This list is adapted from the excellent article on Nomad Mania.
CELEBRITY TRAVELLERS
1. Alexander the Great (356 BC – 323 BC) – NM1301 40, UN 13. His empire stretched from Greece to NW India.
2. Pausanias (2nd century AD). This Greek traveller and geographer is perhaps considered one of the first travel writers. Through his opus ‘Description of Greece’, he aimed to travel far and wide to complete his findings.
3. Genghis Khan (1155-62 – 1227) – NM1301 – 115, UN 13. His descendants extended the Mongol Empire across most of Eurasia, all of modern-day China, Korea, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and substantial portions of Eastern Europe and Southwest Asia.
4. Marco Polo (1254-1324) – NM 1301 70, UN 16. Between 1271 to 1295, he travelled across Asia to China (where he lived for 17 years) and was sent by Kublai Khan to Burma, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
5. Ibn Battuta (1304 – 1368 or 1369) – NM1301 – 113, UN – 37. In 1325, this Muslim Berber Moroccan scholar went on a hajj to Mecca and didn’t see Morocco again for twenty-four years. Over 30 years, he visited most of the Muslim world, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, India, China and West Africa. His travels were to more than any other explorer in distance, totalling around 117,000 km.
6. Hong Bao (1412–1433) – NM1301 41, UN 12 – This Chinese eunuch was sent on overseas diplomatic missions as the commander of one of the detached squadrons of Zheng He’s fleet during the Seventh Voyage of this fleet to the Indian Ocean (1431–1433). Hong Bao commanded a squadron that most likely separated from the main fleet in Semudera in northern and visited Sumatra, Bengal, and Calicut in southern India, southern India, southern Arabia and the Horn of Africa, including Aden and Mogadishu.
7. Christopher Columbus (1451 – 1506) – NM1301 37, UN18.
8. Ferdinand Magellan (1480 – 1521) – NM1301 44, UN 13. Magellan initially travelled east to reach the Malay Archipelago from 1505 to 1511–1512. From 1519 to 1522, his expedition traveled west around Cape Horn but was killed in the Philippines. One of his surviving ships eventually returned home via the Indian Ocean, completing the first circuit of the globe. Between the two voyages, Magellan achieved a nearly complete personal circumnavigation of the globe for the first time in history.
9. Francis Drake (1540 – 1596) – NM1301 46, UN 20. This English sea captain is most famously known for circumnavigating the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 1580. He claimed California, previously unexplored by western shipping.
10. Charles Darwin (1809 -1882) – NM1301 43, UN 14. After his five-year voyage on HMS Beagle, he never travelled again.
11. Isabella Bird (1831-1904) NM1301 80, UN 16. This nineteenth-century British explorer, writer, photographer, and naturalist started to travel in 1854 to the United States, in 1872, to Australia and Hawaii and from 1878-1897 to Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaya, India (including Ladakh), Persia, Kurdistan, Turkey, Baghdad, Tehran, Baluchistan, Persia, Armenia, up the Yangtze and Han rivers in China and Korea and finally to Morocco
12. Gertrude Bell(1868 – 1926) – NM1301 41, UN 13 was an English writer, traveller, and political officer who travelled to Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Arabia, Jordan, Arabia, and Iraq.
13. Alma Karlin (1889 -1950) – NM1301 107, UN 31 was a Slovene traveller and polyglot (English, French, Latin, Italian, Norwegian, Danish, Russian, Spanish, Persian, Chinese, and Japanese). In WWI, she was in London, Sweden and Norway. In 1919, she took off on a nine-year journey via South and North America, the Pacific Islands, Australia, and various Asian countries including India. After 1928, she never travelled again.
14. Others
Mahatma Gandhi NM1301 61, UN 3
Amelia Earhart NM1301 43, UN 9
Winston Churchill NM1301 68, UN 28
Ernest Hemingway NM1301 42, UN 19
Che Guevara NM1301 – 149, UN 65
John Kennedy NM1301 57, UN 10
Lyndon Johnson NM1301 94, UN 20
Seve Ballesteros NM1301 60, UN 16
NON-CELEBRITY TRAVELLERS
1. Pierre-Olivier Malherbe (1569–1616). A French explorer on a 27-year world tour, he was the first Frenchman to walk around the world.
