RESEARCH
Before any trip, I do as much research as possible. As my trips often last months to years with many destinations, that can be a daunting task on the road. Everything is easily recorded on the Travelogue Page of my website ronperrier.net.
I use Wikipedia and Wikitravel to understand the history, geography, climate, geology, demographics, culture, and respect for every country. I include that in a post that I call General.
That is supplemented by trip reports on the Facebook group, Every Passport Stamp that provides up-to-date details. Visa information is often constantly changing. Most every region of the world also has a Facebook group with useful information.
I then write another post that I call The Trip about the logistics – visas, money, getting there and getting around, accommodation, and safety. It uses destinations from the Nomad Mania Series. During the trip, I modify that with my personal experiences – what I experienced on the ground.
I am an avid reader and ideally read books about each destination. I have had a subscription to the Economist for many years. The present political situation is included in a post I call Today. I frequently add current articles.
Guide Books
Initially, I traveled using guidebooks like Lonely Planet. However, they are dated on publication. There is a lot of information that I don’t use – for example, there are better sources on accommodation. They are expensive and bulky to carry around. I had a bookshelf full of them. I finally threw them all out.
Rick Steves. Rick has a very popular travel show on the US Public Broadcasting System. It is only about travel in Europe. When I decided to see Europe over two years in 2018/2019, I purchased his 20 DVDs. I thought seeing all his destinations would be a dream. However, I soon saw that only the main “tourist” sites were covered. I was seeing many times more places than he described, Those DVDs were taking up a lot of space and I left them somewhere on the road.
NOMAD MANIA – The way to keep track of where you have travelled.
In 2012, Harry Mitsidis started The Best Traveled. He and other travellers wanted a way to keep track of where they had been. Nomad Mania is a tremendous website with over 50,000 members – and probably includes all the world’s greatest travellers. It has always been free, contains no ads and is easy to join.
From the beginning, I was obsessed, and Nomad Mania has come to control my life. I am the ultimate Nomad Maniac.
Initially, NM kept track of the 193 United Nations countries and divided these into 1301 regions. I was fortunate enough to join The Best Traveled when it was easy to enter the countries, NM regions and World Heritage Sites.
Each region has links to Stories (many travel blogs) and photos of travellers.
The Master List ranks travel, not by the number of countries but by the number of regions visited. I want to see as many regions as possible and by 2024, had been to 950/1301 and was 40th in the world on the Master List. I hope to surpass 1000 regions.
The Series was added in 2017 and the name changed to Nomad Mania. Initially, there were about 43,000 sites but by 2024, it had morphed into a list of over 62,500 sites with more being constantly added. They are divided into at least 60 different categories – virtually no destination is left out. Having the benefit of the series before my most serious travel has allowed me to keep up to date on recording the destinations seen.
Verification.
Nomad Mania is the only travel website that has voluntary verification. Using a poll of its members, the criteria for what constitutes a visit have been clearly defined Unlike the Guinness Book of World Records and Travel Century Club (TCC), transits and merely stepping foot across a border are not counted.
There are a few levels of proof. My website is classified as a personal diary and that has been accepted as proof. On my Supreme verification, I also needed to show passport stamps.
All verifications are done by Thomas Buechler, a Swiss man who has travelled extensively and knows a tremendous amount of the travel destinations, especially WHS. The Initial verification is for 20 UN countries and 40 Regions. Destinations are only of uncommonly visited places. A list of difficult or even impossible sites is used. On that verification, I lost about 30 regions, almost all because they were transits. Most happened in Russia where I took the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Irkutsk near Lake Bakal, a 74-hour trip through many regions that I simply passed through. Supreme verification costs $300 and involves a yearly verification of countries and regions. I lost a few transited regions. I was only the second person to undergo Supreme verification. I had been to 885 World Heritage Sites and had that verified.
