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Moments That Changed the Way We Travel: A Timeline

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The only thing guaranteed in life is change. A single invention has the power to change the course of history, as does a disaster – take the way Covid-19 is playing out in front of us. Sometimes we lose sight of that – the present moment feeling eternal, which isn’t a bad thing in an age of mindfulness. As a reminder of such change, Culture Trip looks back on the past 200 years to reflect on significant moments that altered the world of travel for good.

1802: the ‘puffer engine’ is invented.

It was more than two centuries ago that a Cornwall -born inventor and mining engineer called Richard Trevithick would complete the first iteration of a train – little did he know how central it would become to our everyday existence. The high-pressure “puffer engine” he patented was the first steam-powered locomotive engine on rails. Come 1829, another fellow, this time by the name of Robert Stephenson, who would later become known as the Father of Railways, designed the Rocket, an early locomotive of 0-2-2 wheels. It’s arguably one of Britain’s greatest feats of engineering and it set the wheels in motion for more to come.

1863: the first Tube travels underground in London

After British engineers had conquered trains above ground, in 1863 they turned their attention underground. Construction for the present-day Transport for London network began below the streets of London in the 1860s, with the first gas-lit wooden carriage – hauled by steam locomotives – leaving the station in 1863. Its inaugural route? Paddington to Farringdon. It was an instant hit, with 38,000 passengers reportedly travelling on its first day. Fast-forward to 2020, and some 5m passengers rely on its labyrinth of 11 routes daily. These routes, laid out like a circuit board, might look confusing at first, but ask any Londoner, and it doesn’t long to master the map.

1903: it’s liftoff for The Wright Brothers’ Flying Machine

A century on from train innovation comes the first aircraft to make a controlled flight. It was for 12 seconds, travelling 120ft (37m), and it was a massive feat for American aviation pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright. Many aviators tried to get their inventions off the ground around the same time – and for that reason there is some debate as to who, indeed, was the first to achieve a seamless flight. Some make a case for German aviator Gustave Whitehead; in 1901 a newspaper reported that he had completed a flight in Connecticut. Meanwhile, others argue that it was Brazilian inventor Alberto Santos-Dumont; in 1906 his kite-like contraption flew some 220m (722ft) in Paris. Let your inner conspiracy theorist run wild.

1912: RMS Titanic sinks en route to New York from Southampton

We have actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet – along with a stellar soundtrack from Celine Dion – to credit for bringing to life the tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912. It was in the early hours of 15 April that the world’s then-largest man-made “unsinkable” ship struck an iceberg, just four days into her maiden voyage from Southampton, UK, to New York. Travelling over capacity, with 3,300 people on board, the ship only had lifeboats for a third of them. Only 492 passengers and 214 crew survived. As a consequence, ship design changed, an International Ice Patrol was established, and liners always travel with enough lifeboats.

1919: the first non-stop transatlantic flight proves the impossible

Flying a modified World War I Vickers Vimy bomber, British aviators John Alcock and Arthur Brown went where others could never have imagined: across the Atlantic Ocean. In 16 hours, they flew from Newfoundland , the most easterly province of Canada, to Cliften in Ireland. Then, in 1927 – propelled (pardon the pun) by his doubters – Charles Lindbergh became the first pilot to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic, from New York to Paris, in 33 hours. Five years later, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to make the solo trip.

1952: a golden age of air travel is born as BOAC goes commercial

By the 1950s, aviation had come a long way from The Wright Brothers’ Flying Machine. The British Overseas Airways Corporation made another world first: a commercial jet service, designed by British engineer Geoffrey de Havilland. Enter a golden age of air travel. Well, for wealthy celebrities and politicians, at least. It was an affair to get dressed up for: think Sunday best and fine jewellery, with lobster and champagne on the menu. The flight that kicked off this era of luxury jet travel journeyed from Johannesburg to London, and the rest is history – with flying today a far cry from this once-elusive and rather chic club.

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1964: Japan introduces the world to high-speed trains

The concept of high-speed rail isn’t anything out of the ordinary for us today. Fancy going to Paris from London? The Eurostar will get you there in just over two hours. How about Paris to Champagne? That will be 40 minutes on the TGV. But pre-1964, the idea of such speedy land-based travel would have been unfathomable – until Japan unveiled a high-speed rail system called the Tōkaidō Shinkansen . Complete with their signature bullet noses, the first of these trains travelled at 210kph (131mph), while trains on that same network can reach a speed of 320kph (199mph) today. Though this still isn’t enough for the Japanese, who are set to unveil an even faster version in 2030. Speedy Gonzales.

1969: the Jumbo Jet brings affordable flying to the masses

1969 was a big year: as Commander Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the moon, a Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet 231ft (70m) long, took to the skies with 490 passengers on board. It quickly became known as the Queen of the Skies and a gateway for the masses to travel affordably – now package holidays in warmer climes were calling. The airliner retained its title of the largest civilian plane until 2007, when the Airbus A380, with its gargantuan 868-passenger capacity (and encore of screaming babies guaranteed), came along and nabbed the accolade. Concorde also made its first flight in 1969 – but, notoriously reserved for an exclusive jetsetters’ club , its impact could never match that of its jumbo sister.

1974: Navstar launches, reshaping navigation

For that annoying voice we all know and love so well that tells us to “take the first left at the roundabout” three times more than we need to hear it, we have the American scientist and inventor Roger L Easter to thank. And while GPS has its roots in the Sputnik era (the first artificial earth satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957), it wasn’t until 1974 that it hit our roads. In collaboration with Naval Air Systems Command, Easter created and patented a 24-hour satellite GPS called Navstar. Back then, it was the best thing since, well, physical road maps. Sorry, road maps.

1978: Unesco lists its first World Heritage sites, birthing the bucket list

A destination is always more in demand when Unesco confers World Heritage site status upon it. This recognition is based on whether it offers “outstanding universal value” in terms of geographic and historical significance. Drawn up in 1978, the first list included just a dozen sites (dubbed “properties”) such as Yellowstone National Park in the United States and the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador. It served as the first benchmark of must-visit locations, and the bucket list as we know it was born. Today this ever-fluctuating list includes just shy of 1,000 sites, among the most famous of which are Machu Picchu in Peru and the Taj Mahal in India.

2001: 9/11 attacks shakes the world and collective confidence in flying

On 11 September 2001 , two hijacked airplanes smashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, with a third hitting the Pentagon in Washington DC. Almost 3,000 people were killed, and the date is now observed as an annual day of mourning. It shocked the world – as well as the US economy, which fell sharply, and battered global confidence. People lost their faith in flying, and flying itself became an altogether different experience. Security became paramount: liquids were inspected any over 100ml (3.4 fl oz) were confiscated; pat-downs and body-scans became the norm; and unattended pieces of luggage were considered a serious threat.

