara's three waterfalls straddles the US-Canada border?

Horseshoe Falls carries the border and about nine-tenths of the water; in 1969 engineers dammed the smaller American Falls dry for months to study its crumbling rock face.

Which two highways does the Golden Gate Bridge carry?

US 101 and SR 1 share the Golden Gate Bridge's six lanes; its International Orange colour was architect Irving Morrow's choice, over a Navy proposal to paint it in black and yellow stripes for visibility.

Tower Bridge is often mistaken for which plainer Thames crossing half a mile upstream?

London Bridge is the plain span next door; Tower Bridge, designed by Horace Jones, got its Gothic stone towers so that it would harmonise with the Tower of London beside it.

Which ruler carried off the Brandenburg Gate's chariot statue as a war trophy before Prussia won it back in 1814?

Napoleon seized Johann Gottfried Schadow's quadriga after taking Berlin in 1806; when it came home, the goddess driving it was given an Iron Cross and recast from a figure of peace into Victory.

What does the Greek word 'acropolis' mean?

Highest city is the literal meaning, from Greek akros ('highest') and polis ('city'); most ancient Greek cities had such a fortified hilltop, and the one in Athens simply became the most famous.

Stonehenge's smaller bluestones came from the Preseli Hills, about 150 miles away in which country?

Wales supplied the bluestones, while the giant sarsens, about 25 tons apiece, came from close by near Marlborough: the smaller stones made by far the longer journey.

Which ancient monument stood as the world's tallest human-made structure for more than 3,700 years?

The Great Pyramid of Giza, originally 146.6 metres tall, is said to have lost the record around 1311 to the spire of England's Lincoln Cathedral, which itself blew down in a storm in 1548.

Which sculptor carved Mount Rushmore between 1927 and 1941?

Gutzon Borglum led the carving from 1927 until he died in March 1941; his son Lincoln wound the project up that October when money ran short, leaving heads where waist-length figures had been planned.

Wadi Rum is also known by what nickname?

Valley of the Moon fits Wadi Rum's red sandstone desert so well that film-makers use it as another world: it stood in for Mars in The Martian and for the planet Arrakis in Dune.

In which country is Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat?

Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni turns into a giant mirror when rain leaves a thin film of water across the world's largest salt flat; the brine beneath its crust is exceptionally rich in lithium.

Which Chinese forest park renamed one of its sandstone pillars 'Avatar Hallelujah Mountain' in 2010?

Zhangjiajie renamed its Southern Sky Column in honour of Avatar, whose designers named the area among the Chinese mountains behind the film's floating peaks.

In which Southeast Asian country are the Chocolate Hills, grassy mounds that turn brown each dry season?

The Philippines' Chocolate Hills, more than 1,200 of them on the island of Bohol, are limestone left from coral reefs that grew when the land lay under the sea.

Which river flows just south of Timbuktu?

The Niger passes just south of Timbuktu, in Mali; the city grew rich on the trade in salt, gold and ivory that crossed the Sahara to reach the river.

In Fellini's 1960 film La Dolce Vita, Anita Ekberg wades into which Roman fountain?

The Trevi Fountain, Nicola Salvi's 18th-century masterpiece, was so cold during the shoot that film legend says Marcello Mastroianni needed a wetsuit under his suit and a bottle of vodka.

Which Icelandic spa formed by accident from the mineral-rich runoff of a geothermal power station?

The Blue Lagoon began in 1976 as waste water pooling in the lava beside the Svartsengi plant; a psoriasis sufferer who bathed there in 1981 found it eased his skin, and the spa grew from that.

The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, opened in 1929, carries visitors above which city?

Cape Town's cableway has run since 4 October 1929; in the cars fitted in 1997 the floor turns a full circle on the way up, so every passenger gets the whole view.

Which businessman became the first space tourist in April 2001?

Dennis Tito, once a NASA engineer, paid a reported $20 million for his 2001 trip to the International Space Station, over the objections of NASA, which had advised Russia against the flight.

Which 1944 convention set the framework for international civil aviation?

The Chicago Convention, signed on 7 December 1944, set the rules of international civil aviation and created the International Civil Aviation Organization, headquartered in Montreal.

Which international body's 1920 conference set the standard for the modern passport booklet?

The League of Nations agreed the standard in 1920, and the dark-blue booklet Britain then adopted stayed in use with only small changes for decades.

