please empty your brain below

Oz beckons DG !
I have been to as many countries as Diamond Geezer but not as frequently.
Ireland, but no Norn Iron then? You should visit the border between the two and see how impossible it would be to police it in the event of a hard Brexit.
You were lucky skipping back and forth on the Rainbow bridge at Niagara. It is normally frequented by day trippers but I tried to get across with a work visa which the official had evidentally never seen. It was hand written and he sent it away to be investigated and re-typed so I was stuck there for hours.

I agree with Charles, the North of Ireland should not be missed, and a border is utterly impossible.
I've managed 28 European countries(not including Eng, Sco, Wal & N.I. ) but never kept track of the number of times crossing a border, far to numerous to remember. All done by motorcycle, much easier now with the Euro and the Schengen area.
Mine...

Hong Kong: ~40
Mainland China: ~18
Taiwan: 12
Macau: 4
Japan, England: 2
Germany (Bavaria): 1
Having walked both Offa's Dyke and the Pennine Way, which follow the borders between England and Wales, and England and Scotland, I couldn't possibly guess how many times I have been to the three nations on the mainland of Great Britain.

I have been to the Channel islands three times, visiting five of them in total. (technically there are two dependencies, Jersey being governed separately from the rest). Also been the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, but the Republic is one of ten EU countries I have yet to visit. (the others are the Baltic States, Denmark, Finland, Croatia, Poland, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Czechia (although I was there when it was still part of Czechoslovakia). I haven't kept a tally of those I have visited though.

I visited both Slovenia and Slovakia both when they were respectively part of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, and again after independence, so I'm not sure how to count them.

Outside the EU I have been to Russia, Ukraine (2) and Moldova (when they were all still part of the Soviet Union), Turkey (2), Egypt, Morocco, Switzerland (6) and Liechtenstein (but only passing through non-stop on the train)
41 countries in total, 20 of them in Europe. Total visits, goodness knows. Ah, the days of being employed by a multinational company.
Over 55. I must sit down and work it out. I lived in Asia for nearly 10 years so that helped!
I, too, wonder about how to count countries. EG - I have been to all the ex-Yugoslavian countries -- but only when they were not ex-Yugoslavian!
Yes I also don't keep count of the number of times I'v crossed borders, especially in the UK so I don't think I could count.

I've been to everywhere DG has been except Canada.

Being pedantic, but is the Channel Islands really one country? I believe technically it's the Bailiwick of Jersey (Jersey) and the Bailiwick of Guernsey (Guernsey, Alderney, Herm, Sark). So I think they should be two.
I've been to every EU/EEA/EFTA country except Italy and Liechtenstein. Of the British territories, only EWSNJ. Then Canada, US, Turkey, UAE, Qatar, Oman, Maldives, Kenya, China (PRC) incl Hong Kong and Macau, Taiwan, S.Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Australia and NZ. Border crossings - at least once a month since I was born.
IF my sums are right

67 England
20 Scotland
19 France
15 Belgium
12 Italy
8 Netherlands
7 Germany
5 Hungary, Wales, Turkey
4 Bosnia & Herzegovina
3 Russia, Croatia
2 Ukraine, Georgia, Vatican City, Lithuania, Latvia, Malaysia
1 23 other countries

Some of these look like I've seen more of them than I actually have, because of pecularities of borders (eg the Vatican and San Marino being surrounded by Italy, the odd border between Bosnia and Croatia near the Adriatic, not to mention Baarle-Herzog/Baarle-Nassau, which is a chequerboard of bits of Belgium and the Netherlands located a few miles within the Netherlands) If I'd countered and measured my trip there more accurately possibly the Belgian and Netherlands border crossing figures could be substantially higher.
There's an age old question as to whether transitting through an airport counts in lists such as these. I hope so, as then I can add the likes of Qatar and Saudi Arabia to my 'countries visited' count (twice for both) without having to go back there.
You could get your Belgium/Netherlands numbers up dramatically by taking a tip to Baarle-Hertog/Baarle-Nassau. Passing through by bike and stopping for lunch I think I crossed the border 17 times.
I am not going to read everyone else's travel boasts. I am just going to revel in the mind of a boy who decided he could visit the USA 18 times in one minute and years later decided he wanted to record the memory amongst his other travels. I can picture the moment now. You can be a pedant DG but a most entertaining one.

MO
I got 25 years out of the gleeful anecdote that "I've been to America 20 times".
Would thoroughly recommend a visit to the Baarle twin connurbation and we extended our two night stay to three.

Reading and exploring the history and reality of this unique place in situ was fascinating. I had found it by accident having had my curiosity piqued by a curious mish-mash of lines on the mapping software I was using.
But what about counting countries that no longer exist... I could count Belarus and Russia as one trip to the USSR, and likewise Croatia and Slovenia in Yugoslavia, but it would be a shame to miss the individual countries off the list and vice versa. I'd settle withs stating them as "Belarus/USSR, Russia/USSR" etc.
Vatican. If I remember right I've read about a DG trip to Rome including a Visit to that Country.

dg writes: Ah yes, I'd forgotten that.
Statistics updated, thanks.

You should go more to Wales
Sticking with Europe:-
After returning in July from 8 days in Iceland, the last outpost for me is Bulgaria. Tho' since Yugoslavia disappeared its only Slovenia & Croatia I've been back to.
Like Mike 1.12pm, it has been 43 years of on/off motorcycle touring that have enabled me to see so much of the world. And I've been to France/Belgium too many times to count (generally gotta travel through them to get elsewhere!)
The world:- Also motorcycled in USA, Canada, Oz, Belarus, Russia, Tunisia and India. Plus my Oz trip included NZ.

And if bucket list stuff is your thing I know two guys who have visited all 48 contiguous states in the USA and one couple that have also done Alaska and Hawaii; bonkers!
Baarle Nassau/Baarle Horton are well worth a visit, purely for the quirkiness of the Belgian enclaves (and even one or two Dutch enclaves within them). The bus route from Turnhout does something like 9 border crossings as it reaches the town.

For me, my record is 36 border crossings in one day, in the hills of overlooking Aachen. There is a pillar which marks the point where the Belgian, Dutch and German borders meet. By positioning my feet carefully, I even managed to stand in three countries at once. Go on, DG, you know you want to...

As for transiting, I don't count that as visiting a country. The definition I use is that I must complete any/all entry formalities, and my feet must touch the ground. So I didn't count Liechtenstein when travelling on a local business there - I got on at the terminus in Austria and got off 40 minutes later at the other end of the route, in Switzerland. So although I had been into Liechtenstein, my feet had not touched the ground.
Australia? Happy to help.
Never been south of the equator? Some lovely spots in that half of the world!

I haven't done a border-crossing count, but recently I figured out my furthest distances in each cardinal direction. It meant I could draw a rectangle on a map which contains all of my life on this planet so far: https://twitter.com/gooneruk/status/1009466776093122561

dg writes: My extremities are here.










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