Visiting every country in Europe before the age of 30: an update

For a long time my aim has been to visit every country in Europe by the time I’m 30.

It’s something that’s become quite well known and as a result, it’s something I get asked about a lot. Now at the drop of a hat, I can reel off the countries in Europe I’m still to visit.

And year after year, that list of yet-to-visit countries has been getting smaller and smaller. But as the day of my big 30th gets nearer, I’ve been wondering just how realistic completing my self-given quest really is.

And so after quite a bit of thought, I’ve decided to give up the quest.

*Gasps of horror* I know, I know. But ultimately I think it’s for the best and hopefully after reading why, you’ll agree.

How many countries left to go?

As I write this (in late November 2018), I have 18 months to go and 11 countries left to visit – according to my definition of Europe, that is (every country which has its capital city on European land – you can read more here.)

Those countries are: Portugal, Iceland, Finland, Belarus, Moldova, Slovakia, Hungary, San Marino, Monaco, Andorra and Malta.

Only 11? Sounds fairly simple, right? Going to 11 countries within 18 months isn’t impossible by any means. In fact, I visited five countries in the span of two weeks just this August. Well, if you look at these countries on a map, it gets slightly more complicated.

Those five countries I visited back in August all bordered one another. In fact, most of the years in which I’ve managed to tick off several new countries have been due to one or two big trips where I went to a lot of different places in one go. Unfortunately, the idea of casually hopping from Reykjavik to Minsk or from Andorra to Chisinau doesn’t seem quite as realistic.

Essentially then we can assume that visiting these 11 remaining countries would mean at least 10 individual trips (Slovakia and Hungary could still theoretically be ticked off in one go, although at this point I already have weekend flights to Budapest booked so I know that that isn’t happening…)

But still, 10 trips in 18 months is still feasible isn’t it?

Technically yes, but this brings us neatly on to reason number two.

Flying further afield: Europe vs. the World

As I mentioned earlier, my list of countries left to visit has been getting smaller and smaller. But another list has been getting longer and longer: the countries I want to visit outside of Europe.

Since writing about my travel aim in 2015, my attention has been gradually turning more and more to countries outside of Europe. I’m not entirely sure of the reason, but a few things spring to mind: several low-cost airlines like Wizzair and Ryanair have recently expanded into the Middle East covering Israel and Jordan, my trips to the edge of Europe like visiting Azerbaijan and Armenia have made me keen to cast my net further – and lastly, the simple fact is that I’m earning a bit more now, which means I can look a bit further afield when planning my next trip.

Since January 2015 (when I first wrote about my goal), I’ve visited 16 new countries. Seven of these were not in Europe and included trips to North Africa, the Caribbean, South America and the Caucasus (plus a return trip to Singapore).

With this in mind, tying myself to these 11 new countries could be quite limiting.

Uzbekistan vs. Monaco: a question of preference

My final and third reason is simply one of preference.

For example, I want to go to Uzbekistan. (Like really want to.) I’m only slightly interested in going to Malta. Does it make sense to prioritise Malta in the next 18 months simply to tick it off my list? Logistically it would be far easier, but do I really want to go to Malta ‘for the sake of it?’ Or would it be better to simply wait until Malta is higher up on my list?

Similarly, I would love to do a few return trips next year, especially to Russia. This is a lot harder to do if I have 10 or 11 trips to squeeze in before May 2020.

So, does this mean I will never visit every country in Europe?

Visiting every country in Europe is still definitely something that I want to achieve. But doing so in the next 18 months is something that I ultimately wouldn’t enjoy. In a lot of ways, I’m not really giving up on my aim – simply redefining it. And taking off the pressure.

In short: I still want to visit every country in Europe. Just not to any particular schedule.

Will the blog stay the same?

Absolutely. Just possibly with a few more non-European detours.