Stand aside the United Nations, the FCO and the Traveler’s Century Club, NomadMania is the most comprehensive list that all travellers should be referring too.
NomadMania lists an incredible 1301 Different Regions.
Backpacking San Pedro Sula:
Everywhere I go, I carry a backpack. I am a backpacking backpacker, a traveller. I am Nomadic Backpacker.
Nomadic Backpacker Rock of Gibraltar 2024:
The UN list is just a political blow job. Key countries are clearly missing from their list. Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Kosovo, to name but 3. And don’t get me started on Palestine.
The TCC list includes Alaska (of course they do) and even Tasmania, but they list Ceuta and Melilla, two Spanish semi-autonomous states in Morocco, as one. How come? And for that, I don’t accept their terms or their offer of membership.
The UK’s own list, have you seen it? They don’t even list the UK.
The FIFA list. What? Surely this is a joke?
Crossing from Senegal to Mali, February 2020. I’m proud of this one!
NomadMania:
The NomadMania list is the most complete ever perhaps. It took me all day to go through it.
Of course, there are criteria as to what can be classed as having ‘visited’ a region. Merely stepping foot on their terra firma, obviously doesn’t count, nor does passing through on a train or car.
Does walking, taking a bus, buying a bus ticket, drinking a coffee, and going for a piss count as adventure enough?
But as with the UN list, just as you can say you went to Moscow, you can say, theoretically that you’ve been to Russia. Or you went to Cancun for a party and said that you have been to Mexico.
On NomadMania, for example, in England, they list regions, the Northeast, Northwest, and West Midlands. But they could go further and list all the counties. Bucks, Beds, Devon etc, or in France, they could list regions or even narrow it down to departments.
Anyways, you can see my profile on NomadMania and see for yourself, but I have been to 415 regions.
Nomadic Backpacker at the Source of the Nile, Lake Victoria in Jinja, Uganda in 2023:
On the beach at Mananjary on the east coast of Madagascar, having travelled for 2 days on the Canal des Pangalanes:
Nomadic Backpacker in Ceuta, one of two Spanish autonomous cities on the continent of Africa:
Travel is more than just chasing numbers
But in the end, I am not chasing countries just to be better than anyone else. I go places for my own satisfaction.
And even if NomadMania is the comprehensive list out there, my travels go way beyond that.
As I said before, you can go to Moscow and say that you have been to Russia. A layover in Dakar, and you can say you have been to Senegal.
For me, and I’ll say it again, my travels go way beyond scoring hits. It’s about accomplishments and, to a certain extent, bragging rights. But I am not in competition with anyone, just myself.
I am gonna leave it here because I feel a blog post coming, going deeper than any list out there.
Stay tuned.