2. Jeanne Baret (1740 – 1807) was a member of Louis Antoine de Bougainville’s maritime expedition in 1766–1769 and was the first woman to circumnavigate the globe, via maritime transport. Jeanne Baret joined the expedition disguised as a man until Tahiti in 1768. After several years in Mauritius, she returned to France in 1775.
3. René Caillé (1799 – 1838) was a French explorer and the first European to return alive from Timbuktu. He travelled alone disguised as a Muslim, learned Arabic and Islamic customs over 8 months in Mauritania, and took a year to travel from modern Guinea to Timbuktu winning a prize of 9,000 francs for the first person to return with a description of Timbuktu. After two weeks, he crossed the Sahara to Tangier in Morocco.
4. Alexandra David-Neel (1868 – 1969) was a Belgian–French explorer most known for her 1924 visit to Lhasa, Tibet disguised as a beggar and monk), when it was forbidden to foreigners.
5. Gunther Hollberg. This German man travelled to over 200 countries in his Mercedes G named “Otto”. How he got to all these places with the car is somewhat of a mystery but German diplomatic connections for places like N Korea. He told no one about his travels so was “under the radar”. His travels are detailed in English at www.ottosreise,de/en/start.html.
6. Heinz Stücke.This famous bicyclist from Westphalia, Germany visited all 193 countries including an amazing 1105 of The Best Traveler regions by bike over 51 years, about 660,000 km. He must be the greatest traveller of us all. To finance his trip, he sold colour brochures about his incredible journey.
7. Rauli Virtanen. The first person to visit every country in the world finished in 1980. From Finland, he has over the past 50 years, distinguished himself as a renowned journalist specializing in conflict zones. His work uncovers the darker facets of world history. First, he focused on Latin America, and from 1970-71, took a cargo ship from Finland to Rio de Janeiro and embarked on a 10-month backpacking trip to South America and North America. He visited all the Latin American countries very early on, including Caribbean countries.
His first war was in Vietnam where in 1972, he embedded with the US military. In Bucharest, Romania, in 1989, he witnessed the Romanian revolution, in 1979, the Nicaragua revolution, and then met Nelson Mandela. The most important and heartwarming events are just meeting the locals in developing countries – it seems that the poorer they are, the more hospitable they are,
Foreign correspondents don’t stay for long, and their fixers, people who help us stay there are risking their lives 24/7. His most important lesson is to not be cynical. If you become cynical, then you have to leave.
“We’re living in dangerous times, but I like to think that world history has its ups and downs, and we believe we’ll get through this difficult period.”
China has changed the most since the end of the 1980s. He had a chance to travel by car from Hong Kong to Beijing because there was a Hong Kong-Beijing rally, and one of the famous Finnish race drivers, Ari, invited him to join as press. They took detours off the rally route to visit villages where the Chinese people had never seen foreigners before. At that time in Beijing, foreigners could travel only 20 kilometres from the city. The conditions in the countryside and the poverty in China were eye-opening. He’s returned to China many times since then, and the economic growth is amazing, although the political situation is different.
In contrast, North Korea hasn’t changed much except for more dangerous ballistic missiles and weapons. People suffer in the countryside, and there’s no personal freedom. The advent of the Internet and mobile phones has made a big difference in material wealth. At the same time, the gap between rich and poor has been growing in every country.
Some destinations, especially those with people and stories have deeply impacted him, like Afghanistan, where he’s been 13 times. The idea of visiting a newly independent nation intrigues him.
8. Audrey Walsworth (1934 – ). After having 3 children, she took her first trip at 35, her second at 45 to China and was the first woman to complete all 193 countries (Timor Leste) in 2005. Thirty-seven more trips completed the Travelers Century Club (TCC) list in 2009. She then started repeating places that she had enjoyed for 37 more trips until 2020 when Covid 19 stopped travel.
