Originally Posted by
kosy91
excellent trip report and I've enjoyed every post so far
It's good to see that you've got a target to visit x number of countries. How do you count these? You seem to count even if you've transited through?
I want to visit 30 counties by the time I hit 30 - not a steep target by any means. However, I'm only counting countries where I send at least 1 night. This way I will make sure I've seen at least some part of a country before I cant tick it off.
I count it if I step foot in the country (airport counts), though ideally I’d like to leave the airport and see each country. It’s a personal thing, so others may have a different opinion here. I counted HK here because I had a layover there, but I’ve been to HKG a couple times before (spent several days there) so it wasn’t a new country for me. In general, if I only transit a country, I typically plan to come back another time to enter and see the country a bit more.
And I do count day trips. Some countries are very small and don’t really need an overnight stay to see the sights. Gibraltar, Macau and Brunei come to mind.
That said, 30 countries by 30 should be a doable goal. Europe and SE Asia are regions that are very conducive to seeing a lot of countries in a relatively short time.