Landmarks and monuments — the warm-up round
Open with the monuments that everyone has seen on a postcard. These questions exist to get every team on the scoreboard, so read them briskly and do not let anyone stall — the point is momentum, not difficulty.
One warning for hosts: the easy rounds are where arguments start, because people are confident. Have the "why" line ready to read aloud the moment someone objects, and give the point to whoever names the country rather than the exact spelling of the site.
Q1.In which country would you find the Leaning Tower of Pisa?Tap to reveal
Answer: Italy
Construction began in 1173 and the tower started tilting almost immediately because the subsoil beneath one side is soft clay and sand. An engineering project between 1990 and 2001 removed soil from the high side and pulled the lean back by about 45 cm.
Q2.The Great Pyramid was built as a tomb for Pharaoh Khufu. In which country does it stand?Tap to reveal
Answer: Egypt
It sits on the Giza plateau outside Cairo and was raised around 2560 BC. At roughly 147 metres it remained the tallest structure humans had ever built for about 3,800 years.
Q3.Which country is home to the Taj Mahal?Tap to reveal
Answer: India
Emperor Shah Jahan had it built in Agra between 1632 and 1653 as a mausoleum for his wife Mumtaz Mahal — it is a tomb, not a palace, despite how often it is described as one.
Q4.Which country gave the Statue of Liberty to the United States, dedicated in 1886?Tap to reveal
Answer: France
Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi sculpted the copper skin, and the iron framework holding it up was engineered by Gustave Eiffel three years before he started his tower.
Q5.The temple complex of Angkor Wat is in which country?Tap to reveal
Answer: Cambodia
Built in the early 12th century for King Suryavarman II, it began as a Hindu temple to Vishnu and later became Buddhist. Cambodia has put it on the national flag since about 1850 — through every change of regime since.
Q6.Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple in the world, is on which Indonesian island?Tap to reveal
Answer: Java
The 9th-century monument sits in central Java and was built as a single stepped pyramid of nine platforms — pilgrims walk clockwise up through more than a kilometre of carved relief panels.
Q7.In which country would you visit the gilded Shwedagon Pagoda?Tap to reveal
Answer: Myanmar (Burma)
The stupa dominates Yangon's skyline at nearly 100 metres and is covered in genuine gold plates, traditionally donated by worshippers rather than the state.
Q8.The Christ the Redeemer statue stands on top of which mountain?Tap to reveal
Answer: Corcovado, in Rio de Janeiro
The Art Deco figure was finished in 1931 after about nine years of work — the statue itself is 30 metres tall and sits on an 8-metre pedestal, 700 metres above the city.
Q9.Which harbour city is home to the shell-roofed opera house designed by Jørn Utzon?Tap to reveal
Answer: Sydney, Australia
The Danish architect won an open competition in 1957, the building opened in 1973 after fourteen years of construction and huge cost overruns, and UNESCO listed it in 2007 while Utzon was still alive.
Q10.Stonehenge stands near which small town in Wiltshire, England?Tap to reveal
Answer: Amesbury
The stone circle was raised in stages between roughly 3000 and 2000 BC, and sits about 13 km north of Salisbury — close enough that many visitors do both in a morning.
Q11.True or false: the Great Wall of China can be seen with the naked eye from space.Tap to reveal
Answer: False
It is long but only a few metres wide and built from local stone and earth that matches the ground around it. Astronauts have repeatedly said they cannot pick it out unaided, and the claim predates spaceflight entirely.
City sights worth the detour
This round is about the specific building that makes a city worth an extra day. It rewards people who read the plaque instead of taking the photograph and walking on, so expect the scores to spread out here.
If you are hosting for a mixed group, deal this round as a written sheet rather than reading it aloud. Several answers are proper nouns that people can picture but cannot pronounce, and writing them down saves everyone the embarrassment.