2004: Richard Branson sets out plan for commercial space travel

The idea of travelling to outer space used to be reserved for highly trained astronauts and TV characters like The Jetsons. That is, until Sir Richard Branson had a grand idea. Following his Virgin conquests of air (Virgin Atlantic), land (Virgin Trains) and sea (Virgin Voyages), the entrepreneur turned his attention to space. He called this new venture Virgin Galactic. The idea? To take us mere mortals out into the big void ourselves. In 2018, the first suborbital flight took three people into space, and 2020 is set to be the year in which commercial space travel really takes off, with SpaceX, Boeing and the European Space Agency all vying for first dibs. A whole new space race is on.

2020: Covid-19 sweeps across the globe and self-isolation becomes the new normal

As we waved goodbye to 2019 and rang in the new decade, we did so with optimism. But it quickly dwindled. First came the Australian bushfires that burned 5m hectares (12,355,270 acres) of land, killed 500m animals and at least 17 people. Then, Covid-19 . A member of the coronavirus family, it’s thought to have originated in a wildlife market in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 – but it wasn’t confined to the Chinese province for long. By April 2020, it had spread across the entire world, starting with one or two cases in each country, before multiplying and infecting millions. In an attempt to stop this unknown entity in its tracks, retreating indoors and self-isolating are the new normal. Borders closed, airlines ceased operations, and trips beyond the front door were restricted to essentials only. A first in recent history, we’re truly in uncharted territory.

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History’s most famous explorers and their epic journeys

Mar 31, 2020 • 6 min read

In a time before planes, credit cards and the internet, travel was often as dangerous as it was exciting. Yet for millennia those with a taste for adventure have given in to the human impulse to explore the world, to discover new cultures and pave the way for others. The roll call of great historical travelers includes the well known and the should-be-better known. Here are a select few, each of whom demonstrates that curiosity that keeps us exploring today.

Zheng He and the "treasure voyages"

“Eventful” is an adjective that could easily apply to the lives of many well known travelers but it’s particularly apt for Zheng He. Born a Muslim, he was captured, castrated and converted by Chinese troops, before rising through the ranks of the Ming army to become a trusted adviser to Emperor Yongle. 

Made admiral in charge of the “treasure voyages” (seven sea trips designed to expand Chinese knowledge, trade and influence in the early 15th century), he headed west to Southeast Asia , India , the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa , employing diplomacy where possible and force where necessary to impress the locals.

Marco Polo on the Silk Road (and beyond)

When he left his home in Venice in 1271, Marco Polo, arguably the most famous traveler of all time, couldn’t have imagined he’d be away for 24 years. Driven as much by trade as by the travel bug (he came from a family of merchants), he followed the Silk Road to China (or Cathay as it was then known). There he became friends with the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan and embarked on a series of journeys as emissary of the khan, which he subsequently documented in the Book of the Marvels of the World , a bestseller at the time.

Gertrude Bell broke and created boundaries

Scholar, diplomat, empire-builder, mountaineer, traveler – if you thought we were about to talk about a man, you’d be mistaken. All these attributes and more belong to the Brit Gertrude Bell. Breaking into previously male-dominated areas of society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, she had already been stranded on a rope for some 53 hours while climbing in the Alps, circumnavigated the world twice and spent years exploring the Middle East before she was involved in drawing up the post-WW1 borders of Iraq, an area she knew well thanks to her love of archeology. 

A less controversial legacy of her time in the region is the Iraq Museum, a repository of objects from the country’s extraordinarily long past which she helped create shortly before her death in 1926.

Ibn Battuta's 30-year trip

Hailing from Morocco , Ibn Battuta would, like his near contemporary Marco Polo, not see his home for many decades once he headed off on his travels. Deciding to go on pilgrimage to Mecca, he left his family and friends in Tangier in 1324, following the North African coast in the company of camel caravans (for safety) and completing his hajj in 1326. 

Influenced by a holy man’s prophecy saying he would travel the earth, he then continued east – and south and north and west, crossing Spain, India, Persia, China, Southeast Asia and many more destinations on his wishlist. Sometimes treated as an honored guest by those he encountered, other times as a hostage, as well as exploring new places he also found time to marry (and divorce) an astonishing ten times during his trip, before finally returning home for good (and presumably a rest) in 1354.

Percy Fawcett and the lost city of Z

Once British soldier and explorer Percy Fawcett got the idea of a mysterious civilization in the Brazilian Amazon into his head, he couldn’t shake it and his obsession with "the lost city of Z" would lead to his death. A respected cartographer, he was sent to Brazil’s Mato Grosso region in 1906 to help determine the country’s border with Bolivia. 

On subsequent visits he became fascinated by rumors of a former culture, with grand architecture, hidden somewhere in the area’s vast jungles. In April 1925 he set out to find it with his son and his son’s best friend. By the end of May they had disappeared. Whether they were killed by a local tribe or died of starvation is still unknown. But recent research has offered tantalizing evidence that a civilization just like the one Fawcett was looking for, did exist in the region and is known as Kuhikugu.

Leif Erikson landed in North America

Centuries before Marco Polo and Zheng He set off on their expeditions, an intrepid Icelander decided to sail west from his home to see what he would find. It’s not surprising that travel was in Leif Erikson’s blood (his father, Erik the Red, was exiled from Iceland to Greenland), but he couldn’t have known, as he set sail around 1000 CE, that he would build the first European settlement in North America. 

Exactly where he created his community of Vinland is hotly debated – tradition has it in L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada – but history, and a large, west-facing statue of him outside Reykjavík’s Hallgrimskirkja church, will always remember his groundbreaking journeys.

Mansa Musa's economic impact

There aren’t many trips that can claim to have devastated local economies, but the pilgrimage to Mecca by Malian ruler Mansa Musa did just that. Like Ibn Battuta a year or two earlier, Musa traveled across northern Africa on his hajj, but with an entourage whose stats defy belief: 60,000 people, including 12,000 slaves and heralds, plus 100 elephants and 80 camels carrying thousands of pounds of gold which was lavishly dispensed to people en route – Mali was the world’s main gold producer at the time making Musa possibly the richest man who has ever lived. His generosity proved disastrous, though, as so much gold flooded the market that its value dropped and negatively impacted local economies for around a decade after his trip.

Nellie Bly circumnavigated the world in 72 days

“No one but a man can do this!” scoffed her editor when journalist Nellie Bly suggested a round-the-world trip in 80 days, emulating the fictional Phileas Fogg. The year was 1889 and convention simply didn’t allow a solo female traveler to do this kind of thing, but, as with Gertrude Bell, “convention-defying” could have been Nellie Bly’s middle name (actually her real name was Elizabeth Jane Cochran; Nellie Bly was her pseudonym).

Having already earned her credentials with an exposé on the appalling treatment of women in New York’s mental asylums, she packed her bags (very lightly), hid her money in a small pouch under her clothes, and boarded the steamship Augusta Victoria . Crossing Europe , South Asia, Japan and the US, and having several adventures and close calls along the way, she returned to a rapturous welcome on January 25, 1890 – 72 days after setting off. Beat that, Phileas!

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A beginner's guide to time travel

Learn exactly how Einstein's theory of relativity works, and discover how there's nothing in science that says time travel is impossible.

