Travel Quiz
 

I find it interesting after reading these threads how little some people know about
just general vacation style travel.

I had some coworkers at lunch take this little quiz:

Who is Rick Steves?

Which countries in Europe now use Euro?

Do you get cheese on your pizza in Italy?


They got all three wrong.

Any more questions I should try on them?
They are willing.

There is a new quiz question on the main Fodor's page every day. Just don't tell your co-workers about this website ;)

Hi chardonnay,

>Which countries in Europe now use Euro?

That's not a fair question because it requires knowing
a) all of the countries of Europe
b) those which don't use the Euro.

Real quick, do the UK, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden use the Euro?

The cheese on the pizza question could be tricky--in Italy some do, some don't. What would be the correct answer? Yes, and no? Yes, I order pizza styles that have cheese? No, I order pizza styles that don't have cheese?

You are right, they are unfair questions.
I will have to think of better ones, any ideas?
We all work at a movie studio and two of us make well over 100,000 and the others make just below that amount.
One woman only travels to Penn. to visit relatives using all her vacation time.
One went to Hawaii as her only airplane trip and found it boring when she realized that there were no 99 cent stores there.
One goes only to Phoenix and Palm Springs.
One has been to the Carib.

I dont ask the one male because he is well traveled. The one question I did find odd that they didn't know (we are all in Hollywood) is that they did not know Rick Steves.

Any more questions? They all want to be centers of attention, they are just not travelers as you can tell.

Travel and other questions at:
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/quizzes-world.html

I have traveled for about 40 years through 30 countries and did not know who Rick Steves was until I came to fodors. He just wasn't relevant to my travel. He hasn't <i>always</i> been around, you know. Once upon a time it was &quot;Europe on $10 a Day&quot; -- now <i>there's</i> a laugh!

For a quiz, the first two questions are certainly fair. There are factual answers to both:

1) The answer could be: &quot;Rick Steves is America's favorite expert on European travel&quot;, as letravelstore.com might answer. Another valid answer would be &quot;Rick Steves is a travel guru&quot; and, expecting this answer, you drill down in your quiz by asking which region of the world does he specialize in (Europe), etc.

2) This is perfectly fair. ira can do the subtraction, a minus b, and make the list of those countries that use the Euro. I can memorize that list and answer without knowing a or b. You have to know several facts, so it is a complicated question, but a valid one.

I don't need to know how many states are in the U.S. AND how many don't have Pacific Ocean coast to answer the following geography question: how many U.S. states have coastlines on the Pacific Ocean? (A=5).

3) My answer to the literal question is valid: &quot;I have never been to Italy&quot;. The question you want to ask needs qualified

Marilyn,

I remember &quot;Europe on FIVE dollars a day&quot;.

Hi Chardonnay

Where do I go to find discount airline fares? (name 2)

How do I find train schedules in Europe? In the US?

How about what countries are in the United Kingdom?

What cities comprise the &quot;grand tour&quot;?

What's the number one travel destination in the US? (not sure I know the answer to this one LOL)

As I see it, Chardonnay, not knowing who Rick Steves is is a big plus.

He is filled with more misinformation than anybody else on tv who is not in politics. He mispronounces names in every language and his attitudes help to reinforce the ugly american stereotype that many of us have tried for years to eliminate. I watch his shows to see places that I haven't been, but cringe every time. IMO Smart Travels is a much better production.

Off soap box now.

I firmly believe that there is a gene that determines whether or not you like to travel. I have it, my sister doesn't. It's their loss that the people you work with don't have this gene; but, they'll never know it's their loss, because not having the gene keeps them from being aware of what they're missing.

In short, Chardonnay, give up on them. They'll never change.

What is London's Big Ben? (It's the clock not the tower the clock is in)

Will your American blow dryer work in Paris?

What's the difference between first class and business class?

Which city is farther north, London or New York?

Why don't you need a passport to go to Guam?

Do you know what seat pitch means?

What planet do you live on?

Isn't Big Ben actually the giant bell inside the tower?

Yep - the bell - not the clock.

Rick Steves? A very rich, successful travel dweeb.

Forget the quiz - chardonnay, are you hiring???

ceb, LOL!
Ira, I was embarrassed to admit I went <i>that</i> far back. How could there ever have been a book with that title? It's incomprehensible now!
mrwunrfl, who knew you had such an analytic and precise cast of mind?

I have in my possession a book my parents used on their first trip in 1965: &quot;Europe on $5 a Day.&quot;

Ellenem, please study it carefully and remind us how it was possible. Today you could easily blow your entire daily allowance on one cup of coffee in Paris.

Chardonnay...I took your quiz and got all of them right except the first one.
I guessed Rick Steves was the fellow the butler found fooling around with Prince Charles.

Phooey, we cant do the test today, we have to WORK! I'll get back to ya'll!