Q1.In which city would you find the basilica of La Sagrada Família?Tap to reveal
Answer: Barcelona
Antoni Gaudí took over the project in 1883 and worked on it until his death in 1926. A century on it is still unfinished and still paid for largely by ticket sales — the exterior of its central tower of Jesus Christ was completed and blessed in June 2026, with the Glory facade still to come.
Q2.Venice's Ponte dei Sospiri translates into English as what?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Bridge of Sighs
The enclosed limestone bridge was built around 1600 to link the Doge's Palace to the prisons. The romantic name is a 19th-century invention credited to Lord Byron, not a local tradition.
Q3.Which Roman amphitheatre seated around 50,000 spectators for gladiatorial combat?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Colosseum
Officially the Flavian Amphitheatre, it was begun under Vespasian around AD 72 and inaugurated by his son Titus in AD 80 — deliberately built over the artificial lake of Nero's private palace as a gift back to the city.
Q4.The Winter Palace in St Petersburg stands on the bank of which river?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Neva
The baroque palace was the official residence of the Russian tsars and now forms the core of the Hermitage Museum, whose collection runs to roughly three million items.
Q5.Paris has its own Statue of Liberty. Near which bridge does it stand?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Pont de Grenelle
The quarter-scale copy was given to Paris by American residents in 1889 and stands on the Île aux Cygnes, a narrow island in the Seine, facing downstream toward its larger sister in New York.
Q6.The Rila Monastery, founded by a 10th-century hermit saint, is in which country?Tap to reveal
Answer: Bulgaria
It sits in the Rila Mountains south of Sofia. Most of what visitors see is 19th-century Bulgarian Revival work — striped arcades and painted porches rebuilt after a fire in 1833.
Q7.Which London bridge, designed by Horace Jones and opened in 1894, still raises its roadway for tall ships?Tap to reveal
Answer: Tower Bridge
It is a combined bascule and suspension bridge named for the Tower of London beside it, and it is the bridge tourists usually mean when they say "London Bridge" — which is a plain concrete span upriver.
Q8.The Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis was dedicated to which goddess?Tap to reveal
Answer: Athena
Built between 447 and 432 BC to thank the city's patron goddess after the Persian Wars. Its name comes from parthenos, Greek for maiden — the temple of Athena the Virgin.
Q9.Which Paris museum, the most visited in the world, occupies a former royal palace on the Seine?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Louvre
It was a fortress, then a royal residence, and opened as a public museum in 1793 during the Revolution. I. M. Pei's glass pyramid was added to the courtyard in 1989 over loud local objections.
Q10.The Ishtar Gate, with its glazed blue brick lions, led into which ancient city?Tap to reveal
Answer: Babylon
It was built around 575 BC under Nebuchadnezzar II. The reconstruction most people picture is not in Iraq at all — it was assembled from excavated fragments in Berlin's Pergamonmuseum, which is closed for rebuilding and due to start reopening in 2027.
Q11.Machu Picchu was built by which civilisation?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Inca
The ridge-top site was built around 1450, sits at about 2,430 metres, and was never found by the Spanish. Hiram Bingham brought it to international attention in 1911 with local guides leading the way.
Q12.The Reichstag building in Berlin houses what?Tap to reveal
Answer: Germany's parliament, the Bundestag
Opened in 1894, gutted by fire in 1933, and left as a shell through the Cold War. Norman Foster's walkable glass dome was added when the Bundestag moved back in 1999 — visitors literally look down on the legislators.
Q13.St Basil's Cathedral, with its swirling onion domes, stands on which Moscow square?Tap to reveal
Answer: Red Square
Ivan the Terrible had it built between 1555 and 1561. The famous colours are a later addition — for its first century the church was mostly white and gold brick.
Natural wonders — the round that separates travelers from armchair tourists
Landmarks can be memorised from a screensaver; landscapes usually cannot. This round leans on mountains, falls, reefs and craters, and it is where teams who actually hike start pulling ahead of teams who only fly.
