How many countries have you visited?

[Ray]

This is an international forum. I’d like to conduct a little straw poll.

1, Excluding airport stops ( which don’t count) but including your own country, how many countries (being pedantic, sovereign states) have you been to!

2, What’s the best one you have visited?

3. What’s the country that impressed the least?

Over to you!

Ray

[Jim]

Just four. US, Canada, Mexico, and Ireland. I didn't stay in Mexico too long both visits and don't speak Spanish, so that impressed me least, but that's probably my fault. I can't choose among the other three about which impressed me most, although obviously I've seen more of the US as I live here.

[6ft3Aussie]

Let me see:

1. New Zealand.
2. Australia.
3. Vanuatu.
4. Solomon Islands.
5. Brunei.
6. Philippines.
7. Singapore.
8. Malaysia.
9. USA.

The other two questions could be answered in a couple of different ways, regarding the experience had, whether the place, the people or other factors.

The Philippines is a very beautiful country but in some areas is very under developed with a lot of poverty, however the people are probably the most friendly and willing to share of those in any country, much more so than in any western country. Plus I have family there, my wife is from Leyte island in the eastern Visayas province.

Probably Brunei impressed me the least, because it's a small place, very busy and the people weren't very open to talk to foreigners, and it's now a country under sharia law.

[Kirbstone]

My list would be a long one, but I've never been below the Equator or to the Far East or South America, which leaves Europe/Russia/Asia Minor, North Africa, the Caribbean and the USA/Canada.
Most impressive country visited has to be Switzerland, the least desirable, Algeria. The US of A would come high on my 'desirable' list, though.

A large factor of course would be one's facility in the spoken language of a country. I'm not a linguist and admire genuinely polyglot people, most of whom I've met in Europe.
Another factor would be whether one was merely visiting a country, or actually working and living there. I've 'done time' in England, Germany and of course Ireland. My German was picked up in conversation and is colloquial. I've never studied it at academic level and it shows! The minute I open my mouth there it is obvious that I'm foreign.
An amusing instance of this was with a German I met in Holland who guessed I was probably Danish or Dutch, possibly English. They never guess Irish.

Tom

[r.m.anderson]

USA*
Puerto Rico
St. Thomas
* All but 4 states out of 50 NM OK AL WV
CANADA*
* 8 of 12 Provinces BC AL MAN ONT QUE PEI NB NS
MEXICO*
* 7 of the 31 states
COSTA RICO
PANAMA
COLUMBIA
HONDURAS
BARBADOS
ST. KITTS
ST. LUCIA
MARTINIQUE
SPAIN
FRANCE
SWITZERLAND
NETHERLANDS
GERMANY

Decline to answer # 2 & 3

[beachlion]

The Dutch are travellers (like gypsies without being gypsies) because the Netherlands are small so there is a lot of foreign country. We are traders for centuries.
My list is quite short because I like to restrict myself to the European culture.
The Netherlands of course (born there)
Belgium
Luxembourg
France
Monaco
Andorra
Spain
Zwitserland
Austria
Germany
England
Italy
Slovenia
Greece
Turkey
Argentina
Uruquay
Brazil
Caribbean islands (Curaçao and St Martin)
USA (my current spot)

In or to all countries I travelled by car, most by motorbike and some by bicycle.

My favoriet country is Italy. The whole country is like a museum and a good kitchen. I don't know what the least desirable country would be. I adopt myself easily to a foreign country.

[Kilted_John]

Three so far. US, Canada, Mexico. Only visited Nogales, Mexico - a border town just across from Nogales, AZ. In Canada, I've visited Vancouver Island, the mainland of BC up to Kamloops, then up to Calgary, Alberta. I haven't been to Canada since 2004. Partly because it started to become a hassle with having to carry extra documents after the attempted terrorist attack in early 2000 on the Seattle area. My driver's license is up for renewal this winter, so I will be upgrading to an enhanced driver's license, which is Washington's term for a Real ID compliant driver's license. After I get that taken care of, I will start travelling north again.

