How to track countries, regions and places you have visited

Three ways to keep the record

• Country checklist: quick to fill in and easy to compare, but it treats one airport transfer and a month-long trip the same.
• Trip log: good for dates, routes and stories, but harder to summarise across a lifetime of travel.
• Saved places: more work at first, but each real place can update its country, state, province or prefecture and remain searchable later.

Use places as the source of truth

Suppose you save Fushimi Inari Taisha as visited. That place belongs to Japan and Kyoto Prefecture. One specific memory can therefore update the place list, country passport and regional map without three separate checkboxes.

This is also easier to audit. If a country count looks wrong, you can open the places that produced it instead of trying to remember why you checked a box ten years ago.

Keep visited and wishlist separate

A saved destination is not necessarily a visited destination. Mixing the two makes the map flattering but inaccurate. Use separate states for places you have visited and places you want to visit, then require a deliberate change between them.

Noma keeps those layers apart. A wishlist place can sit on the map without colouring the country as visited.

Decide what counts as a visit

There is no travel police. The important part is consistency and transparency, especially when you compare percentages with someone else.

• Airport connection: count it only if your personal rule includes transit.
• Drive-through or train-through: decide whether crossing the ground is enough.
• Overnight stay: a stricter rule that is easy to remember.
• Meaningful stop: flexible, but write the rule down so you use it consistently.

Backfill without turning it into homework

Start with the last trip, then add memorable anchors from older travel: the hotel, museum, beach, station or restaurant you still remember. Country and region totals will fill in as the place record grows.

Do not wait for a perfect archive. A useful travel history can begin with one place and become more accurate over time.