Queen of the skies

The Queen spent a total of 3 years and 326 days on overseas appointments.

98 of these tours have been State Visits to countries where she is not a head of state, including the US and Germany, and 187 to Commonwealth nations.

As the figurehead of the Commonwealth - which includes 54 independent countries on top of those which recognised her as official Head of State, the Queen’s travel diary has been packed.  Between her coronation in 1952 and 2015 she attended an average of between four and five overseas trips a year.

However there are places the Queen has visited more than others.

The one place Queen Elizabeth visited more than any other is Canada. With 28 visits to the country and spending 237 days there, it is her natural home across the Atlantic. She even conducted  two official visits across the border in 1957 and 59 under her title as Queen of Canada.

But Canada is not the country where she spent most time exploring as Head of State. 

Australia is the one country the monarch spent more time in than any other. She spent total of 243 days across 18 visits in Australia, including the mammoth 1954 tour. This took a whole 58 days to complete, her longest in one country. By virtue of being the only reigning monarch to have ever visited Australia, she made up for lost time visiting all seven states.

Third most visited is New Zealand, spending 147 days in the country across 10 occasions.

The most visited non-commonwealth country is France, which has received six state visits totalling 20 days, followed closely by the United States, where she spent a total of 38 days visiting as head of state for the United Kingdom. Germany saw five visits since reunification and three Royal visits prior as West Germany.

A royal Christmas in New Zealand

Her Majesty’s longest visit to New Zealand was in 1953, her first, when she spent 39 days touring the country.

New Zealand remains the only country she has spent Christmas in, other than the UK.

On 25 December, 1953, Auckland was centre stage as she delivered the Christmas message from Government House.

This was prior to long-haul flights, when the Royal Tour arrived on the SS Gothic - a chunky cargo-liner designed for round the world passage. By comparison, the Queen’s last visit to New Zealand in 2002 was just 6 days.

Marking her Golden Jubilee, it was a very different trip to the one 50 years earlier. It was a whirlwind tour, taking in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

She met with Sir Edmund Hillary, who had climbed Mt Everest six months prior to that first ‘Royal Summer’ tour. 

Perhaps the starkest contrast in the way even a monarch traverses the globe is between 1954, the grand royal tour and 1966, the Queen’s busiest year for engagements.

She spent 82 days abroad, visiting 8 countries in 1954 - directly on from 53 days and another 8 visits the year prior - by 1966, the Queen was able to visit 17 heads of state and only spent 27 days doing so.

It may be we’ll never see such a travel-ready royal again.

There have been further changes in attitudes to travel and attitudes to the Royal Family itself. After clocking up more air-miles than your average monarch, the Queen’s grandson Harry has recently launched a sustainable travel initiative ‘Travalyst’. The Prince of Wales Charles’ concerns over global warming, once dismissed as a regal eccentricity, are now a top concern for republicans and loyalists alike. Will the next royal in line return to slow travel?

Either way, there will be fewer Royal charges to visit. As Bermuda officially became a republic in November 2021, dropping the crown as the head of state, other countries are weighing up their place in the commonwealth. When the queen came to the throne there were 32 independent countries, which she saw sovereign over. Today the number is just 14.

Royals will continue to travel but they’ll no longer have the large pomp of the Summer of 1953 or the frenetic pace of the Queen’s 1966 spree.

"Your Majesty, how would we rate our carbon footprint?"

One can only guess which country might be the first to be honoured by a state visit from King Charles’ cheese-fuelled Aston Martin?

According to Royal records, Queen Elizabeth’s last official overseas visits were in 2015.

She was a guest of the German State in June and her last commonwealth visit was to Malta, where she and Prince Philip lived as newlyweds between 1949 to 51. 

Data sources: royal.uk/state-visits