How many countries have you visited?

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What are you criteria for visiting a country eg I've been through Dubai airport about 10 times does that mean I can count that country? .................

OK everyone - go!!


My idea is you have to sleep in the country to count it.!! As to the USA we have been to all 50 states, and that means SLEEPING in all 50 :p
 
My idea is you have to sleep in the country to count it.!! As to the USA we have been to all 50 states, and that means SLEEPING in all 50 :p
Agree an airport transit not enough but for small places like the Vatican surely a daytrip should get a tick
 
I've also got lucky number 44. I was trying to add a minimum of 2 new countries a year then I realised some of those places I just have no interest in.
 
Only 25 countries that Ive spent nights in: Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Canada (3 provinces), Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom (Engalnd only), United States of America (22 States: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecicut, Florida, Hawaii, Indinana, Illinois, Lousiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington + DC)

Plus 7 more where I only visited on day trip - Belgium, Bosnia, Liechtenstein, Macau, Monaco, Paraguay,Vatican City

As far as Australia goes have spent many nights in NSW, Vic, Qld, SA, NT, WA, Tas amd ACT, but not yet been to Norfolk or Christams islands.

Had my trip not be cancelled by Corona Virus I would have added 8 more countries with night stays: UAE, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finaland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania + plus an airport visit to Qatar, hopefully will be next year now.
 
I get 57 countries, plus a few more on cruise ships. I will have to see if Ron comes up with the same total !!
 
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I come up with 28. This includes counting West Germany as separate to Germany. But it also includes counting Yugoslavia as one country. I also counted the four parts of the UK as only one country.
 
I'm still trying to get a downloadable definitive list - every site I look at varies
 
MTP reckons I've been to 84 UN places, thought it would be more than that, it is confusing, USSR, east/west Germany, former Yugoslavia, formally Sudan, now Sudan and South Sudan and so on.
Anyway, should have got at least 3 more if Africa trip not cancelled, hopefully many more in future, fingers crossed.
 
Working from the UN Member States List, I came up with 37, but that list didn't recognise Guam, as it's unincorporated territory of the United States, Hong Kong, Macau or Vatican City, however, I have included them.


A
Australia
Austria

B
Belgium

C
Cambodia
China
Czech Republic

D
Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Denmark

E
Egypt

F
Fiji
France

G
Germany
Guam

H
Hong Kong

I
Indonesia
Ireland
Italy

J
Japan

K
L

Liechtenstein
Luxembourg

M
Macau
Maldives
Monaco

N
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway

O
P
Q

R

Republic of Korea

S
San Marino
Singapore
Sri Lanka
Sweden
Switzerland

T
Thailand
Turkey

U
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
United States of America

V
Vatican City
Viet Nam

Y
Z
 
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I know I've mentioned it on here more than once but my criteria for a visit to a country:
- left the airport
- spent the night
- used the local currency
- tried to speak the local language (just: yes, no, please, thank you and I would like, covers almost everything!)
 
I know I've mentioned it on here more than once but my criteria for a visit to a country:
- left the airport
- spent the night
- used the local currency
- tried to speak the local language (just: yes, no, please, thank you and I would like, covers almost everything!)

But that would rule out the Vatican City for many people
 
Then you come to the very subjective matter of lists...eg:
the UN one is good
the 'Travelers Century Club' is not
But it is all subjective because people value different things, well, differently!

I tend to think any part of a country having a separate or different passport stamp, visa regime or currency could be enough to have it considered a different country. Eg: the UN list not recognising Hong Kong separately for political reasons, even though you don't have to have a Chinese visa, my passport shows Hong Kong on the stamp when I last visited and I paid for things in HKD not CNY... Similar with Guam, yes they use USD, but you don't need an ESTA and the passport stamp says Guam, not USA.

French Polynesia, same.
Niue, NZD used, but same.
Puerto Rico, different!

So it's hard to find a list that covers what I or anyone else subjectively see as most important in defining a visit to a country.

I tend to use the UN countries and territories list as the starting point but then apply the different currency and passport stamp/entry requirements as a bit of a fudge. I think I once came across a similar styled list which had 206 countries in the world and thought that was about right.
 
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But that would rule out the Vatican City for many people

Yeah, there is that. 😢
Or maybe it's the exception that proves the rule! 😜

Plus, I'm sure I used, or more correctly butchered, some of the Italian language there rather than using Latin, so maybe I should exclude Vatican City from my own list.

Nah... been there, got the proof: it's even got the image of Senator Palpatine on it! 😉
IMG_0447.JPG
 
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I have an app that I use to keep track of countries I've visited and countries I'd like to visit. According to that app I have visted 48 countries.
It counts the UK as 1, doesn't count Vatican City but does count Antarctica ( I have visited all 7 continents, but that was never a goal). I visited USSR, but the app counts the now-separated countries. I also visited East and West Germany, but that's counted as 1.
 
Just thinking about passport stamps as an indicator of visiting, the Schengen Area kind of defeats this these days, as I've been stamped into one country and travelled through the others with no additional stamps when you cross borders within this group of countries and stamped out when I left for my flight back to the UK. Even when I visited as a 7-year-old in 1977, the passport shows just three stamps from the trip UK to Europe - stamped out at Folkestone, into Denmark and into Italy - everywhere else had no stamps whatsoever. :(

For obvious reasons, I also have no proof that I visited North Korea, as they issued their own "passport" before boarding the bus to the DMZ. I had to wear it at all times, fully displayed, with my own passport. The only indication that something happened is that my passport is stamped out of South Korea on the date I left (not via an airport) and stamped back into South Korea 10 days later (again, not via an airport) - surrendering my North Korean "Passport" at the DMZ border crossing as I left.

I miss the stamps - they bring back good memories of my travels. These days my passport keeps getting filled with glorified, full-page visas - can't these countries streamline it a bit; with the frequent traveller passport having gone the way of the dinosaurs, these are a real PITA for filling up the passport waaaaay before it expires . . .
 
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Many countries not just those in schengen zone dont stamp passports anymore, especially where e-gates are used.

The unique currency one doenst stack up either, as most of the counttries in the EU share the euro as the cirrency, and in Ecuador they use USD but that doesnt make Ecuador party of the USA.
 
My criteria are that (1) it needs to be a recognised independent sovereign state and a UN member at the time I visited (except that I also count Vatican, which is independent but not in the UN), and (2) I need to go through customs, leave the airport, and perform some activity other than just stepping outside the airport perimeter and back in. That is, at a bare minimum, go to a nearby town and have lunch, etc.

While many people may feel that e.g. just having lunch in a nearby town for an hour or so shouldn't qualify, one has to have some kind of definition. On these bases, my total is 75. (In almost all of them I have stayed at least one night anyway.) I don't include places like Hong Kong, Montserrat, etc. as 'countries' for these purposes. A difficulty with this is, for example, West and East Germany. I count them as two because I visited them both before reunification, and have also been back to the reunified Germany many times. However, I don’t make the total three just because of that, even though my criteria theoretically allow it.

A useful wiki is List of sovereign states - Wikipedia.

Far less restrictive conditions are in the 'Traveler's Century Club' (travelerscenturyclub.org), which is not based only on independent states. It even includes, for example, Tasmania as one that you can count in addition to mainland Australia.

Let's hope we'll be travelling more again soon so that we can add not only countries, but great experiences, to our lists!
 
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