Travel Stack Exchange
Travel Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [factoids]

Random bits of information that are more interesting than useful.

Factoid.

235 questions
147
votes
5 answers

Which museums have artworks of all four Ninja Turtles' namesakes?

I was visiting the Louvre recently, where I tried to ignore the lines to Leonardo's Mona-Lisa and looked at all the other great art instead, such as Michelangelo's dying slave and the many works by Raphael on display. I somehow managed to miss or…
mlk
  • 1,161
  • 2
  • 7
  • 11
117
votes
6 answers

When I travel next, I want to reach the point on the earth that is exactly opposite my home, how can I discover where that is?

My wife and I are planning to travel to Japan next September (we are from Brazil). Since I was a child I have known that if I made a hole (a big one) straight down, I would reach Japan. Well, as the time passes every time I look at the ground, I…
Diogo
  • 2,291
  • 4
  • 20
  • 24
94
votes
9 answers

Why do people on airplanes often have tomato juice as a drink?

Tomato juice seems to be a favorite drink for many travelers to have on board an airplane. I've seen this on almost every flight I've been on, but I have never noticed this same trend at ground-level. What are the reasons for that? Is there an…
graup
  • 1,713
  • 1
  • 12
  • 17
91
votes
16 answers

What is the most remote airport from the center of the city it supposedly serves?

As an example, "Frankfurt" Hahn is actually 120 km away from the city of Frankfurt and "Paris" Beauvais is actually 85 km away from the center of Paris. Are there airports that are even further away from the center of the city they supposedly serve?…
JonathanReez
  • 82,178
  • 90
  • 394
  • 764
86
votes
8 answers

Why is the departures level always above the arrivals level?

It seems to be a pretty strong convention for airport terminals with more than one level to have the departures above, and the arrivals below. Is this specified in some international standard? Are there any exceptions? Is there any practical…
200_success
  • 2,915
  • 2
  • 24
  • 29
73
votes
12 answers

Where is the quietest place on Earth?

I just wondered if there is a known "most quiet" place on Earth. Perhaps people have measured "ambient" sound throughout the year in various places claimed to be the most quiet. And perhaps one has emerged as proven to be quieter than the other…
hippietrail
  • 80,147
  • 56
  • 281
  • 643
65
votes
7 answers

What's the longest scheduled public bus ride in the world?

I'm about to take a depressingly long bus ride in Latin America and am wondering what the longest scheduled public bus ride in the world is. By 'scheduled' I mean for there to be a regularly operating connection between the start and destination…
MastaBaba
  • 25,168
  • 2
  • 64
  • 96
61
votes
7 answers

What commercial flight route requires the most (minimum possible) stops/layovers from A to B?

For travel hacking (and interest) value, colleagues and I have been trying to work out which routes worldwide might have the highest number of required legs. That is, for a one-way flight from airport A to B, how many legs minimum are required to…
Mark Mayo
  • 160,001
  • 106
  • 687
  • 1,492
59
votes
12 answers

Is Seiryu Miharashi Station the only train station where passengers cannot enter or exit the platform?

I'm reading about the Seiryu Miharashi Station in Japan, which is a recently (2019-03-19) opened train station where passengers cannot enter or exit the platform, except via the train, as the platform's sole purpose is the view to the nearby…
Franck Dernoncourt
  • 60,186
  • 35
  • 215
  • 416
56
votes
3 answers

One foot in Belgium and the other in the Netherlands?

I come across this photo in Facebook where the borderline between Belgium and the Netherlands is drawn in the ground splitting a house in two sides one side at each country. One can literally put one foot in Belgium and the other in the Netherlands.…
Nean Der Thal
  • 1
  • 40
  • 337
  • 437
56
votes
9 answers

Longest bridge/tunnel that can be cycled over/through?

I'm cycling around Japan, and a few days ago I cycled the Shimanami Kaido, a series of bridges connecting islands between the mainland and Shikoku in the inland sea. One of the bridges there was (if I recall correctly) 6.5km long. This had a…
Bamboo
  • 1,569
  • 1
  • 14
  • 22
55
votes
3 answers

Strange looking region of France on Google Maps

I was idly browsing on google maps and came across this area on the Atlantic coast of France. The terrain looks intriguing. What is it, any idea? They look like water bodies. But the shapes are not the typical natural outlines but more like a…
curious_cat
  • 3,296
  • 2
  • 24
  • 37
53
votes
8 answers

Why is the food so bad on airplanes?

I traveled on a couple of airlines for transcontinental flights, and they always give food to economy class passengers. However, the quality of the meal often looks poor; it gives the feeling that a 5–10 dollars meal in a fast-food/snack stand would…
Vince
  • 21,035
  • 11
  • 90
  • 146
49
votes
5 answers

Why are there holes in ice cubes in airplanes?

It could be due to boredom that I notice this, but it seems that only on airplanes ice cube have holes. Why is that?
user141
48
votes
9 answers

Where in the world can you tour a live nuclear reactor?

Are there nuclear plants that allow you to tour the facility and learn more about nuclear power while the plant is running?
Kevin Burke
  • 4,061
  • 8
  • 29
  • 46
1
2 3
…
15 16