# Who has traveled the furthest from the place of their birth? Who has stayed the closest? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 22, 2011, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102 "2011-12-22T18:52:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102/81 "2011-12-23T19:35:59Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > 11270 miles. Toronto, Canada to Perth, Australia. Jakarta to Toronto for me. I’ll never be able to beat you. Actually I was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, but I was conceived in Jakarta. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102/82 "2011-12-24T00:07:27Z")
Minneapolis to Sydney - 8993 miles. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102/83 "2011-12-24T00:07:55Z")
> [@Meurglys](#): > > Edinburgh to Invercargill in NZ. > 11692 miles (18816k), which puts me 4th or 5th, I think. > > And currently I live and work within about 1/2 mile from where I was born… After all my globetrotting in 2007 I ended up working in an office block in London that looked down onto the roof of the building I was born in. Total coincidence as I lived in Oxford. ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102/84 "2011-12-24T01:53:31Z")
Cleveland, Ohio, USA to Hobart, Tasmania, Australia: 9954.77 miles. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102/85 "2011-12-24T03:01:03Z")
New York to Albany Australia (south of Perth) = 11,692 miles. That’s about as close as I can get to my Antipodes on land. ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102/86 "2011-12-24T04:16:44Z")
9,354 miles Los Angeles to Nagercoil, India. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102/87 "2011-12-24T11:01:20Z")
10,646 Miles. Newcastle NSW to Ballyshannon in Ireland. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102/88 "2011-12-24T12:54:58Z")
~6,370 miles from Los Angeles to Samara, Russia. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102/89 "2011-12-24T13:15:40Z")
> [@Meurglys](#): > > Edinburgh to Invercargill in NZ. > **11692** miles (18816k), which puts me 4th or 5th, I think. > [@Colibri](#): > > New York to Albany Australia (south of Perth) = **11,692** miles. That’s about as close as I can get to my Antipodes on land. Snap! ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102/90 "2011-12-24T14:02:15Z")
> [@Jaded\_Goddess](#): > > I think I’m the winner of the least distance so far. My small town in MO to West Logan WV - 621.45 miles. > [@Goldspot](#): > > I can’t claim any record , but a few years ago it was discussed on a radio station. In particular they wanted to hear of anyone that had never been out of the Country (England). Amazingly one person rang up to say that his Grandad had not been out of his region (Cheshire) by my reckoning he cannot have travelled more than 50 miles from his birthplace. > [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I’ll try to win being the shortest distance. > > 2177 miles, Macedonia Ohio to San Francisco CA. > [@Mdcastleman](#): > > Not me but one of my uncles never got more than 100 miles from his home in his life. > [@Frank](#): > > I’ve got cousins that are similar. They’ve been to Boston, 140 miles away, and Albany, much closer. My first time in Schenectady, NY at the age of six months took me further from my birthplace in Maryland that some of my cousins have ever been. > [@Shagnasty](#): > > I have a coworker that has never been outside of New England (and not even all 6 states). He could break that at any time with a 2 hour drive but somehow it just hasn’t come up yet. I had classmates in high school who had never traveled further than our field trips (about 30 miles). One had never been to Texas and the school was 1 mile from the border. Using the OP’s calculator and my best eyeballing of maximum separation from Fayetteville, NC, I get Bar Harbor, ME for 856.89 miles. I would have thought it would be a little more than that, but I’ll settle to be in the short distances crowd. ---
**Author:** ![KinkiNipponTourist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9bcb4/32.png) [@KinkiNipponTourist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KinkiNipponTourist)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102/91 "2011-12-24T15:13:26Z")
Damn! I can’t seem to clear the 10,000mile ceiling. Huntsville, AL to Singapore, 9865mi/15,876km. Interestingly though, distance from AL to Singapore is measured east-to-west, while distance from AL to Maldives (I thought that would be my longest distance) is measured west-to-east. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102/92 "2011-12-24T17:10:38Z")
> [@KinkiNipponTourist](#): > > Interestingly though, distance from AL to Singapore is measured east-to-west, while distance from AL to Maldives (I thought that would be my longest distance) is measured west-to-east. It’s no wonder; your antipodal point is in the Indian Ocean in between those two longitudes. The nearest land is Perth, Australia, about 1,000 miles east of there. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102/93 "2011-12-24T17:33:48Z")
Washington, DC to Kaohsiung Taiwan - 9903.45 miles. ---
**Author:** ![KinkiNipponTourist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9bcb4/32.png) [@KinkiNipponTourist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KinkiNipponTourist)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102/94 "2011-12-24T18:05:33Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > It’s no wonder; your antipodal point is in the Indian Ocean in between those two longitudes. The nearest land is Perth, Australia, about 1,000 miles east of there. Oooh, I hadn’t noticed that. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![maxcoleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a9a28c/32.png) [@maxcoleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maxcoleman)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102/95 "2015-05-21T06:43:24Z")
I am excluding air travel from this. The farthest distance I have traveled on bike is 4500 km [http://www.distancemonk.com/Chennai/Bangkok/3+days+5+hours/4968.195/](http://www.distancemonk.com/Chennai/Bangkok/3+days+5+hours/4968.195/) It took us 7 days to travel this far. ---
**Author:** ![Flughund4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f17d59/32.png) [@Flughund4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flughund4)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102/96 "2015-05-21T08:28:19Z")
When you consider how far we’ve been carried as the Earth orbits the sun, and however far our galaxy has drifted in our lifetimes, then all the numbers posted here barely qualify as rounding errors. What? Oh…you mean relative to the Earth’s surface? Well, then…umm…can we measure something else? :o ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102/97 "2015-05-21T09:27:15Z")
Maybe I can win for coming closest to the median: New York (Manhattan) to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 6315.09 miles, 10162.87 kilometers. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102/98 "2015-05-21T10:00:16Z")
A mere 5,103 miles (Pennsylvania to Turkey). ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102/99 "2015-05-21T10:23:41Z")
Born in Philadelphia, USA. Spent a couple weeks in Perth, Australia. Google says it’s 11,603 miles. Not sure I can get much further without getting more seafaring than I’m comfortable with. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102/100 "2015-05-21T11:49:33Z")
Los Angeles to St. Lucia, South Africa, 10659 miles. It was so beautiful, I was seriously thinking of buying a house there 'cause it cost only $35,000. It’s backyard opened to a national park with a bay with hippos! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-traveled-the-furthest-from-the-place-of-their-birth-who-has-stayed-the-closest/607102.md?page=6)