She often travelled alone and found being a solo woman had advantages. Travel in the 8. 1980s and 1990s was quite different. Security is now worse, planes are full, crowds are common and most countries have become commercialized.
Audrey Walsworth – 193 countries … and 324/325 on the TCC List! – GlobalGaz
9. Frank W. Grosse-Oetringhaus(1943- ) From Hamburg, he started travelling at age 15, got a Ph.D. and joined Siemens, a global company, that sent him around the world. His two favourite places are the Dry Valleys of Antarctica (difficult to get to – the M/V Ortelius is the only ship to go there and then you need helicopters. For 3 million years there was no precipitation) and Lake Uyuni in Bolivia at 3660m.
At age 59, in 2002, he retired and started helping small countries access UNESCO WHS lists. The WH list was too complicated with 160 guidelines, so now he only works on the Tentative List because it is simple. About 200 candidates want to go to the list but only about 20 make it – it takes strategy.
In the 1980s, he started making lists based on what tourists are interested in – relevant, objective highlights, the real stuff. There are 1500 categories each with 3 top positions, making 4500, each unique with a rationale why it is on the list – 1000 Mega highlights (superlative on a global scale), 2000 Top highlights and 2000 Normal highlights.
10. André Brugiroux, Described as the Marco Polo of modern times”, at 17, he left Paris with 10 francs in his pocket to tour the world: not as a tourist, but rather as a student of mankind. He speaks five languages. He prefers hitchhiking on every conceivable type of transportation, living usually on a dollar a day for six years, and rarely uses hotels or taxis. He wrote the book “One People, One Planet” and made a film of the Odyssey. He became Baha’i, dedicated to the unity of the human race. In 2004, after 50 years, he finally visited his last territory: Mustang in the Himalayas). “Alone is travel, a couple is a holiday and more is a convention”.
11. Dervla Murphy (1932-2022). On her tenth birthday, she got a second-hand bike and an atlas and thought she could bike to India. She started her long treks at 31 – 4,500 miles from Ireland to Delhi (“Full Tilt”, her first and most famous book), 1,300 miles through the Andes and trips to southern Africa, Madagascar, Cuba, and the Middle East. Her copious diaries grew into 26 books.
She preferred an Armstrong Cadet man’s bike but used a mule in Ethiopia, or occasionally buses. She travelled alone. Why shouldn’t a woman go where she pleased, embracing an unplanned life? She carried a .25 pistol in the pocket of her slacks and used it. Many who met her in the world’s wilder places assumed that she was a man – she was tall, deep-voiced, well-muscled, and could drink like a man, beer being her staple, and preferred to do her research in bars, pubs, and teahouses or at village gatherings. Those were the people she wanted to mix with, ordinary folk. The major conclusion was that wherever you went in this fractious world, people were essentially the same and had to be treated with simple (socialist) fairness.
The more remote the place, the more she was drawn there. Afghanistan on a bike became her special love. She felt she might have stayed forever in the Hindu Kush, living in the sanity of backwardness. She disliked Western ways. Strong political feelings led her to live in squalid, disease-ridden camps among refugees from Tibet and Palestine, becoming a campaigner for them. She travelled among victims of Aids and genocide in Africa.
In old age and subsisting mostly on beer, her regrets were few. She wished she had visited Tibet before the Chinese took over, and wished that remote places might be allowed to stay that way. Mass tourism, motor roads, expanding markets, and capitalism itself, were all near hell to her. Each mobile phone announced the end of a sealed and precious culture.
12. Harry Mitsidis. Born in 1972 in Greece and now living in London, he completed his 193 at age 36 in 2008. He required a website to track travel and started The Best Traveled in 2012. In 2018, the Series was added, and the site was renamed Nomad Mania. The Series has grown to here 62,000 sights in about 60 categories. In 2020, the regions were increased from 1281 to 1301. Links to blogs and specific categories are frequently added making it the ultimate travel guide.
