100 Countries Before 40
My goal is to have visited 100 countries before I turn 40.
After turning 30 in September 2012, I decided I needed to have a goal in life. Since travel is my life, I decided what better goal to have than to visit 100 countries by the time my next significant birthday rolls around.
I’ll be tracking my progress here on Flashpacker Family. So, how am I progressing? I’m currently up to 52 countries!
When I started I’d been to 22 countries.By the end of 2014, I’d visited 27 countries. See progress update for 2014 here. By the end of 2015, I’ve visited seven new countries taking my total to 34! See my progress update for 2015 here.
Why?
When I turned 30 I realised I’d gotten stuck in a travel rut. I was visiting the same countries over and over again. Partly because I enjoyed them and partly because it was just easy.
I needed a challenge!
Travel is my passion and what better way of challenging myself than to set an ambitious travel goal. I want to push myself out of my comfort zone.
How Many Countries are There in the World?
Just how many countries there are in the world depends entirely on who you ask!
I’ve decided to use the list of countries as defined by the United Nations. It’s the list with the least amount of countries, which certainly makes my job more difficult, but it’s also the list that offers the least amount of controversy. I don’t want to get to the end of my 30s thinking I’ve been to 100 countries when I’ve only been to 95. That would suck!
There are certainly places missing from this list that one would consider a country under normal circumstances. Places such as Taiwan, Palestine and Kosovo aren’t officially recognised as countries therefore I don’t think I can add them to my tally (unless of course things change.)
Here are all the countries in the world (ones I’ve visited are in bold):
OCEANIA (3 out of 14)
Australia
Fiji
Kiribati
Marshall Islands
Micronesia
Nauru
New Zealand
Palau
Papua New Guinea
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Tonga
Tuvalu
Vanuatu
NORTH AMERICA (8 out of 23)
Antigua and Barbuda
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Canada
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominica
Dominican Republic
El Salvador
Grenada
Guatemala
Haiti
Honduras
Jamaica
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panama
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Trinidad and Tobago
United States
SOUTH AMERICA (0 out of 12)
Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
Guyana
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela
EUROPE (26 out of 47)
Albania
Andorra
Armenia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Belgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malta
Moldova
Monaco
Montenegro
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
San Marino
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Ukraine
United Kingdom
Vatican City
ASIA (14 out of 44)
Afghanistan
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Brunei
Burma (Myanmar)
Cambodia
China * incl Hong Kong
East Timor
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Korea, North
Korea, South
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Lebanon
Malaysia
Maldives
Mongolia
Nepal
Oman
Pakistan
Philippines
Qatar
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Sri Lanka
Syria
Tajikistan
Thailand
Turkey
Turkmenistan
United Arab Emirates
Uzbekistan
Vietnam
Yemen
AFRICA (1 out of 54)
Algeria
Angola
Benin
Botswana
Burkina
Burundi
Cameroon
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Congo
Congo, Democratic Republic of
Djibouti
Egypt
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gabon
Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Ivory Coast
Kenya
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Mauritania
Mauritius
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
Rwanda
Sao Tome and Principe
Senegal
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Africa
South Sudan
Sudan
Swaziland
Tanzania
Togo
Tunisia
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe
