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How Many Countries Have You Been To?

Please don’t ask me how many countries I’ve been to. I lost count long ago and don’t care.

A country I haven't been to

I’ve never been to Antarctica. You win.

Some people collect countries visited like that’s something to brag about. They’ll put in their social media feed that they were the youngest person to visit every country in the world, or they’re “on a quest to visit 100 countries before age 40.” They do it with a drive that’s on par with people who collect Funko toys or action figures still in the box. But when’s the last time you looked at someone’s obsessive collection of Star Wars toys on a shelf and said, “Wow, good for you! You must be very proud!”

How many countries have I been to? No idea, but this is stunning Bosnia. As a travel writer, I get a lot of the same questions over and over again and I’ll gamely answer the rest of them. But this one always gets a “Who cares?” reply. Travel is not a competitive sport. It’s something to be savored like a fine meal, not treated like a hot dog eating contest.

It seems that 99% of the time the person asking this particular question is trying to see if their collection is bigger than my collection. The exercise even requires rules as to what counts in order to form an answer Do airport layovers count? Visits without an overnight stay? Less than 24 hours? A ride through on a bus? A night sleeping on a bench in a train station?

This game requires a big war chest of course, because some countries are a real pain to get to—precisely because nobody else ever goes there. Others are war zones, closed dictatorships, or places where you have to hire private boat transportation to set foot on their soil. The only visitors are those with the wealth and the drive to win at a game only they are playing.

The worst I’ve encountered are people who go on cruises a lot. The way it usually goes is one of them will tell me proudly that she’s been to 85 countries. If I nod and play along for a while it usually turns out most of those 85  (or whatever the number is) were port stops on a cruise: seeing the worst a country has to offer, then returning to a giant floating hotel to sleep. You can keep that collection, thank you.

(For the record, I’m not saying that cruise travel can’t ever be worthwhile—there are some great journeys on European rivers, in Alaska, in Norway, and other spots. Just don’t go on a Caribbean circuit and tell me you visited six countries because you went duty free shopping at ports in Barbados and Saint Martin.)

Slow Travel vs. Checking a Box

Where the exercise of obsessing over how many countries you’ve been to breaks down is when you try to measure your experiences by depth instead of shallow numbers. Spending a month in one place is by nature a more in-depth experience than dashing through four countries in four weeks. If you’re going for meaningful memories and not virtual trophies that is.

The first provides an immersion experience and a deeper understanding of the place and its people. The second provides a blur of check-the-box tourist sites and transportation hubs. The person with a bigger collection is the real loser (and has usually spent a lot more money).

Visiting Peru for the fourth time to go deeper

On Peru visit #4

I have been to Peru four five times, Ecuador four times, Argentina twice four times—just listing stats, not saying it to brag—but Paraguay and French Guiana zero times. I’ll probably head to another part of Argentina or Chile before I’ll check off another country box in South America.

Sure, I could have nipped across the border at some point to go to Paraguay, but that’s a game for country counters. I wanted to see different parts of interesting countries and dive deeper, not just get another stamp in my passport. Do I really want to go to Venezuela right now? Nobody would…unless they’re trying to add to their passport stamp collection.

I’ve never been to El Salvador, but I have visited many neighboring countries in depth. I haven’t made it to Cuba, but I think I’ve probably been to around 20 states in Mexico. I’m content with my choices on both counts.

Is my life vastly different because I spent two nights in Singapore once and added that to my collection? Would I be more of a real traveler if I had bopped across a border to Poland instead of visiting northern Bohemia on my second visit to the Czech Republic? Should I put Austria on my visited list because a train conductor slammed a door in my face and I spent hours in the station on my way to another country?

No, no, and no.

I’m Still Adding Countries, but Not to Score Points

Because of writing assignments and conferences where I was speaking, when I first put this post up I had been invited the previous year on a hiking trip to Kyrgyzstan. A conference brought me to Ireland to speak, then I did an epic cycling trip through and four Balkan countries for the first time. The next year I didn’t go anywhere new and that was okay. The pandemic must have really ruined it for the country counters for a few years—and made the pursuit a lot more expensive—but I spent it exploring places in Mexico and the USA I had never been to instead. 

I’d imagine the number of countries I’ve visited probably tracks my age over time. If I live to 90, maybe I’ll hit 90. But if I don’t, that certainly won’t be a deathbed regret. I’m certainly not booking a trip to some island in the middle of nowhere just so I can say I’ve been there. I’ll leave that up to the crazy extreme travelers and their cult. They’ve got an addiction they’re trying to ease (but probably never will).

Besides, bragging about how many countries you’ve been to is like bragging about how big your house is, how expensive your car was, or how much that Gucci handbag set you back. The only way to visit 150 countries, especially remote ones, is to spend a lot of money or get paid to go to them. Either way it involves being a person of privilege.

I am fully aware of how fortunate I am to be able to visit any foreign country, much less legally live in one as I do, so I don’t take this privilege lightly. Not everyone can put themselves in that position and some people, just by the fact of where they were born, don’t have unlimited freedom of movement like Americans, EU members, and UAE residents do with their powerful passports. 

Travel is not a competitive sport and you don’t have to keep score. Forget the country counting and enjoy the country you’re visiting, whether it’s the first time or the 12th. 

This post on avoiding #countrycounting was updated in April of 2023. 

