The Traveler’s Century Club is for people who have visited at least 100 countries, where they (somewhat arbitrarily) define countries as places that are politically, ethnologically, or geographically distinct. They define 317 such countries, but I’ve so far only visited 50. Here’s my list.
Here’s a New York Times article on the TCC and one from Travel & Leisure.
Obviously, one gets a huge bang for your buck out of Carribean-style cruises, versus the sort of traveling I’ve done recently where I spend two weeks in the Galapagos, or Uganda, or Croatia, or Ghana. Still, slowly but surely….
Dan Kohn | 03-Nov-03 at 11:22 am | Permalink
The head of the Northern California chapter of TCC made the following suggestions to me:
If you are interested in building your total more quickly, there are a few tips which might help. The United Arab Emirates includes seven “countries,” and it is easy to see all seven with a rental car in two or three days; there is also a border crossing with Oman which allows you into the border town in Oman without a visa. I notice you’ve been to Dubai, but there are six other emirates closeby. If you’re in that area you might also add on Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar; all are small and don’t require a lot of time to see.
Although you’ve seen some of the Caribbean, it’s another good place to build a total relatively quickly. LIAT has an airpass for $595 plus tax which allows unlimited travel over 30 days to their 23 destinations.
Lastly, a cruise in the Pacific comes to mind because of the large number of islands, and only a short time at each place. Society Expeditions runs the World Discoverer in re-positioning cruises there spring and fall, and has some terrific itineraries, even including difficult to get to places such as Pitcairn.
Keep the faith! Tim Carlson
travel enthusiast | 09-Nov-03 at 8:23 pm | Permalink
Impressive list. The LIAT airpass looks like your best chance to bump you up toward that 100, though you could cover some good ground by visiting some of the parts of Europe you missed. The Middle East doesn’t sound too good for now.