Guinness World Records has long been recording some of the most amazing and astonishing travel and tourism facts. Here we are sharing some of the most unbelievable record-breaking accounts, all fully fact-checked and Guinness-approved.

Largest Ice Structure—The Ice Hotel in Sweden

    Each year, the ice hotel in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden, is rebuilt from blocks of frozen ice from the nearby River Torne. Covering an area of 5,500 square metres, the hotel is unsurprisingly open seasonally, from December to March, when it melts away. In 2015, the hotel celebrated its 25^th anniversary, complete with an ice bar, an ice church and ice bedrooms—one even featured a London Tube carriage made entirely of ice.

Tallest Waterfall—Angel Falls, Venezuela

    The largest waterfall by vertical(垂直的) area may be Victoria Falls, which sit on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, but it's South America that's home to the world's tallest.

    Angel Falls, located in Bolivar, Venezuela, has an impressive, uninterrupted drop of 807 metres.

    It was actually named after the American pilot, Jimmie Angel, who first recorded it in his logbook on November 16, 1933.

Largest Area of Glowing Sea—Indian Ocean, near Somalia

    Bioluminescence(生物体发光) is the production and emission of light by a living thing and can be used to explain the surprising phenomenon(现象)of “glowing oceans.”

    It was in 1995 that scientists detected glowing sea in the Indian Ocean—just off the coast of Somalia-via satellite, The water was more than 250 kilometres long, and it was all thanks to the bacteria called phytoplankton.

Most Expensive Hotel Room—The Royal Penthouse Suite at Geneva's Hotel President Wilsom

    This particular suite is just the ticket, costing as much as US$83,000(£53,760)per night.

    But the high price will gain you access to 12 bedrooms and 12 marble bathrooms across 18,000 square feet.

    Photography is a very popular art form. Anyone with a camera – or a mobile phone – can practice it. A picture communicates in a way that words often can't. As the photographer Destin Sparks put it, "Photography is the story I fail to put into words." And there's no better opportunity to practice the art of photography than during our vacation time.

    Holiday photos have been a part of the culture of travelers for a long time. For decades, vacationers have made sure they've packed a camera along with bathing suits, Hawaiian shirts and sunglasses. A camera is an important holiday item. But over the last 10 years, photography has become much more popular. It's easy to capture (捕捉) still and moving pictures of places of interest, and it's also easy to show off these pictures on social media. Armed with their smart phones, tourists, this year more than ever, are capturing the beauty of our planet.

    Of course, travel companies have caught on to this. Trekksoft has an example of photo-tourism from the United States, a land with a vast choice of beautiful locations. Antelope Slot Canyon Tours in Arizona specializes in tours of the state's famous canyons（峡谷）, which gives photographers the opportunity to capture them on camera.

    Not that any great technology is needed for this: most of the tourists are able to make beautiful images with just their mobile phones. Still, help is on hand from the tour guide for those who aren't great at using their cameras. These tour guides have taken a course in photography in case the skills they've learned would help their customers.

    Anyone watching the autumn sky knows that migrating birds fly in a V formation, but scientists have long debated why. A new study finds that these big－winged birds carefully position their wingtips and flap(拍动) at the same rate, probably to catch the upward movement of air and save energy during flight.

    There are two reasons birds might fly in a V formation: It may make flight easier, or they're simply following the leader. Squadrons(中 队) of planes can save fuel by flying in a V formation, and many scientists suspect that migrating birds do the same. Models that treated flapping birds like fixed－wing airplanes show that they probably save energy by drafting off each other, but currents created by airplanes are far more stable than those coming off of birds.

    Just as aerodynamic(气动力) calculations would predict, the birds positioned themselves to fly just behind and to the side of the bird in front, timing their wing flaps to catch the uplifting eddies(涡流). When a bird flew directly behind another, the timing of the flapping reversed(相反) so that it could minimize the effects of the downdraft coming off the back of the bird's body. “We didn't think this was possible,” Usherwood says, considering that the difficult achievement requires careful flight and incredible awareness of one's neighbors. “Perhaps these big V formation birds can be thought of quite like an airplane with wings that go up and down.”

    The findings likely apply to other long－winged birds, such as pelicans and geese, Usherwood says. Smaller birds create more complex wakes(尾波) that would make drafting too difficult. The researchers did not attempt to calculate the birds' energy savings because the necessary physiological measurements would be too invasive for an endangered species. Previous studies show that birds can use 20% to 30% less energy while flying in a V.

