Twin cities: places with the same name around the world – be careful not to confuse them
- There exist 29 Londons, thousands of San Joses and more than 100 places named Newcastle
- Check your baggage tags if flying to Kochi, you could be heading to either India or Japan
“Lots of mail for Slovenia comes here,” a post office clerk in Slovakia once told me. “People don’t seem to realise we’re different countries. Perhaps that’s where all my birthday cards ended up this year …”
It’s a scenario that might also cause problems for mailroom staff in the Spanish city of Granada and their counterparts on the Caribbean island of Grenada, and who knows how many letters meant for Dakar (Senegal) end up in Dhaka, Bangladesh?
Besides these similar-sounding locations, there are plenty of places with identical names, including some that mean the same when translated. Cheung Chau may not have a town-twinning agreement with Long Island, New York, but they do share a name.
Globally, there are 29 places called London, including a settlement on the coral atoll of Kiritimati, part of the Pacific island nation of Kiribati. Its 2,000 inhabitants welcome nature lovers, surfers and anglers, and offer boat trips to, er, Paris, which is 5km across the lagoon.
OK, so there is a slightly better known London. The English capital, population nine million, needs no introduction but here’s a travel tip for anyone who has already “done” the city sights. Base yourself in the western suburbs. There’s lots to see and do, it’s less crowded and handy for Heathrow Airport.