21 terrific travel facts

It’s time to lighten the mood and boost that trivia knowledge! We’ve scoured the internet for fascinating worldly facts so here they are: 21 terrific travel facts to amaze your friends and family:

1. Believe it or not, France has the most time zones.

2. The oldest tree on earth is a 9,500 year old Norwegian spruce in Sweden.

3. The entire world’s population – more than 7.5 billion of us – could fit into Los Angeles.

4. Sweden has more islands than any other country – 220,000 in total.

5. There is enough fuel in a Boeing 747 to fuel a car around the world four times.

6. During peak airline travel, there can be as many as 16,000 planes in the air at once.

7. About one in 200 of us is a direct descendant of Genghis Khan.

8. Russia is bigger than Pluto.

9. Over 820 languages are spoken in Papua New Guinea.

10. Rather unnervingly, between 1948 and 2014, 85 aircraft have disappeared without a trace.

11. All the ants on earth weigh about the same as all the humans.

12. Despite covering an area over five time zones, the whole of China remains on Beijing time.

13. Continents shift at about the same rate at which your fingernails grow.

14. The shortest passenger flight takes place between Scotland’s Orkney Islands – the 1.7 mile flight lasts just 47 seconds!

15. Nearly half of the world’s population tuned in to watch the FIFA World Cup finals in 2010 and 2014.

16. Monaco is smaller than New York’s Central Park.

17. More than 30 million people in China live in underground caves.

18. The Louvre museum in Paris is the world’s most visited museum, with 9 million guests annually.

19. South Sudan is the youngest country in the world.

20. Rice was used in the construction of the Great Wall of China.

21. Mexico City is sinking by up to 15 inches a year in some places.