 

Nicholas

Wednesday 19th of April 2023

At least half the travel bloggers I follow on Instagram seem to want to brag about this in their profile, like they just got a record time in the marathon or something. Good for you bud that you've been stamped in 58 places but all that tells me is that you grew up priviledged enough to get the right passport, had enough opportunities open to you to earn good money, and you managed to find the time to see the world instead of working 51 weeks a year. Did you actually experience those places and make connections there though or did you just check them off a list? It's crazy that there are whole clubs dedicated to this stat and some of them aren't even content to measure countries. They have to expand the list so they can check off more boxes.

Dan

Wednesday 25th of September 2019

Throughout history, borders and names have changed. If we go back even farther, some of those places were still submerged in water. The point is, borders are created by mankind. A hundred different people could go to the same region of the world and have completely different experiences. What really matters is what you did, what you experienced, and how you felt during your journey. Those are the adventures to reflect on with a smile.

G

Wednesday 5th of June 2019

I don't even consider countries as a criterion to define travel. If today I happen to go out of my house and on my way to be lucky to witness a milestone of a baby pigeon going down from the nest forcibly pushed by its parents. And I saw it trying to fly for the first time in its life - that's a travel of life - that's what I would call an experience of a lifetime. If I go to a neighbor who has a prodigy child with cancer and I witness that child die with no fear and no regret and pure happiness, bringing tears to me by his fearless smile - that's an experience -I call it a travel of life. I travel every single day of my life by living my life to the fullest and appreciating the environment I'm in. Some people travel through country names. I travel through life, regardless of what country it happens in. Moreover, country borders and city titles are rather abstract. Those names are what people imagine in their head any way. When I'm looking down on earth from the plane window I don't see any countries or borders. I realized that countries and borders don't exist - they only exist inside peoples’ heads. The true borders that I see on earth are the rivers and the lakes, the mountain ridges and continental beaches - those are the real marks on this beautiful earth. Therefore, any day spend on the surface of this amazing planet counts as travel, regardless of what country you are in. Even if I stay in the same country my whole life, as long as I travel on top of this earth every day - I'm a 100% traveler 365 days a year.

Bud

Friday 31st of January 2020

When traveling, I prefer to settle into a comfortable apartment and blend with the locals for weeks or months at a time. For me, learning basic communication in the local language, shopping, dining and lounging the way locals do helps broaden ones understanding of the worlds diversity. Never xxA hotel for me unless I just want to test the water for a few days. Cruise ships have the same appeal to me as being trapped in a Vegas hotel for a week. Some people may like looking at their watch every 15 minutes to make sure they don’t miss their ship that is docked while they visit a couple touristy spots with like minded tourists. But if you are spending only 8 hours in Rome, or Tallinn or St. Petersburg, you may as well just watch a Rick Steves video.

Tim Leffel

Wednesday 5th of June 2019

Thanks for the feedback. This has some notable exceptions though: "When I’m looking down on earth from the plane window I don’t see any countries or borders." Depends on where you fly. It's quite obvious where there's a wall, or Haiti/Dominican Republic, North/South Korea, Israel/Palestine, or ones where a major river is the border.

Tom

Wednesday 6th of March 2019

Tim makes some excellent points with his philosophy. Travelling to glean cultural insight is one of the most rewarding travel objectives, and those that do port calls from cruises, or visit drive-bys are selling their destinations way short. That is one extreme. But there is also another extreme...and that is the version that Tim advocates: insisting that country visits must be so in-depth and so lengthy as to almost require permanent residence to acquire. Most people lack the resources of finance and freedom to accomplish this version, so it is unrealistic for most. So, is there a happy medium? A goal to honestly commit to accruing cultural experiences while aiming to diversify and amplify them as much as one can? If I have to visit a country 6 times for it to count as an experience, my experiences would be very limited indeed, and that's probably true for most.

One more thing, I have visited over 100 sovereign nations; nearly half of these I have visited multiple times. Yet, I have NEVER asked anyone how many countries they have visited? It seems like such a silly thing to me. But, when people do ask me how many countries I have visited (and, yes, many of these have visited less than 10 countries themselves), I happily share the count and zero in on some of the more rewarding experiences.

Let's move towards less travel shaming which these days takes on all kinds of self-righteous-sounding criticism...

Tim Leffel

Thursday 7th of March 2019

I never said you have to live somewhere to appreciate it. Just don't zoom through like a manic list-checker.

Lee

Tuesday 22nd of January 2019

I prefer a balance of both, I want to see a lot of a country rather than just land in the capital and tick it of my list but at the same time I do have a big list of countries that I want to see and some I could happily spend less time exploring than others for my own personal preferences.

If somebody wants to do 100 countries and that's a personal goal I say good luck to them and why is this a bad thing? They have left their comfort zone, probably saved a lot of money to do so and challenged themselves so why be so negative towards that? They probably ask how many countries you have been to because you share a common interest and are just making conversation.

If we should keep our personal goals, preferences and opinions to ourselves then why did you feel the need to write this blog ?

Maybe start drinking wine or something sounds like you need a rest ; )

Tim Leffel

Tuesday 22nd of January 2019

It has rarely been the case that someone has asked me this where they weren't trying to compare their stats to everyone else's. People who have only been to 3 countries never ask. It's the ones that look at travel as a contest and they want to make sure they are winning.