Country List

I am often asked how many countries I’ve been to. While I don’t visit countries just to check them off a list, like most people I do know where I’ve been. This list is taken from the Traveler’s Century Club list of 321 places around the world. The TCC rules state that any visit, no matter how short counts as a visit. Where I have visited a location only on a layover or passed through in a car without stopping, I have made note.

The TCC definition of a country is more expansive than just the members of the United Nations. It includes geographic, historic, and culturally distinct places. Yes, I know that Hawaii and Tasmania are not “countries” in any normal sense of the word, but they are distinct geographic and cultural destinations.

I use the TCC list just because I think it is more useful from a travel perspective than the list of UN member states, which exclude places like Taiwan, Hong Kong, French Polynesia, Cook Islands, Antarctica, Aruba and American Samoa.

BOLD = UN Member State

Upcoming Countries