39 Travel Facts From Around The Globe

If you happen to pass away in Amsterdam with no one to take care of the funeral or see you off on your last journey, members of the Lonely Funeral Project will take care of you. They will even arrange for a poet to write and read a poem at your funeral. Originating in the city of Groningen, this idea has also been adopted in several other places in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Which is pretty natural, come to think of it, given the population of penguins in this area.

Over 70 years ago, Costa Rica decided to abolish any kind of military formation, and now the country lives without an army.

If you take all the lakes on the planet and compare them to the number of lakes Canada has, the rest of the world will still have fewer lakes. The largest Canadian lake is called the Great Bear Lake and has an area of 31,153 square kilometers (12,028 square miles) and a maximum depth of 446 meters (1,463 feet).

The reason why it still stands so strong is that in the Ming dynasty, when a section of the wall was built, workers used sticky rice flour and slaked lime. This building plaster bound the bricks together so tightly, weeds have a hard time growing in between them. 

One of the most common beliefs behind throwing coins into a fountain is that you will come back to that place again. Some particular fountains are said to grant wishes for some small change. To prevent attempts to steal money from the Trevi fountain, in 2001 the mayor of Rome decided to collect the coins and give the money to a local charity.

If you needed more facts on the architectural awesomeness of Machu Picchu, the USRA says that the stones used to build it were cut and arranged in such a way that allows them to move in case of an earthquake, but also return to their original position when nature calms down. This protects the entire construction from destruction during calamities.  

If you ever find yourself in the small Italian town of Ortona, make sure you taste some wine from their free public wine fountain that is open all year round. It was mainly intended for the pilgrims of the Cammino di San Tommaso, but anyone is welcome to have a glass. The Dora Sarchese Winery that opened the fountain wouldn’t reveal the sort they serve to travelers, but so far all reviews have been positive.

In most people’s minds, pyramids equal Egypt. While this is understandable, the fact is that the largest pyramid by volume is on the opposite side of the world, namely, in Cholula de Rivadavia, Mexico. Covered in soil and vegetation, it is not as easily detectable as the desert pyramids. And even though the Great Pyramid of Cholula is only 54 m (177 ft) tall, its base is four times larger than that of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Because of this, the Mexican pyramid has a volume of 3.3 million m³ (166k ft³), while the volume of the Egyptian pyramid is only 2.4 million m³ (84k ft³).

One of the most unforgettable things you can do in the state of Victoria, Australia, is travel along the Great Ocean Road. The breathtaking views you’ll encounter throughout the trip will be worth every minute of it. The road was built by soldiers to commemorate those who lost their lives in WWI and is the largest war memorial in the world.   

This is, in fact, done for safety purposes. If one of the pilots gets food poisoning because of the food they ate before the flight, rendering them unable to fly the plane, the other pilot who had a different meal will be able to take over and reach the destination safely.

Japan is famous all over the world for its technological progress and a ton of useful inventions. Yet, in the 2000 poll conducted by the Fuji Research Institute, most Japanese citizens named instant noodles as the nation’s best invention, closely followed by karaoke in second place.

The Aleutian Islands that belong to the state of Alaska are located west of the 180th meridian, which means they are geographically in the Eastern Hemisphere. Every other US state is located in the Western Hemisphere.

The value of each rock is determined based on its size and where it came from. Other items used as official currency are turmeric, shells, and cloth. Recently, US dollars started being circulated in daily transactions, but rocks are still used for ceremonial exchanges, such as weddings.

If you ever needed any practical example of how certain materials, for example, steel, expand in the heat, the Eiffel Tower is happy to inform you that it “grows” by 15.24 centimeters (6 inches) during the summer for this very reason.

Back in 1943-1945, the Australian airline Qantas offered a service called “Double Sunrise,” where the passengers traveling from Australia to Sri Lanka would see the sunrise twice. This flight lasted over 30 hours. In the modern day, the longest commercial flight is provided by Singapore Airlines for those traveling from Singapore to New York. You will have to spend around 17 hours and 50 minutes aboard the plane.

Japanese trains have the reputation of being the most punctual in the world. However, technical issues causing delays may still occur, and for this reason, the railway authorities will issue “delay certificates” if your train was late for more than five minutes. You can show these papers to your boss or teacher to explain why you were late for work or school.

Iceland is full of natural wonders that are definitely worth a trip. An additional bonus comes in the form of an absolute lack of mosquitoes.

For comparison, that’s the entire population of Australia. When you are the second most populous country in the world, it is probably not so surprising. Besides, the railway connection is rather extensive in India. If you laid out all the tracks in one line, they would circle the world one and a half times.

