Travelers' Century Club

My second passport is about to expire, with each stamp, visa, and crease a piece of my globetrotting history and testament to my passion for travel. Reflecting on my travel highs and lows, I started thinking of other friends who share my same passion, especially the few I know who are in the Travelers' Century Club (TCC). What is the TCC? According to the official club website and wikipedia, the Travelers' Century Club is a nonprofit social organization representing world travelers who have visited 100 or more of the world's countries and territories.

The TCC believes world travel is the passport to peace through better understanding of the world and its cultures, and I couldn't agree more. One of my most profound moments of travel came in Thailand, meeting people whose lives couldn't be more different than mine, but who shared the same basic desires; to love and be loved, to be connected to others, to discover what makes them happy, to grow, and to be part of something bigger than themselves. The realization that we are all more alike than different made the world smaller, burst open the bubble of fear and xenophobia, made places and people less scary, and made me want to do more, be more, learn more.

Below is the Travelers’ Century Club’s official list of countries and territories, a total of 325 as of Jan. 1, 2016. Although some are not actually countries in their own right, they have been included because they are removed from the parent country, either geographically, politically or ethnologically.

I currently have 42; although I travel frequently, my style of travel doesn't lend itself well to checking off countries rapidly. I love finding a small city or town, staying there for a week, and immersing myself in the culture; meeting people, finding favorite spots, living like a local. I will likely be old and gray if I am lucky enough to hit the century mark, but when I get there I will not just have passport stamps, but friends and grand memories from around the globe.