A host tip that works reliably here: ask for the country before you ask for the name. "Which two countries share Victoria Falls" gets a whole table talking, where "name this waterfall" gets one shouted answer and silence.
Q1.Which mountain on the Nepal–Tibet border is the highest on Earth?Tap to reveal
Answer: Mount Everest
It is 8,849 m by the joint Nepali–Chinese survey published in 2020. Nepal calls it Sagarmatha and Tibetans call it Chomolungma; the English name honours surveyor George Everest, who objected to it.
Q2.The world's largest coral reef system stretches along the coast of which country?Tap to reveal
Answer: Australia
The Great Barrier Reef runs roughly 2,300 km off Queensland and is made of thousands of individual reefs built by billions of tiny coral polyps — a structure alive enough to be called the largest living thing on the planet.
Q3.Which 446 km-long gorge in northern Arizona was carved by the Colorado River?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Grand Canyon
The river cut down through rock layers spanning close to two billion years of geology. It became a national park in 1919, largely because Theodore Roosevelt kept going back and campaigning for it.
Q4.Victoria Falls lies on the border between which two African countries?Tap to reveal
Answer: Zambia and Zimbabwe
The Zambezi drops into a narrow basalt gorge here. The local name, Mosi-oa-Tunya, means "the smoke that thunders" — the spray plume can be seen from dozens of kilometres away.
Q5.Tromsø, Fairbanks and Yellowknife all sell tickets to see the aurora borealis. Aurora was the goddess of the dawn in which ancient mythology?Tap to reveal
Answer: Roman
Aurora is the Roman dawn goddess; her Greek counterpart is Eos. "Borealis" means northern, and the same phenomenon over the southern hemisphere is called the aurora australis.
Q6.Which Indonesian volcano in the Sunda Strait erupted catastrophically in 1883?Tap to reveal
Answer: Krakatoa (Krakatau)
The blast was heard nearly 5,000 km away and killed more than 36,000 people, mostly by tsunami. A new cone, Anak Krakatau — "child of Krakatoa" — began growing out of the caldera in 1927.
Q7.Africa's highest mountain rises in which country?Tap to reveal
Answer: Tanzania
Kilimanjaro tops out at 5,895 m at Uhuru Peak. It is a free-standing volcano rather than part of a range, which is why it looks impossibly large from the plains around it.
Q8.The sandstone monolith in central Australia known as Ayers Rock has what Aboriginal name?Tap to reveal
Answer: Uluru
It rises 348 m above the desert. Ownership was returned to the Pitjantjatjara traditional owners in 1985, and climbing it was permanently banned on 26 October 2019 at their request.
Q9.Which Alpine mountain on the Swiss–Italian border has four steep faces pointing at the four compass points?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Matterhorn
The 4,478 m pyramid was first climbed in 1865 by Edward Whymper's party — four of the seven men died on the way down, which made the mountain famous worldwide overnight.
Q10.Which country closes the eastern end of the Alpine arc, home to the Julian Alps and Mount Triglav?Tap to reveal
Answer: Slovenia
The range arcs through eight countries, and its highest point is Mont Blanc on the French–Italian border — a summit of ice that is re-surveyed every two years and has measured just over 4,800 m each time.
Q11.The Barringer Crater, better known as Meteor Crater, is in which US state?Tap to reveal
Answer: Arizona
The 1.2 km bowl was punched out roughly 50,000 years ago. Daniel Barringer argued for an impact origin when geologists insisted it was volcanic; Eugene Shoemaker proved him right in 1960.
Q12.Scoresby Sund, one of the longest fjord systems in the world, cuts into which island?Tap to reveal
Answer: Greenland
Its branches reach some 350 km inland from the east coast. Fjords like it are drowned glacial valleys — the ice carves a U-shaped trench, retreats, and the sea floods in behind it.
Q13.Banff, Canmore and Lake Louise are resort towns in which mountain range?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Canadian Rockies
All three are in Alberta. Banff grew up around hot springs found by railway workers in 1883 and became Canada's first national park two years later.
