How to Build a Travel Bucket List on a Map
Updated November 10, 2026
Mark the countries you want to visit with the Want to go status. They appear on the map in a separate colour and are never counted as visited. Seeing them next to the places you have been shows which wishes sit close together and could become a single trip.
Why a map works better than a list
A written bucket list is a pile of names in the order you thought of them. A map puts the same names where they are. Three countries you listed months apart turn out to share borders, and a place you assumed was a long way off turns out to be a short flight from somewhere you already plan to go. Geography is the main thing a list hides and the main thing that decides cost and time.
Set it up
- Open the Countries tab and select Want to go.
- Click every country you would like to visit, or type names in Find a country and tick them. Do not edit yourself yet; a wish list should start too long.
- Switch back to Visited and mark where you have been, if you have not done so already.
- Look at the whole map. Wishes and visited countries are drawn in different colours.
Read the map
- Clusters: a group of neighbouring wishes is a candidate for one trip. Overland travel between neighbours is usually cheaper than separate flights from home.
- Gaps: a wish surrounded by countries you have visited is easy to add to a return visit.
- Outliers: a single wish far from everything else needs its own trip. Decide whether it is worth that, or whether a neighbour belongs on the list too.
- Empty continents: the continent bars in Statistics show where you have not been at all. A first country on a new continent changes the map more than a tenth country in a familiar one.
From wishes to a plan
Pick one cluster and create a trip for it, even though it has not happened. Give it a name such as Balkans, someday, leave the dates empty, and add the cities you would visit as stops in a sensible order. The route line and the distance show at once whether the plan is realistic. A loop of 2,000 km suits two weeks by train or car. A line of 9,000 km needs flights in the middle.
Adding a stop marks its country as visited, because a stop normally records somewhere you have been. For a planned trip, set those countries back to Want to go afterwards: select Want to go and click each one. When the trip has happened, add the dates and mark the countries as Visited.
Keep wishes and visits honest
The point of a separate status is that the count stays true. Countries marked Want to go are excluded from the number of countries, from the percentage of the world and from the continent totals. They are counted on their own, so you can see the list shrink as you travel. If you are unsure whether a short stop counts as a visit, leaving it as Want to go is a reasonable way to say not properly, not yet.
Prioritise
A wish list with eighty countries is a map of the world, not a plan. Once everything is marked, remove wishes until what is left is what you would really book in the next five years. A useful test for each one: can you name a specific thing you want to do there? If not, it is on the list because it is famous, and it can come off without regret.
Share it
A share link carries the wish list along with the visited countries, in their separate colours. It is a quick way to compare plans with a travel partner. Each of you sends a link, and where the two wish lists overlap you have a destination nobody has to be talked into.
Try it on your own map
Questions and answers
- Do Want to go countries count toward my total?
- No. Only Visited and Lived here count toward countries, percentage and continents. Want to go has its own counter and its own colour.
- Can I plan a trip that has not happened yet?
- Yes. Create a trip without dates and add the stops. Remember that adding a stop marks its country as visited, so set those countries back to Want to go until you have been.
- How do I move a country from Want to go to Visited?
- Select Visited and click the country on the map or in the list. The status changes in one click.