That sounds like a great idea. Count whatever you want!

Lee

thefrugaltravellers.com

That’s exactly what makes this an interesting question. I haven’t been to Transnistria. But I have been to the Navajo Nation in Arizona. And they are semi-autonomous but have their own very distinct language and culture. Does it count? Thinking of things in this way is not just an excuse for ticking off a list, but it also encourages me to visit those little **independent** places that might otherwise be overlooked.

I have a side-plan to send a letter to someone in the world from every country I visit. I started in Spring 2014, and third ‘country’ (after Romania and Moldova) was Transnistria. On the letter I sent, I marked it as “Country #2½”. :p

My definition of “country” is very broad. It’s simply “does the entity consider itself ‘de facto’ an independent state, regardless of the ‘de jure’ position?”. Transnistria counts, for me, under that system, as do a whole myriad of other disputed territories. I’d also consider Palestine a separate ‘state’ as it is administered differently, although I wouldn’t consider decentralised countries as composing of separate ‘entities’, so for me Scotland, the German Länder, or the US States wouldn’t be separate. The jury’s still out on the likes of Gibraltar, the Channel Islands, Anguilla, French Polynesia, and New Caledonia, but …

… I’d also further consider a ‘are these places sufficiently different enough from their parent state?’ as a criteria. French Guiana is not a country, but I’d probably count it as a separate destination under this criteria; ditto New Caledonia/French Polynesia/Gibraltar etc (but again, probably not the Channel Islands). I wouldn’t ever consider Tasmania as a separate entity under either rule though.

One issue this has brought to light in my mind though is the status of Somaliland. On the one hand I consider it as definitely separate to Somalia, however on the other, due to the instability of the latter, you can bet your life that when I go to Somaliland, I’ll be claiming it as both Somaliland and Somalia!! Inconsistent, heh?!

Thanks for your comment. For my travels, I had been looking at it from a UN countries +territories point of view. The TCC list is certainly broader and to your point, accounts for geographic and cultural diversity. Regardless, I’m only at 30-38ish (depending on how you do the math). Plenty of the world left for me to see.

Travelers visit places. How the world might be divided politically doesn’t reflect what cultural and geographic differences exist in different places. It isn’t so much defining what a “country” is, so much as defining what a place is, and finding a reasonable balance.

Antarctica is a place. It is a rather large place, comprising one of the 7 continents and 10% of the Earth’s land mass. It is a place you can visit even though it isn’t a country in any sense of the word.

When considering the world’s geopolitics, it is safe to ignore Antarctica. However, if you are considering places you can visit as a traveler, you can’t ignore Antarctica. It is too big and too important.

Likewise, there are numerous islands and territories which don’t quite fit into the conventional mold. When someone says they are going to France, they usually mean the hexagonal shaped country in Europe where they eat baguets and cheese. They probably are not referring to a giant swath of rainforest in South America. Nonetheless, French Guyana is an integral part of France in the same way that Hawaii is part of the United States.

Politically French Guyana is France. However, traveling there is a whole other experience from traveling to European France.

That is why I use the TCC list. It (attempts) to reflect reality for travelers, not politics.

The TCC list is not perfect. I don’t know of anyone who agrees with it fully. I personally think that Wake Island, Midway Island and BIOT should be removed as travelers cannot go there. I also see no reason to subdivide Antarctica. There are other small quibbles I have.

Nonetheless, the TCC is a 3rd-party list which has gained general acceptance over the years. It does adapt and change with circumstances.