PACIFIC OCEAN (39)
Australia (1998, 2006) Bismark Archipelago (New Ireland, New Britain, Bougainville, Admiralty Islands) Chatham Islands Cook Islands (Rarotonga, Aitutaki, Penrhyn) Easter Island Fiji Islands French Polynesia (Tahiti,Tuamotu, Austral, Gambier) Galapagos Islands Guam Hawaiian Islands (1988, 2003, 2004) Juan Fernandez Islands (Robinson Crusoe Island) Kiribati (Gilberts,Tarawa, Ocean Island) Line/Phoenix Islands (Palmyra, Fanning, Christmas, Canton, Enderbury, Howland) Lord Howe Island Marquesas Islands Marshall Islands, Republic of (Majuro, Kwajalein, Eniwetok) Micronesia, Fed.States of (Pohnpei, Kosrae, Chuuk,Yap,Caroline Islands) Midway Island	Nauru New Caledonia and Deps. (Noumea, Loyalty Islands) New Zealand (2007, 2019) Niue Norfolk Island Northern Marianas (Saipan, Tinian) Ogasawara (Bonin, Volcano Island, Iwo Jima) Palau, Republic of Papua New Guinea Pitcairn Island Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa) Samoa, American (Pago Pago) Samoa (Apia) Solomon Islands (Guadalcanal, New Georgia,Tulagi) Tasmania Tokelau Islands (Fakaofu, Atafu, Union) Tonga (Nukualofa) Tuvalu (Ellice Island, Funafuti, Vaitapu) Vanuatu (New Hebrides Islands) Wake Island Wallis and Futuna Islands
NORTH AMERICA (6)
Alaska Canada (1993, 1998, 2002, 2008) Mexico (1998, 2015)	Prince Edward Island (2019) St. Pierre and Miquelon United States (continental) (1975-present)
CENTRAL AMERICA (7)
Belize (British Honduras) Costa Rica (2011) El Salvador Guatemala	Honduras (2011) Nicaragua Panama(2011)
SOUTH AMERICA (14)
Argentina (2011) Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia (2011) Ecuador French Guiana	Guyana (British Guiana) Nueva Esparta (Margarita Island) Paraguay Peru Suriname (Netherlands Guiana) Uruguay Venezuela
CARIBBEAN (30)
Anguilla Antigua and Deps. (Barbuda, Redonda) Aruba (2006) Bahamas (2006) Barbados Bonaire Cayman Islands (2011) Cuba Curacao Dominica Dominican Republic Grenada and Deps. (Carriacou, Grenadines) Guadeloupe and Deps.(Marie Galante) Haiti Jamaica	Leeward Islands, French (St. Martin) (2008, 2013) Leeward Islands, Netherlands (Saba, St. Eustatius) Martinique Montserrat Puerto Rico (2008, 2013, 2015) St. Barts San Andres and Providencia St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia (2001) St. Maarten (formerly Netherlands Antilles) (2008, 2013) St. Vincent & Deps. (Bequia, Canouan Grenadines) Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Islands Virgin Islands, U.S. (St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas) (2008, 2013) Virgin Islands, British (Tortola, etc.) (2015, 2016)
ATLANTIC OCEAN (13)
Ascension Azores Islands Bermuda Canary Islands Cape Verde Islands Falkland Islands Fernando do Noronha	Faroe Islands Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat) Iceland Madeira St. Helena Tristan da Cunha
EUROPE and MEDITERRANEAN (67)
Aland Islands (Mariehamn) Albania (2017) Andorra Austria (2013) Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Minorca) Belarus Belgium (2008) Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo) Bulgaria Corsica Crete Croatia (2015, 2018) Cyprus, Republic Cyprus, Turkish Fed. State Czech Republic (2014) Denmark (2010) Dodecanese Is. (Rhodes) England (1997, 2008) Estonia (2010) Finland (2010) France (1997, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2012, 2015, 2018, 2019) Germany (1997, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019) Gibraltar Greece Guernsey and Deps (Alderney, Herm, Sark, Channel Islands) Hungary Ionian Islands (Corfu, etc.) Ireland (Eire) (2010) Ireland, Northern (Ulster) Isle of Man Italy (2012, 2015, 2017, 2018) Jersey (Channel Islands) Kaliningrad Kosovo	Lampedusa Latvia Liechtenstein(2018) Lithuania Luxembourg (1997) Macedonia Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands (1999, 2008, 2014) Norway (2010) Poland Portugal Romania Russia (2010) San Marino Sardinia Scotland (2017) Serbia Sicily Slovakia Slovenia (2018) Spain (1997) Spitsbergen (Svalbard, Bear Island) Srpska Sweden (2010) Switzerland (2018) Trans Dniester Turkey in Europe (Istanbul) Ukraine Vatican City (2012, 2015) Wales
ANTARCTICA (7)
Argentine (Palmer Peninsula) Australian Antarctic Territory South Pole (Mawson, Davis, Macquarie, Heard) Chilean (Palmer Peninsula) Falkland Islands Dependencies (British Antarctica, Graham Land, So. Shetland, So. Sandwich, So. Georgia, So. Orkney)	French Southern and Antarctic Territory (Kerguelen, Crozet, Amsterdam, St. Paul) Norwegian (Queen Maud Land, Bouvet) New Zealand (Ross Dependency)
AFRICA (55)
Algeria Angola Benin (Dahomey) Botswana (Bechuanaland) Burkina Faso (Upper Volta) Burundi (Urundi) Cabinda Cameroon Central African Republic Chad Republic of Congo Democratic Republic of Congo Djibouti Egypt in Africa Equatorial Guinea (Bioko Fernando Poo) Equatorial Guinea (Rio Muni) Eritrea Ethiopia Gabon Gambia Ghana (Gold Coast, British Togoland) Guinea (French) Guinea-Bissau Ivory Coast Kenya Lesotho (Basutoland) Liberia Libya	Malawi (Nyasaland) Mali Mauritania Morocco (2018) Morocco,Spanish (Ceuta, Melilla) Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda Sao Tome and Principe Senegal Sierra Leone Somalia (Italian Somaliland) Somaliland (Brit.) South Africa South Sudan Sudan Swaziland Tanzania (Tanganyika) Togo Tunisia Uganda Western Sahara (Spanish Sahara) Zambia (No. Rhodesia) Zanzibar Zimbabwe (So. Rhodesia)
MIDDLE EAST (21)
Abu Dhabi Ajman Bahrain Dubai Egypt in Asia (Sinai Peninsula) Fujeirah Iran Iraq Israel Jordan Kuwait	Lebanon Oman Palestine Qatar Ras Al Khaimah Saudi Arabia Sharjah Syria Umm Al Qaiwain Yemen
INDIAN OCEAN (15)
Andaman-Nicobar Islands British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Arch, Diego Garcia) Christmas Island Cocos Islands (Keeling) Comoro Islands (Anjouan, Moheli, Grand Comoro) Lakshadweep Madagascar Maldive Islands	Mauritius and Deps. (Agalega, St. Brandon) Mayotte (Dzaoudzi) Reunion and Deps. (Tromelin, Glorioso) Rodriguez Island Seychelles Socotra Zil Elwannyen Sesel (Aldabra, Farquhar, Amirante Is.)
ASIA (51)
Abkhazia Afghanistan Armenia (Yerevan) Azerbaijan (Baku) Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Cambodia China, People’s Republic (2017) Georgia Hainan Island Hong Kong India Indonesia (Java) Japan Jeju Island (South Korea) Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) Kashmir Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Korea, North Korea, South Laos Lesser Sunda Islands (Bali,Timor, Indonesia) Macau Malaysia	Moluka Mongolia, Republic Myanmar (Burma) Nakhchivan Nepal Pakistan Papua (Irian Jaya) Philippines Sabah (No. Borneo) Sarawak Siberia (Russia in Asia) Sikkim Singapore Sri Lanka (Ceylon) Sulawesi (Celebes, Indonesia) Sumatra (Indonesia) Taiwan. R.O.C. Tajikistan Thailand (2000) Tibet Timor Leste Turkey in Asia (Anatolia, Ankara, Izmir) Turkmenistan Uzbekistan Vietnam