If you love to travel then you probably love getting passport stamps as well. I love passport stamps and especially rare ones from remote islands or tough to get visas. I was flipping through my passport the other night and thought it would make a fun post to put up pictures of 22 passport stamps you’ve never seen before! These stamps are all from my current passport of 144 pages that I’ve been using since August 2010. So the stamps shown here are limited to that timeframe…but it’s been a pretty busy timeframe! Also, my apologies for my finger in some but had to cover my passport number for obvious reasons.
The South Pole, you can only get this stamp at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and if you’re there then you’re at the coolest place on Earth!
Ogasawara, Chichi-Jima, Japan is a 25.5 hour ferry ride from Tokyo and is a different world that most people have never heard of and will never visit.
Pitcairn Island is simply one of my favorite places on Earth and I was only there for 3 days. From the mystery of how to get to Pitcairn Island to the landing at Bounty Bay, it’s amazing!
Kabul, Afghanistan is a very interesting place where you can even play golf!
The Gambier Archipelago of French Polynesia and its main port of Mangareva is the gateway to Pitcairn Island
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is controversial but I had a great time!
Queen Maud Land is where I’ve spent about 3 weeks of my life like the time when Prince Harry prevented me from reaching the South Pole!
Whether you visit only visit Stanley or get out to Bleaker Island, Sea Lion Island or Carcass Island you will love the Falklands!
Chuuk is a state and an island of the Federated States of Micronesia which also include Yap and Pohnpei.
The Marshall Islands are very cool!
Kiritimati: the other Christmas Island is a tough place to get to but well worth the trip!
Abkhazia is one of the more surprising places I’ve been.
Angola is the hardest visa in the world to get for Americans.
Niue is a small island only reachable via weekly flight from Auckland or private yacht.
Norfolk Island is an interesting Australian Island with ties to Pitcairn.
Somaliland is not for everyone but very cool if you ever get there!
I was sick as heck in the Sudan so it made getting this tough visa seem not worth it.
Djibouti, Djibouti…that is all
Algeria is another tough visa to get but once I got it I found out there was much ado about Algeria.
Karachi, Pakistan is not my favorite place but this visa required a lot to get it…second hardest in the world to get after Angola.
Iraqi Kurdistan and the main city of Erbil is a great place to visit!
Asmara, Eritrea was one of the most pleasantly surprising cities in Africa!
22 Passport Stamps You’ve Never Seen Before
May 5, 2015 by 14 Comments
One of your coolest posts…thanks for sharing buddy!
How did you get a Saudi visa if I may ask
I collect passports and have several of these countries.
Nice post – I’ve got a few of those stamps – the South Pole one is crazy. Can’t believe you made it there, well done. I wrote a similar post on my own passport stamps a few months back. Safe travels. Jonny
I envy you. My nice collection of stamps is nowhere near your impressive series. However, this other day I received a stamp at the UN Headquarters in New York! Have you got that one? 🙂
Lee, loved your book. I thought you had a blog post about it and wanted to post my compliment there, but I can’t find it. Anyway, such a wide variety of travelers and stories. Glad you put this together. Any chance for a second edition?
Lee, what book is Sharon talking about? Great post, lots of strange stamps. Surprised you didn’t post Montserrat — really unexpected symbol on their stamp that ties them back to Ireland.
Such an interesting post! I can only imagine the time and effort it took to get the visas for these trips. Wow!!
Great page, thanks for sharing! Wish I had several stamps in my passport, but it no longer gets stamped in U.S.A. since I’m an American citizen. Not even a stamp when I entered Germany! 🙁
Very cool!
Thanks for this interesting post. It has quite some inspiration about odd places (Norfolk Island comes to mind) to check for any of my future trips. Your post also inspired me to blog my passport stamps (although it isn\’t as exotic as your collection).
However, I bet you haven\’t got the one from the 2nd largest Australian country… The Hutt River Province. 🙂
Good work. Will be heading to Antarctica on a 12 day cruise next year but unless on a base won’t get a stamp (will have to settle for Ushuaia’s souvenir one). Got a neat one on a tour bus a few years ago–Andorra, which required just asking the border police to stamp the passport. Also got ones from the Monaco and San Marino tourist offices. And was just on a Caribbean cruise and got several cool ones, which required hunting down the immigration office in each port and asking for a souvenir stamp. (Fortunately they were usually near the cruise ship terminals.) Most of the officers were very happy to oblige. Passport stamps may be becoming less common but with a bit of effort you can still dig them out.
Just as an update, did get one at Port Lockroy, Antarctica. The three women there were glad to give them out to everybody. Unfortunately Argentina’s Brown Base didn’t have a stamp handy. When I showed the Lockroy one to the immigration officer in Southampton she said, “Oh yes, Falklands.” My reply, “No, further south,” totally confused her. Picking these things up can be hit or miss though they make great memories.
Hi,
I received a stamp on my french passport in 1985 form the then Republic of Somalia. The stamp is affixed on my passport. Does it have any value? Thanks and kuddos to your excellent site!