Travel
Discover facts about travel. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Travel
Why tourists collected Cold War border stamps
During the Cold War, border checkpoints were terrifying exercises in state power, but Western tourists somehow turned them into a bureaucratic collectible…
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How a desert route helped inspire hotel chains
Before the Suez Canal made life infinitely easier, getting to India required a grueling detour across the Egyptian desert. The 'Overland Route' involved…
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The guidebook for people who wanted to suffer through art
If you ever felt bullied by a guidebook, you’ve probably read a Blue Guide. Emerging in the 1910s as the ultimate intellectual flex, these dense blue bricks…
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The club where travelers collect countries
If you think your friend's gap year was obnoxious, meet the Travellers' Century Club, an elite support group for people who treat sovereign nations like…
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How the Suez closure created the hippie trail
Geopolitical standoffs rarely benefit backpackers, but the 1967 closure of the Suez Canal was a massive win for unwashed bohemians. With cheap passenger ships…
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The Victorian traveler who used danger as therapy
In the Victorian era, doctors usually prescribed women bed rest and laudanum, but Isabella Bird’s physician essentially told her to go away. Plagued by vague,…
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Meiji treaty ports invented the tourist quarantine trap
When Japan finally ended its isolationist policy in the 19th century, they didn't just let Westerners roam free; they corralled them into treaty ports. These…
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The Russian explorer who lived peacefully in New Guinea
While other European explorers were busy planting flags and shooting things, Russian ethnographer Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay decided the best travel strategy…
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When hotel registers became 19th-century social media
Long before social media stalkers, 19th-century travelers relied on hotel registers to aggressively track their friends and enemies. These giant leather…
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The haunted mansion overlooking Colombia’s Tequendama Falls
Perched precariously on a cliff edge overlooking Colombia's Tequendama Falls, this stunning 1920s mansion hosted the elite before the river became an open…
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The ski resort that lost its glacier
Bolivia's Chacaltaya was once the highest ski resort in the world, boasting a rope tow powered by an old car engine. Then climate change stepped in, and by…
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The rescue that turned a glacier into an airstrip
In the winter of 1946, a US military transport plane crash-landed on Switzerland's Gauli Glacier. To rescue the survivors, the Swiss military executed…
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Turkmenistan built a falcon-shaped airport terminal
Sinking $2.3 billion into an airport terminal shaped like a swooping falcon is exactly the kind of unhinged flex you'd expect from Turkmenistan's bizarre…
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Why diving is banned near this shipwreck
Sunk by a Soviet submarine in 1945, the MV Wilhelm Gustloff took over 9,000 lives with it, making the Titanic look like a minor boating mishap. Instead of…
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Somaliland runs like a country—without recognition
Crossing the Berbera-Wajale corridor means navigating the economic lifeline of Somaliland, a functioning republic with its own currency, elections, and…
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Tallinn's Olympic monument is crumbling into the sea
Built for the 1980 Moscow Olympics sailing events, this hulking concrete monstrosity in Estonia was originally named the V. I. Lenin Palace of Culture and…
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Chilean saltpeter ghost towns are rusted monuments
Nestled in the brutally arid Atacama Desert, Humberstone and Santa Laura were bustling hubs for mining saltpeter—basically bird poop used for explosives and…
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The abandoned resort frozen in the 1970s
Once the French Riviera of Cyprus where Elizabeth Taylor sunbathed, Varosha was abruptly cordoned off by the Turkish military in 1974. For decades, it sat…
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The dangerous walkway rebuilt over Spain’s gorge
Pinned to the sheer walls of a Spanish gorge, the Caminito del Rey was originally built for hydroelectric workers but became a deadly pilgrimage for…
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The golden dome where visitors must not speak
Getting into the giant golden geodesic sphere at the center of Auroville, India, requires a logistical effort rivaling a pentagon security clearance. Visitors…
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Yongma Land lets you pay to explore its ruins
Usually, when a theme park goes bankrupt, it gets demolished or fenced off to keep teenagers out. The owner of Seoul's Yongma Land, however, took the genius…
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Biosphere 2 used giant lungs to regulate air pressure
To stop the giant glass terrarium from popping like a cheap balloon when the desert sun hit it, engineers built two massive geodesic 'lungs.' Visitors can now…
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The railway that survived sabotage but not war
Originally built by the Ottomans to transport pilgrims to Mecca (before Lawrence of Arabia spent World War I repeatedly blowing it up), the surviving northern…
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Japan digs through 60 feet of snow each spring
Mother Nature tries to bury this route under a towering avalanche of ice every winter, and every spring, stubborn engineers dig it out just for the photo ops.…
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