Everyone can travel in time . You do it whether you want to or not, at a steady rate of one second per second. You may think there's no similarity to traveling in one of the three spatial dimensions at, say, one foot per second. But according to Einstein 's theory of relativity , we live in a four-dimensional continuum — space-time — in which space and time are interchangeable.

Einstein found that the faster you move through space, the slower you move through time — you age more slowly, in other words. One of the key ideas in relativity is that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light — about 186,000 miles per second (300,000 kilometers per second), or one light-year per year). But you can get very close to it. If a spaceship were to fly at 99% of the speed of light, you'd see it travel a light-year of distance in just over a year of time. 

That's obvious enough, but now comes the weird part. For astronauts onboard that spaceship, the journey would take a mere seven weeks. It's a consequence of relativity called time dilation , and in effect, it means the astronauts have jumped about 10 months into the future. 

Traveling at high speed isn't the only way to produce time dilation. Einstein showed that gravitational fields produce a similar effect — even the relatively weak field here on the surface of Earth . We don't notice it, because we spend all our lives here, but more than 12,400 miles (20,000 kilometers) higher up gravity is measurably weaker— and time passes more quickly, by about 45 microseconds per day. That's more significant than you might think, because it's the altitude at which GPS satellites orbit Earth, and their clocks need to be precisely synchronized with ground-based ones for the system to work properly. 

The satellites have to compensate for time dilation effects due both to their higher altitude and their faster speed. So whenever you use the GPS feature on your smartphone or your car's satnav, there's a tiny element of time travel involved. You and the satellites are traveling into the future at very slightly different rates.

But for more dramatic effects, we need to look at much stronger gravitational fields, such as those around black holes , which can distort space-time so much that it folds back on itself. The result is a so-called wormhole, a concept that's familiar from sci-fi movies, but actually originates in Einstein's theory of relativity. In effect, a wormhole is a shortcut from one point in space-time to another. You enter one black hole, and emerge from another one somewhere else. Unfortunately, it's not as practical a means of transport as Hollywood makes it look. That's because the black hole's gravity would tear you to pieces as you approached it, but it really is possible in theory. And because we're talking about space-time, not just space, the wormhole's exit could be at an earlier time than its entrance; that means you would end up in the past rather than the future.

Trajectories in space-time that loop back into the past are given the technical name "closed timelike curves." If you search through serious academic journals, you'll find plenty of references to them — far more than you'll find to "time travel." But in effect, that's exactly what closed timelike curves are all about — time travel

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There's another way to produce a closed timelike curve that doesn't involve anything quite so exotic as a black hole or wormhole: You just need a simple rotating cylinder made of super-dense material. This so-called Tipler cylinder is the closest that real-world physics can get to an actual, genuine time machine. But it will likely never be built in the real world, so like a wormhole, it's more of an academic curiosity than a viable engineering design.

Yet as far-fetched as these things are in practical terms, there's no fundamental scientific reason — that we currently know of — that says they are impossible. That's a thought-provoking situation, because as the physicist Michio Kaku is fond of saying, "Everything not forbidden is compulsory" (borrowed from T.H. White's novel, "The Once And Future King"). He doesn't mean time travel has to happen everywhere all the time, but Kaku is suggesting that the universe is so vast it ought to happen somewhere at least occasionally. Maybe some super-advanced civilization in another galaxy knows how to build a working time machine, or perhaps closed timelike curves can even occur naturally under certain rare conditions.

This raises problems of a different kind — not in science or engineering, but in basic logic. If time travel is allowed by the laws of physics, then it's possible to envision a whole range of paradoxical scenarios . Some of these appear so illogical that it's difficult to imagine that they could ever occur. But if they can't, what's stopping them? 

Thoughts like these prompted Stephen Hawking , who was always skeptical about the idea of time travel into the past, to come up with his "chronology protection conjecture" — the notion that some as-yet-unknown law of physics prevents closed timelike curves from happening. But that conjecture is only an educated guess, and until it is supported by hard evidence, we can come to only one conclusion: Time travel is possible.

A party for time travelers 

Hawking was skeptical about the feasibility of time travel into the past, not because he had disproved it, but because he was bothered by the logical paradoxes it created. In his chronology protection conjecture, he surmised that physicists would eventually discover a flaw in the theory of closed timelike curves that made them impossible. 

In 2009, he came up with an amusing way to test this conjecture. Hawking held a champagne party (shown in his Discovery Channel program), but he only advertised it after it had happened. His reasoning was that, if time machines eventually become practical, someone in the future might read about the party and travel back to attend it. But no one did — Hawking sat through the whole evening on his own. This doesn't prove time travel is impossible, but it does suggest that it never becomes a commonplace occurrence here on Earth.

The arrow of time 

One of the distinctive things about time is that it has a direction — from past to future. A cup of hot coffee left at room temperature always cools down; it never heats up. Your cellphone loses battery charge when you use it; it never gains charge. These are examples of entropy , essentially a measure of the amount of "useless" as opposed to "useful" energy. The entropy of a closed system always increases, and it's the key factor determining the arrow of time.

It turns out that entropy is the only thing that makes a distinction between past and future. In other branches of physics, like relativity or quantum theory, time doesn't have a preferred direction. No one knows where time's arrow comes from. It may be that it only applies to large, complex systems, in which case subatomic particles may not experience the arrow of time.

Time travel paradox 

If it's possible to travel back into the past — even theoretically — it raises a number of brain-twisting paradoxes — such as the grandfather paradox — that even scientists and philosophers find extremely perplexing.

Killing Hitler

A time traveler might decide to go back and kill him in his infancy. If they succeeded, future history books wouldn't even mention Hitler — so what motivation would the time traveler have for going back in time and killing him?

Killing your grandfather

Instead of killing a young Hitler, you might, by accident, kill one of your own ancestors when they were very young. But then you would never be born, so you couldn't travel back in time to kill them, so you would be born after all, and so on … 

A closed loop

Suppose the plans for a time machine suddenly appear from thin air on your desk. You spend a few days building it, then use it to send the plans back to your earlier self. But where did those plans originate? Nowhere — they are just looping round and round in time.

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Andrew May holds a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Manchester University, U.K. For 30 years, he worked in the academic, government and private sectors, before becoming a science writer where he has written for Fortean Times, How It Works, All About Space, BBC Science Focus, among others. He has also written a selection of books including Cosmic Impact and Astrobiology: The Search for Life Elsewhere in the Universe, published by Icon Books.

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Time Travel: Observing Cosmic History

By observing light from faraway cosmic objects, the Hubble Space Telescope is like a time machine. Light takes time to reach Hubble, because it travels great distances. That means images captured by Hubble today, show what the objects looked like years ago!

The Hubble Space Telescope is many things. It’s an observatory, a satellite, and an icon of cultural and scientific significance – but perhaps most interestingly, Hubble is also a time machine.

Hubble isn’t that far away, locked in a low-Earth orbit just a few hundred miles up that takes about 90 minutes to complete. But with its position just above Earth’s murky atmosphere, Hubble’s transformative view of our universe literally lets us witness our universe’s past.  It allows us to effectively travel back in time.

