Nelson

I wondered what happened to the Cayman Islands, then saw that question was answered lower down on the page.

I have 25, but an interesting side question is how much time spent on the ground in each place? For me the minimum is 8 nights (Paris), my only trip to France. The max is about 1.5 years for Singapore, over ~25 business trips. Also about 5 months in Nepal on long treks, but I've since forgotten most of the 50 or so Nepali words I had learned.

The average for the others is 18.3 days in country. (I have it in a spreadsheet, so can easily get the number).

These exercises are not meaningful, but fun nonetheless. Thanks for sharing the link.

welltraveledbrit

Given my obnoxious name I guess I think I'm well travelled! But there's nothing to recommend counting and it doesn't really go to breadth of experience. I've met lots of people who travel a lot but don't seem to have learnt anything from it!

I've been to more than 70 countries, but we go back to a lot of the old favorites over and over, UK, France and Italy seem to be the main culprits for return trips! Recently we've been spending more time in the places we go to (often several months) rather than running around from place to place.

AS other have said the central issue is how you count them, for example for me the UK counts as one country, Wales and Scotland are on the list, they are part of the UK. Consequently I wouldn't count Wales, Scotland or Northern Island separately. Our rule is that you have to pass through passport control for the country to count, no changes of plane stops count. I feel the century club has ridiculous rules which result in a much higher number. However, I think you should "get" countries that no longer exist, e.g.: two Germanys if you visited them both back in the day.

However, how ever much I travel I always meet people who are far better travelled than I am. I wrote a blog post on this last year
http://www.somuchmoretosee.com/2013/...e-counter.html

I agree with Nelson
"These exercises are not meaningful, but fun nonetheless. Thanks for sharing the link."

LSky

There are any number of 1st to 3rd time travelers that can beat many of us. Judging from the amount of threads that begin with,
"This is our first trip to Europe and we'll be going to Ireland, England, Scotland, France, Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Estonia, Poland, Czech, Spain, Portugal, Hungary and Germany in 3 weeks. Where should we stay?"

PRLCH

37. Many more than once. Not counting those where you just stop at the airport for several hours. Have lived in 3 countries on 2 continents. So many more wonderful sounding places to see, and so many I would love to return to!

MarthaT

33 or 34 if you include the United States where I live. But I also feel that the United Kingdom should be counted as separate countries.

IMDonehere

I took extra credit for Madeira. Even though it is part of Portugal, it is harder to reach.

IMDonehere

Of course it is meaningless, what test on the Internet had meaning?

justineparis

Only 23.. but of those many have been repeat visits.. some more then dozens of times..

However I do not forsee adding more then another 5 or 6 countries ... I simply am not interested in travelling some places.. and am interested in returning to ones I love.

I am into slower travelling now then in my youth.. If I go to a country I am highly likely to stay a least 2-3 weeks... not 3-5 days.. so I can't see my list ever expanding to 60 or 70 places like some folks..

Kathie

It all depends on what you count... I've crossed some sand borders into places I shouldn't have been - like Algeria and Iraq. But since I didn't go through passport control, I didn't count those. And I had a refueling stop in Bangladesh, but that isn't fair to count either. I'm not sure why the Cayman Islands aren't listed. Hong Kong and Macau are no longer listed. I don't see the Society Islands, either. So 30 countries on that list.

Percy

70 out of 199.

There are countries I will never wind up going to.

DownUnderDrifter

24 with some repeat visits to France and South Africa. Planning on visiting another 4 South American countries this year. Only counting countries that I have visited and not stop overs. Pretty well travelled for a 21 year old!

Nelson

<i> > I'm not sure why the Cayman Islands aren't listed</i>

I wondered that too, my wife and I honeymooned there in 1976. Apparently the answer is that they are a "non-self-governing territory", and are officially part of the UK. According to Wikipedia, "Due to their status as an overseas territory of the UK, the Cayman Islands have no representation either in the United Nations or in most other international organizations".

Still, seems like they'd be worth a check mark, being out were they are.

By that definition Hong Kong wouldn't have been on this list even back in the early '80's when I was there.

Kathie

Both Hong Kong and Macau were self-governing up until the turn-over to China in the late 1990s. China would have argued that they were still Chinese territories - which they also said about Tibet and continue to say about Taiwan. Still it takes a Chinese visa to enter mainland China, but most of us can enter both Hong Kong and Macau without a visa. The Society islands are an overseas territory of France. There are lots of grey areas.

AndySong

I'm 13 and been to 41 countries... sigh, I still have a lot to go, but at least time is on my side!

AndySong

Hong Kong and Macau aren't countries, they're officially special cities in China known as S.A.R's, and they do sort have a government but it's more of a city government, since the governments are controlled by the mainland government, and Tibet is officially a province in China so no confusion there. However, Taiwan is a complicated situation that I don't even want to bother explaining. it's annoying how people often get these facts wrong in the western world, but I guess you can't blame someone for not knowing something about someone else's country.

Pegontheroad

I've been to 43, but some of them two or three times. I'm planning my next trip to Spain, which must be number 5 or 6. It's rather difficult to count them, because the total is lost in the mist of time.

It seems to me that I went to Spain the first time in 1966 or thereabouts.

I went to Hong Kong when it was British territory.

Darn it! I'm running out of time. I don't suppose I'll add to this list, unless maybe I venture to South America. I envy Andysong.

Aramis

I don't count my good fortune in terms of countries visited - I am somewhere over 25 - but in terms of opportunities to "go" and days "well spent".

I have 21 European trips under my belt, totaling about 255 days, with 2 already planned for this year (26 more days to the total!) and maybe a third one. I plan a major celebration when I reach my 365 days in Europe milestone.

It's not exactly honest, but you bet I'm going to tell people that I "lived in Europe for a year".

All because I was born on the wrong damn continent!

Bahahahahaha!

MaineGG

I'm at 22 countries still (since 2000), but will add Portugal to the total in March. Very excited to visit a new area. Now to work on learning a little Portuguese.