You Can't Join This Exclusive Travellers' Club Until You've Been To 100 Countries

No longer is it enough to prove you’re a traveller by having an Instagram filled with shots of beaches in Bali, the Northern Lights in Norway and tuk-tuks in Thailand.

Instead, you must be a member of an exclusive club that requires you to have travelled to 100 or more countries to join.

The Travelers’ Century Club (TCC) is billed as the world’s most elite travel community and says it will give you ‘bragging rights’ over other, less well-travelled people.

To become a member, you must have visited 100 countries or more. Luckily for you, their benchmark of what makes a country is pretty broad, as they include territories and places such as Alaska, the isolated US state, and Prince Edward Island, a province of Canada.

The club was founded in 1954 in Los Angeles by a group of travellers. There are now more than 1,400 members all around the world.

The club gives you an exclusive place to network with people just like you. It’s like a social network for travel – and now Facebook’s become the your-uncle-posting-annoying-memes-he-doesn’t-really-understand network, that’s a valuable thing. As everyone in the club is so widely travelled, they have information on little-known places and events that are hard to find.

There are also excursions members can join, lectures and seminars, access to knowledgeable guides for hard-to-reach areas, regular worldwide social events – and of course, a membership card and certificate to prove you make the grade.

It costs $100 (£74) to be initiated and around $85 (£63) per year for membership, depending where in the world you live. To join, simply fill out an application form and tick off the 100 countries and territories you’ve been to. No word on how the TCC know that you aren’t lying. Maybe they’ll check your Instagram feed.

Do you qualify to join the club?

Since you are here, we would like to share our vision for the future of travel - and the direction Culture Trip is moving in.

Culture Trip launched in 2011 with a simple yet passionate mission: to inspire people to go beyond their boundaries and experience what makes a place, its people and its culture special and meaningful — and this is still in our DNA today. We are proud that, for more than a decade, millions like you have trusted our award-winning recommendations by people who deeply understand what makes certain places and communities so special.

Increasingly we believe the world needs more meaningful, real-life connections between curious travellers keen to explore the world in a more responsible way. That is why we have intensively curated a collection of premium small-group trips as an invitation to meet and connect with new, like-minded people for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in three categories: Culture Trips, Rail Trips and Private Trips. Our Trips are suitable for both solo travelers, couples and friends who want to explore the world together.

Culture Trips are deeply immersive 5 to 16 days itineraries, that combine authentic local experiences, exciting activities and 4-5* accommodation to look forward to at the end of each day. Our Rail Trips are our most planet-friendly itineraries that invite you to take the scenic route, relax whilst getting under the skin of a destination. Our Private Trips are fully tailored itineraries, curated by our Travel Experts specifically for you, your friends or your family.

We know that many of you worry about the environmental impact of travel and are looking for ways of expanding horizons in ways that do minimal harm - and may even bring benefits. We are committed to go as far as possible in curating our trips with care for the planet. That is why all of our trips are flightless in destination, fully carbon offset - and we have ambitious plans to be net zero in the very near future.