Can you travel around the world in 80 hours?
Yes, I admit that the title of the article sounds like mission impossible. 80 hours? Seriously?
But let me explain what I mean…
Nowadays many people complain that they have no time to travel. Or no money. Or ”ideally”, both. But have you ever realized that traveling around the globe does not have to take your entire life? It all just depends on what you want to see and how much time and money you have. There’s different kinds of transportation you can use to wander around the globe, all of them having both advantages and disadvantages. In this article I’d like to show you an ”extreme” case of very fast traveling if you choose to follow someone else’s world trip.
Have you ever heard of the book Around the world in eighty days? It is a classic novel written by famous French author Jules Verne which was published back in 1873. In the novel the main character Phileas Fogg is trying to circumnavigate the world in 80 days. He started his journey in London and came back to the same city 80 days later.
I guess the book title sounds familiar to you, or maybe you have even read the book at school. So why do I mention 80 hours instead of 80 days, like in the book? It’s because recently I’ve just noticed an article speaking about this topic.
Based on their research they found out that it’s possible not only to travel around the world in 80 days, which seems crazy enough already, but it’s even doable in 80 hours. How on Earth? Well, obviously the fastest way would be by plane. Keep reading for more details.
In the novel we could read that Phileas Fogg initial itinerary was as follows: he left from London, then went to Egypt, then India (Bombay and Calcutta), from there to Hong Kong, Japan, United States (both San Francisco and New York City) and back to London (Great Britain). It took him altogether 80 days to travel to all of these destinations, hence the name of the book. As we can imagine, it’s a lot easier and faster to travel around the globe in the present than it was back in 1872 when the novel takes place.
Here’s the map of Phileas’s trip if you’d like to go on the similar trip now in 2019.
Around the World in Eighty Days map
If you’d like to recreate the journey from the well-known novel now 146 years since its publication, here are 4 different options you have:
- by airplane – it would take you 3.3 days (80 hours to be exact) to cover 27,788 miles from London (that’s approximately 44,720 km). However, because of stopovers you’d need to hop on 3 trains, too.
- by train – 35,547 miles (57,207 km) traveled in almost 31 days. But remember that you would need to change the train 70 times!
- by car – to road trip around the world you’d need to drive 31,925 miles (51,378 km). Ideally it could be done in 23.5 days.
- by boat – it’s the slowest method out of all of these options and would take you 72 days. You could cross 28,413 miles (almost 45,727 km) in 72 days. It’s still 8 days less than 80 days like in the novel.
Now tell me… Have you ever thought of traveling the world in 80 hours or 80 days? Which one would you choose? Slower or faster travel? And which mode of transportation is your favorite?
Personally, I like to combine trains and planes. Boats are a cool way to travel too, but I haven’t been on as many as I’d like to, yet. And since an accident I had years ago, I am still scared of driving a car, which makes it 1 option less for me to choose from.