Nomad Mania developed a verification system that has become the standard. It is spectacularly organized and every statistical category is available. As of May 2024, Harry led the world in regions with 1284/1301. He perpetually leads the Posted Trips category. He has also organized NM trips to several countries: Oceana, Somalia, Mali, and Niger.
Harry was the third person to visit every country twice.
13. Graham Hughes. In 2009, this 33-year-old British man was the first person to visit all 201 countries (193 UN members plus Taiwan, Vatican City, Palestine, Kosovo, Western Sahara, and the four home nations of The United Kingdom) without using a plane. He used buses, taxis, trains, and longer-haul voyages mostly by hitching lifts on cargo ships and his own two feet to travel 160,000 miles in exactly 1,426 days – all on a shoestring of just $100 a week. The epic journey began in his hometown of Liverpool on New Year’s Day 2009 and ended in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, which did not even exist when he set off.
North Korea, Iraq, and Afghanistan were the easy ones – far tougher were getting to tiny island nations like Nauru, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the Maldives, and the Seychelles where there were sometimes pirate threats.
“I love to travel, and I guess my reason for doing it was I wanted to see if this could be done, by one person travelling on a shoestring. I think I also wanted to show that the world is not some big, scary place, but in fact, is full of people who want to help you even if you are a stranger.” He raised money for the charity WaterAid.
This however was a “broken up” journey in the sense that he flew home a few times and then restarted his journey, in contradistinction to Torbjørn Pedersen (see below) whose journey was unbroken.
14. Torbjørn Pedersen (aka Thor, he called the project ‘Once Upon a Saga’) has finished his quest to visit 203 countries in an unbroken journey without flying. He has spent at least 24 hours in each country, with an average time of 17 days. Although initially planned to take 4 years, this took him almost 10 years, due to unforeseen challenges such as visa issues, political unrest, and the COVID-19 pandemic. During the adventure, he got married and saw his goal slip beyond his grasp due to pandemic travel restrictions when he spent three years in Hong Kong.
How does it feel to reach your goal after 10 years? I wish I could say it feels amazing, but the reality is that I’ve become rather robotic over the years given the intense workload and stress. Furthermore, I’ve hardly had a moment to myself since reaching the Maldives so there has been no real reflection. I still feel like I’m “in it” and it might not change until I join the ship back to Europe or sometime after setting foot back home in Denmark. I’m proud that I’ve made it and grateful for all the attention I’m currently facing.
What was the biggest challenge you faced during your journey besides COVID-19? I would have to say entering Equatorial Guinea. I visited 5-6 EG embassies/consulates across several countries and was treated with much disrespect by authorities. All without flying and while navigating countless checkpoints. After three months I finally succeeded in getting the visa only to discover that the borders were now closed. A “no one in and no one out” policy from EG. I desperately looked for solutions during my 30-day window to enter EG before the hard-earned visa expired. On day 27, with 3 days left on my visa, I met a French expat who could help me across the border of EG. I stayed two nights in what became country no. 100 after four months of intense effort to enter.
LOW PASSPORT INDEX (LPI)
The Low Passport Index (LPI) ranks travellers who travel on passports with few visa-free countries. Using the Henley Passport Index Ranking, only travellers from countries with access to fewer than 95 of the 227 territories are considered. Dual nationals are not considered and those with a passport from a HIgher Passport Index country should declare that. However, NM has no way of knowing that.
TRAVELERS WITH DISABILITIES
1. Houston Vandergriff. Houston has Down’s syndrome and has been to 25 countries, 49 U.S. states and all Tennessee counties. He is an avid photographer.
2. Renee Bruns. She only gets around using a wheelchair and sees the world differently. To navigate all 193 UN countries for a person with two legs is a daunting task and she is trying to achieve it with her disability. She is a former Fortune 500 executive turned vagabond and on a sabbatical to travel.
