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Africa
Africa , second largest continent, c.11,677,240 sq mi (30,244,050 sq km) including adjacent islands; 1997 est. pop. 743,000,000. Broad to the north (c.4,600 mi/7,400 km wide), Africa straddles the equator and stretches c.5,000 mi (8,050 km) from Cape Blanc (Tunisia) in the north to Cape Agulhas (South Africa) in the south.
Africa is home to the largest desert in the world: the Sahara. Grasslands cover much of the land, and rainforests are in western Africa near the equator. The Nile river is in Africa which is the longest river in the world! Thousands of species of animals live in Africa and...
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Antarctica
The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost finger that points to South America, and together with the islands of the Sub-Antarctic, is the most visited region and the best place to view wildlife in Antarctica.
Antarctica is one of the most inhospitable places on the planet, neither inhabited by a native population nor presided over by an indigenous government. As the windiest, coldest and driest continent on earth, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Antarctica wouldn't hold any interest for tourists. Yet the Antarctic Cruise scene is on the rise and ship-based expeditions (that v...
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Arctic
The Arctic is the northernmost area of the earth, centered on the North Pole. The arctic regions include the Arctic Ocean the northern reaches of Canada, Alaska, Russia, Norway, and the Atlantic Ocean; Svalbard ; most of Iceland; Greenland ; and the Bering Sea.
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Asia
Asia is the world's largest continent, 17,139,000 sq mi (44,390,000 sq km), with about 3.3 billion people, nearly three fifths of the world's total population. The South East part of Asia has always provided a variety of poplular holiday destinations especially with backpackers.
Asia's great expanse from the equatorial tropics to the arctic (6,000 miles; 9,650 kilometers) and from the Pacific Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea (5,900 miles; 9,500 kilometers) results in a continent of extreme contrasts. Asia contains virtually every kind of natural landscape. Roughly half the continent consists of...
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Australasia
Australasia is a loosely defined world region encompassing Australia, New Zealand and some of the Pacific Islands (such as Papua New Guinea). Often referred to as the 'Continent of Australia' or Oceania, this section of the world covers an area of more than 7.6 million kilometres squared and has a population over 22 million people.
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Caribbean
The Caribbean and Caribbean Sea derives its name from the original inhabitants of the region, the 'Carib people', who were the inhabitants at the time of the first Spanish explorers. Located in the northern tropics, the islands of the Caribbean form a wide arc between Florida in the north and Venezuela in the south, the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, being part of a submerged chain of volcanic mountains.
Caribbean Sea , tropical sea, c.970,000 sq mi (2,512,950 sq km), arm of the Atlantic Ocean, Central America. It is bordered on the N and E by the West Indies archipelago, on the S by...
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Central America
Central America is the narrow southernmost region (c.202,200 sq mi/523,698 sq km) of North America, linked to South America at Columbia. It separates the Caribbeanfrom the Pacific.
The middle portion of Central America is an active zone of volcanoes and earthquakes; it contains the Nicaragua Depression, which includes the huge lakes Nicaragua and Managua. The ranges of S Central America are outliers of the Andes Mts. of South America. Tajumulco (13,846 ft/4,210 m high), a volcano in Guatemala, is the region's highest peak. Central America's climate varies with altitude from tropical to cool....
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Europe
Europe is the 6th largest continent, c.4,000,000 sq mi (10,360,000 sq km) including adjacent islands (1992 est. pop. 512,000,000). Providing some of the World's most popular and diverse holiday destinations, Europe has amongst its countries everything a holiday maker could wish for all within a few hours flight from each other.
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North America
North America is the third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km). North America includes all of the mainland and related offshore islands lying N of the Isthmus of Panama (which connects it with South America). The term "Anglo-America" is frequently used in reference to Canada and the United States combined, while the term "Middle America" is used to describe the region including Mexico, the republics of Central America, and the Caribbean.
The continent is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the west by the Pacific O...
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Pacific Islands
The Pacific Islands are divided by the equator, the two halves being the North Pacific (Hawaii and the tiny Micronesian Islands including Guam, Palau and the Marshall Islands), and the South Pacific (including New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, Niue, Tonga, Cook Islands and Tahiti) with Kiribati straddling the equator. The North Pacific Islands, being north of the equator, has its summer between May and September whilst the South Pacific Islands has its summer between November and April when temperatures and humidity are higher resulting in more frequent and often heavy rainfall, except of course, for...
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South America
South America is the fourth largest continent (1991 est. pop. 299,150,000), c.6,880,000 sq mi (17,819,000 sq km), the southern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. It is divided politically into 12 independent countries. Despite the continents incredible natural beauty, awesome scenery and sightseeing wonders, crime and war has left this continent almost entirely out of the holiday makers thoughts. Only a handful of these countries are generally visited by tourists, most of which tend to be backpackers experiencing a part of the world like no other.
The continent extends c.4,750 m...
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