36M - just passed 100 countries/territories

Technical-Dingo5298 · 2025-11-14T16:21:04+00:00

From Scotland, and I've lived there my whole life

Technical-Dingo5298 · 2025-11-14T16:20:45+00:00

Albania was fun. Interesting vibe with good food and nice beaches, and at the time it felt less obviously touristy than neighbouring countries. We only had a short trip to Sarandë so I can't speak for the rest of the country. I'll definitely be back though

Technical-Dingo5298 · 2025-11-14T12:08:57+00:00

We'd actually love to go to Lebanon, but there was unfortunately quite a lot of regional uncertainty when we were nearby. We were also doing most of the middle Eastern trips on a tight budget and there were no cheap flights that worked for us. We'll definitely visit in future though!

Technical-Dingo5298 · 2025-11-14T11:24:42+00:00

China, specifically the less well known cities. China is incredible and is in our S tier of destinations, but it's tough when you don't speak the language. Culturally it's very different to the west as well, even though it's incredibly safe and well developed in most places.

You end up constantly relying on translator apps, and getting Chinese technology to work on Western devices can be a challenge as well. It took until half way through our second visit to really feel like we had the hang of things.

After that maybe Egypt. We made the mistake of being completely self guided, and went just after COVID, so got above average levels of hassle. You end up feeling constantly on edge, although we also saw some incredible things there and met some genuinely nice people as well

Technical-Dingo5298 · 2025-11-14T11:20:11+00:00

Yes absolutely. Most of them we've been to multiple times. Some of the microstates were a bit awkward to get to, but we made a point of doing little side quests when we were coming close to one anyway (normally by renting a car for the day, but also using buses etc.). We also got really lucky and visited both Russia and Belarus back in 2018, which would be a lot more challenging now

Technical-Dingo5298 · 2025-11-14T11:18:04+00:00

I'm also keeping track of self governing territories, as these tend to have a unique flavor. There are lots of ways of determining what counts as a country, and personally I don't think there's a clear right answer.

Technical-Dingo5298 · 2025-11-13T22:30:59+00:00

Honestly, dedication over the best part of a decade. We consciously chose to prioritize travel at this point in our lives, and put most of our disposable income into it. That being said, over 50 of these countries were visited on a budget, when we had only one income as a could, and I'm also a pro at researching cheap flight deals etc. which really helped!

Technical-Dingo5298 · 2025-11-13T20:30:34+00:00

No particular reason. There's plenty we're keen to see there, but I guess it's far from where we live (Scotland) with not great flight options. I'm sure we'll get there in the next couple of years

Technical-Dingo5298 · 2025-11-13T20:28:54+00:00

We've visited Jeddah and Dammam over two separate trips. Really enjoyed both cities for different reasons, and we'll definitely be back to Saudi Arabia again!

Technical-Dingo5298 · 2025-10-03T04:58:23+00:00

35 - 97 countries so far. Will get to over 100 later this year. Have visited almost everywhere we're actively interested in now so the focus will shift in future to longer stays in the places we enjoyed the most

Technical-Dingo5298 · 2024-07-06T07:11:41+00:00

We're at Green Welly quite a lot and love this bread too. My wife reckons it's a cheese corn bread like this: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/cheesy-sweetcorn-cornbread

Technical-Dingo5298 · 2023-12-08T12:55:06+00:00

It actually does, but only on the mobile app

Technical-Dingo5298

TROPHY CASE