A cruise stop counts as visiting a country if you go ashore, even for an hour. Almost every traveler and every list draws the line at setting foot on land: the Travelers' Century Club says outright that a port of call qualifies, as long as you disembark and set foot in the territory. Staying on board in port, sailing past a coast or spending a day in a country's waters doesn't count.
Going ashore is the line
A ship is a sort of floating airport lounge. Until you walk down the gangway, you haven't entered the country. Once you step onto the pier, you're on the country's ground, and the visit counts the same as if you'd flown in.
Being near a country isn't the same as being in it. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a country's territorial sea reaches up to 12 nautical miles (about 22 km, or 14 miles) from its coast. A ship can spend hours inside those waters on its way to somewhere else, and no list treats that as a visit.
The cases people argue about
Tender ports. Some ships anchor offshore and ferry passengers in by small boat, as at Santorini in Greece or George Town in the Cayman Islands. It counts the moment you step off the tender. If the sea is too rough and the tenders don't run, that port doesn't count, however close it looked from the balcony.
Private cruise islands. Cruise lines run beach resorts on real ground in real countries: Labadee on the north coast of Haiti, and several small islands in the Bahamas. By the set-foot rule they count for the country they're in. Some travelers feel a fenced resort is a thin visit and leave it off. Either choice is defensible; just apply it consistently.
Scenic cruising. Sailing into a Norwegian fjord, along Alaska's glaciers or past the Antarctic Peninsula without landing is a fine sight and doesn't count. Expedition ships to Antarctica usually land passengers by small boat, and those landings do count.
Canal transits. A ship crossing the Panama Canal spends most of a day inside Panama, surrounded by its land. If no one goes ashore, it still isn't a visit on the set-foot rule.
One island, two countries. Saint Martin in the Caribbean is split between France and the Netherlands. Ships usually dock at Philipsburg, on the Dutch side, which is Sint Maarten. A taxi across the island puts you in Saint Martin, the French side. On the 250 list and the Travelers' Century Club's 330 those are two places. On the UN list, they're parts of the Netherlands and France.
Territories. Many Caribbean and Pacific ports are territories, not UN member states. A cruise that calls at Aruba, Curaçao, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands can add four places on the list of territories and nothing new on the UN list. See do territories count as countries.
River cruises. These count the same way. A Danube cruise from Passau to Budapest often stops in Austria, Slovakia and Hungary, and each stop counts when you walk into town.
Making a port day count
- Get off the ship. Even half an hour on the pier is a visit on every major list.
- Take a photo ashore. With your camera's location turned on, it records where you were and when. Here's how to turn it on.
- Book tender tickets early where the line hands them out, so a late slot doesn't eat your time ashore.
- Watch the clock. If you miss the all-aboard time, the ship generally won't wait. Ship tours are usually held for; independent ones usually aren't.
How Globestamp handles ports
Globestamp counts countries from where your photos were taken, with rules written for ships. A photo just off the coast, on a beach, a pier or a ferry near shore, counts for that coast. A photo more than 25 km from any coast is at sea and never counts, and a port you went ashore in does. If a stamp appears for a port where you stayed on board and your rule says it shouldn't count, you can take it off, and a rescan never undoes your word.