Which Pacific nation's Line Islands keep UTC+14, the furthest-ahead time zone on Earth?

Kiribati straddled the date line until it dropped 31 December 1994 from the calendar in its eastern islands, putting the whole country on one day and creating UTC+14 for the Line Islands.

Annual international tourist arrivals worldwide first passed which milestone in 2012?

1 billion arrivals in a single year were counted for the first time in 2012, helped by fast-growing numbers of travellers from newer markets such as China, Russia and Brazil.

The world's first airport duty-free shop opened in 1947 at which transatlantic refuelling stop?

Shannon, Ireland was where early transatlantic airliners stopped for fuel, and Brendan O'Regan's 1947 shop for their waiting passengers became the model for duty-free shopping at airports worldwide.

The Schengen Agreement was signed in 1985 near the village of Schengen in which country?

Luxembourg's wine village of Schengen sits where three countries meet on the Moselle; the five founding states signed the deal there aboard the riverboat Princesse Marie-Astrid on 14 June 1985.

Which 14th-century traveller from Tangier spent nearly three decades roaming from West Africa to China?

Ibn Battuta left Tangier at 21 meaning only to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, a trip of about sixteen months, and did not see home again for 24 years.

Yale lecturer Hiram Bingham III, who publicised Machu Picchu, was governor of which US state for one day in 1925?

Connecticut swore Hiram Bingham in as governor on 7 January 1925, and he resigned the next day to take the US Senate seat he had also won, the shortest term of any governor of the state.

Which lake does the Trans-Siberian Railway skirt east of Irkutsk?

Lake Baikal, the world's deepest lake, was once the line's missing link: until the track around its cliffs was finished, whole trains crossed on an icebreaking ferry built in kit form in England.

Guinness recognises Japan's Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan, founded in 705, as the world's oldest what?

Hotel is the record Guinness gave the hot-spring inn in 2011; until then another Japanese inn, Hoshi Ryokan, founded 13 years later in 718, had been thought the world's oldest.

Which company launched its traveller's cheques in 1891 after a top executive struggled to get cash while touring Europe?

American Express built the system after its president, J. C. Fargo, found his letters of credit hard to cash outside Europe's big cities; employee Marcellus Berry is traditionally credited with devising the cheques.

Which English king's 1414 Act of Parliament is an early mention of safe conducts, forerunners of the passport?

Henry V's 1414 law made breaking a royal safe conduct high treason, so robbing a protected traveller counted as a crime against the Crown itself.

In which city does a Ritz-Carlton occupy floors 102 to 118 of the International Commerce Centre?

Hong Kong's tallest tower, in West Kowloon, hosts the Ritz-Carlton, which opened in 2011 billed as the highest lodging on Earth, a title since taken by a rival atop the taller Shanghai Tower.

What colour are aircraft 'black box' recorders actually painted so that searchers can spot them?

Bright orange is mandatory, and each recorder also carries an underwater beacon that pings for at least 30 days after a crash at sea.

Which official name, adopted in 2012, belongs to the London landmark that visitors call Big Ben?

Elizabeth Tower was renamed to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Strictly, Big Ben is the nickname of the Great Bell inside, not of the tower.

Which country is known in its indigenous language as Aotearoa, usually translated as 'land of the long white cloud'?

New Zealand's Māori name originally referred only to the North Island, and several other translations of it have been proposed.

Which Indian Ocean island nation was the only home of the dodo, a flightless bird last seen in 1662?

Mauritius lost the dodo less than a century after sailors first described it in 1598. The bird belonged to the same family as pigeons and doves.

What do crowds in Japan gather to admire at outdoor parties during the spring custom of hanami?

Cherry blossoms last only a week or two, so forecasters track a 'blossom front' as it moves up the country each spring.

Which flower stars at Keukenhof, a garden in Lisse open for only eight weeks each spring?

Tulips lead a display of about 7 million bulbs, which a team of 40 gardeners replants every autumn.

Which palace near Paris has the Hall of Mirrors, where the treaty ending the First World War was signed?

Versailles began as a modest hunting lodge built for Louis XIII in 1623. His son Louis XIV later moved the entire royal court there.

Which salt lake, whose shores are the lowest land on Earth, lets bathers float with ease?

The Dead Sea is about 9.6 times as salty as the ocean. Its surface lies more than 400 metres below sea level and has been dropping for decades.

