What counts as having visited a country?

[MrsTerryPratchett]

Normally I'm one for homestays and 'travelling' not being a tourist But I've visited a lot of countries and the subject came up today about what counts. I've been to a lot of countries but I can count them differently.

Various answers have been:

Leaving the airport (so transfers don't count)
Getting a passport stamp (now we aren't EU, that's more likely)
Eating in the country
Staying overnight
If a country is disputed, who do you listen to? (I've been to a few countries which have disputed borders.) I'm a fan of listening to the person I think is OK.
Countries within countries? Guadeloupe is part of France. But Puerto Rico? Greenland? All the UK countries? Do they 'count'?

Lighthearted (says she, hopefully).

This is something that DH had an ongoing competition around and had developed detailed rules until he took a job travelling round Asia and there was no chance of me ever catching up.

For our rules, you had to leave the airport but no specified amount of time in the country and definitely no overnight stay needed.

And for what counts as a country, we used the UN list of member states. This had the advantage of not having any grey areas (had to be a member country at time of travel so didn’t count if gained independence later although that rule was never tested) but the downside was lots of countries don’t have their own representation at the UN (eg England, Scotland and Wales don’t count as separate countries under our rules).

I don’t think you have to stay overnight but you do have to have seen some of the country. So I wouldn’t class getting off a cruise ship & having lunch at the harbour and then going back but I would class arriving in Paris in the morning, taking in the sights & then getting a late night train back.

I would not include airport stopovers, travelling through a country etc

I had to wait a few hours in Tahiti & travelled to a ferry, I don’t consider myself to have visited Tahiti

I don't count Dubai or Taipei, both of which I've transited through.

I do count Switzerland, despite flying into Geneva and driving straight over the border to France.

Leaving the airport. I’ve had dozens of day trips to Paris and Brussels by Eurostar and I think most people would find it weird if I claimed I’ve never visited France or Belgium because I haven’t stayed overnight. If a country believes itself to exist, I count going there as having visited that country. I’d think someone was just trying to be a bit of a smart alec if they told me they’d been to Denmark when they’d actually been to Greenland.

Saying you’ve visited somewhere doesn’t imply that you’re claiming vast knowledge of somewhere or that you’ve explored it thoroughly, you qualify your visit by saying what you did and how long you spent there etc.

I am rethinking the overnight requirement now, and I think instead you have to have engaged with the country in some way, be that just going to a shopping centre and buying some lunch, or visiting a single museum or something like that.

So getting off a plane, spending three days at a conference, never leaving the hotel, and then flying out does not count as visiting the country. But if you took one afternoon off the conference and went into town, saw the cathedral and had a coffee and cake, then you have visited it.

For me the distinction is having had a meaningful interaction with the place. So a six hour layover sightseeing- I'd say I visited. Six hour drive through a country only stopping to get petrol/ service station food I wouldn't.

Hopping across the border for an hour and getting a stamp in my passport, I didn't count.

I went to the toilet in Belgium once. Does that count?😂

We were on a coach going between France and Germany, and the driver stopped at a large service station in Belgium. We got off the coach, went to the toilet and then got back on again.

I think it counts if you have left the airport.

I spent a month as a student in a French uni and some of us did a day trip to Geneva. So I consider that qualifies me to say I've been in Switzerland.

DD1 took a flight via Hamburg, and she left the airport for a few hours. DD2 had a flight to an Italian city and also left the airport to explore. I think both of these count.

I only consider I've visited a country when I've explored different parts of it so it can take a while before I feel I can say that - until then I only say I have visited a location within a country.

Well if you’ve set foot in a country (airports don’t count) then you’ve clearly been there, though you couldn’t claim to have experienced much of the country.

Putting your feet on the ground of the country even if only transiting at an airport. This way I can count China having been at Guangzhou for a few hours. I ate a pizza and went to the bathroom so it must count surely? 😀

I feel differently about it depending on the size of the country. I visited Lanzarote, Madeira and Morocco as part of a cruise. One day each. I consider that I've visited Lanzarote because we saw quite a lot on our tour, it's small and not loads to do there anyway. I don't consider that I've visited Madeira or Morocco because the tour of Madeira was so terrible all we did was drive in a coach to a viewpoint and back. And I only visited a souq in Morocco.

I also don't count Austria, which I've only been to for a few hours as a lunch visit from Germany.

To count, for me, I have to feel like I've experienced something significant for the country.

I spent like eight hours in Doha airport.

Got a bus from one terminal to the next. If I'd carked it I would have died in Qatar. I'm counting airports, possibly only if you get off the plane.

I live in Wales but I’ve never been to Scotland. By your reckoning i could say I have been to Scotland because Scotland is part of the UK. Ridiculous - why say I’ve been there if I haven’t.

I don’t count airside at an airport, but would consider a few hours landside transit in a country.

I agree with this

I don’t get this point about have “experienced” the country. When we lived in HK we had a long weekend in Beijing. Obviously visiting one city in a vast country barely gives you a taste of what it has to offer. On the other hand, we spent a similar amount of time in Singapore and think we pretty much visited every corner. I’d count myself as having visited both, but if I really wanted to get a feel for china id have spend much longer there.

We went to Guadeloupe, via Paris so we tick both boxes. I went to the Seychelles via Nairobi but I don't consider I have been to Kenya. Likewise Vegas via Detroit don't consider I have been to Detroit.

I think it’s leaving the airport, so I don’t count Bahrain, Singapore or Hong Kong. Although, if someone asked me if I’d been to those countries, I suppose technically, I’d be lying if I said no.

I think driving or travelling by train through a country counts.

Maybe ‘been to’ and ‘visited’ are slightly different…

I appreciate detailed rules. Just my kind of nerd!

Our rule for collecting US states is that you must leave the airport, station or car, and eat a meal for the state to count. You don’t have to sleep there. Countries would be similar. So I’ve been to Connecticut because I ate a hot dog in a gas station but I haven’t been to Delaware because I’ve only driven through it.

Oh that reminds me. Our older DS has autism and for AGES one of his special interests was Katie Morag (I;m also a fan) and he was desperate to go to Scotland. We were in Northumberland visiting a family member who was very frail and on end of life care and it was all very stressful and intense. Poor DS badgered us for a week about going to Scotland. So we drove to the border in exhausted frustration and stepped over it. Took a photo. Then back. Then drove back to the hospice.

I definitely count that. (Next year we plan to go properly though).

And another post from me (I'm on a roll). We fly to Australia sometimes for various reasons. Again due to DS1;s range of medical issues I always buy travel insurance to include Singapore because it is the plane refuelling point.

If you buy travel insurance for a country but never leave the airport... I reckon it counts...ish.

I appreciate that I might be overthinking that bit on the travel insurance side of things but I don't particularly want to end up in a Singapore hospital without it being covered as it can be expensive I believe.