How do you calculate all the places that you have visited? One way to do that would be to just track the countries you have visited. However, there is another way to track that includes countries and unique destinations. Unique destinations are part of a country but some what unique in their distance from the larger country, or some how culturally unique. One such system is utilized by a club call the Traveler’s Century Club. To be a member of the club, folks have to have traveled to 100 or more of these unique destinations. Provisional membership is available to folks who have traveled to 75 or more places on the list with the goal of reaching the 100 places.
Countries & Territories | The Travelers’ Century Club® (travelerscenturyclub.org)
Their system break out places like Alaska and Hawaii for their distance, and arguably unique culture from the United States. So if you have visited the continental US, Alaska and Hawaii, that counts at 3 Unique Destinations. This also solves the issue of if you have visited a unique territory, do you count that as the country or the territory. For example I have been to the Island of Madeira which is part of Portugal, but not to the mainland. I include Madeira on my list but I cannot yet count Portugal, as it refers to the mainland part of Portugal. It is not a perfect system, and I am sure that there are places that could be argued either way. I like it, however, because it does recognize that there are places in the world that may be part of a larger country, but unique in their own right.
Steve and I have been avid travelers all our lives and in the last year we have been able to enjoy is retirement from his 9 to 5 job and take more trips than we ever had time to do before. Since August of 2021, we have added Hungary, Slovakia, Turks and Cacaos, Bahamas (Steve added this year, I had been there in 1975), St. Vincent and Grenadines, Dominican Republic, and British Virgin Islands. Later this year, we will visit Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Majorca, and Romania for the first time. We are already more than half way to the century mark and we plan to update this table as we complete our trips. We hope to reach the century mark by 2025 or 2026. I find that having first hand experience of destinations is one of the most important resources that I can utilize when helping my clients plan their own travel.