Number of Countries visited - a question

Royal Fleet

Royal Fleet

Royal Fleet

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My wife and I have an ongoing competition for who has visited the most countries in our lives. She travelled a bit when she was younger but I am now travelling a lot with work.

We have an ongoing debate though about what constitutes having 'visited' a country.

So would you say
- You merely have to have stepped foot on the geographic land (i.e. transiting through an airport in the country would count)
- You have to passed through immigration but then you could turn straight around and leave again
- you have to spent at least one night in the country.

Thoughts?
 
Spent at least one night in a country IMO.

I did an online map thing once and have racked up about 25 countries now. But there have been countries the plane has stopped in but I wouldn't count those as visited.

Did I leave the airport? Did I do stuff there? did I explore and experience that country?

If the answers to those questions are no, then IMO I didn't visit it :p :)
 
I dunno I reckon as long as you put both feet on the ground it counts.

I was in Switzerland at the border with Germany, open gate crossing with a policeman, stepped over the border marker for a second (as policeman didn't seem to impressed) and i'll be forever counting that as 'visiting Germany' :p
 
I don't think you need to stay overnight, I spent 6 hours walking around Kotor as one of my stops on a cruise, does that mean I haven't been to Montenegro?
 
Ditto to what Phate said. I think 'visited' is the key word as you may have been there, but you haven't really visited. I think that would require at least experiencing a little of what the country has to offer and I think that could be doable on a 1 night basis. That is assuming that you don't arrive at 11pm and leave at 7am for your next flight :p
 
Just depends, I'd say to visit it needs to be planned, see a few tourist sites and take in bit of culture. Otherwise you've merely passed through.

Look up definition of visit in dictionary.
 
At least one night I'd say. I travel for a living so I think I can weigh in on this a bit, I'm even in East Timor at the moment.

I'd have dozens and dozens added to my list if I simply counted the ones I transited through, but how is that visiting when I didnt even leave the airport?!

According to the travel map thing on trip advisor, I've visited (properly) just over 30% of the world now.
 
Spent at least one night. However, a caveat could be, if you landed in the morning say 8am, and didn't leave until the evening and had spent some time outside of the airport and actually immersed yourself a little in the culture.
 
You have to visit it, experience it. Or it doesn't count.

Otherwise I've visited a lot more countries. I've been to Athens airport maybe 10 times, I'm not counting that I've been to Greece.
 
Freefaller;30481810 said:
Spent at least one night. However, a caveat could be, if you landed in the morning say 8am, and didn't leave until the evening and had spent some time outside of the airport and actually immersed yourself a little in the culture.
Click to expand...

That's a pretty high bar, I've lived in stoke all my life and I'm still to immerse myself in it's culture.
 
Dave M;30481838 said:
That's a pretty high bar, I've lived in stoke all my life and I'm still to immerse myself in it's culture.
Click to expand...

Theres a pretty solid reason for that :p
 
You have to have passed through immigration for me as otherwise you are not actually in the country you are in limbo. Staying a night isn't necessary you ca do plenty in a 6-7hour stop on a cruise for example.
 
Left the airport completely, overnight doesn't matter though. We were in France for a day passing through to get to Luxembourg but spent all day walking around a market town including a meal. In Luxembourg we only stayed overnight before moving on. Both of those I count as visiting a country. Passing through a Canadian airport to get to the US (even have the stamp in an old passport) I don't count as a visit.
 
Out of your options I went for one night in the country however I would caveat that by saying if you had spent a few hours in that country outside of the airport, maybe lunch in a town somewhere or something like that, then that could be considered in my opinion as having visited. I don't think transitting through an airport counts as you haven't experienced anything that country has to offer.

For example I went to Charleston in South Carolina a few years ago with work, however our we had a change over in Atlanta, Georgia. We didn't leave the airport, so I don't consider that i've visisted Atlanta or the state of Georgia as I've no idea what any of it looks like etc outside of the airport window.
 
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