Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I spent an afternoon at Hong Kong international airport, before taking the long flight back to my home country. I walked around the airport, and got a good look at the city's interesting scenery, through the airport windows. If I tell people that I've been to Hong Kong, is that lying or being disingenuous?
I spent an afternoon at Hong Kong international airport, before taking the long flight back to my home country. I walked around the airport, and got a good look at the city's interesting scenery, through the airport windows. If I tell people that I've been to Hong Kong, is that lying or being disingenuous?
If you use the airport qualifier, no. Otherwise, you really have to leave the airport to claim to have been to a specific place.
Quote:
Originally Posted by botticelli
No.
And one should not claim to have been to country X when he only visited one city either.
In January I visited Uruguay on a cruise ship. We had dinner there and toured the city. After 5 hours we re-boarded the ship and left.
If someone asks if I've ever been to Uruguay, my answer should be "no"?
Why not simply explain your visit as you did, above?
People who go on a world cruise and never leave the ship have gone on a "Cruise to Nowhere" as far as I am concerned. (Yes, there are actually people who do not ever leave the ship.)
However, you did at least go down the gangplank and through customs and had a meal in Uruguay somewhere in the city, away from the ubiquitous container port, hopefully. It sure beats just looking through the glass at an airport and staring at whatever part of a city one can see through the glass.
For a cruise ship visit it is uncommon to even have the opportunity for dinner in a port, since the vast majority of cruise stops are during the day, meaning at most a lunch ashore is possible (if one does not hotfoot it back to the ship for a "free meal"), and that is one of my dislikes of cruising. The people one sees are usually just other cruise ship passengers, perhaps a shopkeeper or two, and the food one eats is predominantly tourist-oriented food, usually highly Americanized. There are a few cruise lines who do overnight stops, and I think that is more interesting.
I have stopped at Ensenada port on several cruises, but I never went down the gangplank, so I don't consider that I have visited Ensenada, though I have seen and photographed the humongous flag on numerous occasions.
I do not count it if I never left the airport, but I do count it if I left the airport and did not spend the night. We all have different ways of counting where we've been.
Same here. One airport terminal looks like most others.
I had a layover in Denver so long in 1976 it could be classified as a place that I LIVED . Much less visited . I can't even remember what caused it now .
I'm sorry but this question is baseless. If you sit in the Atlanta airport for a few hours, you have not been to Atlanta. Anyone who says otherwise is likely into "checklist" tourism and is more focused on adding a location to his/her list than to actually experiencing a new travel destination. That's not the way I travel.
I'm sorry but this question is baseless. If you sit in the Atlanta airport for a few hours, you have not been to Atlanta. Anyone who says otherwise is likely into "checklist" tourism and is more focused on adding a location to his/her list than to actually experiencing a new travel destination. That's not the way I travel.
If you sit in the Atlanta airport for a few hours, OF COURSE you've been to Atlanta (or whatever city the airport is located in). Airports don't exist in a mythical cloud; they are located on physical pieces of ground, which is part of a city (or county or whatever).
Now, this is not the same as saying that you've truly experienced the depth and richness and excitement and culture that Atlanta has to offer. No one has ever claimed that they are the same thing. But in terms of having "been to" somewhere, in the sense of physically occupying that particular location, an airport counts as much as anywhere else.
If you sit in the Atlanta airport for a few hours, OF COURSE you've been to Atlanta (or whatever city the airport is located in). Airports don't exist in a mythical cloud; they are located on physical pieces of ground, which is part of a city (or county or whatever).
Now, this is not the same as saying that you've truly experienced the depth and richness and excitement and culture that Atlanta has to offer. No one has ever claimed that they are the same thing. But in terms of having "been to" somewhere, in the sense of physically occupying that particular location, an airport counts as much as anywhere else.
I have always wondered at thelong lists of countries, states, cities visited that are posted by some.
Using your criteria of "been to", I could almost double my list. I can add Taiwan, South Korea, China, Singapore, Holland, Germany, France, and Greece to my travel list, because I have been to all of those airports. I can't count the number of US, Canadian, UK, Italian, Indonesian, etc cities I could add if you include layovers or drive through on the interstate/highway.
Ridiculous. I would never claim to have visited those places, nor would I claim to have been there.
This is like an adolescent boy claiming to have gotten to second base because he bumped up against a woman on the bus.
until someone comes up with a definition or criteria that is used to "really experience" a place, the mere presence of occupying a physical place in an airport lounge, or in a taxi-hotel-taxi, or a car never straying 100 yds along I70 through the entire width of Kansas...will do just fine in satisfying been to a place.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
a place, the mere presence of occupying a physical place in an airport lounge, or in a taxi-hotel-taxi, or a car never straying 100 yds along I70 through the entire width of Kansas...will do just fine in satisfying been to a place.
