There’s nothing more tourist-like than being stuck in an airport waiting for a connecting flight.
I don’t count being in an airport as having been to the state. So, despite having changed planes in Denver, i have never (unfortunately) been to Colorado.
I have the same rule for trains. My only encounter with Rhode Island has been on an Amtrak train from New York to Boston, so that doesn’t count for me.
No, the airport doesn’t count. It never occurred to me that it would count. It’s kind of funny to think that according to some of you, I’ve been to Colorado, Georgia, and France.
Heck, I don’t even say I’ve been to Mexico without explaining that I was only there for an hour or so!*
- I was visiting family in Tuscon. We drove down to Nogales, walked across the border, browsed in the shops for a bit, and went back.
Technically, yes.
For the purposes of having a conversation about said place, no.
It doesn’t count fully and you cheaters will realize that when you go back and revise a mental entry on a place you logged first as an airport visit and then change it to a real one later. I was a cheater when I first started travelling much and then I realized that is just mental grasping at technicalities that don’t get us far with the real experiences required. At this point, I have been to lots of states including every state on the East Coast (except Delaware, that made up piece of shit that you can drive forever and never find. Quick, name a recent news story from Delaware. Case closed) and the South. I used to log Illinois because I had changed many times in O’Hare but then I really went to Chicago and that was mentally logged as the first time. A real out-of-terminal experience is required.
I was about to jump in and say, “Of course I count being in the airport as being in the state!”, but then I realized every airport I’ve been in has been in a state I’ve visited…
So does driving non-stop through a state count?
Hell, now that I think about it I hardly “count” (what’s with all this about it “counting” anyway? Who the hell is keeping score?) states that I’ve driven through completely, if I never stopped anywhere interesting (as in, besides a hotel or gas station), because I didn’t really learn anything and would have little to nothing to contribute to a conversation about that place.
If you mean truly non-stop (no food, gas, getting off the highway whatsoever) then I’d say no. Any stop for food, leaving food behind, or doing business counts in my mind. Hence, I can say I’ve been to Montana (people were much friendly and more accepting than Wyoming).
I have been shocked at how many people are counting airport visits as having “been” to a state. In my experience, airports, or at least major ones, are fairly universal. Munich is Heathrow is O’Hare is LAX is Auckland. Only difference is the accent and/or second language on the PA.
I’d count it even if my plane only landed and then took off. As long as I could chain of solids connecting me to the ground it counts as having been there.
But in order for me to say I’ve visited a state I’d have had to do something there
And I’d have had to spend at least a straight month there to say I’ve lived there.
My rule is I have to set foot on ground outside an airport. I think the only places that are ruled out for my by this are Texas and Singapore. I was driving from GA to TN and noticed that I was close enough for a side trip to the Alabama border. I drove over the state line, got out of the car and walked around for literally 30 seconds, but I count Alabama. I spent 2.5 hours in the Dallas FW airport but I don’t count Texas. Such is life. 
I don’t think it counts. I can’t even remember all the airports I’ve been to.
You have to spend some time, talk to the people, eat the food (and no, Taco Bell Express doesn’t count, see some buildings and have some sort of “only in that place” experiences for it to count.
I don’t count airports, although I do count drive-throughs (so Minnesota is cow pastures, Illinois is a traffic jam, and Utah is a hot desert with neat rock formations).
Which means I have still never been to California.
I’ve never had the need to count them as I’ve only ever had one layover. I can’t stand the thought of having to wait around an airport. I count drive throughs if I’ve done something there, though my shortest one is Idaho. The funny thing is that I live in Maryland, and have been to Ocean City a number of times and never really went to Delaware. Then after taking my motorcycle to 47 states I have never taken it there. So I rode there just to say I’d finally been there.
I do however count my train trip through Poland. I had to get off the train in Warsaw when we were stopped and got something to eat. I even had to change money.
A little airline parlance if I may …
A “layover” is when you go to the hotel, eat dinner, sleep, eat breakfast and go back to work. The hotel may be just across the street from the airport, but it’s still off premises.
A “stop”, “stopover”, or “sit” is when you fly into airport X & fly out again in an hour or so.
Occasionally one gets stuck with a planned stopover running 3 or more hours. That makes for a very long workday since we’re generally paid only when the airplane is moving and we still have a daily production quota to make. These scheduling stupidities have a variety of colorful informal names.
To paraphrase a past president, “It all depends on what the meaning of in is.” I suppose to stress the concept, one would have to go caving or spelunking or at least dig a big hole and jump into it. My concept of “in” in the OP is that if one were to look down on the state’s borders from some lofty vantage point (miles above the scene) and see a person inside those borders, then one could say the person is in that state.
I would appreciate the dissenters to this notion expounding on their take of what in entails.
Well, to be technical, the name of the airport is now the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport
Another vote for the airport doesn’t count. Even if you walk outside to go from one terminal to another. You have to leave the airport altogether for it to count.
My wife and I disagree on this point. I always claimed Arizona as a state I’d been to, but she said changing planes in Phoenix doesn’t count. Since then, we went to the four-corners monument so I stepped into Ariz. for a few feet and now she thinks it’s correct to count it. I actually spent more time in Ariz. at the airport, but probably got more of the flavor from a few minutes at four-corners.
I’m up to 43 states, 44 after next month’s cruise to Alaska.
Technically, even flying over a country means you’ve been there, since the boundaries extend up into space.
Sure I count it. Why is it any different from driving through a state without stopping? Besides, you can tell a lot about an area just from landing at the airport.