Not to stir up the dust already settled around the country counting criteria conundrum , but you can blame this guy . He is trying to be the youngest person to visit all 315 countries in the world, which is cool, but I wonder what his take on the counting criteria is. He’s 28 and currently stands at a count of 115, well over the requirement for joining the bunch of travel brag rats known as the Traveler’s Century Club (yes, I am just bitter). Speaking of which, apparently anyone can join this club, their application form doesn’t require any form of verification. Even if they did have a verification criteria, it would probably be based on passport stamps, which has been – after a great deal of debate, discussion and consideration- generally agreed upon as an inadequate method of counting a country as visited.
Bah! I can be the youngest person to visit all 315 countries, I just need to sell everything I own (which is not much) and cancel all major plans for the next few years and I am all set to go.
In another life maybe.
3 Responses to Country counting revisited
Lee
April 5th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Hey there, it’s “this guy”. I appreciate your comments and like your site a lot. I have a lot of issues with what constitutes a visit as well. The TCC aka “brag rats” says that just a fuel stop in a country counts as a visit. I totally disagree with that notion. I have been to certain places for just a few hours and count them but I have always done something worthwhile in the country. Some countries are very small, Luxembourg, Andorra, Swaziland, etc. There is no need to spend a night if you don’t wish to but I believe that just counting countries is not enough, you need to get the most out of your experience in each place and the criteria is up to you. Nobody is checking over your shoulder to see if you’ve done enough to count a place as a visit but you need to be happy with yourself and your visit.
Hani
April 7th, 2007 at 10:22 am
Hey Lee, thanks for stopping by and providing your input on the issue. I agree with you on that, as long as you’re happy with your visit to a country, regardless of visit duration, then it counts. I still think that some kind of
..just to qualify your claim.
“cultural experience” (whatever that might be defined as) is necessary though
Anyway, I like what you’re doing. Good luck with your quest to be the youngest world most traveled person. If I get a couple years off and lots of money soon, you’re gonna have a competitor (don’t worry, very unlikely
)
The last word on country counting at
April 7th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
[...] few days ago I revisited the argument on the country counting criteria, and wrote about Lee Abbamonte, who is trying to be the youngest world-most-traveled person. Lee [...]