US Travel Trivia
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8correct to beat the crowd
This US travel trivia quiz has 69 free questions with answers for anyone who loves seeing America: road-trippers, frequent flyers, national park collectors and people planning their first big trip. It covers how the country is actually travelled: the world's busiest airport, the longest Amtrak route, the longest Interstate and the longest road, where Route 66 really ended, which theme park draws the most people on Earth, and why the Las Vegas Strip is not technically in Las Vegas. The easy questions ask which island Waikiki is on and who gave America the Statue of Liberty. The harder ones get into the details travellers argue about at rest stops: what ORD stands for, which tribe owns the Grand Canyon Skywalk, how many time zones the US really has, which state capital you cannot drive to, and the one Smithsonian museum that charges admission. Along the way you will pass Wall Drug, Cadillac Ranch, the Corn Palace and the world's largest ball of twine. Every answer has been checked against a reference page and each question shows its source once you answer, so it works for a road-trip car game, a travel-club quiz night or settling a bet about the deepest lake in the country.
30 of 69 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which US airport became the world's busiest by passenger numbers in 1998?
Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson
Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, Delta's main hub, took the top spot from Chicago O'Hare in 1998 and became the first airport to pass 100 million passengers in 2015.
Q 02Which national park, with about 12 million visitors in 2024, is America's most visited?
Great Smoky Mountains
Great Smoky Mountains National Park straddles Tennessee and North Carolina, charges no entrance fee, and drew 12.2 million visitors in 2024, more than twice Grand Canyon's total.
Q 03Which 1872 park was the first US national park and widely considered the first in the world?
Yellowstone
Yellowstone was established on 1 March 1872, mainly in northwest Wyoming with slivers in Montana and Idaho, and is home to the Old Faithful geyser.
Q 04Amtrak's Texas Eagle joins which train at San Antonio to form America's longest passenger rail route?
Sunset Limited
The Sunset Limited carries the Texas Eagle's through cars from San Antonio to Los Angeles, making the Chicago–Los Angeles run 2,728 miles, Amtrak's longest.
Q 05In what year was Amtrak founded to take over most US intercity passenger rail?
1971
Amtrak began operating on 1 May 1971 under the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970, taking over most intercity passenger trains from the private railroads.
Q 06Interstate 90, the longest Interstate at just under 3,100 miles, runs from Boston to which West Coast city?
Seattle
I-90 ends in Seattle, Washington, where its final segment opened in 1993; the Boston end was extended to Logan Airport in 2003 as part of the Big Dig.
Q 07Historic Route 66 ran 2,448 miles from Chicago to which California city?
Santa Monica
Route 66, established in 1926, ran from Chicago to Santa Monica, California, crossing eight states, and was nicknamed the Main Street of America.
Q 08In which year was Route 66 officially removed from the US Highway System?
1985
Route 66 was removed from the US Highway System on 27 June 1985, after Interstate 40 bypassed its final stretch in Arizona the year before.
Q 09Which Florida park was the world's most visited theme park in 2024?
Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom, the original Walt Disney World park near Orlando, drew about 17.8 million visitors in 2024, the most of any theme park worldwide.
Q 10Most of the Las Vegas Strip lies in which unincorporated town, not the city itself?
Paradise
The roughly 4.2-mile stretch lies just south of the city limits, in Paradise and Winchester.
Q 11Which Michigan island resort bans nearly all motor vehicles?
Mackinac
Mackinac Island has banned motor vehicles since 1898, allowing only emergency and city service vehicles and winter snowmobiles; horse carriages and bicycles serve the Victorian Grand Hotel.
Q 12Which 469-mile scenic road has been the most visited National Park System unit almost every year since 1946?
Blue Ridge Parkway
The Blue Ridge Parkway, America's longest linear park at 469 miles, runs from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to Cherokee, North Carolina, with no entrance fee.
Q 13Key West, the southernmost city in the contiguous US, lies roughly 95 miles north of which country?
Cuba
Q 21Which 52-foot freestanding natural span near Moab, Utah, appears on the state's license plates?
Delicate Arch
Delicate Arch, a 52-foot sandstone span, is the best-known landmark of Arches National Park and also appeared on the 1996 Utah statehood centennial postage stamp.
