Travel
Discover facts about travel. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Travel
Alappuzha kettuvallams navigate overgrown canals
Steering a massive, thatched-roof barge through southern India’s tight waterways requires the precision of a surgeon and the patience of a saint. The…
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The Antarctic bar where visitors trade souvenirs for shots
Braving the chaotic Drake Passage earns you more than just frostbite; it buys you a drink at the literal end of the Earth. Ukraine's Vernadsky Research Base…
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Mauritania's Chinguetti relies on hidden wells
Surviving the Sahara isn't about having a good compass—it's about knowing exactly which sand dunes hide ancient groundwater. Historically, camel caravans…
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Russia's “City of the Dead” is a real village
What looks like a charming pastoral village nestled in the harsh Caucasus Mountains is actually a dense, medieval network of open crypts. Russia's Dargavs,…
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The tiny republic where visitors must smile
Most border crossings involve stern officers and aggressive baggage checks, but Vilnius’s bohemian breakaway republic operates with entirely different…
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Why Swiss buses play the William Tell Overture
Delivering the mail in Switzerland doubles as a white-knuckle alpine rollercoaster. The bright yellow Swiss PostBuses expertly navigate impossibly tight,…
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A ghost town being swallowed by Namibian sand
Capturing the perfect aesthetic of decay requires driving deep into the diamond-rich dunes of Namibia. The abandoned mining outpost of Kolmanskop was once so…
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The festival with no fixed date or location
Try booking a flight to a festival that doesn't actually have a fixed date or location. The Wodaabe nomads of Niger host the Gerewol, an intense, week-long…
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A trail of dumplings tells Richmond's migration story
You don't need a flight to Asia to trace the complex geopolitical history of Chinese migration; you just need an empty stomach in British Columbia. The…
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Montreal has a city beneath its streets
Surviving a Canadian winter requires either superhuman thermal regulation or completely abandoning the surface world. Montreal opted for the latter by…
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The river cruise that crosses 10 countries
Sharing close quarters on a luxury riverboat gets substantially more complex when your floating buffet violates a new sovereign airspace every few days.…
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Munich Hauptbahnhof napcabs lock out station noise
Finding peace in a chaotic German transit hub requires entombing yourself inside a futuristic, soundproof box that looks suspiciously like a vending machine…
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Aogashima ferry cancels half of its weekly voyages
Getting to this remote Japanese volcanic crater requires dealing with a maritime schedule that acts more like a suggestion. Because the island lacks a proper…
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The pilgrimage through deadly Himalayan monsoons
Trekking to a freezing cave to worship a sacred ice stalagmite sounds brutal enough without factoring in the sky actively trying to drown you. During the…
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Tuvalu outer islands rely on a single erratic ferry
Planning a strict itinerary in the Pacific's least-visited nation is your first catastrophic mistake. Getting between the coral atolls of this sinking…
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Devil's Island fed sharks to deter escapes
Tropical paradise meets brutal penal history off the coast of South America. Before it was reclaimed by overgrown palm trees, this French Guiana nightmare…
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These ancient rice terraces need daily repairs
Sleeping in a two-millennium-old agricultural wonder means waking up to structural engineering anxiety. These Philippine rice terraces aren't carved from…
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The ancient sheep trails still crossing Abruzzo
Why hike a standard mountain path when you can retrace a two-millennium-old livestock superhighway? The tratturi are massive, grassy migration trails carved…
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The city built on a West African lagoon
Escaping capture centuries ago meant building an entire metropolis straight into a West African lagoon. To avoid the Fon warriors who couldn't legally fight…
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In this Spanish town, boulders are house roofs
Why bother building a roof when a million-ton geological sword of Damocles will do the trick? The residents of Setenil de las Bodegas decided to carve their…
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Cu Chi tunnels were widened for tourists
History is written by the victors, but its infrastructure is widened for the carb-loaded Western backpacker. The famous Cu Chi tunnels were originally built…
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Cyclists helped save Tuscany’s gravel roads
Why drive on smooth asphalt when you can choke on historic dust? The famous white gravel roads of Tuscany's Strade Bianche only exist today because cycling…
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A Swedish fortress became home to Finnish residents
Most people's daily commute doesn't involve dodging 18th-century cannons, but the residents of Suomenlinna aren't most people. Originally built by the Swedish…
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The resort that became a toxic wasteland
Who doesn't love a beach vacation that smells of rotting fish and agricultural runoff? The Salton Sea was born from a catastrophic 1905 Colorado River…
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