Questions tagged [travel]

Questions related to the movement of people between two or more distant geographical locations, whether over land, by water or by air, using various means of transportation, and can be for business, pleasure, or other purposes.

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When in 1980s did travel to and from USSR became possible?

Soviet borders were closed for traveling from USSR for most Soviet people until late 1980s. I don't recall, however, the year/month when the borders opened. After 1986 and before 1991, but that's all ...
Michael's user avatar
  • 4,660
0 votes
0 answers
79 views

Travel between London and Lisbon in the 1350s: Philippa of Lancaster and King João I of Portugal context

Given the historical union between Philippa of Lancaster and King João I of Portugal in the late 14th century, there would have been significant communication and travel between England and Portugal. ...
perrier's user avatar
  • 11
10 votes
2 answers
1k views

How long did it take approximately for a person to travel from Basel to Hanover (1753) by any means of transport?

I am writing a short story on someone's journey from Basel to Hanover and was wondering if it was a reasonable amount of time to do so, if not I would love some other now day German city that would be ...
Lala's user avatar
  • 101
3 votes
1 answer
200 views

How long would it take to travel from Missouri to South Africa in late 1890s?

I'm writing a novel set in U.S.A., Missouri, in 1895-1896. To be realistic, how long would it take at that time to travel from Missouri to South Africa (former Republic of Transvaal), in direct trip ...
Jack Coleman's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
75 views

Why did Christopher Columbus underestimated that much when planning his trip to India? [duplicate]

On the one hand, Europeans knew about the roundness and size of our planet since Eratosthenes (third century BCE). The measurement was extraordinarily precise (~1% error). On the other hand, the ...
WoJ's user avatar
  • 737
2 votes
1 answer
212 views

What was life like in Korbach, Hesse, Germany during the 1700s?

I have been trying to learn about Korbach, Hesse relative to my family history. I have an ancestor who was born there around 1728. He married in Efferen (close to Cologne) in 1765 as a Catholic and ...
jls's user avatar
  • 31
2 votes
3 answers
202 views

How would a musician travel from Venice to Dresden around 1700?

I'm writing a historical fiction TV pilot and I need some help from the history buffs here. One of my characters, a young, aspiring, musician needs to travel from Venice to Dresden, Germany. I suspect ...
Riddle Leaf Films's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
248 views

What was the travel time from Zagreb to Pittsburgh in 1895?

Circa 1900, my ancestors made the trip from Zagreb, Croatia to Pittsburgh, USA several times. There were also seasonal workers who made the trip more than that. For the boat leg, Bremen, Germany to ...
Mattman944's user avatar
27 votes
2 answers
5k views

What was a plausible timetable for a train journey across Europe in 1870?

I'm writing historical fiction set in 1870 (June, some weeks before the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war) in which some of the protagonists are traveling by train across Europe, from Calais to ...
rwallace's user avatar
  • 2,605
0 votes
1 answer
447 views

How fast and how far could one travel, by means of horse relay posts, in ancient China in 1500CE?

I'm trying to find out how people used to travel by horse, when they had to go to a very distant territory. I have done research on horseback riding, horses and relay stations. I found out that the ...
Lendellz's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
822 views

What route would 1st century BCE travellers have taken from Alexandria to Jerusalem?

The Babylonian Talmud recounts a story in which a sage, Yehoshua ben Perachaiah, and one of his students travel from Alexandria, Egypt to Jerusalem (Sotah 47a, Sanhedrin 107b). The story takes place ...
Harel13's user avatar
  • 537
9 votes
4 answers
3k views

Were there any well-established land trade routes in the US colonies around 1700? What did they look like?

I'm considering running a ttrpg campaign set in the US colonies in the early 1700s. The campaign is going to begin around the Salem witch trials and go from there. The players will need to travel ...
Steven's user avatar
  • 199
2 votes
0 answers
73 views

Are there any records of the travel times of 17th century Dutch Beurtvaart?

Are there any records of how long an average a trip on Dutch inland waterways took. [Beurtvaart] was a Dutch line shipping system for (mostly) inland navigation, that existed from the late 15th ...
Bob516's user avatar
  • 249
-1 votes
4 answers
395 views

Why did the steam locomotive take so long? [closed]

The steam engine was invented around the start of the 1700s (don’t quote me on that), but the locomotive was invented around a century later. Why is this? Did no one have the idea? Was the technology ...
Bill's user avatar
  • 43
3 votes
0 answers
167 views

Did travelers need a pass to travel in Greco-Roman Egypt, particularly in and out of Alexandria?

I am writing a story in which people travel by boat in Greco-Roman Egypt (27 bce), and am wondering if there were internal controls on travel, or if people were pretty much free to come and go as they ...
Julie's user avatar
  • 39
1 vote
1 answer
151 views

When did countries first allow travellers to import duty free alcohol and tobacco

When did duty-free allowances start? In which country and why? I am specifically asking about travellers being able to bring in alcohol and tobacco without paying duty or tax. To be clear, I am ...
Robin Salih's user avatar
30 votes
2 answers
5k views

Was there a tax in the fifties for British citizens traveling abroad?

