Countries visited (last updated 30 October 2016)

The list of countries visited is a tricky one, because we have to decide how should we define it. Should we include just UN recognised countries, or should we follow the example of the Travelers' Century Club and use territories? After all, the Falkland Islands is not a UN country, but it certainly doesn't feel like it should just be lumped in under the UK. In the end, I have decided to treat independent territories, or specific 'destinations' like Easter Island, separately, to be more reflective of our travels.

There is also the issue of how long you need to spend there for it to count. The general consensus is to sleep in a place - but what if you get an overnight in and an overnight out, but spend the whole day there? Particularly for the smaller countries in Europe. And let's face it, unless you have an invitation from the pope, you can't spend the night in Vatican City. So I have decided to include those. Equally, spending a week in Miami cannot possibly be regarded as seeing the USA, so I have decided to break down those huge countries, USA, Canada, Australia, China and Russia, into their states or provinces.

And then there is the question of whether or not to include countries visited before we began our new life in 2011, that aren't covered in the blog. We did a lot of European travel before that, and we may not return to some of those countries, so I have included them in a pre 2011 list, but only included them in the total if we have both visited them, and they will move onto the post 2011 list if we have visited them since.

So, our grand total of countries and territories is:  85 (55 since 2011, 30 before)

For the purists, the UN recognised member countries are marked with an * on the list and the count is 56 (33 since 2011 and 23 before).

If you want to see where we have been, and read the blogs, you can select the country or state/province in our list of labels to get the blog posts for that area.

Where we've been

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Countries and Territories since 20 June 2011

Antarctica
*Argentina
*Australia:
   - New South Wales
   - Northern Territories
   - Queensland
   - South Australia
   - Tasmania
   - Victoria
*Bolivia
*Brazil
*Cambodia
*Canada:
   - Alberta
   - British Columbia
   - Manitoba
   - Quebec
*Chile
*China:
   - Yunnan
   - Hong Kong
*Colombia
*Cuba
Easter Island
*Ecuador
England (*UK)
*Estonia
Falkland Islands
*France
*Germany
*Italy
*Japan
*Laos
*Latvia
*Lithuania
*Malaysia
*Myanmar (Burma)
*New Zealand
*Norway
*Paraguay
*Peru
*Qatar
Scotland
*Singapore
*Spain
Spitsbergen - Svalbard
Taiwan
*Thailand
*United Arab Emirates
   - Abu Dhabi
   - Dubai
*Uruguay
*USA:
   - Alabama
   - Florida
   - Georgia
   - Illinois
   - Louisiana
   - Tennessee
   - Texas

Total count = 55

Countries and territories before 20 June 2011

*Austria
*Belgium
*Bosnia and Herzegovina
*Bulgaria
Canada:
   - Ontario
*Croatia
*Czech Republic
*Denmark
Gibraltar
*Hungary
*Liechtenstein - Tabitha only
*Luxembourg
*Macedonia
*Malta
*Monaco
*Montenegro
*Morocco
*Netherlands
Northern Ireland
*Poland - Nic only
*Portugal
*Republic of Ireland
*Romania
*Serbia
*Slovakia
*Slovenia
*South Africa
*Sweden
*Switzerland - Nic only
USA:
   - Colorado
   - Nevada
Vatican City
Wales

Total count = 30