If the “pineapple on pizza” argument has lost its freshness, here is another controversial food choice for you. To make it even spicier — pun intended — curry powder is often used in combination with the banana.

Imagine going through the boarding and security processes to arrive at your destination in one and a half minutes. That’s the average flight duration between the islands of Westray and Papa Westray, which are a part of Scotland’s Orkney Islands. They even have a recorded fastest flight that took less than 50 seconds.

Wherever you happen to be in Disneyland, you only need to take 30 steps or less to find a trash can. Apparently, Walt Disney observed visitors and counted how many steps they would take before throwing garbage on the ground. This resulted in the very calculated and strategic placement of trash cans in any Disney park.

Jet lag is not a pleasant experience for most of us, but scientists have confirmed that it gets worse if you travel from west to east. When you travel in this direction, your day becomes shorter. However, if you travel from east to west, your day grows longer. While in both cases your sleep/wake cycle is disrupted, it is easier for the brain to adapt to the prolongation of the day.

If you are a foodie and fine dining while traveling is important for you, you definitely should travel to France. According to Fine Dining Lovers, there are 628 Michelin-starred restaurants in the country, which is the highest number in the world. Number two and three on this list go to Japan (577 restaurants) and Italy (374 restaurants), respectively.  

While 119 is the number for fire and ambulance emergencies, and 112 is for police, you can also reach a foreign traveler hotline at 1330 and report a spy at 113.

Sure, it would have to be as densely populated as New York City, and we wouldn’t have much room to move around. But then, the rest of the world would be uninhabited and open to roam in solitude. 

At any major airport, taxi services will significantly empty your pocket. According to a study by Moneycorp, the most expensive taxi ride from an airport to a city is the one that will take you from Narita Airport to the Tokyo city area. It will cost you an average of $235.

If you want something to stay in good condition for a long time, you need to maintain it. That’s why 600 Parisians go to the Eiffel Tower every morning just like other people go to offices. This makes it one of the largest job-generating businesses in the tourism industry of France.

A study conducted in 2010 revealed that anticipating your vacation can bring you more happiness than the actual trip. If you need a boost in your mood today, start planning your next vacation!

Many countries traditionally use lunar or other calendars to calculate holidays and other important events, at the same time using the universally accepted Gregorian calendar for daily life. However, Ethiopia maintains its own calendar that is seven to eight years behind the Gregorian calendar. This happens due to differences in the perceived date of the Annunciation (proclaiming the birth of Christ). Ethiopia also starts a new year on August 29th or 30th. 

Of course, we all say the UK for convenience purposes, but the real name of the country is “the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.” No other country in the world has so many words in its recognized name.

The top 10 most used languages in the world are English, Mandarin, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian, German, Korean, Russian, and Arabic. All of them were studied to reveal the happiest among them. Turns out, Spanish takes the title of the happiest language in the world. Chances are, this is the reason why Spain is among the top 5 countries by life expectancy.  

When you have such a huge coastline, it is inevitable for beaches to spring up. To visit all of the Australian beaches at least for one day, you would need over 32 years.

With 2,300 bridges, Hamburg holds first place in the world. This is almost double as many as Amsterdam, number two on the list, which has 1,281 bridges. Interestingly, Venice, the city on water, only has 391 bridges and is number five on the list.

No permanent rivers flow through the biggest country of the Arabian Peninsula. Interestingly, it is not the only country in the world with this peculiarity. There are 17 other countries with no rivers, Vatican City being one of them.

According to CNN, China has around 6,000 surnames. For a population of over 1.4 billion, this seems pretty scarce. But things are complicated (or simplified) further, because 100 of these surnames can be found among 86% of the population. To compare, the USA has 6.3 million surnames and almost 332 million people.

Most people think that Big Ben is the name of the famous London clock, but in fact, it’s the name of the 13-ton bell located on the same tower. The clock itself is simply called the Great Clock of Westminster.

Due to its sheer size, China spans five geographical time zones. This means that if you travel in the east-west direction across China, time should change five times. Yet, it will be exactly the same in the westernmost and easternmost points of the country, that is UTC+8.

One of the most accessible and safest ways to get an adrenaline rush in daily life is by taking a roller coaster ride. While some of them make you dizzy just looking at them from the ground, Saudi Arabia decided to break all records and construct not only the tallest but also the fastest roller coaster in the world. Called Falcon’s Flight, it will have a dive of 160 meters (525 feet) and travel at over 250 kilometers per hour (155 miles per hour).