Q 22At 1,949 feet deep, what is the deepest body of water in the United States, found in southern Oregon?
Crater Lake
Crater Lake partly fills the caldera left when Mount Mazama collapsed about 7,700 years ago, and the lake appears on Oregon's 2005 state quarter.
Q 23What air temperature did Death Valley's Furnace Creek record on 10 July 1913?
134 °F
Furnace Creek recorded 134 °F (56.7 °C) on 10 July 1913, a reading the World Meteorological Organization accepted as the highest air temperature ever measured on Earth.
Key West's Southernmost Point marker claims '90 miles to Cuba'; the actual distance to the Cuban coast is about 94 miles, closer than Miami is.
Q 14The Mall of America, the largest mall in the US, is in which Minnesota city?
Bloomington
The Mall of America opened in Bloomington, a suburb south of Minneapolis, in August 1992 on the site of Metropolitan Stadium, the Twins' and Vikings' former home.
Q 15Which Finnish-American architect designed the 630-foot Gateway Arch in St. Louis?
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen won the 1947–48 design competition for the Gateway Arch; the 630-foot stainless-steel monument was completed in October 1965, four years after his death.
Q 16Wall Drug in South Dakota built its 1930s fame by advertising what to travellers?
Free ice water
Ted Hustead's wife Dorothy suggested offering free ice water to hot travellers in 1936, and the roadside signs that followed turned Wall Drug into a famous stop.
Q 17Cadillac Ranch, ten Cadillacs buried nose-first, is near which Texas city?
Amarillo
The Ant Farm collective installed Cadillac Ranch west of Amarillo in 1974 for patron Stanley Marsh 3; the cars are said to match the angle of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Q 18US Route 20, America's longest road, runs from Boston to which Oregon coastal town?
Newport
US Route 20 ends at US 101 in Newport, Oregon, about 3,365 miles from Boston's Kenmore Square, which makes it the longest US highway.
Q 19What did Chicago O'Hare's airport code ORD originally stand for?
Orchard Field
The airfield was renamed Orchard Field in the mid-1940s and given the code before it was renamed again in 1949 for aviator Edward 'Butch' O'Hare.
Q 20The Space Needle was built for a World's Fair held in which year?
1962
The Space Needle opened in April 1962 for the Century 21 Exposition; at 605 feet it was then the tallest structure west of the Mississippi River.
Q 24Which Florida city, founded by Spain in 1565, is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the lower 48?
St. Augustine
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Spain's first governor of Florida, founded St. Augustine on 8 September 1565, naming it for the saint whose feast fell on the day he sighted land.
Q 25Mammoth Cave, the longest known cave system in the world with over 426 miles surveyed, is in which state?
Kentucky
Mammoth Cave lies in south-central Kentucky near Bowling Green; its mapped passages are more than 1.5 times the length of the runner-up, Mexico's underwater Sistema Sac Actun.
Q 26Going-to-the-Sun Road is the only road crossing which national park?
Glacier
Going-to-the-Sun Road crosses Glacier National Park from West Glacier to St. Mary, about 50 miles, cresting the Continental Divide at 6,646-foot Logan Pass.
Q 27Which US port was the busiest cruise passenger port in the world in 2024?
PortMiami
PortMiami, the self-styled Cruise Capital of the World, handled about 8 million cruise passengers in fiscal 2024 and launched Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas in January 2024.
Q 28How many historic sites does Boston's 2.5-mile Freedom Trail pass?
16
The Freedom Trail's 16 sites run from Boston Common to the Bunker Hill Monument, marked by a red line of brick or paint; most are free to visit.
Q 29The glass Grand Canyon Skywalk at Grand Canyon West is owned by which Native American tribe?
Hualapai
The Hualapai Tribe owns the Skywalk on its reservation at Grand Canyon West; the horseshoe-shaped glass cantilever opened to the public in March 2007.
Q 30Which state capital has no roads to the rest of its state, so visitors come by air or ferry?
Juneau
The city sits beneath the vast Juneau Icefield, and its rugged terrain is why no highway was ever built.