The word 'safari' entered English from which East African language, in which it simply means 'journey'?

Swahili borrowed the word from Arabic safar, and its speakers still use it for any trip, even a bus ride from Nairobi to Mombasa.

Which former island prison, nicknamed The Rock, held Al Capone before becoming a museum?

Alcatraz claimed that no inmate ever escaped successfully, though five who vanished are still listed as missing and presumed drowned.

Which Riviera microstate, the world's second-smallest country, is home to the Monte Carlo Casino?

Monaco bars its own citizens from the gaming rooms of the casino, whose success once let the ruling family stop collecting income tax.

Which city beside Mount Vesuvius is credited as the home of pizza, a craft now recognised by UNESCO?

Naples takes its pizza seriously: an official association rules that the real thing bakes for only 60 to 90 seconds in a wood-fired oven.

Which Bavarian city hosts Oktoberfest, a beer festival that actually begins in the middle of September?

Munich threw the first one in 1810 to celebrate a royal wedding, and locals still call the festival the Wiesn after its meadow site.

Which Spanish city stages the Running of the Bulls every July during its nine-day San Fermín festival?

Pamplona's bull run became known worldwide partly through Ernest Hemingway, who described it in his novel The Sun Also Rises.

Which Central European capital has a medieval astronomical clock mounted on its Old Town Hall?

Prague's clock dates from 1410, and every hour a procession of Apostle figures appears while a skeleton representing Death strikes the time.

Which city draws couples to 'Juliet's balcony', at a medieval house linked to Shakespeare's lovers?

Verona's balcony was only added in the 1930s, when the house became a museum. Thousands of love letters addressed to Juliet still arrive every year.

Which Spanish city is home to Gaudí's Park Güell and the tree-lined pedestrian street La Rambla?

Barcelona's Park Güell was planned as a luxury estate of sixty homes, but only two were ever built and the site opened as a public park instead.

Which capital city is the home of the Sachertorte, a chocolate cake with a layer of apricot jam?

Vienna's two most famous makers fought for years over the cake's trademark, and even over how many layers of sponge the original had.

Which Nordic city has the Little Mermaid statue and Tivoli Gardens, an amusement park opened in 1843?

Copenhagen's mermaid is only 1.25 metres tall, and vandals have cut off her head more than once since she was unveiled in 1913.

Which Danube capital, created in 1873 by merging three towns, is known as a city of thermal baths?

Budapest sits on more than 100 geothermal springs, and some bathhouses built under Ottoman rule in the 1500s are still in use today.

Which colour of navigation light marks the starboard side of a ship between dusk and dawn?

Green marks starboard and red marks port. The right-hand side took its name from the steering oar that early ships carried there.

Which Argentine port, long called the world's southernmost city, is a recognised gateway to Antarctica?

Ushuaia lies about 1,100 km from the Antarctic Peninsula, and visitors can ride its End of the World Train, the southernmost railway on Earth.

Which Asian city has the Petronas Towers, twin skyscrapers linked by a skybridge at the 41st floor?

Kuala Lumpur's twin towers were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004, when Taipei 101 overtook them.

Which Chinese city is home to the Terracotta Army, discovered in 1974 by farmers digging a well?

Xi'an's clay army of more than 8,000 soldiers was buried to guard the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China.

Which Moroccan city's great square, Jemaa el-Fnaa, hosts snake charmers by day and storytellers by night?

Marrakesh is nicknamed the Red City after the orange-red clay walls, first raised in the 12th century, that still ring its old town.

Which Central American country, which abolished its army in the 1940s, is known for the phrase 'pura vida'?

Costa Rica's locals, who call themselves Ticos, use the phrase as a greeting and as a common answer to 'How are you?'

Which country is home to Angel Falls, named after the American pilot who first flew over it in 1933?

Venezuela's waterfall drops 979 metres from a flat-topped mountain, making it the tallest uninterrupted waterfall in the world.

Which Alpine peak, first climbed in 1865, was copied at Disneyland as a bobsled roller coaster?

The Matterhorn's first ascent ended in tragedy, when four of the seven climbers died in a fall on the way down.

Which city in Rajasthan is nicknamed the Pink City after the colour of the buildings in its old quarter?

Jaipur was painted pink in 1876 to welcome the visiting Prince of Wales, and many of its avenues have kept the colour ever since.

