How to count the countries you've visited (and why the number keeps changing)

Two people take the exact same trips and end up with different country counts. One counts Puerto Rico. The other doesn't. One counts the afternoon the cruise ship stopped. The other says that was a port, not a visit.

They're both right, because "country" turns out to be one of the slipperier words in travel.

Which list are you counting from?

There are a few lists people use, and they don't agree.

The United Nations has 193 member states, plus two observer states, the Holy See and Palestine. That's the list most "how many countries" quizzes use.

The ISO list, the one behind country codes on everything from airline tickets to web addresses, is longer. It includes territories like Puerto Rico, Greenland, Hong Kong and Bermuda, places with their own flag and their own code that are governed by another country.

Then there are the traveler clubs, which split things even further, counting islands and regions separately.

Pond Passport uses the ISO list, so territories get their own stamp, each drawn as a flag. If you have been to Puerto Rico, it counts!

What counts as a visit?

Once you know which list you're using, you need a rule for what counts. The common ones:

• You stayed the night. Strict, and easy to defend.
• You left the airport. The most popular rule. A layover in the terminal doesn't count. Taking the train into town for dinner does.
• You crossed the border. Any land crossing, any length of time. Day trips count.
• Cruise stops count. Loose, but I count them too. If I got off the ship, I was in the country.

Pick one and keep it. Mine is simple: I have to have actually been in the country. Layovers don't count.

Tanzania counts for me. I was on safari in the Serengeti, which is where I saw these lions.

Lions in the Serengeti.

Let the passport do the counting

In YourPond, a country is collected the first time you log a moment anywhere inside it. Log a dinner in Lisbon and Portugal is collected, along with Lisbon and Europe. Check in at a landmark, like the Eiffel Tower, and you collect the country around it too.

A wine tour in Tuscany is one of the trips behind my Italy stamp.

On a wine tour in Tuscany.

Old moments count, so if you have been logging trips for a while, your flags are already partly filled in.

Switch the map to Countries and the places you have been fill in. The rest of the world stays gray until you get there.

Each country stamp also keeps the people you were there with. Years from now, "who was on that trip?" has an answer.

Plan the next one

Countries with more to collect make better first trips, and the place guides show you what is waiting in each one. France and Italy are dense with landmarks. Mexico runs from Tijuana to Tulum with a wonder in between. The United Kingdom is mostly London, until you take the train north.

Save the countries you want to your Bucket List and they move into your collection on their own once you log a moment there.

How to start

Open YourPond and switch the map to Countries. Log the last trip you took abroad, with the people who came, and then work back through the years.

Pond Passport is free, on the web and in the YourPond app for iPhone.

Browse the country stamps · Stamps by place · How Pond Passport works