How does that work? After all, Hubble doesn’t travel beyond our solar system, or even our home planet’s gravity. It certainly doesn’t have any sci-fi elements you might find in Doctor Who or Back to the Future.

Light Travel

The answer is simply light.

The term “light-year” shows up a lot in astronomy. This is a measure of distance that means exactly what it says – the distance that light travels in one year. Given that the speed of light is 186,000 miles (299,000 kilometers) per second, light can cover some serious ground over the course of 365 days. To be precise, almost 6 trillion miles (9.5 trillion kilometers)!

Traveling Back in Time: 8 minutes

Hubble works by gathering light from objects in our universe – some as close as our Moon, and some as distant as galaxy clusters that are billions of light-years away. All that light takes time to reach the telescope, just as it takes time for light to travel from its source to our eyes. For example, our Sun is located about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from Earth. That means that it takes roughly eight minutes for its light to reach us here on our planet, so when we look at the Sun (though directly is never recommended!) we see it exactly as it was eight minutes in the past.

Cosmically speaking, the 93 million miles between us and the Sun are nothing. We orbit around just one of billions of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, which is one of countless trillions of galaxies in the universe.

With that in mind, time travel gets more intense when Hubble observes objects beyond our star system.

Traveling Back in Time: 4 years

Aside from our Sun, the next closest star to us is named Proxima Centauri. It’s about four light-years away, which makes it a close neighbor on a universal scale. But even with Hubble’s sharp, powerful vision, Proxima Centauri remains a point-like object – demonstrating our universe’s unfathomably large size.

Traveling Back in Time: 700 years

Another stellar target of Hubble’s is named Betelgeuse, which is about 700 light-years from Earth. Again, this means that when Hubble looks at Betelgeuse, the star appears exactly as it was 700 years ago. As one of the brightest stars in our sky, astronomers believe it’s likely that even the earliest humans knew of it, as this star appears in stories from several cultures.

This red supergiant star began to dim significantly in the fall of 2019, losing about 60% of its brightness within months. But by April 2020, its regular brightness returned. Hubble studied Betelgeuse and found out that the star “blew its top” – it went through a surface mass ejection, in which the star spewed out a large amount of its surface material into space. When that material in space cooled down, it became a dust cloud that temporarily blocked some of the star’s light.

Hubble’s unique ability to observe in ultraviolet light helped reveal the details of this dimming event and its aftermath. In this range of light, Hubble can better observe the hot layers of atmosphere above a star’s surface.

The telescope continues to be the go-to observatory for scientists who study Betelgeuse. Because it’s taken this long for the light from Betelgeuse to reach us, only in very recent history have we witnessed a cosmic event unfolding that really occurred about 700 years ago!

Scientists also believe that Betelgeuse is on the verge of going supernova – dying in an explosive event. In fact, it may have already done so, but the light from the explosion still hasn’t reached us. There’s a good chance that Betelgeuse no longer exists, though we can still see it today from Earth.

Traveling Back in Time: 6,500 years

Nebulae are clouds of gas and dust where stars are birthed, or the remnants of a dead or dying star itself. These beautiful, ethereal cosmic objects are the subject of some of Hubble’s most iconic images, but they can also teach us more about how our universe behaves and evolves.

For example, a favorite target for Hubble is the Crab Nebula, located about 6,500 light-years away. There are records from 1054 CE written by Chinese astronomers noting the new presence of a shockingly bright “guest” star in the sky, visible even during the daytime. Turns out, they actually saw a supernova – a star’s explosive death – which became the Crab Nebula, made up by the remnants of this violent event. Of course, those Chinese astronomers witnessed a supernova explosion that occurred about 5446 BCE, but it took the light from the explosion 6,500 years to reach Earth in the year 1054.

Traveling Back in Time: 2.5 million years

When Hubble looks beyond our own galaxy, we can watch cosmic history unfold over eons.

The Andromeda Galaxy is a whopping 2.5 million light-years away, but that’s just the closest major galaxy to us here in the Milky Way. Observing Andromeda is like staring into a vision from 2.5 million years ago – back during the Paleolithic period on Earth, when very early humans existed.

And if Andromeda is the closest major galaxy to us, it’s difficult to comprehend just how far the light from the most distant observed galaxies has traveled.

Traveling Back in Time: 12.9 billion years

Another Hubble record is for observing the most distant individual star ever detected, named Earendel. This faraway star emitted its light within the first billion years of the universe, which is about 13.8 billion years old, so it took quite a while to reach Hubble! In fact, that observation was only made possible by nature’s magnifying glass – an astronomical phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. When a massive cosmic object has enough gravity, its gravitational field can magnify and bend light coming from objects located behind it. The gravity of a galaxy cluster located between Hubble and Earendel magnified the star’s light, making it detectable.  The type of star that Earendel seems to be typically have brief lives, only surviving about half a billion years. That means Earendel has ceased to exist for over 12 billion years, yet we are able to look back in time and watch Earendel during its short life.

Traveling Back in Time: 13.4 billion years

Perhaps some of Hubble’s most legendary observations are its deep field images, which collect light from thousands of galaxies that are billions of light-years away.

With this type of imagery, we can better understand how our universe changes over time by puzzling out how galaxies evolve. The farther back we look with Hubble, the closer we get to the the big bang, when the universe began – so the most distant galaxies observed by Hubble often appear to us as the “youngest” ones – giving us a sneak peek at the universe in its infancy. Because these galaxies emitted their light when they were young, we get to witness them in their early stages. These early galaxies often appear simpler and smaller than the grandiose spiral galaxies and merged galaxies we see closer to us in distance, and therefore in time. These young galaxies are actually old galaxies now as they have evolved over the time this light has taken to reach us.

Hubble’s farthest observation is of a galaxy named GN-z11, observed as it was 13.4 billion years in the past! This places it within just 400 million years of the big bang itself.

Watching Our Universe Over Time

Observations of the most distant objects, like GN-z11 and Earendel, give astronomers exciting insight into the environment of our early universe. The light we see literally traveled from all the way back then!

Our universe remains mysterious, mind-bendingly large, and ever-expanding, but by gathering light from near and far – from the recent past to the dawn of the universe itself – Hubble helps answer questions about where we are and how the universe works.

At its core, astronomy is really just archaeology. Cosmic objects give off light, letting us learn more about their lives. It can take a long, long time for light to reach Hubble – just one telescope orbiting just one planet in just one solar system in just one galaxy. Scientists use Hubble like the time machine that it is to piece together the history and mystery of the cosmos, giving us all a glimpse right up to the edge of the universe – and time itself.

Explore More Hubble

The Lost Universe

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has vanished from Earth’s timeline. Only an ambitious crew of adventurers can uncover what was lost. Are you up to the challenge?

Hubble Science Highlights

Hubble has affected every area of astronomy. Its most notable scientific discoveries reflect the broad range of research and the breakthroughs it has achieved.

Hubble's Cultural Impact

Even if you don't know anything about the Hubble Space Telescope, its pictures have been a part of your life.

What is Hubble Observing?

See the area of sky Hubble is currently investigating or explore its upcoming and past targets.

Hubble E-books

Investigate the mysteries of the universe with Hubble. Learn Hubble's history and dive deeper into its discoveries by downloading our e-books.

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History Fangirl

The Ultimate History Travel Blog Since 2015

101 Epic History Travel Ideas to Help Plan Your Next Adventure

Last Updated on: 26th September 2021, 11:33 pm

It’s super common for travelers to have a list of places they want to see or a bucket list for a specific continent or country.

If you’re like me, you want to see as many historic places as you can squeeze in! Looking for ideas for an epic history travel inspired adventure?

Wondering what kinds of historical sites people are visiting after hitting the famous spots like the Roman Forum and the Acropolis ?

Whether you want an around-the-world adventure or are looking for something in your own backyard, here’s a giant list of 101 ideas for your next history-inspired trip.

(Looking for more history travel inspiration? Check out the episodes of The History Fangirl Podcast for in-depth overviews of the history of some of the world’s most amazing and interesting places).

My Favorite Travel Booking Sites for 2024

These are my favorite companies that I use on my own travels.

Protect Your Trip via Safety Wing

Find the best city tours, day tours, bus tours, & skip-the-line tickets on GetYourGuide and Viato r .

Find the best deals on hotels & vacation rentals on Booking.com .

For English-speaking private airport transfers, book through Welcome Pickups.

For road trips and independent travel, rent a car through Discover Cars .

Find information and cruise reviews on Cruise Critic.

For packing and travel essentials order via Amazon .

Book an affordable family or romantic photography session on your trip through Flytographer (Use the code HISTORYFANGIRL for 10% off your first photoshoot).

For travel guidebooks to have with you during your trip, I always pick one or two from Rick Steves and Lonely Planet.

North America

• Tour the White House.
• Host historians John Meecham and Doris Kearns Goodwin for afternoon tea.
• Take a driving tour of Gettysburg.
• Walk across the Selma Bridge to commemorate the fight for Voting Rights, then pop over to Birmingham to learn about its role in the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama.
• Go on a volunteer archeological dig at Cahokia.
• Take a bike tour of Mexican haciendas.
• Cruise the Northwest Passage in Canada.
• Visit the monuments to freedom erected by former slaves in Haiti after the revolution.
• Take a sunset walk around La Fortaleza and Old San Juan in Puerto Rico.
• Tour the earliest settlements by Europeans in the New World at St. George in Bermuda.
• Play old-school Oregon Trail while driving the Oregon Trail.
• Recover the lost history of America’s Black Pioneers and learn about the early stages of the Underground Railroad in Ohio and Indiana.
• Drink coffee at the first coffee plantations in southeastern Cuba.
• Visit the Mayan Ruins of Tikal in Guatemala at sunrise.
• Sail to Tayasal, the last Mayan city which wasn’t conquered until 1967 in Guatemala.
• Take in the Templo Mayor, the Aztec site dedicated to the God of Rain, mid rainstorm, in Mexico City.
• Hike San Antonio’s Mission Trail, seeing all five of the UNESCO-protected San Antonio Missions , including the famed Alamo.

South America

• Trek one of these six alternative routes at Machu Pichu in Peru.
• See the tug of war between the Spanish and the Portuguese Colonial styles in Colonia del Sacramento  in Uruguay.
• Have a low-key evening with Evita on Netflix and a bottle of Malbec in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• Ride the century-old cable cars up to the top of the Sugar Loaf as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Rio de Janeiro , Brazil. (Don’t worry, the actual machinery was updated in the 1970’s).
• Sail (or fly) to Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands and see the lands and animals that inspired Darwin to pen his theory of evolution.
• Taste history at the  Mercado del Puerto , where parrillas  have been serving Uruguayan barbeque cooked on open wood stoves for over a hundred and thirty years in Montevideo, Uruguay.
• Fly to Chile’s Easter Island to explore Orongo, the UNESCO World Heritage Site, to see the ruins of the Birdman cult.
• Visit the politely named Court of the Holy Office, the torture house with a dark past that served as the Palace of the Inquisition in Cartagena, Colombia.
• See the shipwrecked Lady Elizabeth  which left Vancouver for Mozambique in 1912 but became stranded en route near the Falkland Islands and has been stuck in Whalebone Cove since 1936.
• Visit Ile du Diable , also called Devil’s Island, the French penal colony famed for abhorrent conditions, located on a jungle island circled by sharks, off the coast of French Guiana.
• See the Dutch influences on the continent with a visit the to seventeenth-century Dutch historic district in Paramaribo, Suriname.
• Envision life during the age of the dinosaurs with a visit to Dinosaur Dance Floor, which boasts six different kinds of dinosaur footprints including a section made by a baby Tyrannosaurus Rex nicknamed “Johnny Walker” near Sucre, Bolivia.
• Explore the central historic district in Quito, Ecuador , which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the best-preserved Spanish colonial neighborhood in Latin America.
• Visit Coro, the early sixteenth-century colonial city that is the only remaining example of the fusion of Carribean, Spanish, and Dutch colonial architectural in Falcon, Venezuela.
• See over ten thousand years of human history at Quebrada de Humahuaca, which was a site for some of the earliest human settlements in South America. The site also served as an important caravan route for the Inca Empire, a communication link between the Viceroyalties of Peru and the Rio de la Plata, and was the site for important battles in the Spanish War of Independence in northern Argentina.
• See the monuments and pyramids of the Norte Chico culture at Caral-Supe, one of the earliest settlements in the Americas, near Lima, Peru.
• See the stunning fusion of European and Indigenous architecture in the sixteen wooden Churches of Chiloe on the Chiloe Archipelago in Chile.

• Hike the length of Hadrian’s Wall in northern England.
• See a Shakespearean play at the Globe Theater in London, England.
• Sift through the Archives of the Crown of Aragon, one of the oldest in Europe, in Barcelona, Spain.
• Tour the beaches of Normandy and see where the Allies started the Liberation of Europe in northern France .
• Find the lock of Lucrezia Borgia’s hair preserved at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, Italy.
• Sail a fjord in a replica Viking Ship in at the Viking Museum in Roskilde, Denmark .
• Tour the secret Soviet bunker hidden beneath a spa in Ligatne, Latvia.
• Make a special appointment to see the skull of Kara Mustafa Pasha, the grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire who lost the Siege of Vienna. On display for centuries, it has since been pulled from the exhibitions and sits in storage in Vienna, Austria.
• Eat a delicious lunch in the restaurant where Julius Caesar was assassinated (although it wasn’t a restaurant 2,000 years ago…) in Rome, Italy.
• Track every point on the Struve Geodetic Arc  that Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve used to calculate the exact size and shape of the earth in Eastern Europe.
• Walk the Comino de Santiago to the grave of Saint James in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
• See one of the only monuments to Trans history in Barcelona’s Parc de la Ciutadella  in Barcelona , Spain.
• Explore the history and art of Orthodox Monasteries  in Rila, Bulgaria , Meteora, Greece , and Bucovina, Romania .
• Learn about Soviet life and photograph   Chernobyl disaster  with a day trip from historic Kiev to  tour the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and the Atomic Town of Pripyat in Ukraine .
• Go for a swim at Petrou tou Romiou, one of Cyprus’s prettiest beaches and the spot where Cypriots believe that Aphrodite emerged from the sea.
• Go on a pub crawl through the literary pubs of Dublin in Ireland.
• Climb to the top of the Acropolis to appreciate the achievements of the Golden Age of Athens , and then head to the Acropolis Museum to learn about millennia worth of destruction at the hands of Greece’s invaders in Athens , Greece.
• Explore the historic center of Istanbul, including the Hagia Sofia, the Blue Mosque , the Grand Bazaar , and the Theodosian Walls , to appreciate how the city has been at the center of history and politics for over seventeen hundred years. In Istanbul, Turkey.

