It’s summer, I have a knee condition that is keeping me inside the house for a few months, so I thought about creating something fun and interesting on the blog.
Have you ever wanted to test your knowledge of the world’s most extreme places – its tallest, deepest, oldest, and most fascinating records? Whether you’re a seasoned traveler, a tourist, or an armchair explorer, trivia is a fun way to travel the globe without leaving home.
This article marks the first entry in a brand-new Travel Trivia series on EarthAttractions.com. These quizzes are designed to be fun, educational, and easy to play alone or with family and/or friends. They’re packed with interesting travel facts, surprising geography, and lesser-known world records – all designed to feed your wanderlust and curiosity.
I came up with the idea for this series after seeing how often people search for world superlatives, geography quizzes, and fun travel facts.
As a fun fact (see what I did here? 🙂 ) I saw that many of the articles on this site with interesting facts about… a specific destination get a lot of traffic and social media shares.
What I did with this travel trivia around the world superlatives is that instead of a generic list, I’m providing you with 75 carefully selected questions and verified answers, ranging from natural wonders to human-made marvels. You’ll learn about the tallest buildings, most remote islands, record-breaking cities, and more.
I included many interesting facts in these travel trivia questions – facts that I found to be interesting. Some were things I knew, some were things I discovered (as mentioned, I fact-checked everything). Oh, and I have an extra fact with something from my country 😀
While these questions can be used in a travel quiz, they are also a great way to expand your (travel) knowledge 🙂
What can you do with these travel trivia questions?
These trivia questions are great for:
- Travel-themed game nights
- Pub quizzes or bar trivia
- Road trip entertainment
- Homeschooling or geography classes
- Icebreakers at travel clubs or meetups
You can copy them and print them, and use them as many times as you need.
In time, you will be able to mix them with questions from the next articles in the series!
In this first trivia set, I focused on world superlatives—places and facts that hold a global “-est” title: biggest, longest, tallest, oldest, and more.
Let’s see how many of these 75 travel trivia questions you can get right!
Travel Trivia: Around the World in 75 Superlatives
1. What is the deepest lake in the world?
Answer: Lake Baikal, Russia — 1,642 meters deep
2. What is the highest waterfall by vertical drop?
Answer: Angel Falls, Venezuela — 979 meters
3. What is the largest hot (non-polar) desert on Earth?
Answer: The Sahara Desert — about 9.2 million km²
4. What is the biggest polar desert in the world?
Answer: The Antarctic Desert — about 14 million km²
5. What is the longest continental mountain range?
Answer: The Andes — about 8,900 kilometers long
6. What is the longest river in the world (according to most sources)?
Answer: The Nile — approximately 6,650 kilometers
7. What is the largest lake by surface area?
Answer: The Caspian Sea — approximately 371,000 km² (I found several sources mentioning 389,000 km²)
8. What is the largest coral reef system?
Answer: The Great Barrier Reef, Australia — about 2,300 kilometers long
9. What is the driest place on Earth?
Answer: The Atacama Desert, Chile — some areas receive less than 1 mm of rain per year
10. What is the sunniest city in the world?
Answer: Yuma, Arizona, USA — about 4,015 hours of sunshine per year
11. Where can you find the highest tides on Earth?
Answer: Bay of Fundy, Canada — tides up to 16 meters
12. What is the highest navigable lake in the world?
Answer: Lake Titicaca, on the border of Peru and Bolivia — 3,812 meters above sea level
13. What is the longest glacier outside the polar regions?
Answer: Fedchenko Glacier, Tajikistan — 77 kilometers
14. Where is the largest underground chamber?
Answer: Sarawak Chamber, Borneo, Malaysia
15. What is the deepest canyon on land?
Answer: Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, Tibet — over 6,000 meters deep
16. Where is the widest tree canopy in the world?
Answer: The Great Banyan Tree, India (Thimmamma Marrimanu) – covers over 18,000 square meters
17. What is the waterfall with the greatest water volume?
Answer: Inga Falls, Democratic Republic of Congo
18. Where is the most lightning-prone place on Earth?
Answer: Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela (Catatumbo lightning)
19. Where was the highest wind gust ever recorded on Earth?
Answer: Barrow Island, Australia during Cyclone Olivia
20. What is the largest salt flat in the world?
Answer: Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia — over 10,000 km²
21. What is the largest river delta system?
Answer: The Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta (Sundarbans)
22. Which country has the most bird species?
Answer: Colombia — approximately 1,917 species
23. What is the world’s highest capital city by elevation?
Answer: La Paz, Bolivia — 3,650 meters above sea level
24. What is the coldest national capital on average?
Answer: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
25. What is the most remote inhabited island in the world?
Answer: Tristan da Cunha — about 2,400 kilometers from the nearest land
Culture, Cities & Records
26. What is the most visited non-capital city?
Answer: Istanbul, Türkiye
27. Which country has the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites?
Answer: Italy – 59 sites (as of 2025)
28. What is the most visited museum in the world?
Answer: The Louvre, Paris — over 8 million visitors annually
Here is the complete list of the most visited museums in the world and here are 30 European museums with free virtual tours
29. What is the busiest airport by passenger numbers?
Answer: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, USA
30. What is the shortest scheduled commercial flight?
Answer: Westray to Papa Westray, Scotland – about 2 minutes
(yes, I looked it up in multiple sources – apparently, with the wind from the right direction, it takes around 50 seconds)
31. What is the longest non-stop flight currently scheduled?
Answer: Singapore Airlines SQ23/24 — Singapore to New York, 15,349 kilometers
32. What is the oldest continuously operating hotel in the world?
Answer: Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan, Japan — since 705 AD