The last verification available is for The Biggest Traveler (TBT), a compilation of many destinations all given a weight. Even though I had only been to 178 countries at the time, my TBT rank was #11, Twelve other members of NM had received their TBT badge without having to prove anything, but Thomas decided to give me 60 places to verify. I didn’t do well on lighthouses and he told me to remove 1,500 series sites!!! I didn’t think this was fair. Maybe I won’t bother with this badge. So, as of 2024, I have undergone 6 individual verifications and am the most verified person on Nomad Mania.
For the series, I laboriously enter every NM site into Google Maps. Red hearts (Favorites) are for World Heritage Sites and DARE. Green flags (Want to go) are cities, villages, national parks, islands and larger areas. Yellow stars are for everything else. This gives me my itinerary for every region and country. I simply “follow the dots” in the most efficient way. Regions and World Heritage Sites (including Tentative ones) are my primary focus.
When I return to a region, I laboriously remove all those hearts, flags and stars, keep only those sites not previously seen and add new sites.
To visit all these destinations, I either buy a vehicle or rent one whenever possible. I have driven in 83 countries. Using public transport alone would make this very onerous. I walk most cities to see sites in a specific area.
I wanted to become the most travelled Canadian of all time and stay there for a long time. In 2023, I finally passed Stewart Sheppard who had been first since The Best Traveled had started.
I wanted to be first in the Series total ranking. By 2024, I had been to almost 18,000 NM sites and was second in the world. I was in the top three in most categories. I had seen 885 World Heritage Sites and was 5th in the world. If the Wonders category includes my 715/1725 Tentative WHS, I was first. The Biggest Traveler (TBT), which assigns different weights to about 20 factors, I was 11th.
Nomad Mania is a tremendous website with over 50,000 members – and probably includes all the world’s greatest travellers. Harry Mitsidis has spent a tremendous amount of personal energy and money to establish and maintain the site.
However, joining and entering all the information (including the dates for regions visited) if one has not travelled much can be overwhelming. Since the inception of the series, several categories have been added and new sites are added every day. I have been a member since the beginning and am sure I have been to many places recently added, but the work to go through them all would be daunting. Two big added categories were Milestones and Top of the Tops.
NM keeps track of other travel clubs – Traveler’s Century Club and The Best Traveled.
There are several major categories on the front page of NM.
DARE (Distinctive Remote Alternative Extremes, originally M@P, Most Quirky Places) presently lists 1331 obscure destinations such as islands, exclaves, geographical anomalies, and some major micronations.
YES (Years Elapsed Since) measures if you travelled recently or a long time ago? It considers countries only, not regions, and we take 196 countries (193 Un Countries and Palestine, Taiwan and Kosovo). It is important to complete the year of you last visit to a country which is best done through My Trips, or by adding the last year of your visit on the My Regions Page. It is automatically calculated.
SLOW As the Master Ranking may promote more superficial quick trips that prioritize quantity over quality. SLOW rewards slower travel that may immerse one in a country’s culture over an extended period and have a more meaningful travel experience. experiences.
TBT (The Biggest Travelers) is a cumulative score of several criteria calculated as a percentage of the NomadMania Masterlist 1301: 20%, DARE: 20%, SLOW: 15%, YES: 5% (reverse score is best, calculated in bands), UN: 2%, UN+: 1%, TCC: 1%, CHAD: 1%, KYE: 5%, Milestones: 5%, WHS: 10 %, Top of the Tops (Series): 5%, All Series Cumulative Score: 5%, Border Series: 1%, World Cities Series: 1%, World of Nature Series: 1%, Experiences Series: 1%, Indigenous Peoples Series: 1%
You must have over 135 countries to be included. To the total score is added a. one point is if verified for NomadMania regions; b. one point if over 100 achievement badges;
c. one point if Top 30 entry in the statistics in one of the previous two calendar years. d. Two points for passing the rigorous TBT verification and is done only for those with the highest ranking.
DEEP (Deep Exhaustive Exploring Proportion) is the NM Regions divided by UN countries.