• See the ruins of Carthage outside of Tunis, Tunisia.
• Take a Tunisian Louage south to the Great Mosque in Kairouan , the fourth holiest city in Islam, in Kairouan, Tunisia.
• Tour the Egyptian Pyramids and take a cruise on the Nile while pretending you’re Egyptian royalty.
• Think about the enormous span of human history in Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, which covers human evolution all the way back to 2.1 million years ago.
• Visit one of the most interesting and unique mosques in the world at the Larabanga Mosque in Ghana.
• Visit Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and other South African anti-apartheid protestors were imprisoned in South Africa.
• See the remains of Arab and Portuguese influence on the UNESCO World Heritage protected Island of Mozambique.
• Visit Mali’s famed Timbuktu and then challenge your friends to name the country you’re in. Count how many think the place isn’t real.
• Pick out which palace you prefer at the Royal Palaces of Abomey in Benin, where each of the twelve reigning kings built their own.
• Peer outside the Door of No Return on Goree Island in Senegal. Contemplate the horrors faced by millions of Africans being forced into generations of slavery and the lingering effects of slavery today.
• Explore Great Zimbabwe, the capital of the Queen of Sheba and important medieval ruins, near Masvingo, Zimbabwe.
• See the political and spiritual capital of the Kingdom of Kongo and see how African kingdoms had to change and adapt after incursions by European explorers began in the fifteenth century, in Mbanza-Kongo, Angola.
• See the Tin Mal Mosque , now abandoned, along one of the most spectacular drives in northern Africa, the Tizi n’Test, near Tinmel, Morocco.
• Visit the virgins who guard the Ark of the Covenant at the Chapel of the Tablet in Askum, Ethiopia.
• Head out to Man and Woman Lakes, two crater lakes on Mount Manengouba, believed to contain the spirits who control the weather and create local storms. Bathing in Man Lake is reserved for local Bakossi ceremonies, but foreigners are permitted to swim in Woman Lake. Near Bangem, Cameroon.
• Visit the shrines and sanctuaries dedicated to the Yoruba fertility goddess Osun at the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove in Osogbo, Nigeria.
• Scuba dive the Pharos Lighthouse in Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, in Alexandria, Egypt.

• Enjoy sunrise at Angkor Wat in Cambodia before heading off to explore the rest of Angkor’s historic temples.
• Take a floating tour of Trang An, called the Halong Bay on Land, to see the gorgeous Confucian temples in Vietnam.
• Visit the eleventh century Temple of Literature, the oldest university in Vietnam located in Hanoi.
• Spend a day checking out the famous Buddhist temples in Bangkok , Thailand including the Temple of the Emerald Buddha and the Temple of Dawn.
• Take a walking pilgrimage on the Kumano Kodo Trail in Japan .
• Climb the 1200 steps to the top of Sigiriya to see the ancient palace ruins in Dambulla, Sri Lanka.
• Explore the city-state of Singapore to learn about its unique history after independence from Malaysia.
• Hike the Baekdu Daegan Trail, the spiritual center of Korean mountain spirit worship and an important area for all local prominent religions. The trail runs the length of the Korean peninsula, but one of the highlights, the temples on Mount Jirisan, is located on the South Korean portion and is reachable to outsiders.
• Visit all four pilgrimage sites of the Char Dham, a pilgrimage route that all Hindus are required to undertake, located in the far north, south, east, and west of India.
• Explore the history of the Silk Road by traveling through Azerbaijan  and seeing fire temples, crude oil spas, and Shia pilgrimage sites, all of which had elevated prominence due to the numerous travelers spreading the word after traversing the ancient route.
• Take a trek through the steppe, staying in yurts and riding horseback, to see what life was like as a  nomad in rural Mongolia.
• Attend the biennial World Nomad Games , to see how modern nomads carry on the sporting traditions of their Central Asian ancestors, including horseback riding, falconry, and Kok-Boru, a sport where riders battle for a goat carcass. Held in various locations, the games in 2018 were held in Kyrgyzstan . They are expected to move to Turkey in 2020.
• Visit the secret underground printing press that Joseph Stalin used to create his propaganda in Tbilisi, Georgia.
• Explore the Russian Far East by train via the Trans-Siberian and Trans-Mongolian railway systems in Siberia, Russia.
• Tour the Forbidden City, where the Chinese emperors lived for over 500 years, in Beijing, China.

The Middle East

• Celebrate Christmas at the Church of the Nativity , where Christians believe Jesus was born. Pick between the three different Christmas celebrations held there annually due to the different calendars used by different Christan sects. In Bethlehem, West Bank , Palestine.
• See the ruins of the lost city of Petra in southern Jordan and see its sister site Mada’in Saleh in Saudi Arabia.
• See how Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are literally layered on top of each other while exploring the Old Town in Jerusalem.
• Visit the architecturally unique ninth-century Great Mosque of Samarra in Iraq.
• Remember the victims of the Ottoman Turks by visiting Martyr’s Square, named for the Lebanese nationalists executed in 1916. The square also served as the dividing line for the two sides during the Lebanese Civil War. In Beirut, Lebanon.
• Feel like you are in a life-sized sand castle with a trip to the sixth-century historic city of Arg-e Bam in Kerman Province, Iran.

• Visit the eleven penal colony sites spread across Australia which collectively comprise the UNESCO World Heritage site Austrailian Convict Sites.
• Take the long drive from Alice Springs to Uluru, the famous rock site which is sacred to the local Aboriginal Pitjantjatjara Anangu. The site includes important rock art and ancient paintings. In the Northern Territory, Australia.
• Visit Tamaki Maori, a village where Polynesians have lived since the thirteenth century, in Rotorua, New Zealand.
• Visit the three sites associated with Chief Roi Mata’s Domain, one of the most remote UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the world, in Shefa, Vanuatu.
• See the civilization that was created by the surviving mutineers of the HMS Bounty on Pitcairn Island.

• Visit the South Pole Flag Mast like the true badass you are, remembering all the people who fought to see the South Pole and the team that planted it in 1965.
• Find the bust of Vladimir Lenin, placed by a team from the USSR, in 1958.
• Journey to the Inexpressable Island Ice Cave to see the seal bones and other remains from the 1912 team that was forced to erect the ice cave and winter on the island.
• See where Shackleton’s crew waited four brutal months to be rescued at Point Wild on Elephant Island.
• Observe for signs of paranormal activity at Whalers Bay on Deception Island, where abandoned buildings and a buried cemetery give the uninhabited island an extra spooky flair.
• Sail from South America to Antarctica by passing through Drake’s Passage, named after English explorer Sir Francis Drake.

