conkermaniac

LOL, I think we should set some rules on this...

Include your own country as well! That's why I didn't put an option "zero".

Hong Kong is not a country, nor was it ever a country. If you visited Hong Kong before 1997, count it as a part of the UK, or if you visited after 1997, count it as a part of China. Similarly, places like Puerto Rico, French Guiana, and Guam don't count either.

godfry n. glad

Hmmm...."not particularly inexpensive compared to other Caribbean destinations", eh? Wouldn't you know... Ambergris Caye is where my wife has decided upon. I'd like to see the Mayan ruins, too. We hear that there are some "second rate ruins" just a few miles south of San Pedro Town on Ambergris Caye. Have you been there? We so enjoyed our snorkeling on Maui last February, that we decided we'd like to try other coral reefs... Belize came highly recommended by friends and is a lot closer and a lot cheaper than Australia....or, from what I hear is the real attraction, snorkeling in the Indonesian islands...ah, I hear Bali calling. But I'm looking forward to Hol Chan Marine Reserve.

godfry

notMichaelJackson

I've only been to two states (I've visted St. Louis a few times). Where in the hell do you people get the money to travel?

Loren Pechtel

Well, in my case that list represents two long trips (7 months and 12 months) with my parents. In both cases my father was on sabbatical and we travelled reasonably cheaply. Note also that most of those places aren't exactly expensive.

Since that time I have added only one country--China. That's actually quite cheap for us also as her relatives all live there--not counting gifts our total expendature is under $1600 for the two of us for a trip.

Financially we could afford to vacation in various countries instead of always going to China, but as much time as we can get away she wants to spend with her parents while they are still around. If you don't try to live fancy and vacation in a different place each year it wouldn't be at all hard to rack up quite a list.

Loren Pechtel

Only it's airspace. At that time surface transit through Burma was not advised, as well as something it was hard to get permission for.

Loren Pechtel

The passport is long gone but I sure though the stamps said Hong Kong, not England. It uses the Hong Kong dollar, tied to the US dollar. England uses the British Pound Sterling.

Post-97 I agree it's part of China, but before that it was a country. I was listing it pre-97.

Doug

OK, counting the USA,

United States (42 states)
Canada (3 provinces)
Mexico
South Korea
UK
Netherlands
Belgium
France
Monaco
Germany
Switzerland
Italy
Iceland (twice stopped at the airport and deplaned, so I'm counting it!)

That's 13.

Planning to add Spain in October. Plan to add many more eventually, especially in Europe and Asia/Pac, maybe South America too.

As to affording it, some of my stops have been business trips, but even personal travel can be done fairly affordably if you go off season and stay in simple hotels. I also love to travel, so I make it a budgetary priority in my life when I could maybe be spending money on other things (like a bigger apartment for example). No kids either.

I went to Europe by myself in April, 2000 and got a r/t ticket on Priceline.com to Frankfurt for roughly $300 (that's how I got my stop in Iceland). The most expensive hotel I had on that trip was around $65 per night in Amsterdam and I stayed in a place with a very nice room in a little town on the Rhine in Germany for around $40 per night. All were adequate, clean rooms with private bathrooms. It can be done more cheaply than that if you stay places with shared bathrooms or go the shared room hostel route.

Of course it didn't hurt that the dollar was very strong against the European currencies back then. Unfortunately that's not the case right now.

It was a different story when I went on my honeymoon to France and Italy last year. We were married in July and the lowest priced ticket into Paris and out of Rome was about $850. We also stayed in nicer hotels since it was our honeymoon. I will probably almost always go to Europe in early to mid Spring or Fall because of the price differences. It often means a greater chance of rain, but I prefer to spend less money.

miscreant

Let's see...

Canada
USA
Finland
Sweden
Norway
Denmark
Russia
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Romania
Poland
Slovakia
Austria
Germany
Switzerland
France
Italy
Belgium
Netherlands
Ireland (North & South)
Scotland
England
Brazil
Uruguay
Argentinia

26. Hadn't even counted before now. I want to get over to Asia though, and Australia. So many places to visit, so little time.

miscreant

miscreant

It really depends a lot on where you live. I lived in Finland for a couple of years, so it was really easy to travel to a lot of other European countries. Plus, when you travel fairly often, you often meet a lot of people from other countries who invite you to come visit. If you take their invitation, then you generally don't have to pay for hotels as much, which greatly cuts down the expense.

Add to that the fact that you can get cheap rates on flights and train tickets until you're 27 in a lot of places, and it's not too expensive really. Assuming you're willing to stay at hostels and such.

miscreant

DMB

Bugger! I forgot to add China. How can you forget such a big country? NB My count is at the higher end because of my age (63). I think my 28-year-old daughter has, however, visited a lot more countries than I have. She has just spent the past year going round the world.