Is Apparation limited at all by distance?
It seems to me that in the books no one Apparates further than length (or width) of the United Kingdom. Are there any instances where they travel further than that? If you knew the place could you Apparate to the other side of the planet, or to the moon?
Rowling discussed this on Twitter:
Loved the movie. Burning Q from my wife though: How come Newt travels by boat to cross the Atlantic instead of apparating?
J.K. Rowling: There's a limit to how far you can Apparate. Inter-continental Apparition is very dangerous!
they might splinch, right? O_O
J.K. Rowling: correct
She later put this into the FAQ of her new website:
Why couldn’t Newt just Apparate to the USA? Why did he go by boat?
Apparition becomes increasingly risky over long distances. As with most magic, much depends on the skill of the spell-caster: Apparition requires knowledge of the terrain to which one is moving, or the ability to visualise it clearly. Cross-continental Apparition would almost certainly result in severe injury or death.
The Harry Potter wiki on apparition has a section on range. It explains that apparition may have a range, based on the events KeithS referred to (Voldemort returning from Nurmengard). However, it also cites this, from Quidditch Through the Ages (ch.9):
Apparition becomes increasingly unreliable over very long distances, and only highly skilled wizards are wise to attempt it across continents.)
So it appears the only limit is your skill, but in practical terms, you wouldn't even want to apparate across the ocean, much less to the moon.
There seems to be an implied range limit to Apparation. In Book 7, Voldemort travels to Germany, to Nurmengard Prison, to see Grindelwald. While there, he's called by Lucius and Bellatrix to Malfoy Manor, and he has to fly for a significant distance before he is "close enough" to Apparate directly to the Manor.
However, it's unclear exactly what the range limit of Apparition is. It appears that you can pretty much go anywhere on the British Isles in one jump, but somewhere between London and Berlin you'd have to make an intermediate stop (or like Voldemort, simply fly until you're in range). Other methods of travel, such as Portkeys, have much longer ranges; The Salem Witches' Association probably used a Portkey to get from Massachussetts to Britain for the World Cup in Book 4, as there's not much in between and anyone of any age can use a Portkey once it's been set up.
There is not limit, but only extremely talented wizards and witches can apparates over oceans or extremely long distances. If not, there is a tremendous chance you will splinch yourself.