You Might Also Enjoy:

• The 50 Most Beautiful Castles in the World
• 9 Gorgeous Orthodox Monasteries You Need to See to Believe

Have You Undertaken any Epic History Travel or History-Inspired Trips? Leave the Destination and a bit about it in the Comments so other History Travelers can get inspired!

Pin this article for your next history travel adventure.

In this Article:

1 thought on “101 Epic History Travel Ideas to Help Plan Your Next Adventure”

Waouh !!! All many interesting informations ! First of all, I want to thank you for your experiences told to everybody in all your articles ! I am a french woman and actually, as I start a travel blog focused on France, I’m trying to get into the world of blogging. But it’s not easy… Your blog is wonderfull and I am not sure mine will be as beautifull as yours !

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What is TravelTime?

Travel Time Map Generator & Isochrones

I know i can get from a to b by public transport within my selected time, but it's not showing up.

If you're using public transport to do your analysis, it can look like we don't include a specific transit line. But it is rare that we have forgotten to add it! We have a full data team collecting transport data, and they're rarely caught out. It's usually due to understanding how we calculate travel time catchments. We build the area to include:

• Walking to the station platform
• Waiting for the next available departure
• Time spent boarding the train
• Giving enough time to take the A to B journey
• Depart on the station on the other side.

That means if you set your max travel time at 30 minutes, and the train journey you think should be included takes 28 minutes, it probably won't show up, because the other steps push it over the max 30 min limit. Try adding an extra 5-10 minutes to your max catchment area and see if this helps! Understand how we built our public transport model

You can't drive that far / you can drive much further than that

We recommend that you do a little experiment.

• Open another mapping app of your choice and enter an A to B route
• Select a departure time for tomorrow.

The average mapping provider gives very vague driving estimations. It's not uncommon to see a journey estimation between 30 minutes up to 2 hours. That's a lot of buffer room!

Our driving model only returns one singular best possible time estimate. We do this using our purpose-built driving model. Explore how we've built our driving model.

Still not convinced?

You can explain your data issue to us here and we can help you out. Please include in your request whether you're using the API for commercial or personal purposes.

About this tool

This demo was built to showcase the TravelTime API. To use the full capabilities of the API you will need coding skills, or experience with one of our integrations: QGIS, Alteryx or ArcGIS. Access to the API gives you larger travel time catchment areas, more transport mode options and large request volumes. Access the developer playground here.

What is a travel time map?

Our map tool allows you to create a 'How far can I go map' by transport mode and time limit. For example someone can ask how far can I drive from my home in 30 minutes. The tool outputs shapes, also known as travel time isochrones visualise where's reachable. Sometimes these shapes are incorrectly labelled as a 'travel time radius map'. A radius is always just a circular shape, but a travel time shape is completely unique as it analyses all locations reachable using a specific mode of transport.

How to create a drive time radius map or other modes

• Select a start location
• Select a maximum travel time limit
• Select a mode of transport, for example driving
• Voila! There's your driving radius map

Use cases for consumers

• Create a commute time map so you can see where to live based on commute time.
• How far can i travel in a given time: compare transport coverage for different areas.
• Create a drive time radius map: explore how far you can travel on a road trip.

Use cases for businesses

• Travel time mapping up to 4 hours & cross reference other data sets in GIS such as population data
• Site selection analysis: analyse the best location to locate a business by adding thousands of analysis points
• Create a distance matrix or travel time matrix & calculate travel times from thousands of origins to thousands of destinations
• Network analysis / travelling salesman problem: use spatial analytics to solve routing problems
• Commute time map - plot thousands of employee commute times for an office relocation

This web page is a limited demo that can do the following:

• Create up to 3 time polygons visualising where's reachable within 2 hours or less. Our API can create large travel time areas, talk to sales.
• Calculate travel times from an origin to various points of interest - in this demo we use points from Foursquare Give A to B routing details

Full access

We provide full analysis by all transport modes and all travel time areas in our full service. You can access this by:

• Book a demo
• Trial TravelTime API
• Trial QGIS Plugin
• Trial ArcGIS Pro Add-In
• Trial Alteryx Macros

Problem with the data?

Create a Travel Time Map

Draw a travel time area or make your own commute time map.

• See 'How far can I get' in X minutes
• Create a drive time map or any other transport mode
• Overlap many shapes & highlight overlap area
• Search points of interest within the area
• Get A to B routing details

• Help Center
• Google Maps
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service
• Submit feedback

In the coming months, the Location History setting name will change to Timeline. If Location History is turned on for your account, you may find Timeline in your app and account settings. Learn more .

Google Maps Timeline

Manage your Timeline

Google Maps Timeline is a personal map that helps you remember routes and trips you've taken and places you've been based on your Location History. You can edit your Timeline at any time and delete your Location History in Timeline.

If you have settings like Web & App Activity turned on and you turn off Location History or delete location data from Location History, you may still have location data saved in your Google Account as part of your use of other Google Sites, apps, and services. This activity can include info about your location from your device’s general area and IP address. For example, location data may be saved as part of activity on Search and Google Maps when your Web & App Activity setting is on, and included in your photos, depending on your camera app settings.

Find your travels

You can find how far you've traveled and the way that you traveled, such as walking, biking, driving, or on public transport. Timeline measures distances in miles or kilometers is based on your country or region.

• On your computer, open Google Maps .
• Sign in with the same Google Account that you use on your mobile device.

• To find another date, at the top, choose a day, month, and year.

Find your home & work on Timeline

If you've saved your home and work addresses, they show up on Timeline. In addition to Timeline, this information may also be used in other Google products and services.

Learn how to set your home and work addresses .

Edit Timeline

If a place is wrong on Timeline, you can edit the location and when you were there. 

• On your computer, go to Timeline .

• Choose the correct place or search for a place in the search box.
• To edit when you were there, click the time.
• Click the day that you want to delete.

• Click Delete day .

To delete Location History:

• Click Delete Location History .

Automatically delete your Location History

You can automatically delete Location History that’s older than 3 months, 18 months, or 36 months.

• Follow the on-screen instructions.

Turn Location History on or off

When you turn on Location History, your precise device location is regularly saved — to your devices and Google’s servers, even when Google apps aren’t being used, and creates your Timeline.

Learn more about how to manage your Location History .

You’re in control

You can always review your data, and any choices you make here, at activity.google.com or your Timeline .

Was this helpful?

Need more help, try these next steps:.

Speed Distance Time Calculator

Initially, this amazing calculator was developed especially for athletes, cyclists or joggers. However, all people who are required due to their activities to calculate an unknown variable with the help of the other two variables, will find use in it. You can use it in two ways. First, enter two particular variables in order to find the third one. Second, you may find the variable by entering the details.

