Empty Nesters Reach Goal Of Traveling To 100 Countries

Chris and Joe Scott of Fredericksburg, Virginia recently joined the elite ranks of the Travelers’ Century Club (TCC).

Founded in 1954, the social club has about 1500 members worldwide. Qualification is based on visiting at least 100 of the organization’s approved list of 330 countries and territories worldwide.

The Scotts visited their 100th country, the Republic of Cape Verde (in Africa), in December.

Generational wanderlust

Clearly, this feat has a slow and steady path.

Chris and Joe met as college sweethearts at West Virginia University and have been married for 39 years. They have two grown children and two grandchildren. When the couple first heard about the “club,” they had already been to about 60 countries.

Both have fond memories of being raised in families that love to travel, and starting parenthood hasn’t slowed down the couple’s shared love.

“When our firstborn (daughter) was 4 weeks old, we took her on an international trip to Canada,” Chris said in an interview with Forbes.com. “When he was three months old, he had his own frequent flier number,” he added.

The main criteria for planning vacations for the Scott family is to make sure they fit in with work and school schedules. Scott’s first trips with the children were limited to North American destinations (US, Canada and Mexico) with the exception of a few family cruises to the Caribbean.

“When the kids entered grade school, we started planning long trips to European capitals like London, Paris, Rome, Athens, Stockholm and Reykjavik but we never took them out of school to go on vacation,” he said.

Retirement ignited the travel bug

Rather than slowing down after ceasing active professional careers, retirement only fueled Scott’s lust for exploring the world.

“After we retire in 2019, we’ve decided that traveling to 100 destinations is near the top of our bucket list,” Chris said. “We worked almost all our adult lives, Joe as an engineer and me as an accountant, to achieve this freedom.”

This is when they delived to learn more about TCC, an organization that they only once vaguely heard about, he said.

“We were interested in finding an organization for globetrotters like ourselves, people who love to experience once-in-a-lifetime adventures, and visit remote and obscure destinations,” said Joe. “A bonus is that we live near a very active chapter in Washington, DC, where we can meet and network with like-minded, well-traveled and adventurous individuals,” he added.

Slow down but not afraid of the pandemic

The couple had already planned and booked 12 trips for 2020 before they realized the full impact of the pandemic.

“We were at Dulles Airport on March 12, 2020, ready to travel to Fiji when we received a text alert from our travel advisor,” said Chris. “It reads: URGENT Message: Your trip is suspended. Don’t get on the plane. Travel restrictions related to COVID-19. “

The pandemic has canceled nine of the twelve trips we had previously scheduled, Chris said. “We spent the next few months negotiating refunds with airlines, hotels, cruise lines, and travel agencies, successfully,” he added.

When travel began to reopen in the US, the Scotts packed their bags again and traveled with the US “We traveled to the St. Louis Arch, London Bridge (in Lake Havasu City, Arizona), Santa Claus (a town in Indiana) Las Vegas, Memphis, Nashville, and in Oklahoma to meet Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman), to name a few,” he said.

When international travel finally reopens in 2021, the Scotts booked a trip to St. James’s Club, an all-inclusive in Antigua. “That trip inspired us and we started booking cruises and land-based trips all over the world,” says Joe.

It’s just the beginning

Achieving their goal and achieving bragging rights as TCC members is not an end point. “It inspired us to keep traveling as much as we could,” Joe said.

“We have six trips planned this year starting in April,” said Chris. He explained that they are close to home as they await the arrival of their third grandchild.

After the birth, the Scotts will travel via Doha, Qatar for a 7-night cruise to Saudi Arabia, Jordan and a return cruise to Egypt. Then they have trips planned to San Marino, Palma de Mallorca, Tunisia, Norway, Greenland, Fujairah (UAE), Oman, Seychelles, Kenya, Zanzibar, Tanzania, Madagascar and Mauritius.

Their advice: Stay flexible. They know that changing health restrictions and political unrest can make some countries on your bucket list out of reach.

“Luckily, we visited Cuba, Russia and Machu Picchu in Peru in more peaceful times,” said Joe. “But there are many other interesting places to see.”