The world is huge and even though we are traveling most of the time, we still have a lot to see. We often get asked about how many countries we have been to and I don’t know the answer off the top of my head. It is not something I think about much. But to be honest, lists are kind of fun to look at, and I do have a phone App (Countries Been), that I update once every few months. Currently we are at 31 countries, 31 US states, 6 Canadian provinces and 9 Mexican states. Some people get really into this and define rules for how to count countries. Our online nomad friends, David and Robb made 3 videos on their Ten Degrees Warmer channel. These guys are awesome, but I did chuckle about how much thought they put into this. If you are curious here are the links- Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. They also made a cool spreadsheet that they are giving away for free on their website.
I don’t travel for lists, but I do have many other lists that are fun to look at. Sports lists are fun. I really like the experience in being in another city or country and attending a game. I have been to 8 different NFL stadiums, 6 Major League Baseball parks, 3 European soccer stadiums, and one Seahawks game at Wembley Stadium. I don’t think we will ever try to hit all the MLB or NFL stadiums like some retired nomads, but I am really interested in more soccer games. We had so much fun in Rome, Madrid and London. Our travels through Europe this year has been a little frustrating because the teams always seem to be out of town on the weekend we are in a big soccer town. We also watched the Daewoo Bears baseball team when we were in Seoul, South Korea. That was a real cultural experience.
We are huge art fans and we have realized that we have seen a lot of the world’s most famous art. I googled the worlds most popular art museums and we have been to 11 out of the top 15. We need to get to the Pompidou and the Washington DC National Gallery.
We also have been to a lot of churches and religious buildings. I had guessed that we have been to most of the big ones. But no…. according to the Wikipedia list of the top churches. We have only been to 2 of the top 10. You can also find lists for tallest churches, and most visited religious buildings and sites. But like most Nomads…. we are a little tired of churches, temples, and mosques. I am OK not finishing these lists, and continue to just visit when they are convenient and free, or are really a significant building like the Taj Mahal.
Some people talk about visiting UNESCO World Heritage sites. We have been to a lot and sometimes we don’t even know it is a UNESCO site when we are there. There are so many (1199) and it doesn’t seem to be easy to try and track that. It would be a little overwhelming. I do always enjoy visiting those places but I don’t need to be counting them all up.
There is a much simpler list of the 7 new wonders of the world. This should really be on our bucket list but right now we have only been to 2 of them.
We have also been to a lot of big cities, and I would have guessed we had seen many of the most populous places in the world. We have only been to 3 of the top 11. This list seems to change a lot, by who and how you define where city limits end. Some big ones that we have visited don’t make this Wikipedia list, like Seoul, London, Bangkok, Istanbul, Rome and Los Angeles.
Overall, I like looking at the lists, even though they probably won’t drive our traveling behavior. I think it is fun to see how much we have seen, but also how much we still need to see. I also interested in other traveler’s lists. Some people are interested in things that I don’t consider a crucial tourist activity. We do lots of museums besides art museums. Some people want to hit the best history museums in the world, or archaeology museums, or science museums, or natural history. I bet some people have lists of things that I haven’t even thought of. I intend to ask other travelers we meet about their bucket lists. Maybe I will find a new list to track.
Hey Bill, thanks for mentioning our very nerdy (and crucially important lol) Country Counting videos. You are probably right to chuckle, not everyone is going to dive into the weeds like that, but as a spreadsheet and data guy, organizing my data and learning about the world like that was all part of the fun! Learning about Bir Tawil or deciding what to do with Lampudesa (which was just in the news!) was all very interesting to me. 🙂
We’ve been playing around with other things to track. I agree with you that UNESCO World Heritage sites seem like a good thing but in practice is just a lot of work to keep up with. We even started making a master list of World Wonders, but again the number just spiraled out of control (though it is a really fun list and I may revisit that idea one of these days.) Oceans and Seas, and Mountain Ranges are other things we’ve talked about but haven’t actually made the spreadsheet to start it yet.
I was toying around with adding a list of buildings designed by Eiffel, since we’ve now seen three of his in three different countries. I did not realize there was a Wikipedia page for the most visited museums. That is an interesting one since we’ve been to quite a few, I might have to take a look at that. Again though, there are just SO MANY museums, it would be challenging to decide which ones to track and which ones not to. Ditto churches (and yes we are well into church-visiting-fatigue as well! lol)
I just learned a new feature in Google Sheets that will put your data into a world map. So besides having a visual of the countries I’ve visited, there was also a setting to put a pin in every city you visit. That’s actually been a lot of fun to set up – I haven’t gone historical to try and list every city I’ve ever been to, but I’ve been tracking it since we started our current travels last December and that has been a fun map to track.
And ultimately I think we agree on this – counting is not at all about the number. The spreadsheet (or app) will remember the number for you. But counting and tracking them at all is just a way to honor and remember the adventures and experiences and memories we’ve had while traveling.