Islands, beach towns and destinations with a story
Every resort has marketing copy; the good ones have history underneath it. This round covers islands and beach towns where the backstory is more interesting than the beach — a flooded volcanic caldera, a captain about to lose his ship to mutiny, a French actress on holiday.
These questions travel well to a family table because most of them have a picture attached in people's heads. If you are playing with kids, ask them to point at the answer on a map or a globe and give a bonus point for landing on the right continent.
Q1.Which Greek island in the southern Cyclades is officially named Thira, or Thera?Tap to reveal
Answer: Santorini
The crescent shape and the cliff-top views are the rim of a flooded volcanic caldera, left by an enormous eruption around 1600 BC. The white walls are practical, not decorative — they reflect the summer heat.
Q2.Which Indonesian island is known as the island of the gods, famous for its rice terraces and temples?Tap to reveal
Answer: Bali
It is the only Indonesian province with a Hindu majority, in a country that is overwhelmingly Muslim, and it has tens of thousands of temples for a population of around four million.
Q3.The party island of Ibiza belongs to which country?Tap to reveal
Answer: Spain
It is part of the Balearic Islands, one of Spain's seventeen autonomous communities, and lies about 80 km off the nearest point of the Spanish mainland, Cap de la Nau, in the Mediterranean.
Q4.Ibiza is in the Balearic Islands — but which city is the capital of that autonomous community?Tap to reveal
Answer: Palma, on Majorca
A common trap: Ibiza Town is the capital of its own island, not of the Balearics. Majorca is much the largest island in the group, and Palma is the regional seat of government.
Q5.The Mexican resort town of Puerto Vallarta sits on which bay?Tap to reveal
Answer: Banderas Bay
Humpback whales winter in the bay between roughly December and March, close enough to be watched from the shoreline as well as from boats.
Q6.Cabo San Lucas sits at the southern tip of which Mexican peninsula?Tap to reveal
Answer: Baja California
It marks the point where the Pacific meets the Gulf of California, and the rock arch called El Arco at Land's End is the town's signature landmark.
Q7.Which Polynesian island, known to its people as the navel of the world, was reached by Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen in 1722?Tap to reveal
Answer: Easter Island (Rapa Nui)
Roggeveen arrived on Easter Sunday, which is where the European name comes from. The island has been Chilean territory since 1888 and is one of the most remote inhabited places on Earth.
Q8.Captain William Bligh sighted this Cook Island in 1789, shortly before the mutiny on the Bounty. Its lagoon is now the islands' main draw. Name it.Tap to reveal
Answer: Aitutaki
The lagoon is a triangle of reef enclosing one main volcanic island, two smaller volcanic islets and a dozen or so low coral motu — which is why the water inside is shallow, sheltered and an improbable shade of turquoise.
Q9.Which Nepalese town on Phewa Lake is the main base for treks into the Annapurna range?Tap to reveal
Answer: Pokhara
It sits at only about 800 m altitude yet looks straight up at 8,000 m peaks, one of the steepest visual gradients of any town on Earth.
Q10.Which Southeast Asian country was formerly known as Siam?Tap to reveal
Answer: Thailand
The name changed to Thailand in 1939, reverted briefly to Siam in the 1940s, and settled permanently as Thailand in 1949. It is the only country in the region never colonised by a European power.
Q11.Which Brazilian resort town near Rio de Janeiro is nicknamed the St Tropez of Brazil?Tap to reveal
Answer: Búzios
It was a fishing village until Brigitte Bardot holidayed there in 1964 and the world noticed. The seafront promenade is now named Orla Bardot and has a bronze statue of her sitting on a suitcase.
Hotels, airports and the language of travel
Save this round for last. It is the one where frequent flyers finally cash in, because none of it is about scenery — it is about the vocabulary printed on your booking confirmation and the buildings you sleep in.
