kebosabi

When you blast through your US passport pages in three years.

pinniped

I've never really thought about actually visiting all 50 states. I am currently missing the two Dakotas, Montana, Oregon, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and Alaska.

The Northeast fall roadtrip, a Portland beer festival, and a trip to Alaska are probably in my future. Just not sure if the 50-state thing will motivate me to knock out those last three. Roadie to Glacier with a stopover at Mt. Rushmore? Maybe go do the Fargo Marathon? We'll see...

Science Goy

All of those are more compelling than my missing states: Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas. I may have to just call it good at 47 states + DC and PR.

brendog

I did that with pretty much nothing but US and UK stamps in 18 months, so I'm not quite sure that's a good measure.

My take on well-traveled/world traveler: If you haven't been to at least 50 countries and all 6 inhabited continents, you're nothing but a casual tourist. (I'm just barely a casual tourist as of right now...)

kevinsac

• I had visited 84 countries by the time I graduated from HS. Reached 100 counties sometime in my late-20s or early-30s.
• I have had to request additional pages in my last four passports.
• Did not visit the 7th continent (Antacrtica) until I was 42 years old, but with that trip, I had vacationed on all 7 continents in 7 years.
• I seldom travel out-of-state on business and never out of the country.

pinniped

Yeah, those three are hard to justify a dedicated trip for unless you're into SEC football or something. I got all three of those on one roadtrip 20+ years ago.

I have DC, PR, and USVI...but no Guam or any of the other islands/atolls that still count as territories.

EqualOpp

quality, not "quantity" more important....

How did one's travels change how YOU see things....

An adept person watching plenty of documentaries / reading books with limited travel could know more than somebody country counting who has been to 100 countries...let alone someone counting airports or just capital cities.

-- Counting UN World Heritage Sites is a bit more indicative of how much effort has been taken and how well traveled per se.

- ~145 UN Sites + many more which are not, over 70-75 countries...
- 125+ dive sites over 12-13 countries

Earth is 2/3 water...

- Counting time spent travelling on the road would be another indicator
Numerous multi-month continuous trips

- maybe...how many guidebooks one has bought.....

Country counting can fool us into thinking we are "more knowledgable" than we actually are...

My impression is that there are lots of int'l business travelers have traveled extensively...but seen very little. Stays are short, and "they" go to capital cities, do their business, hang out in a city...but have no idea of the local surroundings....no nature, only big city culture...

nimeta

I consider myself quite well travelled, but not due to the physical number of countries i have visited (approx 70 proper countries, and about 80 if you include silly places like Wales and Scotland that are not really countries at all).

The problem is that , for example, I once spent a night in Stockholm. And a (longish) day in Tajikistan. And a weekend in Benin and a night in Addis Ababa. I could go on. But really, those places I know less well than had I just read Wikipedia on them, so frankly do not count. I need to have stayed a few nights and slept with a local woman before really i can say I have interacted in any meaningful way with a territory ( I really need to get back to Sweden!)

I have however lived in UK, Pakistan, Nigeria, Saudi, UAE, Estonia and Bulgaria for extended periods (i.e. generally in each case for periods ranging from 1 year to 4 years)..plus studied in the USA for 2 years. So I think it is these periods of residence that would qualify me as somewhat well travelled.

raph

^

I think I've only been approximately 30 countries on four continents and only slept with local women in a few of them (am not a guy for one night )...

Still think I am well traveled. I spent weeks, months and years abroad, often more time "on the road" than at home, and

Of course, compared to many others, I don't know what travelling means, but overall I guess I've been around.

Gamecock

A world traveller has been to the great cities of the world such as NY, London, Berlin, Hong Kong, Cairo etc....

Someone who is well traveled has been to places few have ever heard of.

Or maybe it's the other way around....

Gamecock

Just a little off topic,
As my screen name implies, I am an SEC fan.

My buddy and I were about to tee off in St Andrews when a foursome of SEC fans walked up, ready to tee off behind us. All of us were identifiable by our club covers, caps, etc. The rivalry carried over to the Old Course.

pinniped

That could be a defining category by itself: how many of the world's great golf courses have you played? ^

My own St. Andrews story is one I'll never forget. I got a call one Tuesday afternoon while I was at work from an old friend who somehow managed to get a tee time at the Old Course for that Saturday. He was already over there...managed to circumvent the more-typical lottery process, I'm not sure how. Anyway, he just said "get over here...find a way."

Being mid-June I figured it was a hopeless cause, but I called US Airways anyway. This was mid-90's when US Airways was somewhat customer friendly...the agent said "This is going to be hard, but I will try. I will call you back in a while." When she called back 30 minutes later, she had an itinerary put together...DCA-BOS-BRU-EDI/GLA-YUL-LGA-DCA, all in J/F, US, Sabena, and AC metal, for 80,000 miles. ^^^ We ended up hitting 3 courses in St. Andrews (Old, New, Jubilee) and then drove across to hit Turnberry...all in a span of Friday to Monday.

Jubilee was a beast. Old was a thrill because of the history. Turnberry (Ailsa) was one of the most spiritual places I've ever been...to me, perhaps the greatest course in the world and the most perfect venue on Earth.

Gamecock

Great story!

We played the Old Course, The New Course, Carnoustie and and small private course called Crail. What a blast.

Wound up playing with a chap named John Daly, he signed my scorecard, which I have framed at home. (Oh, he wasn't THE John Daly, but he did have a flask in his hip pocket that he was quick to share with the rest of the foursome.)

rankourabu

someone who has actually traveled to places, not just gone for business meetings/other work reasons.

There are lots of people who have "been" to places, but never saw the outside of their hotel, and did not "travel" anywhere that was not on their work itinerary.

I've lived in 4 countries for 1+ year, and visited over 100 countries, and I'd like to think by age 32, I am only half way done

Am I well traveled, perhaps? But there are others who have traveled far more places. Are they well-er traveled?

pinniped

Next trip over, I want to hit Carnoustie.

When we were at St. Andrews, Carnoustie wasn't ever discussed. I vaguely recalled the Watson won one there but it had fallen out of the rota for whatever reason. I bet we could have driven over there and played it for 20 quid. I would have traded the Jubilee round for one at Carnoustie had I really thought about it.

Then a couple years later, Van de Velde's meltdown along with all of the collective whining from top pros about how tough the place is made it famous again.