95
votes
Accepted
Why do airlines not have you put your bag underneath your own seat?
I can think of two reasons. One, sadly, you have disallowed, which is the legroom answer. But what if the answer actually is about legroom? Since I don't have enough room for my knees, I have to ...
- 124k
95
votes
Accepted
What is the most remote airport from the center of the city it supposedly serves?
I nominate Paris Vatry airport. 147 km from Paris.
Don’t even think there’s a direct link to Paris...
- 58.2k
80
votes
Accepted
What's the smallest non-capital city with a foreign consulate?
Russian Consulate General in Barentsburg, Norway. The settlement has a population of 470 people.
Even if you assume that is also serves Longyearbyen, the capital of Svalbard (not connected by any ...
- 6,752
73
votes
Strange looking region of France on Google Maps
In a curious coincidence, there was a question about this part of France just a few hours ago.
You are looking at the Noirmoutier area of France, which in the past was one of the world's premier ...
- 4,335
72
votes
Accepted
Where is the quietest place on Earth?
One journalist did attempt to research this - both the artificial labs and the natural spaces. He details it in his book - Zero Decibels if you'd like to read it.
The highlights in nature:
Several ...
- 158k
69
votes
Direct flights between cities with the same name
Alaska Airlines flies nonstop from San Jose, CA USA to San Jose del Cabo in Mexico.
- 10k
67
votes
Accepted
Where is the Asia-Europe divide and where can we cross it?
There is only one location that checks all your boxes, and no others come close: Istanbul. The west part of the city (its historical center) is considered to be in Europe, the part on the eastern side ...
- 3,366
66
votes
Why is the departures level always above the arrivals level?
Warning, guesswork ahead -- I couldn't find anything definitive.
Checked baggage is handled at ground level (i.e. that's where it comes out of the plane). Therefore it makes sense to have baggage ...
- 13.7k
64
votes
What is the most remote airport from the center of the city it supposedly serves?
The defunct Ciudad Real Airport, also marketed as "South Madrid Airport", is/was about 200 km (227km from the Puerta del Sol, the official distance) away from Madrid
- 833
61
votes
What is the cheapest regular-priced scheduled flight I can book and fly?
A return flight from Westray to Papa Westray is a mere £21, or £10.50 per leg. It also happens to be the shortest scheduled flight in the world. Prices haven't changed since at least 2013 and tickets ...
- 79.9k
60
votes
Accepted
What commercial flight route requires the most (minimum possible) stops/layovers from A to B?
As with many questions about extremes, the answer depends on the precise rules you impose.
Hops count as multiple flights: 13 flights. It's reasonable to argue that one should be very permissive ...
- 714
58
votes
Which non-stop passenger flight connects two cities with the largest temperature difference?
Bangkok to Ulaanbaatar in January: 27.0 °C – (–21.6 °C) = 48.6 °C.
Nonstop flights are operated by MIAT Mongolian Airlines, twice weekly (Wednesday and Saturday) from November to March. Timetable.
- 37.3k
57
votes
Accepted
From what point could you view the most US states?
Mt Greylock, the highest point of Massachusetts provides a view of at least 5 states.
Vermont
New Hampshire
New York
Massachusetts
Connecticut
Hiking to the top gives one a sense of real ...
- 734
54
votes
Accepted
Taming the nightmare of public toilets in the UK
There is a website that I was hitherto completely unaware of that aims to cater for this need.
Great British Public Toilet Map
For tourists with smart phones it would be useful as it geolocates the ...
- 1,023
53
votes
What's the longest scheduled public bus ride in the world?
I work at Busbud, where we're working to aggregate all the world's bus providers and routes. I had a look though our database. We're sure we don't know about everything yet, but we've found a lot of ...
- 12.3k
52
votes
What is the oldest building in the world still in use?
This question is hard to answer since you would have to define "in use" very precisely. Here are some wild guesses:
Wikipedia has a list of the oldest buildings in the world. Prominently feature ...
- 26.1k
48
votes
What is the closest airport to the center of the city it serves?
San Diego, California and SAN: about 1.5km from downtown to the airport perimeter, and just over 3 km to the main passenger terminal.
- 37.3k
47
votes
Accepted
Are there any railroads in Antarctica?
There are very few mentions of railways in Antarctica. According to this webpage by Glyn Williams, a train enthusiast, there used to be one railway in the French Dumont d'Urville station, used on a ...
- 20.8k
47
votes
Accepted
What are the closest international airports in different countries?
Aqaba Airport (AQJ) in Jordan and Ramon Airport (ETM) in Israel are 12km apart. Both have international commercial flights. When Eilat Airport (ETH) was still open and had international traffic, it ...
- 10k
44
votes
What commercial flight route requires the most (minimum possible) stops/layovers from A to B?
The United Island Hopper is probably a good candidate for that. MLL (in Alaska) to KSA (in Micronesia) will require 7 stops (at least according to Google):
- 79.1k
44
votes
What is the closest airport to the center of the city it serves?
Your best bet is Eilat, Israel.
The airstrip and the terminal is literally at the city centre.
Eilat's population as of 2017 is 50,724, so it satisfies your condition of a decent-sized city.
- 591
43
votes
Accepted
Can I see fireworks from a passenger airplane (at cruising altitude)?
Some years ago I was a part of an operating cabin crew in a flight bound to Dubai, it was the time for one of Dubai's festivals.
Anyway, I was positioned at the back and at the time we already ...
- 94.9k
42
votes
Accepted
Which museums have artworks of all four Ninja Turtles' namesakes?
It seems that the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC has works by all four artists in their permanent collections, but for Michelangelo they may only have some simple drawings. I don't know if ...
- 2,090
41
votes
Where is the quietest place on Earth?
Anaechoic Chamber at Orfield Labs
When it comes to soundproof chambers, the quietest place on earth is the Anechoic chamber, at Orfield Labs. Quoting from this article from the Atlas OBscura:
A ...
- 51.5k
41
votes
What is the longest journey made of 2-hour flights from London?
FlightConnections.com lists flight times rounded off to the nearest 5 minutes. Limiting oneself to connections listed on this website as having a flight time of 2h00m or less (as of December 2017), ...
- 18.1k
41
votes
Longest bridge/tunnel that can be cycled over/through?
The Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys is open to cyclists. The Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Trail, a nearly-complete 106 mile (171 km) cycling path from Key West to Key Largo, and part of the ...
- 61k
39
votes
Accepted
What's the longest scheduled flight one can take within the EU?
Air Berlin flight from Düsseldorf to Düsseldorf is a 12 hour sightseeing flight covering a distance of 9780 km.
- 2,600
39
votes
Accepted
Is the "dark and stormy lab" in which Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson developed Unix still in existence and preserved?
The Murray-Hill site in New Jersey is still in existence (it’s part of Nokia Bell Labs now), but I doubt the Unix lab is preserved. You can visit the Bell Labs Technology Showcase, but that’s a museum ...
- 731
39
votes
Longest bridge/tunnel that can be cycled over/through?
Not a bridge or a tunnel, but as a bonus, consider the Afsluitdijk, a 32 km artificial enclosure dam and causeway connecting the Dutch provinces Noord-Holland and Friesland, separating IJsselmeer from ...
- 52.9k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible