Travel
Discover facts about travel. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Travel
The Blue Train fits a private bath into a moving hotel suite
Its accommodation includes suites that function as lounges during the day and bedrooms at night, with en-suite bathrooms and bath options. The layout has to…
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A narrow inlet helps Puerto Rico’s glowing bay keep its glow
In Mosquito Bay on Vieques, limited exchange with the sea helps maintain a dense population of light-producing dinoflagellates. Movement in the water triggers…
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Navigating bureaucratic hell in 1950s Tangier
Competing foreign authorities meant navigating multiple currencies and postal services, while the fragmented system attracted spies and smugglers. The…
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Landing luxury seaplanes on the River Nile
In the 1930s, Imperial Airways’ luxury Nile trips included landing a flying boat on the river and taking passengers ashore to sip tea while mechanics prepared…
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Painting purpose-built cruise liners green
Cunard’s RMS Caronia was painted pale green and built for wealthy passengers to cruise the world; it helped establish the modern floating-resort model.
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Surviving subsea psychology under the Channel
When the tunnel opened in 1994, designers had to account for passengers’ claustrophobia during the dark trip beneath the sea.
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Before GPS, AAA made your route by hand
An AAA agent built each TripTik by hand, marking the route, construction zones, and roadside stops in a flipbook customized for the trip.
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Los Angeles drivers once needed a giant paper atlas
The Thomas Guide was a heavy, spiral-bound atlas that used page-and-grid references to help drivers navigate Los Angeles before smartphones.
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The ancient water gauge that helped set taxes
For centuries, officials used Cairo’s Nilometer to measure the Nile’s annual flood, and its readings helped determine taxes. Too little water threatened…
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Paris's 1900 world's fair recorded about 50 million admissions
That count included repeat visits, but the crowds were enormous. The Métro opened during the exposition, and Gare d'Orsay brought trains into a new central…
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A storm stranded schoolchildren—and inspired youth hostels
In 1909, teacher Richard Schirrmann's class took shelter from a storm in a barn; seeing his students sleep on hay gave him the idea to use schools as…
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The Simplon Orient Express offered a new route through postwar Europe
Introduced in 1919, the service used the Simplon Tunnel and a southern route through Italy, avoiding Germany and Austria. It was a new service alongside the…
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How pictures helped turn Yellowstone into a park
Artist Thomas Moran and photographer William Henry Jackson joined Hayden's Yellowstone expedition in 1871. Their images gave people far from the region a way…
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The tourist timetable that helped plan World War II
Cook’s Continental Timetable gathered European train schedules into one guide. During World War II, governments used it to coordinate covert troop movements…
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A nineteen-month Indigenous occupation changed Alcatraz's story
Beginning in 1969, the occupation brought national attention to Native American rights and claims concerning federal land. The island later became part of the…
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Readers tried to predict Nellie Bly's return down to the finish
While her around-the-world reports were traveling back to New York, the World newspaper ran a contest asking how long the journey would take. PBS records more…
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The explorer who survived a factory accident and became a spy
After a childhood factory accident tore away part of her scalp, Freya Stark became a solo explorer in the male-dominated Middle East, enduring dysentery and…
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Why airlines feared in-flight phone calls
When AeroMobile introduced in-flight GSM calls in 2008, regulators and travelers worried about the disruption of people talking loudly in a confined cabin.…
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The travel guides Nazi bombers used as targets
During the 1942 Baedeker Blitz, German raids targeted British cities with notable cultural sites, reportedly using Baedeker’s three-star ratings as a guide.
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KLM once served gin in collectible miniature houses
Airline gifts were subject to value limits, so KLM served Bols genever in collectible Delft Blue miniature houses.
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She cycled around the world twice—without fixing a flat
At 54, retired headmistress Anne Mustoe set out despite not knowing how to fix a flat. She cycled around the world twice, paying local helpers to repair her…
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The Schengen Agreement was signed on a boat
In 1985, representatives from five European countries signed the foundational treaty aboard a small cruise ship on the Moselle River, away from the public eye.
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The Orient Express had more than one route into its legend
The Simplon Orient Express began in 1919 on a southern route through Switzerland and Italy, reaching Istanbul from 1920. The name therefore refers to more…
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A hotel label turned your suitcase into an advertisement
Grand hotels issued decorative luggage labels that displayed their names and destinations as guests traveled onward. A well-covered trunk could advertise both…
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