Example Time Formats:

Speed: miles yards feet inches kilometers meters centimeters per hour minute second

You may set the number of decimal places in the online calculator. By default there are only two decimal places.

Speed    miles/hr miles/min miles/sec yards/hr yards/min yards/sec feet/hr feet/min feet/sec inch/hr inch/min inch/sec km/hr km/min km/sec meter/hr meter/min meter/sec cm/hr cm/min cm/sec mm/hr mm/min mm/sec

This calculator includes the following algorithms:

Speed Distance Time Calculator

Please enter the speed and distance values to calculate the travel time in hours, minutes and seconds.

About Speed Distance Time Calculator

This online calculator tool can be a great help for calculating time basing on such physical concepts as speed and distance. Therefore, in order to calculate the time, both distance and speed parameters must be entered. For the speed , you need to enter its value and select speed unit by using the scroll down menu in the calculator. For distance , you should enter its value and also select the proper length measurement unit from the scroll down menu. You'll receive the result in standard time format (HH:MM:SS).

Time Speed Distance Formula

Distance is equal to speed × time. Time is equal Distance/Speed.

Calculate Time from Distance and Speed Examples

Recent comments.

I was curious how fast I would need to be going to walk 1.9 miles in 40 minutes since Google maps said it would take me 40 minutes to walk that far and apparently it's 2.9 mph

was curious how fast something would have to go to be able to cross 120 miles in ten seconds btw it's around 45000

One of the best tools I've found for the calculations.

Going 65mph for 30 seconds how far would you get? None of these formulas work without distance. How would I find the distance from time and speed?

if i travel 0.01 inches per second and I need to travel 999999999 kilometers, it takes 556722071 Days and 20:24:34 WHAT

4. How long does it take to do 100m at 3kph ? No I thought you would just divide 100 ÷ 3 = which 33.33333 so 33 seconds or so I thought. But apparently it 2 mins.

This was the best tool ive ever used that was on point from speed to distance and time Calculator

This was somewhat unhelpful as I know the time and distance, but not the speed. Would be helpful if this calculator also could solve the other two as well.

If a total distance of 2 miles is driven, with the first mile being driven at a speed of 15mph, and the second mile driven at a speed of 45 mph: What is the average speed of the full 2 mile trip?

hi sorry im newly introduced to this and i dont understand how to use it but in need to find the distance if i was travelling in the average speed of 15km/hr in 4 hours how far would i travel

D= 697 km T= 8 hours and 12 minutes S= ?

if a train is going 130 miles in 50 minutes, how fast is it going in miles per hour ??

whats the speed if you travel 2000 miles in 20hours?

How long would it take me to drive to Mars at 100 miles per hour and how much gas would I use in a 2000 Ford Mustang000000/ Also, how much CO2 would I release into the air?

great tool helped me alot

A car can go from rest to 45 km/hr in 5 seconds. What is its acceleration?

Guys how much time will a cyclist take to cover 132 METRES With a speed of 8 km/ph

@Mike Depends on how fast that actually is. For every 10 mph above 60, but below 120, you save 5 seconds a mile. But between the 30-60 area, every ten saves 10 seconds a mile (if I am remembering correctly), and every 10 between 15-30 is 20 seconds. Realistically, it isn't likely isn't worth it, unless it is a relatively straight drive with no stops, in which case you will likely go up a gear for the drive and thus improve gas efficiency for the trip. Only really saves time if it is over long trips 300+ miles (in which case, assuming you were on the interstate) that 5 seconds a mile would save you 25 minutes from the drive, making it go from 4h35m to 4h10m. For me, I have family across the U.S., so family visits are usually 900-1400 miles. Even only driving 5 above usually saves me 90-150 minutes or so (since I often have stretches where I drive on US highways which have 55 mph speed limits)

I would like to know if driving fast is worth it for short trips. If I drive 10 MPH over the speed limit for 10 miles, how much time do i save ? Is there an equation for that ?

Enjoy discovering the What, Where and Why of our past

What happened and where.

Wondering what to do on your next vacation? Interested in history? 

The United States of America may be a relatively new country when compared to—well, any other nation on the globe. But we’ve been making history since the 17 th  century when intrepid colonists from England first landed on our shores.

The efforts put into the making of our country were often dramatic and sometimes quirky. So, if you find American history intriguing and would like to see exactly where certain events happened, you can get some inspiration from the Travel Into History blog. There, you’ll even find help with the details, such as where to stay, dine and relax to round out your “traveling into history” plans. 

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Today, Boston is a big, beautiful city famous for its iconic ballpark as well as Harvard and other institutions of higher learning. It welcomes visitors who wish to know more about its past while enjoying its present.

Steeped in a Romantic Past

No matter what era of American history interests you, resolve to put a visit to Savannah, GA, on your list of places to go and things to see!

St. Augustine: Sunshine, Palm Trees and Lots of History

When you think of Florida, you probably envision things like beautiful beaches but don’t forget how much history there is in this state, beginning with enchanting St. Augustine.

Williams, AZ, and the Grand Canyon Excursion

If you like railroads and have always wanted to visit the Grand Canyon, you’re in luck. Departing from Williams, AZ, you can ride the Grand Canyon Railway and experience history on a whole different level!

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From the charm of the Garden District with its vintage streetcars to the magic of the French Quarter, history is all around you in New Orleans, LA.

Hampton Roads and its marvelous museums

Of the many Hampton Roads museums and historic sites you can visit, two stand out because of their connection to the sea and events that help tell the story of the United States.

San Diego and the Coronado Connection

Heading across the wide sweep of the Coronado Bay Bridge from the City of San Diego puts you on Coronado Island in minutes. And it’s just another short drive from there to the Hotel Del Coronado, one of the most beautiful and historic hotels in the nation.

Speed Calculator

Speed converter.

The following converter converts between common speed units.

Speed, distance, and time

What is speed.

Speed is defined as the rate at which an object covers distance. It describes how quickly or slowly an object moves from one place to another. The standard (SI) unit of speed is meters per second (m/s), but it can also be expressed in other units, such as kilometers per hour (km/h), miles per hour (mph), or feet per second (ft/s), depending on the context or the country's measurement system.

The relationship between speed, distance, and time

Speed, distance, and time are closely interconnected and can be thought of as three pieces of a puzzle that fit together perfectly. The relationship can be summarized by the formula:

This formula shows that:

• Speed increases if you cover more distance in the same amount of time, or if you cover a distance in less time.
• Distance can be calculated if you know the speed and time, with the formula: distance = speed × time

Imagine you are riding a bicycle at a constant speed of 10 meters per second (m/s) for 1 minute. How far will you have traveled by the end of that minute?

First, convert the time into seconds because our speed is in meters per second. One minute equals 60 seconds. Now, using the distance formula:

This means you will have traveled 600 meters in one minute.

Understanding the relationship between speed, distance, and time is not just about solving physics problems; it helps us in everyday situations. Whether you are trying to calculate how long it will take to get to school at a certain speed, how fast you need to run to win a race, or even how speed limits on roads are determined to ensure safety, these concepts are incredibly useful.

Common speed units

Examples of different speeds.

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