sdtravels

Here's another wrinkle...Trip Advisor has a travel map. I only pin cities in which I have seen something or done something; basically spent more than a few minutes.

Banff

I appreciate all the comments/thoughts. It's not that I have ever gone out with the intention to "not experience" a place or just check it off the list . . . the real question, for me, is figuring out how to classify situations that I've already done from my younger years.

Technically I've been in the state of Wisconsin although it was just across the border to crash at a coworkers house for the night. I've never really experienced the state though and have no real intentions on making a trip back (since I've been to all the states surrounding it). You can see my dilemma. Should I count that? I want to visit all 50 but you just can't park and tour around every single state.

When I was younger I visited San Diego to visit family. People ask me all the time how I liked SD and I say, "I don't know . . . I never really saw SD b/c all we did was go from one relatives house to another and visit." Have I been to California????? I don't think that anyone would argue that I should count California as a state I've been to but have I really seen California?

sdtravels

Banff, absolutely count them all. Visiting friend and family counts too. Think of it as getting to know the locals. And you were there more than a few hours to boot.

Cranachin

Of course you "saw" California. You saw a side of California that few tourists see: the people who live and work there and call it "home".

Migrant workers certainly "see" a part of California that few residents see, never mind tourists. It's not the five-star restaurants and museums and theme parks and scenic vistas, but it's one of the many "real Californias"! I don't think people who go to California but never get near the Central Valley consider they might not have "visited" California (as they cluelessly much on produce from the Central Valley).

Have you "been to" Wisconsin? As you say, yes, and not just a "dash across the border for 60 seconds so I can say I have been there" trip. Have you "visited" Wisconsin? Well, you have seen one tiny slice of it. But, honestly, if someone spent a month in Milwaukee and saw all there was to see, but never left the city, in a sense he would have "visited Milwaukee" but not really "visited Wisconsin" (in that Milwaukee is only one part of the whole state).

I grew up in Florida, and I go back every year to visit family. I have yet to see the Gold Coast, or the Everglades, or Key West, or Sanibel Island, or Universal Studios, or Amelia Island, or ....

I don't obsess about it. Neither should you. You are struggling to reconcile two different things that probably can't be reconciled.

Just define your terms and then be content with them.

SusieQQ

As some has said, it's your game so you make the rules. I did know someone who wanted to photograph every state Capitol Building...so sometimes she would just fly into the Capitol city, take the picture and fly right back out...

NorthwestMale

"Airports definitely don't count anywhere."

Try telling that to a murder suspect being interviewed by the authorities from a particular city/state while he constantly denies having ever been in said state even after he is confronted by airline tickets in his name, and purchased on his credit card to/from that particular city/state.

Then imagine him constantly reciting: "I have never been in the state of _______".

LSky

It's one thing to go to a place but experience is what really counts.

sdtravels

LSky..that may be true, but we're just counting physical presence here for the purpose of counting places you have "been".

spirobulldog

sdtravels, Who is "we're"?? I agree with L Sky. It depends on ones own rules. If you go to Fenway Park in the dead of Winter, can you say you experienced the place? Personally, I don't think you even saw the "real" atmosphere of it without actually seeing a game.

I always think of this when I'm at a National Park. The average person spends 4 hours in a National Park. They say the saw it and even say they experienced it. I try to spend several days at each one, normally. I've been to some of them multiple times. Still hard to say that I have even scratched the surface at any of them.

sdtravels

spirobulldog: "We're" would be the people who play the game of keeping a "been to" list represented by the 20 or so people how responded with similar "been to" answers above. There is no argument from anyone the some of these "visits" were not experiences as you define them. Yes it depends on one's own rules and your define the strictest criteria. With your definition, it's possible I have never "been" out of my house.

sdtravels

From the All Fifty Club website:

http://www.allfiftyclub.com/faq.html

What defines "visiting" a state?

A person has visited a state if he or she has set foot on the ground of that state and breathed the air Having a lay-over at an airport does not count as visiting that state. However, going outside of the airport is acceptable. Some members have arranged for a long lay-over, then rented a car by-the-hour to be able to see more of the city/state. Flying over a state does not count. Members may, of course, set their own guidelines. Some prefer not to count a state unless they have spent the night in that state. Any extra guidelines set, may be noted on a certificate and/or plaque. Enter this information in the Special Designations section on the application.

Daniel_Williams

According the the "allfiftyclub", I suppose I've never been to Montana (and a number of other states) as I saw it from a train window and never set foot on Montana soil technically. I love that I can say that I saw the mountains of Glacier National Park up close without ever having visited Montana! Funny, it seemed to me that I was seeing a whole lot of Montana for those 10 hours on that train on my way to Seattle.

Underhill

I counted our 3-hour stay on an airport runway in Maine! The doors were open, and we were bitten by those great big mosquitos; so I think that should count.

lewispaulksr

I went to my 50th state (Idaho)with my son-in law to his fathers funeral. I spent the night and traveled some distance to the small city, I see nothing about this as a visit to Idahos culture, but I have been there. My international travel sometimes means meeting a customer, spending 6 or 7 hours in an airport and spending the night in an airport hotel (some walking around the local area)and leaving without visting a land mark, but I've been there. Being in the geographical area is been there. This is how I have counted 50 States and 53 Countries. Ran out of states but still going for countries.

jayne1973

Once on a road trip I really needed to use the bathroom and somehow ended up going to Michigan just for the ladies room. I guess you could say my only visit to Michigan was a real "relief."

AJPeabody

Requirements:

At least two of:

Sleep there.
Eat there.
Use a bathroom (handwashing does not count).
Die there (best for number 50).

NorthwestMale

LOL @ "experience is what really counts"

Maybe you've never been to Hawaii unless you've surfed the pipeline (shrug) ??

Once again, any court in the land would agree that if you bought a plane ticket (or even stowed away without the purchase of a ticket) to Denver, and another ticket from there to Albuquerque flying out that same day, and then boarded your scheduled flights (which then arrived and departed as projected), that you had been in Colorado.

It is a black and white issue, there simply is no grey area such as whether you "used a bathroom" there, or ate there, to somehow qualify as having been there.