[Ray]

Great answers, all. Keep it up!

(Tom - while England isn’t a sovereign state, I’ll put you down as having visited the UK )

[Grok]

1. My own country, the USA.

2. Mexico.

3. Canada.

4. Australia.

[Stevie D]

Proud to live in the Peoples' Republic of South Yorkshire.

Countries visited:
England
Wales
Scotland
Republic of Ireland
France
Germany
Belgium
Netherlands (briefly, having taken a wrong exit on a German autobahn and getting stuck in rush-hour Maastricht)
Austria
Italy
Canary Islands (Spain)
Iceland
USA

Edited to add Iceland - how could I have forgotten such an amazing country!

[Big and Bashful]

Great answers, all. Keep it up!

(Tom - while England isn’t a sovereign state, I’ll put you down as having visited the UK )

Oh yes it is! it's got an Queen!, although she does cavort with the neighbours a bit!

My sad little list:

Wasn't the original question about countries?

England (Made in Liverpool)
Scotland (Oh look, it's raining!)
Wales (Like Scotland but weirder spelling)
Yorkshire (The Third World, yes, I know, but the general opinion of most Yorkshiremen is that Britain is a lesser part of Yorkshire, I like that attitude!)
France ( stopped there a few times when sailing in the channel)
Belgium (Slept through it on a coach, twice, no idea what it even looks like)
Germany (Very, very clean, however, wasn't impressed with the continental toilets, having a little ledge for your products to sit on is an extremely aromatic concept)
Gibraltar (Great place to visit but I couldn't live there for long, too crowded for me)
Spain (Been there twice, once for a Tapas night from Gibraltar, once to get a bus to Malaga when Gibraltar airport was shut. Didn't visit when I was in Gibraltar last week, we were warned off Spain because cars from Gibraltar were getting shot at and English speaking people were being attacked.)
Singapore (Has it's own smell, too hot, too humid, too affluent for me)
Bahrain (The heat, the light, the wind, now I know what being cremated feels like! didn't leave the base during my short stay because I like having skin and as it was Ramadamadingdong there wasn't much happening around the place apart from heat and more heat.)
Diego Garcia (Tropical atholl in the middle of the Chagos islands)

Favourite place, where I have lived for 40 odd years so far, Scotland, outside of the UK I like visiting Gibraltar, they mostly speak my language, use my money (not Scottish notes, thanks to the inventor of the contactless payment thing). The climate is lovely and if you work for who I work for, you get free buses. Diego Garcia was an experience, a tropical paradise but too hot, I struggled to acclimatise and had to keep out of the equatorial Sun as much as possible.

[Kirbstone]

Ah Yes!. My very first visit to the Peoples Republic of South Yorkshire was on a rainy February day in 1969 to stand for an hour plus watching a regional Ladies' Lacrosse match in Harrogate. Been there quite often since.

Yes, I've heard that they have successfully integrated the Kaliphate of Basingstoke & district, North Hampshire into the UK. It was just politics in the end as the residents of Odiham allowed King John to pass through on his horse on his way to Runnymede.(to sign the Magna Carta) !

As an immigrant toothwright from outer Hibernia I was remarkably well received by the local resident Angles & Saxons as I was already married to one of them!

Tom

[oldsalt1]

Canada
took a tour of Europe including England France Germany Holland Belgium switzerland

3 trips to Italy

and oh yea Vietnam

[Stevie D]

Ah Yes!. My very first visit to the Peoples Republic of South Yorkshire was on a rainy February day in 1969 to stand for an hour plus watching a regional Ladies' Lacrosse match in Harrogate.

Just a slight correction:
Harrogate is in the genteel and largely rural county of North Yorkshire whose current MP is Andrew Jones (Conservative), representing the constituency of Harrogate and Knaresborough. In contrast, every one of the 14 constituencies in South Yorkshire is represented by a Labour MP.

[Ray]

Canada
took a tour of Europe including England United Kingdom France Germany HollandNetherlands Belgium switzerland

3 trips to Italy

and oh yea Vietnam

Fixed that for you