There are private, local and regional clubs all over the world. The major international clubs are:
NomadMania
Launched as The Best Traveled back in 2012, we initially divided the world into 1221 regions, increasing the number and slightly changing the division to reach our current 1301 world regions. The name changed to Nomad Mania in the summer of 2018 reflecting the Series – 47,000 sites in at least 55 categories.
The main rationale behind the divisions is to be fair to all countries based on their size, population, cultural diversity, economic influence and tourist appeal. Travellers are verified in the claims as to where they have been.
I use NM actively to guide the places I visit and have stopped using guide books (like Lonely Planet and Rough Guide). I have become a “nomad maniac”.
Circumnavigators Club
Founded in 1902, this is the oldest travel club we are aware of and is open to all who have circumnavigated the globe. This was quite hard back in 1902 while now it is obviously much easier but the club maintains its focus on this. Primarily a social club of quite a stature, it also has an award called the Order of Magellan which is bestowed on some of its most illustrious members.
Traveler Century Club (TCC)
The TCC as it is known, is the ‘mother’ of many of the subsequent clubs. Formed in Los Angeles in 1954, this makes it 65 years old today. The TCC was conceived as a social club as much as a travel club, and today has more than 1,600 members from around the world. Its primary focus has always been from the United States but in recent years, ‘chapters’ operate in the U.K., Germany and Spain. TCC divides the world into 327 areas, but this list is not static, as the Board convenes to contemplate possible changes every few years. Members pass achievement levels (and can get cool pins) when they pass the 150, 200, 250 and 300 regions mark. As a social club, the TCC meets on a regular basis, usually around its many regional chapters in the United States.
TCC has published helpful FAQs that address questions. How many people have completed the TCC list – only 25, including Off the Beaten Path “super travelers” Charles Veley and David Langan. Why is Prince Edward Island on the TCC list, but not Newfoundland and Labrador? Have in-person events, the WhatsApp group is very active, the newsletter is interesting, and the video sessions can be useful. The volunteers who keep things running: JoAnn Schwartz (Secretary) and the New York chapter co-cordinators Cathy Shelton and Sherri Donovan.
Link to the FAQs: https://travelerscenturyclub.org/FAQ.pdf
Most Traveled People (MTP)
MTP was formed by Charles Veley in the U.S. and has been online since 2005 Unlike the TCC, this is an online project that boasts more than 20,000 members. Recently relaunched with a new design, MTP has also changed its concept of the world – while initially launched with around 570 world regions, to include all TCC regions as well as additional ones from the Guinness list, the Ham Radio list, and others, MTP now counts 891 regions. It especially focuses on islands and some hard-to-reach areas.
Greatest Globetrotters
Much lesser known, with a simple design but quite an interesting concept, Greatest Globetrotters is the brainchild of Sascha Grabow. Under the rankings of this club, listings include most MTP regions but also focus on the capitals of countries as well as border crossings – thereby boosting those travelers who choose to travel overland rather than fly.
World’s Extreme Travelers
The brainchild of Frank Groesse-Oetringhaus, this ‘systematic’ travel club takes many of the lists and combines them – from the UN list to MTP, NomadMania’s own 1281 Masterlist to Greatest Globetrotters and UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites, and more, this amalgamates all other criteria to create its own. This is, however, not a club that one can join but rather one where the rankings are presented by the founder himself based on his investigations and is updated only occasionally.
Travelers’ Exploits Club
Jorge Sanchez’ Travel Exploits Club, while entirely subjective in the items it includes, focuses on the quality of travel by proposing 222 exploits in different categories – from trains to rivers to mountains to mythical cities and archaeology, many aspects of travel are here to give an overview of the world around us. Interestingly, under his website Jorge also proposes a ranking of global travelers based on other criteria, such as time on the road, an important element of travel often ignored by other clubs.
SISO Club
Now here is one that requires time. Lots of it! Jeff Shea’s SISO – which we also have available to fill in on NomadMania – splits the world into 3,978 regions based on countries’ administrative divisions – this notoriously gives Slovenia a very generous split into more than 200 regions! You can fill in your profile here by entering your data as to your visits to each of the world regions as they are defined by SISO.
Landverzamelaars
This is the only one of the country clubs that we are aware of that has an elaborate website where a user can tick-off countries as visited. The website is in Dutch and therefore almost by definition limited to the Netherlands and Belgium; it divides the world into 293 regions and currently has slightly more than 10,000 members.
International World Travellers’ Club (CIGV) and CIGV Italia
European-based, initially founded in 1982 in France, this focuses mainly on the more traditional number of countries and territories.
Every Passport Stamp (EPS)
EPS is a notable Facebook page, launched just two years ago by Stefan Krasowski, which has gained a considerable following as the home of those who have been to, or are attempting to reach, every country in the world. With closed and carefully monitored membership, this serves as a very useful forum, with free exchanges of information on everything from logistics to trip organisation, while also serving to create community and friendship and help travelers organise trips to hard places in the EPS Meetup Group.
Extreme Travelers International Congress
This is a different type of club and to a large extent is by invitation or recommendation only – it includes bona fide and known ‘big’ travelers, and while it doesn’t have a specific online presence, it has been organising meetings in unusual places for the past few years – groups have gone to Grozny in Chechnya, Mogadishu in Somalia, a boat trip to the micronation of Liberland and last November the group met in Baghdad with an extension around Iraq. Certainly one of the more active ones socially, we owe this one to the ‘Gentleman Adventurer’, the one and only Kolja Spori.
Notable Country Clubs. There are a very large amount of local travel clubs in the world, and we can’t even start to list all of them. Note here that we only mention clubs that are not agencies i.e. are relatively informal social groupings of people who form a community of travelers. Here are a few that we are aware of:
– Danish Travel Club
– Swedish Travel Club (Club 100)
– Finnish Travel Club
– Turkey Travelers Club
– The Travel Club (Serbia)
– Czech Travellers Club