Destination Guides

Clink on any country below to see all our destination guides for that country.

Europe

Europe’s 44 countries offer a huge range of experiences for travellers because there is such great diversity of languages, cultures and traditions within a relatively small area. Europe has many beautiful cities with a wealth of beautiful architecture, most visibly in its churches, palaces and castles. Europe also features natural marvels like the Alps (that stretch 1200km across eight countries) and to the south, the Mediterranean sea (which features some of the world’s best resort destinations.) Check out all our European destination guides below:


UK/Ireland

The British Isles consist of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, and over 6000 smaller isles. There are 2 sovereign states in the British Isles; the United Kingdom & the Republic of Ireland, though the UK is actually made up of 4 nations; England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland. The UK & Ireland offer travellers a huge amount of variety, from bustling cities like London, Edinburgh & Dublin through to quaint English villages and miles of rolling fields. Then there are the windswept moors, spectacular wild coastlines and rocky outcrops of Scotland, Ireland & Wales. Northern Wales and the Scottish Highlands also feature snowy peaks. You can access all our UK and Ireland destination guides via the links below:

North America

North America is a continent made up of three distinct regions; Northern America, Central America & The Caribbean. So far in North America I have only visited the USA & Canada. The main draw cards in the US & Canada are the bustling big cities and the stunning national parks. You can find guides to destinations in these countries in the links below.

Oceania

Oceania is a geographic region which includes the sub regions of Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. The main continental landmass in Oceania is Australia, while the rest of Oceania is made up of islands. The largest countries in Oceania in terms of population are Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand & Fiji. Other island groups or territories that are popular with tourists include Vanuatu, Samoa, the Cook Islands (including Rarotonga), New Caledonia and French Polynesia (including Tahiti.)

Where Oceania is concerned I’ve mainly written about New Zealand so far, as that’s where I’m from. See our NZ destination guides below:

My Travel Goal- Visiting Every Single Country

Hi, I’m Carolyn! I’m a travel addict & aspiring writer and photographer from New Zealand with a background in the bespoke travel industry. I’m the force behind Kiwi Globetrotteuse (you can read more about my blog here.) I’m also someone who likes to set pretty crazy goals for myself, such as visiting allllll the countries in the world!

Yep you heard that right – I’m on a mission to travel to all 193 UN member states in my lifetime (plus a few UN observer states, and dependencies & overseas territories along the way). As of November 2023 I’ve made it to 44 countries and counting!

Where have I been so far?

You can see the countries I have travelled to in the map below (the darker shaded ones are countries that I’ve visited more recently.)

I’ve also listed the countries that I’ve travelled to below in chronological order and there’s a photo of me in every country where I have one (though sadly there are a few places where I don’t have photos of myself… yet.) All of the countries that are underlined are countries I’ve written about on my blog (so far) – you can click on any of them to read more about them.

1. New Zealand

2. France

3. Spain

4. Monaco

5. New Caledonia*

6. Australia

7. China

8. Germany

9. Luxembourg

10. Denmark

11. Sweden

12. Switzerland

13. USA

14. Canada

15. Iceland

16. Netherlands

17. Czechia

18. Austria

19. Slovakia

20. Hungary

21. Romania

22. Bulgaria

23. North Macedonia

24. Kosovo*

(I’ve only passed through Kosovo on a bus at this stage, we did stop briefly but encountering some not so clean toilets doesn’t quite meet my ‘meaningful experience’ requirement so I will definitely be heading back to Kosovo to rectify that as soon as I can!) 

25. Albania

(I’ve also only passed through Albania on a bus and while the coastline seemed very beautiful I still don’t think seeing it from a window meets my ‘meaningful experience’ requirement. As such I’m looking forward to heading back to Albania sometime soon.)

26. Montenegro 

27. Croatia

28. Bosnia & Herzegovina

(In Bosnia & Herzegovina I’ve only briefly stopped in the small coastal area around Neum so I’m also planning to go back to see more of BIH sometime soon.)

29. Slovenia

30. Italy

31. England*

32. Norway

33. Ireland 

34. Scotland*

35. Greece

36. Portugal

37. Belgium

38. Vatican City*

39. Wales*

40. Poland

41. Finland

42. Estonia

43. Northern Ireland*

44. Qatar

*NB: the countries with an asterix are either not UN member states, or not UN member states in their own right. They don’t directly count towards my 193 total goal. However I wouldn’t want to leave them off this list as they all still have their own fascinating history, culture & people, that make them unique and still very worthwhile visiting (and in my opinion worth blogging about too!) 

Why is my official goal to go to only the UN member states?

When you set yourself the goal of visiting most of the world you have to set some parameters on what you are setting out to visit exactly. For example there are currently 206 sovereign states in the world, however some of these ‘countries’ are unrecognised by most of the rest of the world and are simply disputed territories within another state. In addition if you set out to visit all the dependencies & territories in the world you’d be adding another 58 or so often small islands (some of them completely uninhabited) to the already long list of countries. The short of it is that very few people have the time or resources to make it to 250+ places in their lifetime so counting the 193 UN member states only is a good way to delimit it somehow. Many people do the UN member states plus the two observer states (i.e. Palestine & the Vatican City) and some people add Taiwan too (which used to be a UN member state but which has been ousted in favour of The People’s Republic of China.) That would make a total of 196 countries, and while I’m hoping to make it to them all the 193 UN member states seem like an ambitious enough goal for now!

Is it just about ticking countries off the list as fast as possible?

For a small group of people who have set out to reach this goal that may be the case. However most of the people I’ve heard about who have conquered this enormous challenge are adventurers who are truly fascinated by the world and all the diversity that exists between countries and their peoples. Along the way they’ve discovered all the common things that bind us as well. Travelling to every country in the world used to be something only wealthy older westerners could afford, but these days with the cost of travelling long haul dropping so much , there are many younger people that have managed to do it as well like this 28 year old or this 21 year old! Sometimes this has been with the support of sponsors, or businesses that they have partnered with along the way like the first woman to have conquered the challenge. Either way I think the fact that it is becoming more accessible to travel to every country is a really positive thing.

What counts as ‘visiting’ a country?

For me it’s not a race, I like to take my time and have the chance to soak up a little of each place I visit. I’ll never be able to see every region of every country but it’s about at least having a meaningful experience in each country – having a story to tell, trying a local meal, having an encounter with someone local. I want to understand a minimum about the history of the place and what makes each country and it’s people tick! In the last 10 years since I first travelled outside of New Zealand I have visited 35 UN member states in total but in the last 5 years I’ve seen around 70% of those. So if I continue at roughly the same rate I estimate that it will take me another 25 to 30 years before I see them all. I’m okay with that. All going well I’ll just be a very well traveled (and hopefully not completely bankrupt) retiree .

Will I only go to a country once?

It depends really – there are some countries that I will probably only see once, mainly because I have to prioritise my time & money and depending on where I’m based some countries are harder to get to. So far I’ve lived longer term in New Zealand, France & the UK and on top of that there are some countries I’ve been lucky enough to get back to several times already like Spain, Italy, Germany & the USA. There are particular countries I feel like I will always go back to no matter what – simply because I love them long time!