Read these as a tiebreaker set if your first four rounds end level. The hotel-jargon questions have exactly one right answer and no room to argue, which is precisely what you want when two teams are staring at each other.
If your table wants to keep going after the last question, Trivio.NET has more travel and geography rounds to play, plus real-time 1v1 battles when the group gets genuinely competitive about this.
Q1.What is the job title of the hotel employee who handles guests' bookings, tickets and special requests?Tap to reveal
Answer: The concierge
The French word originally meant a resident caretaker of an apartment building. In a hotel the concierge's real asset is a local contact list, which is why good ones are poached between properties.
Q2.Periods of peak demand when discounted rates do not apply are known as what?Tap to reveal
Answer: Blackout dates, or blackout periods
Award flights and points-based hotel nights are the usual casualties. It is not the same as a "black day", which is not an industry term at all.
Q3.In hotel pricing, what is the rack rate?Tap to reveal
Answer: The published, undiscounted price of a room
It is the notional full price posted on the rate card, and almost nobody pays it — corporate, meeting and promotional rates all sit below it, which is why the discount off rack rate sounds so generous.
Q4.A US hotel room described as "double/double" contains what?Tap to reveal
Answer: Two double beds
A room listed simply as a "double" has one double bed. The doubled word describes the count of beds, not the price — a genuinely common booking mistake.
Q5.To reduce jet lag on a long flight, whose local time should you start living by?Tap to reveal
Answer: The local time at your destination
Jet lag is your body clock disagreeing with the daylight around you. Eating and sleeping on destination time before you arrive shortens the gap; checking your departure city's clock widens it.
Q6.Dubai's 321-metre Burj al-Arab hotel was designed to resemble what?Tap to reveal
Answer: The sail of a dhow
The dhow is the traditional Arabian sailing boat. The hotel opened in 1999 on its own artificial island, reachable only by a private bridge — which is part of the point.
Q7.Which hotel at Fifth Avenue and Central Park South was the New York setting for Home Alone 2?Tap to reveal
Answer: The Plaza
The 1907 hotel has appeared in dozens of films, from North by Northwest to the Crocodile Dundee movies — its lobby is one of the most filmed interiors in Manhattan.
Q8.London's Savoy Hotel, on the Strand, takes its name from what once stood on the site?Tap to reveal
Answer: The medieval Savoy Palace
The hotel opened in 1889 and its kitchen under Auguste Escoffier gave the world Peach Melba and Melba toast. Cars still enter by its forecourt, Savoy Court, driving on the right — a quirk the hotel's private road has kept for over a century.
Q9.What is the common American name for the small zip-up bag worn on a belt around the waist, handy for a passport?Tap to reveal
Answer: A fanny pack
British travelers call the same thing a bum bag, which is worth knowing before you ask a London shop assistant for a fanny pack.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I play these travel trivia questions online for free?
Yes. This page includes a free playable quiz widget, and the Trivio.NET app has travel and geography packs plus live 1v1 battles against other players.
How many travel trivia questions do I need for a quiz night?
Ten per round is the pub-quiz standard. The five rounds on this page hold 57 questions in total, so you can run a full evening or pull two rounds for a shorter game.
Are these travel trivia questions suitable for kids?
The landmarks round and most of the islands round work well from about age eight, especially with a map or globe on the table. The hotel and airline jargon round is aimed at adults.
Which travel trivia question do people get wrong most often?
The Great Wall of China. Most players confidently say it is visible from space with the naked eye — it is not, because it is only a few metres wide and made of material that matches the ground around it.
How do I make a travel trivia round harder?
Ask for two facts instead of one: the landmark and its country, or the waterfall and both countries that share it. You can also withhold the multiple-choice options and take the first correct shout.
What makes a good travel trivia round for a mixed group?
Balance recognition with experience. Start with monuments everyone has seen in photographs, then move to questions that reward people who have actually traveled — resort towns, mountain ranges, hotel vocabulary — so no single type of player dominates.
