Standing only in an airport does not count.
Driving through without stopping the car does not count.
Standing on the ground anywhere but an airport counts.
I rode a train through Liechtenstein, in one side and out the other, but never got off the train. But I count that as having been in Liechtenstein.
And the truck driver who picked me up outside of Brussels. He gave me a ride all the way to Switzerland. In the process, we drove all the way through the middle of Luxembourg without stopping. We did go through the northeastern corner of France, where we stopped somewhere for a meal. So I did get out in my brief time in France.
Yes, yes, I understand what you mean. I’m just saying that my definition of “visit” requires some kind of more genuine interaction with the person, place, or thing you’re visiting, and is not the same thing as just momentarily stopping by.
For example, say I’m supposed to visit my grandmother. I leave a bouquet of flowers on Grandma’s doorstep, ring her doorbell, and wave at her as I drove off.
My mom would have my testicles in her purse if I “visited” Grandma like that.
My basic rule is a meal, not at the airport or freeway rest area.
The only state I kind of feel conflicted about is Delaware. I had a job interview there, and grabbed a bite to eat on my way out, but it didn’t feel any different than Maryland or Pennsylvania. Other than that I missing a handful of big, mostly empty western states, the PNW, and AK/HI which barely count anyway 
Why do they “barely count”? They are harder to get to, since they are separated from the lower 48, so a visit to them is more significant than a short car drive.
But I’m not sure that I’ve really been to Delaware, since I’ve only been through it by train and by bus. That seems to me less significant than my flying visits to Alaska and Hawaii, described in an earlier post.
Yeah, it’s easier to go to other countries than it is to get there, they’re barely states, not being able to join in the direct flow of people and commerce between the real states. I’m completely full of it, of course.
For me, it has to be more than just crossing a border, transferring at an airport or driving through. There has to be some genuine interaction, spending the night, having a meal, seeing some attraction etc.
As an international example, about 20 years ago I visited the DMZ from Seoul and inside the UN/JSA building, stepped (technically) into the DPRK (North Korea), but I didn’t consider that as a visit. Not until I recently spent several days in Pyongyang did I consider myself to have visited the DPRK.
This is my rule. 48 out of 50. I could expand the rule to include no airports, eating a meal, spending the night, and must have hitch-hiked in it, and I’d still have 47.
I count Nevada, having done a layover in the Vegas airport. However, I also had some time to kill, and I had $6.50 in quarters that I ran through a slot machine. By the time I boarded the plane, I had $6.00 left. For those who count on criteria tougher than mine, would that do it for you?
I think losing money gambling counts for Nevada, so it should count for you.
I think it was this one:
I proposed a “baseball catch” rule. You carry a baseball and have to find a local to play catch with you on their soil. It isn’t always necessary but it should be ironclad proof that you visited there if you have someone take pictures annotated with the date and time. Photo Ops with hugs are priceless.
At least one hour in the state that is not travel related (driving, riding, and flying through do not count), time in the open air (train stations and airports don’t count), and eating something there.
This year, I’m visiting the counties in my state and those are the rules I’m using.
As far as counties go, I can claim every county in Ohio (all 88 of them), since I’ve taken a picture of the county courthouse in every county!
But taking pictures may not quite be enough: I’ve taken a picture of New Caledonia without actually being here. (I was in a plane flying over that country when I took the picture).
Nope, an airport is still an airport.
Yeah, but what’s with the birds?
We only count it if you pee on the ground somewhere in the place. By my definition, I have “visited” Luxembourg, although it was late at night and we were just driving through.
My rule has always been that to count as a visit, I have to something relatively unique* in the place. So driving through someplace doesn’t count unless, it’s say, the autobahn in Germany. Airports don’t count unless there’s something there that’s relatively rare there, such as slot machines. Staying at a hotel doesn’t count if it’s an EconoLodge. Restaurants don’t count if they’re Denny’s. And so on. Obviously, these are pertinent examples for me. If you lived in the U.K., for example, and you came to the U.S., Denny’s might count for you.
A lot of this is just a judgment call, of course, as others have mentioned. I would consider teaching at a French university one of the more important aspects of my year abroad even though I’ve been teaching in universities in the U.S. for quite some time. Although, while I was there, I did visit the Palais de l’Élysée (the French White House, which is only open to visitors three days a year), so perhaps I would count that as the “official” unique event for that year abroad.
Anyway, the reason that I came up with this admittedly quirky (albeit more or less reasonable) system is that I really can’t see any difference between driving through a state without stopping and flying over that state. You see the same stuff when driving as when flying. Actually, you probably see more when you’re flying. But when I was growing up, my parents counted driving as visiting but not flying, and I came up with this system as part of my adolescent rebellion, which, for whatever reason, all these years later, I still maintain.
- I know unique can’t be qualified, but I can’t think of any other way to say it.
Airports don’t count for me. Driving through a state does not count if you don’t leave the car, neither does flying over a state but not landing. My logic is flying over at 34,000 ft or driving over at 2 ft is different only in number. You have to get out of the car, have feet on something unpaved, and urinate in that state in order to claim it.
You can *be in *a state by sitting on an airplane that’s just passing through an airport.
To *visit *a state takes a week on the ground and staying in 2 locations for small states or 3 for medium states. CA, FL, TX, and AK each take 2 weeks and 6 locations. You don’t have to accumulate all the locations or nights at one stretch.
Any lesser definition of *visit * (like drive through at night for 60 minutes without stopping) is just meaningless point-scoring. How is that really better than sitting in an airport? Hell, you see more of the state flying over in daytime than you do driving through at night. By any reasonable measure, flying over Utah without landing gives you more & better insight into Utah-ness than driving across it at night does.
A week & a couple of different places is about the minimum it takes to get a feel for whatever it is which makes, say, Nebraska, Nebraska.
Having said all that, the OP is free to pick whatever standard he/she wants.
My rules:
It doesn’t count if you never leave a transportation facility like an airport, train station, bus terminal, or dock.
It doesn’t count if you’re in a plane or boat for the entire visit.
It doesn’t count if you never leave a resort or hotel. Direct travel to/from the resort or hotel also does not count.
It doesn’t count if you’re driving and your entire visit was at night.
It doesn’t count if you never leave the expressway.
So a daytime drive-through can count as long as you get off the expressway. But flying in to Orlando, taking the shuttle to Disneyworld, staying there for a week without leaving the grounds, and then shuttling back to the airport and flying home does not count as a trip to Florida.