I have found a dialog in Roberto Rossellini's 1954 film Journey to Italy where the character played by George Sanders says it's expensive to stay abroad too much. That would seem natural, only the ...
cipricus's user avatar
  • 2,264
3 votes
1 answer
258 views

How would emigrants travel the railway lines going from Grajewo to Bremerhaven in 1911 and from Grajewo to Rotterdam in 1917?

Grajewo was near the Prussian border. It also had a railway station but I don't know its route. As I understand it: There were several lines that can be used traveling from Bialystok to Bremerhaven ...
Esther Brill's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
117 views

What was the best way to travel across Anatolia in 1914?

What was the best way to travel across Anatolia in 1914? Specifically, I'm writing a story in which a character needs to travel from Constantinople to Van (a city which would later see protracted ...
rwallace's user avatar
  • 2,605
34 votes
2 answers
4k views

How long was a sea journey from England to East Africa 1868-1877?

I'm trying to find out how long the sea journey took from England to East Africa in the period 1868-1877. One source I've found suggests something like 3 months earlier in the 1860s. It mentions a ...
Paul Frecker's user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
990 views

Why did Pausanias travel to Greece?

Pausanias wrote his Description of Greece in the first century AD, which remains a priceless resource for classicists and archaeologists to this day. I've made a quick perusal of the text itself, as ...
Tom Hosker's user avatar
  • 2,083
4 votes
3 answers
160 views

What was Sir John Mandeville's source regarding Beersheba and its chronology?

After men have crossed this desert on the way to Jerusalem, they come to a city which is called Bersabee [Beersheba] which was once a fine city in habited by Christian men, and still there are some of ...
Alex's user avatar
  • 225
15 votes
2 answers
476 views

What is the first recorded instance of jet lag?

Until recently, people didn’t often travel very far, and when they did, they traveled slowly, taking days to cross multiple time zones. The phrase “jet lag” obviously arose from the age of fast air ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 668
3 votes
0 answers
238 views

Was "Via Regia" the original name of the "Via Nova Traiana"?

This is a quote from Wikipedia: The Via Traiana Nova or Via Nova Traiana (Latin for 'Trajan's New Road'), previously known as the Via Regia or King's Highway, was an ancient Roman road built by ...
Bach's user avatar
  • 482
3 votes
1 answer
358 views

Why did wagons in the frontier era travel at night?

I'm currently reading 'The diamond diggings of South Africa' by Charles Payton, a first-hand account of a visit to the diamond mines in 1871. On page 80 it says For the first fortnight from leaving ...
rwallace's user avatar
  • 2,605
4 votes
0 answers
4k views

Do the edges of the CK3 map reflect real discontinuities in the medieval world?

Crusader Kings III was released a week or so ago, mostly to critical acclaim. I, too, have played the new release, and enjoyed it thoroughly. However, the while the new map is significantly better ...
Tom Hosker's user avatar
  • 2,083
9 votes
0 answers
157 views

What is the earliest supported example of an African traveling to Southeast/East Asia?

There are quite a few famous cases of Africans who traveled to Asia (voluntarily or involuntarily) prior to 1700s such as Malik Ambar (India), Yasuke (Japan), and Ibn_Battuta (India, Sri Lanka, China, ...
Christian Bueno's user avatar
22 votes
3 answers
5k views

How did bank transactions (or "data" transactions) work when it took people weeks to travel vast distances?

I am designing a prototype for a distributed database that could work across vast distances of space, like the goals behind IPFS working at planetary, or galactic, scale. I want to solve the problem, ...
Lance's user avatar
  • 2,227
1 vote
1 answer
209 views

How to travel from Koblenz (Germany) to Paris (France) in May 1805?

I'm trying to fill in some blanks in my family history. In May 1805 an ancestor of mine traveled from Koblenz (Germany) to Paris (France). He left most likely on May 16 or 17, maybe a few days later. ...
Tonny's user avatar
  • 301
2 votes
2 answers
321 views

How much was cost for a regular (standard class) passenger to come on passenger ship from Liverpool England to Canada between 1906-1908

What was the approximate, cost and length of trip in days to cross Atlantic from Liverpool England to New York USA or Quebec Canada, in the regular class of a passenger steamship between 1906-1908.
Chris Webster's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
84 views

What kind of canoes were used in 19th century Yucatán?

I’m specifically curious about seagoing canoes along the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the mid-1800’s. Were they still typically of the dugout variety, or had they evolved to canvas on a wood ...
Ryan Williamson's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
56 views

What were the most popular destinations for British and American tourists on the Continent in the period 1880-1900?

How common was English and American travel to the Continent of Europe between 1880-1900? By businessmen, families, debutantes, honeymooners, politicians etc.
Ray Argyle's user avatar
33 votes
4 answers
10k views

Were there any travel restrictions during the Black Death pandemic?