To be truthful, it is all very overwhelming even for me. I think it is time for NM to stop adding and let things be.
FACEBOOK – EVERY PASSPORT STAMP
Join this private group to access trip reports submitted by member travellers. Put your destination in the search engine to produce many reports with the most recent at the top. Reports can be of variable quality. Most give way too much irrelevant information. The comments are also very neurotypical. How many times can one see “great photos? Few comments give additive information. I copy and paste the entire post, remove all the formatting and edit them heavily ending up with about 5% of the information presented.
EPS Meetup Group is separate and used to coordinate connecting and arrange tours.
WORLD HERITAGE SITES
They are a major focus of my travel. in 2024, there were 1199 WHS in the world. About 30-40 are moved from the Tentative WHS list (1723 sites) yearly. This can be quite political but requires an extensive application procedure and requirements for inclusion.
There are two main sites for information.
World Heritage List — https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/ gives the background and criteria for inclusion in the list.
World Heritage Site – https://www.worldheritagesite.org/. This separates WHS by country. It gives a very brief overview and a map, both of which I find have little value. The best content is in the reviews that give personal experiences. It can be very worthwhile as it is much more practical than the UNESCO site.
Wikipedia.org may also give additional information.
OTHER TRAVEL CLUBS
Circumnavigators Club
Founded in 1902, this is possibly the oldest travel club. It was for those who have circumnavigated the globe. This was hard back in 1902 but that is still the club’s focus. It was primarily a social club of quite a stature. Ir gives out the Order of Magellan award to some of its most illustrious members.
Traveler Century Club (TCC)
TCC is the ‘mother’ of many of the subsequent clubs. Formed in Los Angeles in 1954 as a social club as much as a travel club. With 1,400 members mainly from the US but has ‘chapters’ in the U.K., Germany and Spain. It keeps track of 330 areas. Members pass achievement levels with pins when they pass the 150, 200, 250 and 300 regions mark. As a social club, it meets regularly at regional chapters in the United States.
Most Traveled People (MTP)
MTP was formed by Charles Veley in 2005 as an online club, it now has 20,000 members. Initially, it listed 570 regions including all TCC regions, some from the Guinness list, and the Ham Radio list. MTP now has 891 regions with a focus on islands and hard-to-reach areas.
Greatest Globetrotters
Formed by Sascha Grabow, it includes most MTP regions focusing on capitals and border crossings to encourage travel overland rather than flying.
World’s Extreme Travelers
Formed by Frank Groesse-Oetringhaus, it combines the UN list, MTP, NomadMania’s 1301 Masterlist, Greatest Globetrotters and UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It is not a club that one can join.
Travelers’ Exploits Club
Jorge Sanchez’ focuses on the quality of travel with 222 exploits in different categories – trains, rivers, mountains, mythical cities and archaeology, producing an overview of the world. It ranks travellers based on other criteria, such as time on the road.
SISO Club
Formed by Jeff Shea it divides the world into 3,978 countries’ administrative divisions It gives Slovenia a very generous 200 regions. It is on Nomad Mania.
Landverzamelaars
This is the only country club where one ticks countries and 293 regions. The website is in Dutch and therefore limited to the Netherlands and Belgium with 10,000 members.
International World Travellers’ Club (CIGV) and CIGV Italia
Founded in 1982 in France, it lists countries and territories.
Extreme Travelers International Congress
Available by invitation or recommendation, it is only for ‘big’ travellers. It organizes meetings in unusual places including Grozny, Chechnya, Mogadishu, Somalia, Baghdad and a boat trip to the micronation of Liberland. It is active socially, ‘Gentleman Adventurer’ Kolja Spori.
Country Clubs. These are local social travel clubs with informal social groupings.
– Danish Travel Club
– Swedish Travel Club (Club 100)
– Finnish Travel Club
– Turkey Travelers Club
– The Travel Club (Serbia)
– Czech Travellers Club