World Travel – How Many Countries Have You Seen?
Line BreakAuthor: Kathryn Frengs (136 Articles)
Travelfusion's Social Media Officer, I manage all of our online marketing and presence on Twitter, Facebook, our blog and more. I love my job!
Many travellers have a list of “must-sees” that they want to visit at least once in their lifetime. I’ve posted my “Travel Bucket List” previously with the list of places that I feel like I need to see before I die and there are tons of web resources out there dedicated to travel checklists, must-sees and more.
One phenomenon that I found particularly interesting is the concept of the “Most Travelled People.” These are travellers that set out to see the entire world. Some want to visit every country, even briefly, to say they’ve been there. Others have lists of different historical sites that they want to see. There’s even a website dedicated to tracking theses visits as well as a ranking of the “most travelled people.” I was especially interested in a recent article in the UK Daily Mail reporting on a man who recently earned mention in the Guinness Book of World Records for visiting every country in the world in record time. Though many commenters questioned his photographic skills in the snapshots he used to document his journey, others also wondered about whether or not this type of travel was of any value.
Photo credit: Dave Heuts
This type of extensive travel raises a lot of questions. In our age of information technology and the internet, it certainly makes the world seem smaller. Travel is a hobby of mine and surely is a popular pastime for many others. However, can you really experience a place just by stopping there quickly, taking a photo and leaving? I’ve learned more in my 3+ years as an American expat living in Europe than I think I could have with quick trips to a host of different countries. While I appreciate the proximity to other countries and have definitely taken advantage of cheap flights to tour a handful of places, I’m fortunate to have been able to take more time to explore and experience Paris and London as a resident and not just as a tourist.
That said, I do still use travel tools like Where I’ve Been to track my travel and save places that I would like to see in the future. With visits to 20 countries already, I recognise there’s a whole world out there to see and I’m already fortunate to have been able to visit the places I’ve visited already. My curiosity and desire to experience more cultures, try more foods, take more photos and meet more people make me motivated to push on and see more countries that I’ve never seen. I also have a few favourite places that I’d like to visit again. Though I’ve been to Spain twice already, I’m planning another, longer trip this summer to see more of this beautiful country. If I were one of these travel list people, perhaps I would choose to go to a new country instead in order to check it off my list?
I’m curious to know what others out there think – how many countries have you visited? Do you plan to visit many more or would you rather spend a longer time in one place at a time? What’s your travel strategy, or do you have one?
 |  |
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
-
beckypadmore
-
Travelfusion
-
Mark
-
Travelfusion
-
axel g
-
Travelfusion
