50 States; What constitutes a "visit"?
 

It is a goal of mine to visit all 50 states. To date I am in the mid-30's range, depending upon how you qualify a visit. Here are several questionable scenarios:

1) Suppose someone is on vacation in southern Colorado and they go to the 4 corners monument - placing one hand and one foot in each of the 4 states - do all four states count on the list of states they've been to?

2) Suppose someone is taking a cross country trip, can you count a state that you've driven through but never stopped in? What if they stop for gas?

3) I once got stranded in Kansas City on a flight out west. I had to stay in a hotel near the airport for one night. Does Missouri count as a state I've been to?

4) Other than my hometown airport, I've probably spent more time in the Newark airport than any other airport but I've never been outside the airport itself. Does New Jersey count?

At least one night in a state, not in an airport.

Preferably 24 hours in a state.

But it's up to you to decide how you want to play the game.

It's up to you to decide the quality of your visit.

For me, none of the four examples you gives qualifies as a visit.

A sleep is what I used. I completed my quest in 2005 with Alaska being my 50th

Ok, so if an overnight qualifies a visit then would my overnight when I got stranded in KC count as a visit to Missouri?

One time I flew into Providence, RI in the morning, bee-lined it to Newport and did the cliff walk, saw the mansions and then drove to Cape Cod for the night. Does that count for a visit to Rhode Island without an overnight or 24 hrs?

What if you took a cruise with a port stop in New Orleans for the day, would that count?

By no means am I questioning anyone's criteria for what constitutes a "visit," honestly, I've just always questioned what I should or should not count.

If I were keeping such records, I would make notes for each state. For example:

California: Two-week road trip, July 2011
Ohio: Changed planes in Cincinnati, September 2009

And so on.

HTTY

It's your list, it's up to you how you define visit.

Personally I think doing and seeing something worthwhile counts as a visit, not spending a night. Consider someone who gets a room at the edge of a state, does nothing more than sleep in the room and then leaves the next morning ... vs. someone who drives into the same state in the morning, spends the entire day sightseeing and visiting as many things as possible before continuing on their journey and exiting the state without sleeping overnight. Which of those sounds more like a visit to you?

The rules in our family are quite liberal. One must stand on the ground in a state and breathe real air in that state. There are no minimum times So driving thru a state does not count unless you get out of the car for 5 seconds and take a breath. In fact, my daughter and I went out thru security at Denver airport, breathed in bus-lane air, and then returned back thru security to catch out connecting flight. By our rules, we have now been to Colorado. But our list is "been to" as opposed to "visited" - since those in the fine state of Colorado would surely not characterize the bus lane at the airport as a fair representation of their state.

Works for countries as well - so despite having spent 10 hours at airport in Frankfurt - I have never "been to" Germany.

Since this is an unofficial quest - you are free to define it however you want.

I personally wouldn't count just putting a hand or foot in at a corner - but if you drive around for a couple of hours I would - no need to actually stay there overnight.

And I wouldn't count just landing at an airport, changing planes and taking off again - but it really is up to you.

It's however you want to define YOUR travel. For us, airports don't count and we have to actually do something in the state. Having lunch would count or visiting a museum.

I have to DO something in the state, not necessarily spend the night. Our boys spent a day in Delaware, went to the Children's Museum, had a nice lunch, walked along the river. I say they've been to Delaware.

As I've thought back over my life, I realized I have had quite a few questionable "visits" to different states. Perhaps my mid - 30's count is a bit too liberal. I guess I was thinking . . . "boots on the ground" counts.

* I was a counselor one summer at a camp on the border of two states. One of the other counselor's lived just over the border and I stayed at his place one Saturday night.

* During college I went home one weekend w/ a dorm friend who lived near the border of two states. That night we crossed the state line to go to another college bar . . .came back several hours later.

* Attended a wedding on the Florabama border. Stayed in a hotel on the bama side for one night. When you think of the vastness of Alabama, I literally just stayed right on the edge of the stateline.

A guy we met in Arizona was 'doing' the 50 states and he said one had to have a meal, take a bus ride and visit a washroom to qualify it as a visit.

Personally, I don't count a state as "been in" unless I have set foot on the ground in it. So I have two states that are airport-only and one more that is a ride-through only (and just one county at that). If I had been driving I probably would have stopped and gotten out! But I do count those 3 states a "transited". :)

Of course you have BEEN IN (you were physically present in) all the states that you reference above. Did you VISIT them? Depends on what you want to call a visit—that's entirely up to you. In my book, staying overnight counts, as does doing business.

As for HOW MUCH of a state you have to see—you could fly into a city for a meeting, spend a week there, eat at restaurants, go to attractions, and then fly out without ever leaving that city. Have you visited that state? Of course! Doesn't matter that it's just one city.

On the other hand, for COUNTRIES to count for me, I have to actually ENTER the country. There's one country that I have only landed in—didn't even get off the plane—so of course it doesn't count (except as "transited"). I have changed planes in 2 airports (and bought things in both) but not actually gone through immigration and customs. To me, they don't count as "been to" either because I never actually "entered" them (in the legal sense). If I'd had time, I would have gotten the passport stamps, though. And in fact, I did just that in South Korea one time (went through immigration at Incheon and took a bus ride around the island it's on, getting off at one place to look around a bit before going back to the airport). Since then I have actually spent real time in Korea, though.

