Travel
Discover facts about travel. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Travel
Sliding down Nicaragua’s active Cerro Negro volcano on a reinforced wooden plank at fifty miles per hour requires protective jump suits to prevent the unforgiving black volcanic…
Nothing screams vacation quite like willingly hurling yourself down a 2,388-foot active cinder cone. Cerro Negro in Nicaragua is the epicenter of volcano…
Discover moreGorging on traditional choucroute garnie in the historically contested border city of Strasbourg perfectly highlights the violent centuries of geopolitical tug-of-war between…
Nothing says 'we've been conquered multiple times' quite like the menu in Alsace. Strasbourg sits right on the Rhine River, acting as the ultimate historical…
Discover moreAttending Mongolia’s brutal Naadam Festival allows you to witness the intensely competitive three manly games where horseback riding child jockeys and massive unarmored wrestlers…
Forget your sanitized local county fairs; Naadam is a spectacular display of raw survival skills dressed up as a national holiday. Originating from ancient…
Discover moreGliding silently through the shallow reeds of Botswana’s Okavango Delta in a hollowed-out wooden mokoro canoe places you terrifyingly close to aggressive territorial…
While the motorized jeep safari offers a comfortable steel cage, the mokoro experience strips away all of your biological advantages. The Okavango is an…
Discover moreNavigating the incredibly congested canals of Thailand’s Damnoen Saduak floating market means dodging aggressive wooden longtail boats piloted by elderly women expertly frying…
It is a logistical nightmare of river traffic masquerading as a culinary paradise. While it has undoubtedly become a massive tourist trap, the sheer mechanics…
Discover morePenetrating the submerged wreckage of the SS Thistlegorm in the Egyptian Red Sea brings scuba divers face to face with perfectly preserved World War II motorcycles and untouched…
The ocean is the world’s most effective, and terrifying, museum curator. The SS Thistlegorm was a British armed merchant ship loaded with a massive arsenal of…
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Driving a battered land cruiser across the blindingly white crust of Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni during the wet season magically transforms the prehistoric dried lakebed into the…
It is the only road trip on Earth where you can actively lose your spatial awareness and forget which way is up. Stretching over 4,000 square miles, the Salar…
Discover moreSleeping suspended ninety feet above the jungle floor in Costa Rica’s Finca Bellavista treehouse community requires traversing a terrifying network of swaying suspension bridges…
The romantic fantasy of living like a high-end Ewok quickly fades when you realize you have to zipline to your bedroom in the dark. Finca Bellavista is an…
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Vredefort Crater represents the oldest and largest known meteorite impact site on planet Earth
Two billion years ago, an asteroid the size of a mountain slammed into South Africa, permanently rearranging the planet's crust. Most tourists drive right…
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How Svalbard gets supplies through polar darkness
Amazon Prime doesn't deliver to the High Arctic. When the Longyearbyen settlement descends into the months-long polar night, brutal icebreaking cargo ships…
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When Munnar’s tea hills turn emerald in the monsoon
Nobody in their right mind seeks out tropical monsoons, unless they are heading to the high-altitude plantations of Munnar. When the deluge hits, the rolling…
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The village that quarantined itself during the plague
Three centuries before global lockdowns became a trend, the tiny village of Eyam set the gold standard for self-sacrifice. When the bubonic plague arrived in…
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The market where a border vanishes twice a week
Twice a week, international borders dissolve into absolute pandemonium. The frontier between the Dominican Republic and Haiti practically vanishes as…
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This Arctic town enforces total radio silence
Welcome to the northernmost public settlement on Earth, where your smartphone is legally considered a hazardous weapon. Located in Svalbard, this former coal…
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Why a Michelin-starred restaurant moved to Greenland
Imagine running a two-star Michelin restaurant and deciding the remote Faroe Islands were simply too mainstream. KOKS famously uprooted its entire hyper-local…
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Why Bulgarian festivals feature terrifying masked dancers
Most winter festivals involve hot cocoa and ice skating, but Bulgaria prefers to ward off the cold with sheer terror. During Surva, thousands of locals dress…
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The 1,500-mile journey behind Basho's haiku
Taking a stroll to clear your head hits a bit differently when it spans 1,500 miles on foot. In 1689, legendary poet Matsuo Basho sold his house, packed…
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Why British steam trains were abandoned in Bolivia
Forget polished museum pieces guarded by velvet ropes. High up in the desolate Andean plateau, Bolivia boasts an apocalyptic playground of imported…
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The Welsh canal where boats float 126 feet up
If you are afraid of heights, absolutely do not get on a boat in Wales. The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is a frankly terrifying piece of 19th-century engineering…
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Locals cross a frozen Himalayan river on foot
Calling the Chadar Trek a leisurely walk is an absolute insult to basic human survival instincts. Deep in the Indian Himalayas, the Zanskar River freezes over…
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The UNESCO site where pilgrims can still bathe
Earning a UNESCO World Heritage title usually means you cannot even touch the artifact, let alone strip naked and soak in it. Tsuboyu is the glaring…
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Registan Square went from Silk Road hub to tourist stop
The epicenter of global commerce in the 15th century has successfully transitioned into slinging overpriced ceramics to backpackers. Covered in…
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At this retreat, silence lasts ten days
Paying good money to absolutely shut your mouth for over a week sounds like a punishment, but it is wildly popular in India. At the Vipassana international…
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France's canal went from hauling wheat to floating tourists
What started as a genius 17th-century engineering feat to avoid Atlantic pirates is now Europe's premier destination for moving at a blistering three miles…
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