How many countries have you been to in Europe?

[Nannyoggapple]

When I was a little girl, I never had a burning desire about my career, or relationships.

I just remember always having one strong goal, that I thought about a lot.

It was to see every country in Europe before I die. Its still something I think about, and I'm determined to get there one day.

I'm 40. And I've still only seen just over half of the countries in Europe. I think I've seen around 25. I'll have to add them up, but I know it's around that.

It seems to take so long to get to my goal, because I have so little annual leave, and I'm too tired at the weekend to do a weekend quick trip.

But one day I'll get there!

I just thought it might be an interesting thread.

How many countries have you seen in Europe?

There's so many of them!

@Nannyoggapple we usually hire a car. It’s far easier to get to places off the beaten track. But the trains or buses are fairly good if you stick to the cities.
You could fly into Venice, explore a few days, bus to Ljubljana (3ish hour journey). Spend a few days there. Then train to Zagreb Croatia (2hr train). Fly home from Zagreb.

Theres also lots of pre scheduled group trips you could look into? Somewhere like trailfinders might be helpful so you have the ease of someone else arranging and travel companions

Nice!

How did you do so many. Like was it a backpacking year round Europe or something like that?

Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark.

France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland.

Slovakia, Austria

Russia

Malta

17

UK
Ireland
Spain
Portugal
Greece
Italy
Vatican
France
Monaco
Netherlands
Belgium
Malta
Turkey
Czech Republic

Not very many. I also have the same goal OP!

UK
IE
PT
ES
FR
LU
NL
DE
BE
CH

Just 10. I have been slightly thwarted by not having money in the last couple of years. I have a series of places lined up for when I have some money again.

Oh, 11 if Iceland counts.

Whats Slovenia like?

To anyone that's that's there?

I feel drawn to go there next

Ireland
Uk
France
Spain
Portugal
Italy
Croatia
Bosnia
Greece
Cyprus
Slovenia
Czechia
Lithuania
Latvia
Estonia
Russia
Finland
Germany
Austria
Belgium
Netherlands
Hungary
Denmark

23 I think. Interesting exercise!

Ireland
Spain
France
Greece
Italy
Switzerland
Netherlands

So not very many!

UK
France

Netherlands
Luxembourg
Germany
Italy
Austria
Switzerland
Croatia ( was Yugoslavia then)
Sweden
Denmark
Spain
Turkey
Greece
Portugal
Belgium
Andorra ( is that a country or principality?)

17

Not that many unfortunately.
The 4 countries of the UK.
Does the Isle of Man count?
ROI
France
Belgium
The Netherlands
Spain
Germany
Switzerland
Italy
Austria
Malta
Monaco
Greece
I've been to some of those counties a lot and explored different parts of them whereas others have been fairly fleeting visits.
There are some other countries I'm very keen to visit but equally there are parts of the countries I have already been to that I haven't seen yet that I want to explore. There are still lots of parts of the UK that I've not really seen properly in fact.

Oh I forgot Finland. I've been there too.

About a dozen. Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Croatia, Greece, Cyprus, Bosnia-Herzegovina. I travel quite a lot, but keep loving places and going back over and over again, so the list doesn’t really grow.

It’s a mixture of backpacking when I was younger and a lot of football matches after I met DH.

Not many.
England, Wales, Scotland, N Ireland and Eire., Isle of Mann, Isle of Wight
France
Germany
Belgium
Netherlands
Spain
Italy
Norway

I thought we'd travel lots once we had our eldest but for various medical reasons we can't. Only done five outside Europe too.

Egypt
Sri Lanka
Dom Republic
Lanzarote
Feurtaventura

Hopefully once the kids are a bit older the situation will change. They've only been to Wales 🤣

England
ireland
belgium
france
germany
switzerland
spain
portugal
denmark
germany
croatia
greece
netherlands
italy
malta
cyprus
wales
scotland

They can always travel themselves when older too
nothing wrong with wales!

I love Wales!

Oh, I have done all 4 countries of the UK.

And the IoW - I had a week there when I turned 50. I thought I should go at least once, as I've spent much of my life in sight of it, having worked/lived at various points in Bournemouth, Southampton and currently Portsmouth... (Dorset's better though.)

If the IoM counts, so should the Channel Islands. I've only been to Jersey, though.

I'm English (for this thread). Been to:

Scotland
Wales
Republic of Ireland
Spain
France (mainland and Corsica)
Belgium
Italy (incl Sicily - which the Italians will tell you is another country!)
Andorra

I'm hitting 50. I first travelled abroad at 14. It's not an impressive list of countries, but we're in Spain and travel around here a lot, and have friends who gave us a key to their (now empty because parents died) house in the French Pyrenees, so we mostly go there for a change of air.
Other holidays are I take DC to UK to visit family. I'd like to visit an uncle in Berlin, that'd be cool.

It's amazing! It would be up there in my top 5 (with Italy, France, Norway and Portugal).

So easy to travel round, beautiful scenery (with huge variety for such a small country - lakes, mountains, forests, coast, cities), lovely people, great food and wine, plenty to do, nice weather (when we were there!)... Because of its size, history and location (sandwiched between 3 other countries), it is very interesting culturally - a melting pot of influences, with its own spin on them.
It's also easier on the wallet than some places.

I know this isn't a reason to favour a country, but I'll put it out there... One of the reasons it's so easy to holiday in is that English is very widely spoken. The locals were very up front with us about this, and were very happy to default to the lowest common denominator, as it were. It just made using public transport easier, menus, museums, signage, maps... Everything was just so accessible to a non-native speaker.

On one hand, I love being in rural France or Italy, where there's (rightly) little to no English in evidence, and I muddle through with my vague grasp of the language and google translate, and actually enjoy not having everything in English. But travel in Slovenia was just so EASY!

@FeedingThem Of your 5 'outside Europe', 2 are very much in Europe (Lanzarote and Feurtaventura) both being part of Spain.

Not too many:

U.K.
Ireland
France
Spain
Portugal
Greece
Germany
Belgium
Netherlands
Croatia
Turkey

Forgot Italy!

I’ve been to 17 European countries and I’m 30, hoping I’ll also do every single one eventually. Probably not Russia though given it’s never been completely safe.