Travel
Discover facts about travel. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Travel
The hotel hidden inside a Swedish silver mine
Travelers seeking the ultimate isolated getaway can book a suite buried five hundred feet beneath the Swedish earth at the Sala Silvermine. Guests take a…
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Poland's underground cathedral carved from salt
Hidden hundreds of feet below the surface of Poland lies the Wieliczka Salt Mine, an impossibly vast labyrinth of dark tunnels. Over generations, deeply…
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You can't be born a citizen of Vatican City
You cannot be born a citizen of the smallest country in the world. Vatican City solely grants temporary citizenship based on diplomatic appointments or vital…
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An incredibly low number of humans have ever visited space
Despite constant media coverage of rockets and space stations over the last six decades, fewer than seven hundred individual human beings have ever crossed…
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The highway that runs through an office building
In Osaka, property rights clashed so heavily with infrastructure planning that developers reached a bizarre architectural compromise. The Gate Tower Building…
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Victoria Falls makes rainbows by moonlight
During the peak of the rainy season, the intense water spray generated by the massive plunge of Victoria Falls creates a deeply spectacular nighttime…
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Why hundreds of Spaniards have the surname Japón
In the small town of Coria del Río in Spain, hundreds of residents proudly carry the unusual surname Japón. They are the direct bloodline descendants of a…
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The United States has never declared an official language
Despite English being spoken by the vast majority of its citizens, the United States has never established an official national language. The founding fathers…
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Venice has divers who retrieve phones from canals
The narrow, winding waterways of Venice are incredibly beautiful, but prone to tourist accidents. A niche industry of professional scuba divers makes a…
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A northern nation cataloged hundreds of local words for snow
Linguists studying historical Scottish dialects have officially recorded over four hundred highly specific terms describing snow. Words like 'flindrikin'…
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A tabletop mountain hides plants found nowhere else
Rising dramatically from the dense jungle canopy of South America is an immense, sheer-cliffed plateau enveloped in permanent storm clouds. The summit is…
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This island's red soil is used as a spice
The Persian Gulf conceals a surreal, incredibly colorful island known as Hormuz, which boasts beaches coated in dark, sparkling ruby-red sand. The vivid…
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You can mail a coconut without a box
The United States Postal Service has a remarkably quirky regulation regarding tropical agriculture. If you visit Hawaii, you are perfectly allowed to write an…
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European province built entirely on reclaimed land
The Netherlands created an entire, sprawling modern province called Flevoland simply by holding back the ocean and draining the seabed. Over decades,…
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France still has a forbidden World War I zone
Over a century after the conclusion of World War I, large sections of northeastern France remain completely sealed off from public access. The Zone Rouge is a…
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Why Korea's deadliest border became a wildlife haven
Because the Demilitarized Zone violently separating North and South Korea is completely deadly to humans, it has paradoxically become an accidental pristine…
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Tourists stand on a boulder above a 3,000-foot drop
High in the majestic Norwegian mountains, a massive round glacial boulder named Kjeragbolten sits precariously wedged within a deep vertical mountain…
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Why Vatican City has no births
Because the smallest independent state in the world is almost entirely populated by celibate priests, nuns, and the Swiss Guard, there are absolutely no…
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The Siberian crater that can swallow helicopters
The Mir mine in eastern Siberia is a terrifyingly massive man-made crater plunging deep into the frozen earth. It is so intensely wide that the immense…
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A hotel where even the beds are made of salt
Deep within the vast Bolivian salt flats lies the Palacio de Sal, a luxury hotel crafted completely out of local salt blocks. Everything from the walls, to…
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A “space nation” claims territory in orbit
Asgardia is a bizarre 'space nation' founded by a Russian scientist, aiming to bypass Earth's legal treaties. It boasts hundreds of thousands of registered…
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Why France closed the famous Lascaux caves
Featuring some of the most breathtaking prehistoric cave paintings ever discovered, the original Lascaux caves in France have been strictly closed to the…
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An Italian village that pays remote workers to move there
Imagine waking up to the sound of the Mediterranean sea crashing against cliffs, grabbing a fresh espresso, and checking your emails—all while the local…
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The desert dunes that sing when sand moves
Deep in the Namib Desert, the massive sand dunes actually sing. When the wind blows or footsteps cascade down the slope, the friction between millions of…
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