Empty Nesters Meet Goal Of Traveling To 100 Countries

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

Established in 1954, the social club has about 1500 members worldwide. Eligibility is based on having visited at least 100 of the organization’s approved list of 330 countries and territories around the globe.

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

Generational wanderlust

Clearly, this feat had a slow and steady trajectory.

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

Both have memories of being raised by families who loved to travel, and embarking on parenthood never slowed down the couple’s shared passion.

“When our first-born (daughter) was 4-weeks-old, we took her on an international trip to Canada,” says Chris in an interview with Forbes.com. “By the time she was three months old, she had her own frequent flier number,” she adds.

The foremost criteria for planning Scott family vacations was making sure they meshed with work and school schedules. The Scott’s first trips with the kids were limited to destinations in North America (the U.S., Canada and Mexico) except for some family cruises to the Caribbean.

“As the kids entered grade school, we started planning extended trips to European capitals like London, Paris, Rome, Athens, Stockholm and Reykjavik but we never took them out of a school for a vacation,” she says.

Retirement ignites the travel bug

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

“After we both retired in 2019, we decided that traveling to 100 destinations was close to the top of our bucket list,” says Chris. “We had worked nearly all our adult lives, Joe as an engineer and me as an accountant, to achieve this freedom.”

This was when they delved into learning more about TCC, an organization they had once only vaguely heard about, she says.

“We were intrigued to find an organization for globetrotters like ourselves, people who loved to experience once in a lifetime adventures, and visit remote and obscure destinations,” says Joe. “A bonus was that we lived close to a very active chapter in Washington, DC, where we could meet and network with like-minded, well-traveled and adventurous individuals,” he adds.

Slowed down but not daunted by the pandemic

The couple had planned and already 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 embark on a trip to Fiji when we received a text alert from our travel advisor,” says Chris. “It read: URGENT Message: Your trip is suspended. Do not board the flight. Travel restrictions related to COVID-19.”

The pandemic put a halt to nine of the twelve trips we had previously scheduled, says Chris. ”We spent the next several months negotiating refunds with airlines, hotels, cruise lines, and travel agencies, successfully,” she adds.

As soon as travel started to reopen in the U.S., the Scotts packed their bags again and went on trips with the U.S. “We made trips to St. Louis Arch, London Bridge (in Lake Havasu City, Arizona), Santa Claus (a town in Indiana) Las Vegas, Memphis, Nashville, and to Oklahoma to meet Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman), to name a few,” she says.

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

Just the beginning

Reaching their goal and attaining bragging rights as TCC members wasn’t an endpoint. “It has inspired us to continue to travel as much as we can,” says Joe.

“We have six trips planned this year beginning in April,” says Chris. She explains that they are staying close to home as they await the arrival of their third grandchild.

After the birth, the Scotts will be traveling through 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’ve learned 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 during more peaceful times,” says Joe. “But there are so many other fascinating places to see.”