How to mark visited places? What still counts as a visit and what doesn't?
I often think about the complex yet subconscious algorithm that runs in my head when I travel and I can already see myself clicking the cities, countries, airports and interesting places I've visited here on Travelo. Traveling and exploring certainly mean something different to everyone. However, I'll at least give you my perspective on how I record my travels.
For example, what do I count as a visit to a given city, how many visits were there in total, or how many planes have I flown on in my entire life? Every traveler is of course different, so please don't take this "guide" as the holy grail of recording your travels, but as a guide where to start, it can certainly work.
1. Visiting the city
When can we say that we have visited a given city and we can therefore mark it as visited here on Travelo?
I follow one simple rule - have you set a foot on the ground within this city? So you have visited it! Easy as that :D So it counts, for example, getting out of a car, bus or any other means of transport to this city or municipality for the purpose of exploring. Of course, there are several problems here when, for example, you just stopped to refuel at a gas station within the city limits, which I personally do not consider a visit to the city. Also, passing through a city by means of any transport without getting out of it cannot be considered a visit itself. On the other hand, I would count a bicycle ride as a visit, since exploring from the seat of a bicycle is often more intense - you can get off anywhere and enjoy its beauties.
2. Visiting the country
This rule is very similar to visiting a city. If you cross the border of a given state/country and touch the ground with your feet in a new country, you have definitely visited that country. It is up to you whether you consider visiting a city in that country or riding a bike through the country to be a visit. Perhaps you could turn a blind eye a little and count a visit even when driving through that country, since some countries are made for exploring their beauty from a moving car.
3. How many times have I visited that city?
When it comes to the number of individual visits to a city, I follow the rule that each trip to a city counts as one visit. So, for example, if I sleep in Rome for 3 nights in 2024 and 2 nights in 2025, I count that I have been to Rome a total of 2 times. Individual trips where I also visit other cities and then return to the first one (in our example, Rome) still count as one visit.
4. Airports and flights
This is probably the easiest solution as our system automatically counts all flights and airports after adding a flight record. I might just clarify that each departure and landing counts as one flight, which means that even if my plane had a stopover on the way to my final destination, I'll add two separate flight records.
As you can see, it's not a rocket science and these are just my recommendations, as I do it. Of course, every traveler is different and there's no rule that says you have to do it exactly this way. Traveling should be fun, and if you also enjoy recording your goals, you definitely have your own system for that. If so, I'd love to hear that from you in the comments. Good luck exploring new places!