For my wife and I, we had a simple criterion before we made claim to "all fifty states": we not only had to spend the night sleeping together in a state, but we had do something MORE than just sleep. We got to number 50 on July 11 of last year, just after our 29th anniversary.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pr77x/8...in/photostream

I only count a state if I actually do something in that State. Just driving 20 miles through a state, landing at an airport, etc doesn't exactly count, in my book.

There was a club of people who count how many states/countries they've been in. Their rules are that you have to stand in the state or country and it doesn't count unless you are off airport/rail/port property.

Sorry, I can't remember the name of the club...

your game, your rules

A side thought - a nice travel-related gift for someone is a flag from each country they have visited/been in. You can buy them from various websites and the small flags can be displayed in a little stand - it was shocking to me how many countries our 22 year old daughter has actually visited (although some were little Caribbean island countries from a few cruises. I guess you could do the same with State flags.

if it's tickmarks you're looking for then technicalities count. I once missed a connection and was given a free hotel room in St. Paul's MN. That's the only time I've been in Minnesota so I have mixed emotions about counting it.

As has been pointed out, this is YOUR quest, so YOU get to make the rules. :)

My own personal criteria would be that I've had to have done something or seen something I would not do/see at home. My mom, daughter and I took a day trip to Morocco from Spain. We spent the day there~didn't spend the night~ate the food, saw some of Tangier, learned a bit about the culture and the history. According to my own criteria, I've been to Morocco. I don't count airports (changed planes in Amersterdam, Zurich, Dusseldorf and Franfurt but don't count any of those cities/countries), but if I've driven through a state in the US and seen the countryside, I count it.

Thanks for all the input. Honestly, I have never counted NJ although I've been to the Newark airport countless times but I have counted some of the other scenario's such as crashing at a friend's house across the stateline.

<I>"What constitutes a "visit"?"</I>

<b>Feet or wheels on the earth within the borders</b>.

Sadly, even the airports count.


Of course many would <I>prefer</I> greater substance...

That doesn't matter. Gotta go by the letter of the law.

This is somewhat like when people say they drove over the Golden Gate Bridge then they consider they have been to San Francisco. Or when someone spends 2 hours at the Grand Canyon and stops at 2 viewpoints that they have seen the GC. It just depends on how you want to look at it.

When we "did" the 50 states, we had to sleep in the state (we have also played golf in all 50 states.) Airports definitely don't count anywhere. Internationally I agree with ttnthumbs, we count Morocco, Gibraltar and Lichtenstein because we spent more than a few hours there even though we didn't sleep there. We try to stay over night if possible.

Personally, I don't think you have to sleep in a state for it to count.

I've been to the Vermont statehouse in Montpelier, the University of Vermont campus in Burlington, he Haskell Free Library in Derby Line, and the home of a friend of a friend in WIndsor—all on different trips in different years—plus I've been leaf peeping more than once (on still OTHER trips than the aforementioned), stopping at various sites to enjoy the view as well as for refreshments at places like the iconic Hogback Mountain Gift Shop. But I have yet to spend the night in Vermont.

Somehow, I don't think that disqualifies me from saying I've visited!

This thread is so inane it is lovable.

It makes me wonder what constitutes a visit to a restaurant.

*Walking by the restaurant.
*Reading a menu posted outside the restaurant.
*Opening the door and looking into the restaurant.
*Taking a seat at a table, but leaving before ordering.
*Ordering, but returning the food to the kitchen as unacceptable.

Etc.

HTTY

For myself, its doing something in the state other than just passing through

IE
a) Tourist attraction
b) eating a meal (not counting at airports or rest areas)

I've been in all 48 connected states. I've probably only slept overnight in about 44 of them. I was not sure about North Dakota so I got off the train for 2 minutes in Williston and took a picture of the station signboard. I've been to North Dakota for sure now. I did sleep on the train while it was moving through on the way to Fargo.
In the last 7 years I've been working on finding a geocache in as many states as possible. I've found caches in 20 states plus British Columbia Canada.

HTTY—

*Taking a seat at a table, but leaving before ordering.
*Ordering, but returning the food to the kitchen as unacceptable.

Those certainly count as VISITS. Not sure they would qualify as EATING at said restaurant. ;)

gail - Those are pretty much our rules too. I count Arkansas because once when we were in Memphis, we got in the wrong lane and ended up going over the bridge into Arkansas. So we stopped the car at the soonest opportunity, got out of the car, took a deep breath, and then drove back to Memphis. I don't count Illinois because although I have been to Chicago airport 100 times, I have never left the secure area and entered Illinois.

You could do this:

http://www.datapointed.net/2012/08/f...united-states/

"This thread is so inane it is lovable."

Well bless your heart. ;)

I've done all 50, and none of them were as minimal as those suggestions. I do think driving through RI and spending even half a day visiting the mansions would count. That's all about "seeing" something the state has to offer. To me, that's what travel is about -- but not spending the night in an airport hotel -- unless you also explored a city and enjoyedameal in a local restaurant.

NeoPatrick...agreed.

Experiencing something and just checking things off are two different things. I agree with Neo.

Neo - What if you ate at a restaurant, but didnt enjoy it? Still counts?

It's an interesting question and I agree it's up to you to decide.

If it were me, doing something worthwhile in a state would be my measure. A site and a meal, perhaps.