My cruise in February 2023 on Odyssey of the Seas made a stop on a Caribbean Island where I had never stopped in any of my previous eight cruises. Well, actually, I had been on this island, but not in this country.
You see, the island on which we stopped was Hispaniola, one of the only islands in the Caribbean which is divided up among more than one country. Historically, Hispaniola was divided by French and Spanish colonists, and that division persists even today, mainfested in the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
I have been to Haiti several times before, specifically to the secured, private area called Labadee, but I had never been on the DR side of the island. That gap was remedied when we docked at the port of La Romana on the southeast coast of the island, and then took an excursion to see the old Spanish city and current capital, Santo Domingo, making the Dominican Republic my fortieth country.
Here’s the complete list of countries that I’ve been in, including the year of the my first visit and the order of my first visit there.
Activity by Year
I went decades of my life having visited only one country other than the United States, and that was just Mexico. It was not until 2007, that I began to increase the number, and that was based mostly on cruises. The vast majority of my international travel did not begin until 2016. Since then, I have added at least one new country in every year except the pandemic year of 2020, and in most cases, I have added multiple countries in each year.
* The notion of what constitutes a country is a little murky.
For example, when I first visited Curaçao and Sint Maarten in 2007, they were both still part of the Netherlands Antilles; they
did not gain independence until 2010. Thus, it could be argued that when I made my first visit, I still had not been to the
country of Curaçao because it did not exist as a country at the time of the visit. If I chose not to count it, then my first visit to the country
wouldn't have been until 2023, when I made my second visit to the island. I have chosen to count the visit in 2007 as the first visit anyway.
On the other hand, my list does not include the French island territory of St-Martin because it is an
overseas departement of France — and not independent.
In a similar vein, even though Puerto Rico has its own Olympic team, I do not treat Puerto Rico as a country as all of its
residents are US citizens. That is in contrast to Hong Kong, which I include on my list as a country to be counted
because it has its own customs and immigration laws even though it has technically been a part of China since 1997 –
“One country, two systems.” Like I said, it’s murky…
Flag images sourced from US State Department and Wikipedia Commons.
The ten smallest countries on Earth
It may be easier to run up your country total by hitting the small ones. I have been to five of the ten smallest nations.
| Malta | 316 km2 | |
| Maldives | 300 km2 | |
| St Kitts & Nevis | 261 km2 | ☑ |
| Marshall Islands | 181km2 | |
| Liechtenstein | 160 km2 | ☑ |
| San Marino | 61 km2 | ☑ |
| Tuvalu | 26 km2 | |
| Nauru | 21 km2 | |
| Monaco | 2 km2 | ☑ |
| Vatican City | 0.6 km2 | ☑ |
Source:
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-10-smallest-countries-in-the-world.html
Updated February 1, 2018 to reflect new countries added in January 2018
Updated February 10, 2018: Added order of first visit to each country.
Updated May 7, 2018: Add Bahamas to the list
Updated March 7, 2019 to reflect country activity from February 2019
Updated March 24, 2019 Added ten smallest countries on Earth
Updated September 2019 to reflect country activity in this month
Updated February 6, 2021 to add dynamic sorting of list
Updated December 9, 2021 to reflect new country activity
Updated April 28, 2022 to reflect new country activity
Updated October 13, 2022 to reflect new country activity
Updated December 24, 2022 to reflect all activity in 2022
Updated March 5, 2023 to reflect activity from Odyssey of the Seas cruise in Feb 2023
Updated June 14, 2023 to reflect British Columbia visit in May 2023
Updated October 6, 2023 to reflect activity from Adventure of the Seas cruise in Oct 2023