Travel
Discover facts about travel. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Travel
The tree that bleeds on a Yemeni island
When cut, Dragon’s Blood Trees ooze crimson sap. About a third of Socotra’s plant life is found nowhere else on Earth.
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Pumping water out can pull Jakarta's ground down
Water pressure helps support layers of sediment underground. Heavy extraction lowers that pressure, allowing them to compact. Measurements have found…
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Kolyma’s “Road of Bones” carries a history of forced labor
Gulag prisoners built the route through Russia’s far northeast under brutal conditions. Its name became associated with the workers who died during…
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Why runway numbers keep changing
Runway numbers give the magnetic heading rounded to the nearest ten degrees, so runway 27 points to 270 degrees. Because Earth's magnetic poles shift,…
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Why Vatican City has a heliport instead of an airport
At just 109 acres, the city-state has little room for a runway without sacrificing historic architecture, so the Pope travels by heliport instead. It serves…
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Why some pilots detour to give passengers an aurora view
To give passengers on both sides a view, pilots flying over places such as Iceland or northern Canada sometimes make a slow turn when the Northern Lights…
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Why takeoff and landing are the riskiest parts of a flight
Aviation experts call it the “Plus Three, Minus Eight” rule: about 80% of crashes occur in the first three minutes after takeoff or the final eight minutes…
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The Taj Mahal's white marble borrows its color from the sky
Low morning light can give the stone a pinkish cast, while changing daylight alters its brightness and tone. The building stays the same, but the light…
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Machu Picchu was built with drainage in mind
About 60% of the construction effort went into subsurface drainage to keep heavy rain from washing the terraces down the mountain.
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Shibuya gives pedestrians the entire intersection
During the crossing phase, traffic stops in every direction, so people can walk diagonally as well as straight across. At busy times, enormous crowds share…
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GPS satellites do not have to pass directly overhead to locate you
A receiver compares signals from several satellites visible across the sky. Their arrangement affects positioning accuracy, including at high latitudes, but…
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Sleeping during takeoff leaves your ears vulnerable
Swallowing helps equalize pressure in your ears as cabin pressure changes. If you’re asleep, you may swallow less often, making ear pressure or pain more…
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Alaska's giant dunes can reach 100°F
Kobuk Valley National Park contains about 25 square miles of dunes, with summer temperatures on the sand reaching 100°F. Glaciers helped create the landscape…
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Your rental car may remember your phone
A Bluetooth sync can leave contacts, call logs, texts, and GPS history in the car’s memory after you return it.
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A canceled passport can still stay with its owner
Authorities can physically invalidate a passport with holes or cut corners, leaving it recognizable as a document that must not be used for travel. The book…
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British train tickets frequently cost more than flying
A two-hour train ride from London to Manchester can cost three times as much as a budget flight from London to Spain, a contrast attributed to privatized…
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Why Antarctica has firefighters
Despite its ice cover, Antarctica is extremely dry, so fires at research stations can spread rapidly. Firefighters and fire trucks help manage that risk.
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Why airport scales may get your bag’s weight wrong
A poorly calibrated departure scale can skew high, making a bag seem heavier than it is. That could matter when a suitcase is close to the weight limit.
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Navigating bizarre bathroom fixtures
In some places, even flushing means figuring out an unfamiliar wall lever instead of reaching for a handle beside the bowl.
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Renting temporary beds in strange rooms
A hotel stay can mean paying a premium to sleep in an unfamiliar bed, live out of a suitcase, and pocket tiny complimentary toiletries.
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An albatross harvests energy from differences in the wind
By repeatedly crossing layers of air moving at different speeds, the bird can gain energy for long-distance flight with little flapping. This is dynamic…
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A Japanese hotel put dinosaurs at the front desk
Guests at Japan's Henn-na Hotel were greeted by animatronic velociraptors wearing tiny bellhop hats.
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Beijing published a guide to stop menus sounding like horror stories
Ahead of the 2008 Olympics, officials helped standardize English dish names for foreign visitors. Literal translations could make ordinary food sound alarming…
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Portland has a park smaller than a parking space
Mill Ends Park is a tiny planted circle about two feet across. Columnist Dick Fagan built stories about leprechauns around the spot, and it became an official…
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