I can tell you from experience that it was VERY possible on $5.00 a day because I did it in 1970! There was actually a more &quot;upscale&quot; book called &quot;Europe on $10 a Day&quot; that some of my friends used.
The answer: everything was cheaper and the dollar was worth a lot more..but in 20 years, Europe on $300 a day may seem cheap to some folks.

Chardonnay - Do any of your co-workers
say why they don't travel anywhere else?
It's very hard for me, though I try, to
understand someone not wanting to travel. Most of my relatives would never dream of going to Europe...nor do they travel in the US. I think they're afraid of anyplace new. Maybe we should be thankful...if everyone had a passion
for travel could you imagine the crowds! ;-)

I don't think I could name all the intricacies of the euro system--ie, diff. in EU vs. using Euro and exactly which countries other than the main ones I travel to use it. I have to look up Scandinavia, for example. I think a good question should be if you get 1.5 slobavian dollars for one USD, so that mean things are cheaper in Slobavia than in Romulac where you only get .90 romulacian dinars for one USD?

Should you put a US dollar sign in front of all foreign currencies when you cite what things cost in them?

My mother and people in the retirement home like to watch Rick Steves. they think he's really cool, she talks about him a lot.

I think I remember my first Frommer's book which was about $50 a day for some major European city, like Paris. Inflation has caused prices to rise, but the dollar was not worth more in 1970 than now -- coincidentally, it was worth almost exactly the same as I just looked it up to check, that since it didn't seem true to me. The dollar was really high against the franc in the mid 1980s (especially 1985), but not in the 1970s.

It was worth 5.6FF in 1970 which is exactly what it's worth today (.85 euro which is 5.6F). It was only worth 4.8F in 1974 amd 4.2F in 1979-80, actually, it's lowest point I noticed in the last 30 years. Those are yearly averages. It was worth less in 1975 than any year after 1958.

Only something like 20% of Americans have Passports. That ought to tell you something. We are the exception, not the rule!

Hee hee~

Do the bathrooms have shower curtains in France?
How do you turn on the light in a Parisian toilet?
What do you do if there is NO toilet in a Parisian toilet !?
How many ways are there to say Chocolate in French?
How do you say Coffee in French.
How do you say Coffee in Italian.
If I just give them the money, will they pick out the coins they need and give me the correct change?

Scarlett:
no, leave the door open, use the bidet, 16, caf&eacute; cr&egrave;me, espresso, if you're lucky.
How'd I do?

Do the bathrooms have shower curtains in France? Ours did
How do you turn on the light in a Parisian toilet? didn't know they had lights in their toilets--we used the switch when we went into a WC.
What do you do if there is NO toilet in a Parisian toilet !?Why would there be a toilet in a toilet?
How many ways are there to say Chocolate in French? One for me.
How do you say Coffee in French. Cafe ole. Same in Spanish.
How do you say Coffee in Italian. Espresso is absolutely correct
If I just give them the money, will they pick out the coins they need and give me the correct change? Without a doubt--everyone in Europe is intelligent, well-educated, and honest

My grandchildren are 3 and 5 and they have passports and frequent flyer accounts!

Eeek - recently my niece (just graduated from college with honors in environmental science) asked if Italy was a city in Spain. And yet she wrote up a grant last summer, got the money and went to Africa to work for a month! Some really smart people don't know everything (unlike me and a few others on this board - LOL!!!).

Here's a question for you.

What U. S. President had never been to Europe or Africa or Asia before he was inaugurated?

&quot;Some really smart people don't know everything&quot; -- True, Shanna, but I don't understand how you graduate from college without a basic knowledge of world geography. Isn't that, like, 5th grade level information?

rfb, the answer is simply too depressing to put into print. I went to a live conversation with Calvin Trillin and Adam Gopnik last night, and Gopnik said &quot;It's no surprise to find the Corleone family running America, but you don't expect Fredo to be President.&quot;

rfb--Abraham Lincoln?

Or maybe Andrew Jackson or U.S. Grant?

When packing my parents house for a recent move, we found Dad's &quot;Europe on $10 day&quot; book....it worked then! He took 6 teenage boys for three weeks...they spent $750 each...$550 was for airfare! That was in 1977..they had a blast.

I'm using that book in planning my next trip, just to see some different ideas about places to see...just wish the prices were still that low!

Dad and I spent a bit more on our trip last year :)

Anne

chardonnay, I am well traveled but if I overheard your &quot;little quiz&quot; I would stop you before you embarrased yourself. Thats got to be the dumbest thing to do after returning from a trip to Europe. I'll bet you don't have many friends at work anymore.

That is funny, Jor.
Actually they are sort of proud that they don't travel to Europe, and I am not doing it to exploit them, we have alot of down time and we discuss alot of topics.
They are up on politics and give me quizes on it all the time, boooring to me.
Last week we all took personality quizzes from Dr. Phil, what can I say.....

PS: Anyone want to take the Dr. Phil test? I can post it here if you do.

Actually, I'd imagine that at least 99 percent of the world's population has never heard of Rich Steves.