martinbrown2k

Just something that got me thinking. At what point can you say you are truly a world traveller? Obviously if you've only ever been to 1 or 2 countries then you aren't but if you've been to 100 then you definately are, but where is the cross over point if there is such a thing?

Not so long ago I heard that there was a calculation where you took the number of different cities you've spent a night in (outside of your own country of course) and then take that number and divide it by your age. If the score it greater than 1 then you are officially a world traveller.

Any thoughts?

mjcewl1284

Personally I'd say when you've been to all the continents on the globe.

But that's very conservative in other people's minds...

As for mileage, a million miles frequent flier mileage qualifies surely.

martinbrown2k

Would that include Antartica tho?

Million miles definately as long as it's not just 60 trips from the UK to South Africa and nothing else. lol.

Redhead

I've only been to ~24 countries but have lived in four of those. So while I haven't been to every continent (5 down, 2 to go) nor 100 countries, I do consider myself a world traveller.

IMHO, it is more the travel mindset than any actual static set of stats

user1

Fly in Y on a certain British airline and - BING! - you're officially a World Traveller.

mkt

When the number of passport stamps in an alphabet other than your own outnumbers the ones in your own alphabet.

KathrynInCanada

Interesting standards here. This crowd certainly raises the stakes. Around our village there is no-one who wouldn't classify me as a world traveler yet despite having 5 RTW trips under my belt, I don't come close by any of the proposed criteria discussed here. (31 countries, 5 continents.)

dannybhoy

Erm not really no. I've got a passport which fulfills your criteria, but those stamps mostly from the Middle East and especially just Saudi Arabia, Egypt and UAE, and to a lesser extent Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait. Hardly "World Traveller" by any standards, even if I include the handful of stamps to/from Russia and a sprinkling of stamps from Western and other Asian countries.

As for counting by countries in which a person has lived in, again it depends. In my case, although I've lived in five countries (meaning living at least 12 months in each country and in non-commercial accommodation, apart from my home country S'pore), it's only just 2 in the West and 3 in the Middle East, still hardly "World Traveller", even though the main language(s) in all 5 countries span 3 different "alphabets" and all of which differ from my mother tongue (Chinese).

The main gaps in any bid of mine for "World Traveller" are that I haven't visited Central and South America, as well as Sub-Saharan Africa.

TWA Forever

Very subjective but in my opinion...

At least 2 visits to each continent.

At least 2 countries visited on each continent, except Australia.

Exception granted for Antarctica.

At least 15 overseas trips out of your continent.

At least 50 countries, 30 in rare exceptions if they are spread over different continents and not all in one, such as Europe.

manneca

When the people in your real world think that you have been to an awful lot of countries (including lost of weird places) and when you travel, everyone you meet has been to lots more countries.

I've been to 70 some on every continent except Antarctica and they guy I envy most is the one I met on a trip to Mongolia last year who had been to all but 17.

martinbrown2k

LOL @ user1. Does that mean an Antarctica trip means you become World Traveller Plus?

Agree with Manneca. I've calculated I've flown over 500,000 miles in about 4 years and I thought that was alot but then I've met people who've done a cool million.

FYI, the world record for air miles flown is 13.9 million. However according to Guiness, it was acheived by travelling from the UK to New Jersey/JFK every day for many years (including 891 flights on Concorde). If that's the case, then that's just a frequent flyer and not what would be considered a world traveller.

rankourabu

1. Tick
2. Tick
3. Will take the exception, not rich enough
4. Tick
5. Tick

Also lived in 4 different countries for a year+


Yay, I am a world traveller, and not even out of my 20s yet

Seriously, I also dont think that business trips should count, if you dont really have time to explore the culture outside your conference or meeting hotel. Like people who fly in for to various places for business, and leave without ever eating outside the hotel, sure you've been to places, but havent really travelled there.

mkt

Mea culpa... I should've added the line "You're from the Americas/Caribbean AND... beforehand

f4freeJunior

If you speak about cities, then I'd say the score should be at least 10, and certainly not 1 which is way too easy!

But if you're talking about countries visited/age, then I agree that the score should be at least 1.

ccf

It's been a long weekend for me, and I may not be reading it correctly, but shouldn't cities be rated 1/10, not 10?