# Countries with three or more uninterrupted sea coasts **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [September 20, 2025, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217 "2025-09-20T05:07:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/61 "2025-09-20T15:55:41Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > No, because unlike Spain, Morocco does not have a land border with Gibraltar. Unless this is a joke, you’ve missed the point. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/62 "2025-09-20T15:56:37Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > No, because unlike Spain, Morocco does not have a land border with Gibraltar. Melilla and Ceuta for Morroco; not Gibraltar ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/63 "2025-09-20T17:56:49Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Cyprus Does the UN buffer zone around Kokkina count as a break? If so, Cyprus has three. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/64 "2025-09-20T18:02:00Z")
Cyprus is a complicated situation, what with the northern part occupied by Turkey but claimed by Cyrpus, the two sovereign British bases and the buffer zone. It looked like two to me in a couple different ways, but I could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/65 "2025-09-20T18:05:44Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Cyprus is a complicated situation, what with the northern part occupied by Turkey but claimed by Cyrpus, the two sovereign British bases and the buffer zone. It looked like two to me in a couple different ways, but I could be wrong. East of Akrotiri, Akrotiri to the [Kokkina](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokkina) enclave, east of Kokkina. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/66 "2025-09-20T18:17:27Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > East of Akrotiri, Akrotiri to the [Kokkina](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokkina) enclave, east of Kokkina. OK, I missed that enclave. So Cyprus could be either 2 or 3. Cyprus claimes the entire island except for the two British bases, so that would be two. Defacto, with the Turkish occupation, it’s three. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/67 "2025-09-20T21:07:34Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > I didn’t spend as much time on this, so may have missed one or two: Croatia. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/68 "2025-09-20T21:10:16Z")
It’s not contiguous. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2025, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/69 "2025-09-21T06:01:19Z")
Check out Dubrovnik. Or does that count as exclave? ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2025, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/70 "2025-09-21T08:23:46Z")
Re: two coast countries: > [@Charlie\_Tan](#): > > Croatia Not > [@Charlie\_Tan](#): > > Or does that count as exclave? Exclave. It’s not connected to the main part of Croatia. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/71 "2025-09-22T13:35:10Z")
There’s a strategy board game called Diplomacy which simulates a war in 1900 Europe. Players move armies and fleets around the board and, for that purpose, have to submit their moves in writing to an adjudicator. Some “provinces” (squares) on the board have several non-contiguous coastline which are distinguished by suffixes to the province name. IIRC, those were Spain (Mediterranean and Atlantic, interrupted by the Portuguese coast), Bulgaria (Mediterranean and Black Sea) and St Petersburg (Baltic and Arctic seas). ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/72 "2025-09-22T13:42:09Z")
France also owns a number of overseas territories (French Guyana, French Polynesia, Réunion and a couple of others) with coastlines significantly increase its count for the purposes of this thread. The same goes for the UK, of course, and any other country that possesses islands in addition to its mainland. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/73 "2025-09-22T13:43:29Z")
Re Croatia: Its coastlines are interrupted by a few miles of Bosnian territory around the town of Neum, so it should count. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/74 "2025-09-22T18:04:25Z")
The part of Croatia south of that interruption is not connected to the rest of Croatia. So it’s an exclave and thus has its own coast count (1). ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/75 "2025-09-22T18:30:21Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > Bhutan is in 3166 but is not recognized by the USA. It is. The USA doesn’t have diplomatic relations with (i.e., an embassy in) Bhutan, but it still recognises it as an independent country. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/76 "2025-09-22T18:35:09Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > To put it as clearly as possible: Start at some point on a country’s coastline. Follow the perimeter of that country (or of that piece of that country, for disconnected countries), along a combination of coastline and international land borders, until you get back to your starting point. So how does Russia belong? What am I missing? ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/77 "2025-09-22T18:38:34Z")
It has a Baltic coast for its mainland, another Baltic coast for Kaliningrad, and a very, very long coast along the Arctic and Pacific oceans. Speaking of Russia: If you treat Crimea as a part of Russia (which is not the position of the international community, but it corresponds to who’s exercising actual control there), then Ukraine becomes a two-coast country. You can also count Cuba as a two-coast country if you consider its coastline interrupted by the Guantanamo Bay lease, which cuts across the entry to the bay so the northern shore of the bay is disconnected from the rest of Cuba’s coastline. ---
**Author:** ![colinfred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colinfred/32/21338_2.png) [@colinfred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colinfred)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/78 "2025-09-22T18:44:22Z")
Kaliningrad doesn’t count as it’s not contiguous. It’s Baltic, Black sea, and one massive coast for the rest. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/79 "2025-09-22T18:44:49Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > It has a Baltic coast for its mainland, another Baltic coast for Kaliningrad I thought we excluded Kalingrad as an exclave. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/80 "2025-09-22T18:45:13Z")
True, I stand corrected. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217.md?page=5)