Hot answers tagged countries
24
Vatican City is recognized as a country. For example the CIA's World Factbook and UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office both refer to it as a country.
What I suggest: count it as a country, but raise your target to 51. Win-win. :-)
22
Probably Somalia. In 2010, there was a Canadian man who disembarked from his plane in Mogadishu claiming to be a tourist, and the officials were in such disbelief that Somalia had a tourist that they detained him and it made the news.
An immigration official is quoted as saying that the Canadian was “the first person to come to Mogadishu only for tourism".
...
21
I'd stump up Saudi Arabia as number one for a simple reason: it's the only country I know of which does not offer tourist visas, full stop. (They used to, with tight controls and for groups only, but apparently do not any more.) And unlike eg. Russia, you can't just ring up a hotel and get them to "invite" you into the country. Even getting a legitimate ...
20
(Full resolution)
Traditional Islamic law is known as Sharia. By and large, countries following it or having a dual system of civil law as well as Sharia is depicted in this map. As a traveller, this is something you need to watch out for as a country you're visiting may have laws not commonly found in civil law found in most other countries. What makes ...
19
At different times in history, there has been suggested that a Quadripoint - or meeting of four countries, existed in Africa - between Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia. However this is generally now not believed to be true, with instead two tripoints quite close to each other marked.
Instead, the most is three, known as a tripoint. Amazingly, there ...
18
For establishing such a list, one needs to identify the possible barriers that would make travel difficult. I can think of:
Natural barriers, like in Antartica or Sahara.
Political barriers, like in North Korea or Tibet.
Cultural/Religious barriers, like in Amish communities or in Mecca.
Financial barriers, like in Bhutan or Switzerland.
Of course these ...
15
Well this list has an index to ALL the Wikipedia pages for lighthouses in the world.
I'll ignore lightvessels for this question.
For European countries:
Belgium - 6
Bulgaria - 5
Denmark - 6
Estonia - 42
Finland - 9
France - several
Wales - 25ish
Scotland - tons
Portugal - 44 continental, more in Azores
Spain - tons
Sweden - 20ish
England - 50ish
Norway - ...
15
Vatican City is generally recognized as a country by most authorities, and has international recognition as such. It may not be a very big country (indeed, it is smaller than the US Pentagon), but it is a country nonetheless.
If your goal is purely on the number of countries reached, then you should definitely count it as one (and you should also visit San ...
12
There are 192 members by the UN (193 if you count the Vatican, which is an observer without voting rights). There are 196 that qualify as 'independent countries'. List of countries by capital. Arguments via about.com
This is debatable. For instance, I would say Taiwan is a country... many people would disagree with me.
Scotland and Wales I would not count ...
12
Another answer, courtesy of an email response from Russ Rowlett of The Lighthouse Directory:
All the European countries have many lighthouses, but they differ in
how accessible they are. The Netherlands has a large number of major
lighthouses within a small area, and most of them are accessible.
Portugal has many beautiful lighthouses and they are ...
11
To some extent, this depends how you define a "country".
For one definition of country, the maximum countries that meet at a single point is 7.
The countries that meet at this single point are :
Argentina
Australia
Chile
France
New Zealand
Norway
United Kingdom
The point where they all meet? Latitude 90 degrees South - otherwise known as the South ...
10
The first country that comes to mind is the Republic of the Maldives. Indeed according to this link no visa is required. I expect this to be the case for most "paradise-like" destinations.
If a visa is needed, the best chance to enter visa-free is if you are a Scandinavian, since most countries allow Finns, Swedes and Danes to enter without a visa (source: ...
10
There is a somewhat relevant list for that.
I only found this PDF linked on from wikipedia with solid numbers, but they never show the raw data; a Top50 by arrivals or by tourist spending is all they offer.
Another source for this data seems to be http://www.ipkinternational.com/ - but you have to purchase the records. Wolfram alpha has no data for this ...
10
If the Interwebz are to be believed, that would be Yuma, Arizona.
According to the town's website (also backed by National Climatic Data Center), 91% of the time it's sunny there, amounting to more than 4000 hours of sunshine annually -- which apparently is also a Guiness World Record.
Other sources also concur this:
Current Results also lists the top 10 ...
10
Vatican City is definitely a country. It is recognized as such in 1929 by a treaty with Italy. It is not a revival of the Papal States.
