It is natural for avid travelers to begin counting countries at some point in their journey. For me, the urge to start keeping count happened in my early 20’s while I was living in Japan and realized that I was closing in on my 25th UN member state. Suddenly I had a goal: visit 30 countries by 30. I really enjoy setting and surpassing goals, and I managed hit that one by my mid-twenties. So, I upped the ante to 50 countries by 30. I beat that, too. But the higher my count climbed and the more I came into contact with fellow country counters, the more I began to struggle with the fact that there really is no universally accepted definition for what qualifies as a visit.
At the most liberal end of the spectrum, I’ve met travelers who count a visit as any occasion in which they physically find themselves in a foreign land, regardless of the length or quality of that stay. As crazy as it may sound (to me at least), some folks claim to have visited a country even if they only transit through an international airport. This is a tactic used by some who are trying to check off every country in the world within a limited time period.
On the other hand, I’ve met travelers who believe that you should only count places where you really get to know a country by making meaningful connections with both the local people and culture over an extended period of time. They wouldn’t view a weekend spent at a Jamaican resort or a conference in Mexico City as a legitimate visit. I think that is an admirable stance to take, but let’s be honest, most of us have jobs that keep us from spending a month floating down the Amazon or trekking across South Korea. If we want to feel good about our country count then we need to be a bit more relaxed.
Personally, I try to dedicate at least half a week to a country and attempt to move around and stay in more than one location. With that said, I count a visit if it meets the following criteria: (1) I spend at least 24 consecutive hours in the country; and (2) I have at least one story worthy experience. This naturally requires interacting with locals and getting out to see something beyond the airport, hotel and taxi. Any visit which only meets these base requirements deserves an asterisk and a return trip one day, but I feel relatively comfortable adding it to my count.
So what about those who want to count a stay of less than 24 hours like a long layover, day trip across a border, or stop on a cruise ship? I mean, there sure are a lot of bloggers out there who crank out posts like “experience Prague on a five hour layover.” Well, I’ll grudgingly accept their definition. Heck, I even employed this ultra-liberal definition three times when I initially made the claim of visiting 100 countries and territories. That claim was made on the basis of the Traveler’s Century Club’s liberal criteria for membership.
If you try to count a plane transfer in which you never step out of the airport though, then you’re working from a baseline that I simply can’t accept. Of course, in the end I guess no one needs my acceptance. When it comes to country counting, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.