From the Wikipedia article Black Death: The Black Death, also known as the Pestilence, Great Bubonic Plague, the Great Plague or the Plague, or less commonly the Great Mortality or the Black Plague,...
Mikael Dúi Bolinder's user avatar
2 votes
4 answers
544 views

How did an English person get entry to East Germany during the Cold War?

I need to know how an English person was able to get authority to visit East Germany and what the most common crossing used was. Additionally, any information on how visitors were treated by Stasi ...
Rob Som Rob's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
52 views

Book (and/or podcast) recommendations for providing a historical & cultural context for Sichuan?

A couple friends and I plan on taking a tour in the southwestern region of China, specifically Sichuan & Yunan, around spring of next year. I find that it always makes the trip more engaging and ...
Jethro Cao's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
797 views

What was the typical speed of a tramp steamship?

What was the typical speed of a tramp steamship in their heyday? I mean cruising speed, not flank speed; the figure you would divide into distance to see how long it would take to travel between ports....
rwallace's user avatar
  • 2,605
29 votes
4 answers
9k views

How would a family travel from Indiana to Texas in 1911?

What trails and/or travel modes would an Indiana farm family--2 adults, 4 children-- use to get to Texas in 1911? I can find detailed information about traveling East to West, but I have found nothing ...
Patricia's user avatar
  • 411
4 votes
2 answers
232 views

What was the technology in pre-war traffic recorders?

In 1936, Nevada was using an automated traffic recorder, a device that counts the number of passing vehicles: The device must have included a vehicle detector and a recording mechanism. Today it ...
Aaron Brick's user avatar
  • 27.6k
8 votes
1 answer
4k views

Why did the later Crusades seemingly focus more on naval traversal?

I was studying some general Crusade maps and I noticed the first crusades seemed to be more land based as compared to the latter ones and I was wondering exactly why that was (besides just changing ...
Robert Lee's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
385 views

How long was a coach journey from Coburg to St Peterburg in 1790s?

If someone had to get from Coburg to St Petersburg in the 1790s? Would they travel overland by stagecoach or go up to the north German coast and get a boat round to the Gulf of Finland and enter ...
Helen Rappaport's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
1k views

How would an American returning from international travel prove his citizenship before 1914?

Apparently, international travelers didn't need any papers to travel (before WW1), at least in the USA and most parts of Europe. So how did a person 'prove' their nationality? From OP's comments: I'm ...
user38299's user avatar
25 votes
1 answer
11k views

How long would it take to cross the Channel in 1890's?

For a story I'm writing, I'd like to know how long it would take to travel by ship from Calais to Dover in 1890's (as I read it was the easier way). Also, was it possible to take a boat from Calais ...
Emilie's user avatar
  • 345
4 votes
3 answers
1k views

What is the average travel speed for railways between European capitals in the late 19th century?

Most sources I checked only present how the maximum train speed developed over time. For example, the top speed for a passenger train in 1854 was around 130 km/h. This record was set by a steam-...
hohenheim's user avatar
  • 423
33 votes
2 answers
8k views

When did Britain learn about the American Declaration of Independence?

When did Britain learn about the American Declaration of Independence? We all know the declaration was made on July 4th, 1776. But when did news reach Buckingham Palace and do we have records of ...
CodyBugstein's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
57 views

Did Boris Tarasov return from Mexico to Russia?

Boris Tarasov, employee of the Russian-American Company, was arrested in San Pedro, California in 1815. As a prisoner of some political value, in 1816 he was sent from Monterey to San Blas and then ...
Aaron Brick's user avatar
  • 27.6k
2 votes
4 answers
583 views

In epic migrations, why keep going?

Over time human cultures tend to naturally migrate, influenced by various push and pull factors. According to the gravity model of migration and specifically the concept of distance decay, very few of ...
Aaron Brick's user avatar
  • 27.6k
2 votes
1 answer
171 views

Which Imperial Russian officials created and verified passports?

In Imperial Russia (as in other states) passports were required for interior travel. They were issued to individuals and had a finite duration. I'm guessing that being found away from home without a ...
Aaron Brick's user avatar
  • 27.6k
3 votes
0 answers
669 views

How expensive was seafare in the Middle Ages?

I know that travel wasn't very common, but I'm wondering how much it would cost for a well-off traveler to arrange passage on a sailing ship. I'm looking for a price circa 1300, assuming the ship is ...
Drazex's user avatar
  • 131
13 votes
1 answer
445 views

When did passenger ships first have an on board duty-free shop?

According to several sites, the first duty-free shop opened at Shannon Airport in Ireland in 1947, since when duty-free shopping has become an enormous international business even though some airlines ...
Lars Bosteen's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
140 views

Who issued the passports for travel to Russian America?

Employees of the Russian-American Company were supposed to have seven-year passports to travel from Russia to the Company's colonies. Officials endeavored to stay in compliance, though it's clear that ...
Aaron Brick's user avatar
  • 27.6k