33. What is the oldest restaurant still open today?
Answer: St. Peter Stiftskulinarium, Salzburg, Austria — since 803 AD
(it has not been operating continuously, but it is the oldest restaurant still open)
34. What is the oldest amusement park in the world?
Answer: Dyrehavsbakken (“The Animal Park’s Hill”), usually referred to as Bakken (“The Hill”), Denmark – established in 1583
35. What is the world’s oldest national park?
Answer: Yellowstone National Park, USA
36. What is the world’s first underground metro system?
Answer: London Underground — opened in 1863
37. What is the world’s oldest existing university still in operation?
Answer: University of al-Qarawiyyin, Morocco — founded in 859 AD
38. What is the smallest country in the world?
Answer: Vatican City — 0.49 square kilometers
39. Which country has the most islands?
Answer: Sweden — over 267,000 islands
40. Which country spans the most time zones (including overseas)?
Answer: France – 12 time zones
41. Where is the highest linguistic diversity?
Answer: Papua New Guinea — over 840 languages
42. What is the widest city boulevard in the world?
Answer: Avenida 9 de Julio, Buenos Aires, Argentina
43. What is the rainiest place in the world?
Answer: Mawsynram, India — about 11,872 mm per year
44. What is the sunniest city?
Answer: Yuma, Arizona – holds this record
45. What is the northernmost national capital?
Answer: Reykjavík, Iceland
46. What is the southernmost city with over 1,000 residents?
Answer: Puerto Williams, Chile
Man-Made Marvels & Records
47. What is the tallest building in the world?
Answer: Burj Khalifa, Dubai – 828 meters
48. What is the tallest statue in the world?
Answer: Statue of Unity, India – 182 meters
49. What is the longest railway tunnel?
Answer: Gotthard Base Tunnel, Switzerland – 57.1 kilometers
50. What is the highest railway station in the world?
Answer: Tanggula Station, Tibet – 5,068 meters
51. What is the highest motorable road/pass?
Answer: Umling La, India – about 5,798 meters
52. What is the longest pedestrian suspension bridge?
Answer: Sky Bridge 721, Czech Republic – 721 meters
53. What is the longest continuous bridge over water?
Answer: Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, USA – 38.4 kilometers
54. What is the longest outdoor escalator system?
Answer: Central–Mid-Levels, Hong Kong – 800 meters
55. What is the longest zip line in the world?
Answer: Jebel Jais Flight, UAE – 2.83 kilometers
56. What is the fastest roller coaster?
Answer: Formula Rossa, Abu Dhabi – 240 km/h
57. What is the longest train route on a single line?
Answer: Trans-Siberian Railway, Russia – 9,289 kilometers
58. What is the highest public observation deck?
Answer: Shanghai Tower, China – 561 meters
As a note – or a potential separate bonus question:
What is the highest outdoor observation deck:
Answer: Burj Khalifa
59. What is the largest palace complex?
Answer: The Forbidden City, Beijing, China
60. What is the world’s longest paved airport runway?
Answer: Qamdo Bamda Airport, Tibet – 5,500 meters
61. What is the world’s largest hotel by number of rooms?
Answer: First World Hotel, in Genting Highlands, Malaysia — 7,351 rooms
62. What is the most visited theme park in the world?
Answer: Magic Kingdom, Florida, USA
63. What is the largest indoor theme park?
Answer: Chimelong Spaceship (China) in Zhuhai, China (397,064.94 m²)
64. What is the largest covered market in the world?
Answer: Grand Bazaar, Istanbul – over 4,000 shops
65. What is the tallest hotel building in the world?
Answer: Gevora Hotel, Dubai – 356,33 meters
66. What is the highest cable car station?
Answer: Dagu Glacier Gondola in Sichuan Province, China – 4,860 m
67. What is the highest commercial bungee jump platform?
Answer: Macau Tower — 233 meters
68. Where is the longest escalator in the world?
Answer: Central Hillside Escalator Link in Hong Kong, 800 m
69. What is the largest rock-hewn church in the world?
Answer: The Church of Saint George (Bete Giyorgis) in Lalibela, Ethiopia, is considered the largest monolithic church in the world.
70. What is the tallest tree ever measured?
Answer: The Nooksack Giant, a Douglas fir (felled in 1897), 142 m
71. What is the largest national park?
Answer: Northeast Greenland National Park — 972,000 km²
72. What is the largest indoor flower garden?
Answer: Dubai Miracle Garden – it has over 72,000 m² and 150 million flowers
73. What river has the largest average discharge volume?
Answer: The Amazon River, with an average discharge volume of 209,000 m³/s
74. What is the world’s tallest bridge (by structural height from base to top of structure)?
Answer: Millau Viaduct, France, 343 meters
75. What is the longest canal in the world built entirely by humans?
Answer: The Grand Canal in China links Hangzhou with Beijing – over 1,776 kilometers long
Bonus question – I had to include something famous from my country 🙂
76. What is the heaviest building in the world?
Answer: The Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania, is estimated at over 4 million tonnes
Think You Know the World? Try These 75 Travel Trivia Questions
So… how many of these did you know?
Whether you scored 10 or 70, you’ve just taken a whirlwind tour of some of the most impressive travel superlatives on the planet. From dizzying heights to record-breaking depths, these trivia questions prove just how incredible and diverse our world is.
This is just the first in a fun new Travel Trivia Series here on EarthAttractions.com.
Want more brain-boosting, wanderlust-fueling questions? Stay tuned for the next editions covering everything from airport codes to UNESCO sites!
Which of these superlatives surprised you the most? Let me know in the comments or tag me when you share your score!
Pins 1-4 created with ChatGPT, featured photo created with ChatGPT