Which country's Bran Castle, a Transylvanian fortress, is marketed to foreign tourists as 'Dracula's Castle'?

Romania's Bran Castle has only slight links to Vlad the Impaler, and there is no evidence that Bram Stoker even knew it existed.

Which English city's airport is named after John Lennon and has a lyric from 'Imagine' on its roof?

Liverpool renamed its airport in 2001, and a giant Yellow Submarine sculpture now greets passengers at the entrance.

Which airline founder rode his own company's rocket plane to the edge of space in July 2021?

Richard Branson, who started Virgin Atlantic in 1984, flew as a passenger on Virgin Galactic's Unity 22 mission to a height above 50 miles.

Which national motorway network has stretches with no general speed limit, only an advisory 130 km/h?

The Autobahn's advisory limit still matters: drivers who exceed it can bear extra liability after a crash, even where no legal limit applies.

Which chef, the author of Kitchen Confidential, toured the world in the CNN series Parts Unknown?

Anthony Bourdain once shared a beer and bun cha with President Barack Obama at a small restaurant in Hanoi for the series.

Which Beat Generation writer typed his road-trip novel On the Road on one continuous scroll of paper?

Jack Kerouac taped sheets of tracing paper into a 120-foot roll and wrote the first draft in three weeks in April 1951.

Which traditional Japanese inn has tatami rooms where guests sleep on futons and are lent a yukata robe?

Ryokan stays usually include dinner and breakfast, often a kaiseki meal made up of many small seasonal dishes.

Which German airline's logo, an encircled crane in flight, was first drawn by Otto Firle in 1918?

Lufthansa's crane is older than the airline itself: today's company acquired the name and logo of a pre-war predecessor in 1954.

Which country's coast has the Great Blue Hole, a vast marine sinkhole made famous by Jacques Cousteau?

Belize's sinkhole is 318 metres across. It formed as a dry cave when sea levels were much lower, then flooded as the ocean rose.

Which festival marks the traditional Thai New Year each April with enormous public water fights?

Songkran's water fights symbolise ritual cleansing, and the festival was Thailand's official New Year until 1888.

Which Colombian port is famed for its colonial walled city, a World Heritage Site since 1984?

Cartagena fortified itself after repeated pirate raids, including one in 1586 when Francis Drake seized the city and left only after a ransom was paid.

Which American travel writer launched his guidebook empire in 1957 with Europe on 5 Dollars a Day?

Arthur Frommer first wrote a guide for fellow soldiers while serving with the Army in Germany, then rewrote it for civilians.

Which Austrian lakeside town was copied at full scale by a mining company in China's Guangdong province?

Hallstatt has produced salt since prehistoric times, and it gave its name to an entire Iron Age culture of early Celtic Europe.

Which country has Luang Prabang, a temple town where monks collect alms in a procession every sunrise?

Laos saw the whole town listed as a World Heritage Site in 1995 for its blend of Lao and colonial buildings and more than 30 temples.

Which nickname is given to Paro Taktsang, the Buddhist monastery built into a cliff face in Bhutan?

The Tiger's Nest takes its name from the legend that Guru Rinpoche flew to the cliff on the back of a tigress.

Which African country has Lalibela, where eleven medieval churches were carved out of solid rock?

Ethiopia's King Lalibela commissioned the churches to recreate the holy city of Jerusalem inside his own kingdom.

Which Uzbek city's Registan square is framed by three grand madrasas covered in blue tilework?

Samarkand became the capital of Timur's empire in the 14th century, and the conqueror's tomb, the Gur-i Amir, still stands in the city.

Which writer turned a four-month train journey from London across Asia into The Great Railway Bazaar?

Paul Theroux made the journey in 1973 after noticing that he thought most clearly on trains, and the book appeared two years later.

Which island nation has Sigiriya, a fifth-century royal palace built atop a 180-metre column of rock?

Sri Lanka's King Kashyapa had a gateway shaped like an enormous lion built halfway up, which is why Sigiriya is also called Lion Rock.

Which Thai island group includes Maya Bay, the cove used as the setting for the 2000 film The Beach?

The Phi Phi Islands closed the bay for nearly four years from 2018 so its reef could recover, and blacktip sharks soon returned to breed.

Which southern African country is home to the Okavango Delta, a vast wetland explored by mokoro canoe?

Botswana's great delta never reaches the sea: the river fans out into the Kalahari basin, where nearly all of its water evaporates.