    Scientists do not know how the birds find that aerodynamic sweet spot, but they suspect that the animals line themselves up either by sight or by sensing air currents through their feathers. In future studies, the researchers will switch to more common birds, such as pigeons or geese. They plan to investigate how the animals decide who sets the course and the pace, and whether a mistake made by the leader can ripple through the rest of the flock to cause traffic jams.

    In the future we might live somewhere other than Earth, like Mars. Some people ask how this will be possible. Well, Mars is in fact a lot the same as the earth. The days are almost the same as those on the earth. However, the two planets vary in temperature.

    Since there is mostly carbon dioxide on Mars, it would be quite difficult for a human to just land on it. So, special types of homes and space suits have to be designed. The space suits should be almost like the ones astronauts use now, and except that they have to be warmer so that the astronauts can survive the cold temperatures. The space suits must also be able to withstand (承受) high pressure and potentially dangerous radiation that can kill.

    The houses should be similar to our homes today with a slight difference. All of the houses and other buildings should be built inside a large dome (圆顶状物) or bubble. The domes should be made out of glass, and would also be able to prevent radiation from affecting the people inside. The domes will be connected to a machine (like plants which turn carbon dioxide into oxygen).

    With Mars' population growing, how would the people on its surface get fresh food and water? Just like humans use domes, they can also use domes to grow plants. However, the domes where the plants are grown must be built to expand. Once we upgrade the domes to a larger size then we can grow more food by cultivating (种植) more plants. To get the food or come in connect with other domes, there will be long narrow tunnels like roads that connect to each dome separating them by several doors so that the pressure in each dome can remain the same.

    On Mars, so many other things are available to us. As humans, we can have access to rare and fairly expensive metals that aren't very easy to get hold of on Earth, and a colony on Mars enhances (提高) our chances of finding these metals. So when someone here on Earth says that going to Mars is impossible, please tell them that they'll never know it until they try and they may try very soon. After all it's our future. Why not make it on Mars?

    Johnny Smith was a good math student at a high school. He loved his computer. He came home early every day, then he worked with it till midnight. But Johnny was not a good English student, not good at all. He got an F in his English class.

    One day after school Johnny joined his computer to the computer in his high school office. The school office computer had the grades of all the students: the math grades, the science grades, the grades in arts and music, and the grades in English. He found his English grade. An F! Johnny changed his English grade from an F to A. Johnny' parents looked at his report card. They were very happy.   "An A in English!" said Johnny's Dad. "You're a very clever boy, Johnny." Johnny is a hacker.

    Hackers know how to take information from other computers and put new information in. Using a modem, they join their computers to other computers secretly. School headmasters and teachers are worried about hackers. So are the police, for some people even take money from bank computer account and put it into their own ones. And they never have to leave home to do it! They are called hackers.

    In the mid-1990s, Tom Bissell taught English as a volunteer in Uzbekistan. He left after seven months, physically broken and having lost his mind. A few years later, still attracted to the country, he returned to Uzbekistan to write an article about the disappearance of the Aral Sea.

    His visit, however, ended up involving a lot more than that. Hence this book, Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia, which talks about a road trip from Tashkent to Karakalpakstan, where millions of lives have been destroyed by the slow drying up of the sea. It is the story of an American travelling to a strange land, and of the people he meets on his way: Rustam, his translator, a lovely 24-year-old who picked up his colorful English in California, Oleg and Natasha, his hosts in Tashkent, and a string of foreign aid workers.

    This is a quick look at life in Uzbekistan, made of friendliness and warmth, but also its darker side of society. In Samarkand, Mr Bissell admires the architectural wonders, while on his way to Bukhara he gets a taste of police methods when suspected of drug dealing. In Ferghana, he attends a mountain funeral(葬礼)followed by a strange drinking party. And in Karakalpakstan, he is saddened by the dust storms, diseases and fishing boats stuck miles from the sea.

    Mr Bissell skillfully organizes historical insights and cultural references, making his tale a well-rounded picture of Uzbekistan, seen from Western eyes. His judgment and references are decidedly American, as well as his delicate stomach. As the author explains, this is neither a travel nor a history book, or even a piece of reportage. Whatever it is, the result is a fine and vivid description of the purest of Central Asian traditions.