Size doesn't matter for being a country (there is another small country in Italy: San Marino). When you have visited Vatican City, you can say that you have been in the smallest country in the world.
It might be the most ...
9
I can answer about the Middle East & North Africa only (the politically so-called "Arab World")
Egypt and Tunisia are not Muslim Countries since Islamic law is only one of the sources of legislation, not the only one, and used only in specific cases.
Muslim Countries are ones like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait...etc (religious states) whose law is only ...
9
Ah, a place I want to return to - Central Asia! What about Uzbekistan too? ;)
Interest regarding scenery and culture
Tajikistan is basically a country on mountains. Kyrgyzstan has the flat area around Bishkek, but quickly climbs in any direction out of there. Kyrgyzstan has the lakes (Issyk-Kul is stunning, like a Kyrgyz Cancun!), while the trekking in ...
9
Simple answer: YES. Not necessarily in that there are signs, but certainly there are many hitching-friendly countries. Some people on this site would claim you can hitch in any country.
Hitchwiki is a great site for checking out the 'hitchability' of a country. It has a list of all countries and their ratings for your quick reference guide.
So for ...
8
Since last year's unpleasantness, Bahrain has hiked its visa fees way, way up:
USA, Canada and UK visa fee: $228.00
For all others, visa fee: $270.00 (Applicants from 35 countries)
However, this is only for long-term tourist visas over 2 weeks. Most nationalities can still obtain two-week visas on arrival and advance e-visas for a considerably ...
8
I am using the Globetrotterslogbook to keep track of where I have been. Nice feature is that they also distinguish dependencies and overseas territories, making it possible to even track the journey dreamed about in the "most remote exclave" question
8
It seems to depend on what passport you have. Both the tourist information website and the Ecran Airport site say the same thing. For tourist trips of up to 90 days, citiziens of European Union (EU) nations, Turkey, USA, Canada, Mexico, Israel, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Australia, New Zealand do not require visa.
It looks like all ...
7
The Travelers' Century Club, or TCC, is a club for people who have visited 100 or more countries.
However these guys have their own definition of a country, from Wikipedia:
The TCC has a fairly loose definition of what constitutes a country
and has established its own list of currently 321 "countries". This
includes not only sovereign states but ...
7
You can check out the lighthouse listing worldwide at lighthouse directory from the University of North Carolina.
I can't really recommend any specific country for visiting lighthouses since I'm not into that but can only say that you can check out Croatia lighthouses. They are all very different from each other and you can use a lot of them as ...
6
Imagine you've reached 50 countries, including Vatican City. Would you feel you've achieved your goal? There's the answer to your question. Your opinion is the only thing that matters here.
Personally, I feel England, Scotland and Wales are separate countries, but that Vatican City is just part of Italy. Fortunately, I'm not a diplomat.
6
In addition to being listed separately in publications like the CIA World Factbook, Vatican City also has its own ISO-3166 domain: .va. The title for 3166 is "Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions", which could imply a subdivision of Italy, except...
The United Nations was a party to Vatican City receiving its own ...
4
Gunnar Garfors has been researching this question on his blog.
He's found that the UNWTO, World Tourism Organization has a good overview of them.
Essentially, in 2012, at the tail end of the tourism list is:
Tuvalu - 1200 tourists
Somalia - 500 tourists
Nauru - 200 tourists
Oddly, I tried to go to Nauru in 2006, but couldn't find flights that worked, ...
4
I think a better solution would be to go to your doctor before the trip and ask for a prescription and a letter explaining the diagnosis and the need.
While in some countries a foreign prescription will be honored, in many it won't, and then you'll have to go to a local doctor (make sure your travel insurance covers it) to get a local prescription. That's ...
4
If I have the slightest doubt that something I am gonna to do is legal in the country I just ask some local people about it. Depending on the activity I even ask a police man.
Plus I read a bit about any country I am visiting in a guide book. If there are certain laws that are very different from the 'Western World' they are usually mentioned in guide ...
4
According to a study by Airport Parking and Hotels (APH) - (yeah I wouldn't trust that source either, but at least it's published), Russia is the most expensive visa to achieve.
Note that this is for UK nationals, but it's a start.
The former Soviet country charges £115 for a standard entry visa, with
costs soaring as high as £220 for an “express” ...
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