3. Slaven Škrobot. Slaven is a quadriplegic who must use a wheelchair. He travels to educate, encourage, motivate and inspire people to dare to follow and live their dreams. He travels to exotic destinations outside the routes provided for people with disabilities breaking down all barriers and stereotypes. Some of his achievements so far: – The first person in the world in a wheelchair who climbed up to the Monastery in Petra; – The first person in the world in a wheelchair who climbed Mount Sinai in Egypt; – Handcycled 3,500 km from Savudrija (HR) to Istanbul (TR) to gather money for four adaptive bikes; – Traveler of the year for 2022 in Croatia; – The best travel project for 2022 in Croatia; – The first person in the world in a wheelchair to climb Pidurangal in Sri Lanka.
4. Tony Giles. From England, Tony has been blind in both eyes from birth and partially deaf in both ears since age 5. He uses a white cane and digital hearing aids to communicate. He has been travelling alone and independently since age 19 and has visited all 7 continents, all 50 U.S. states, 10 Canadian territories and every country in Europe and South America. He bungee jumps, skydives and sea kayaks. He has published three eBooks. In 2024 he had been to 130 countries, 487 NM regions and 158 UN territories.
5. Eric Weihenmayer. Weihenmayer has climbed the highest mountain on every continent, kayaked the length of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, scaled the notorious “Nose” route of El Capitan in Yosemite and completed some of the world’s most gruelling races. He skis, rafts, ice climbs, mountain bikes, surfs and paraglides. His accomplishments would be jaw-dropping even if he could see. But Weihenmayer is completely blind.
Weihenmayer was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and started losing his sight as an infant, suffering from an inherited condition, juvenile retinoschisis, that causes slow disintegration of the retinas. When 14, he realized he couldn’t see enough to take a step. Unable to play football or basketball, he joined the high school wrestling team and excelled. Wrestling was mostly about feel – something that was also true of climbing where he scans his hands across the rock face like a grid,
He started to love hiking after discovering trekking poles. In 1995 he ascended Denali in Alaska, the highest mountain in North America. It took him six years of training to attempt the Grand Canyon in a kayak, He keeps in contact with his guide via a radio mounted on his helmet. Paragliding relies on a hanging bell that rings when it touches the ground below him. When he skis he follows a guide who wears a speaker on his back to amplify directions. When ice-climbing, he uses the ice axe to “scan” the ice by tapping it to feel the vibration through the ice to determine its density.
He earns most of his money as a motivational speaker. He has had a hip replaced.
He may be the world’s greatest adventurer.
I met him in about 1996. It was 5 am and he was behind us in a queue to obtain the permit and camping spot at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We chatted for an hour but I had no idea of his accomplishments.
CANADIANS WITH 193
Nomad Mania Member verified for UN countries, but not regions
1. Eric Abtan. (417 regions). Born in 1973, done at age 43 in 2016 (Nauru)
2. Daniel Walker. (969 regions). Born in 1941 in Victoria, done at age 66 in 2007 (Mongolia). He is listed in Costa Rica (#1) where he has lived since 1991. He has 969 NM regions and would be #1 in Canada if he listed himself as a Canadian. He did a lot of his travel in his Rolls Royce.
3. Ernestine Chan. (570 regions) Born in Hong Kong in 1971, from Vancouver, she finished at age 52 in 2023. Listed under Hong Kong (#1).
Nomad Mania Member non-verified
4. Horace Tong. (307 regions). Born in 1986, from Vancouver, done at age 35 in 2021 (Guinea-Bissau)
Travellers with Personal Website or Book
5. Ian Boudreault. Born in 1982, done at age 32 (Libya). He wrote the pretentious book “Globetrotter: From Pioneer Digital Nomad to World’s Most Traveled Man” (2021) and described himself as “the Christopher Columbus of the 2000s”. His second book is “The World’s Most Traveled Man’s Top 60 Travel Tips: For the Seasonal Traveler to the Full-time Digital Nomad” (2021). He travelled for 20 years, 17 as a digital nomad living in many countries.
6. Mike Spencer Bown. Born in 1966, from Calgary, and done at age 47 in 2013 (Ireland), he wrote a pretentious book called “The World’s Greatest Traveler”. When asked how many counties there are in the world, he says “It’s open to debate”, possibly implying that he hasn’t been to all 193. He joined Nomad Mania in 2020 where he was #129 on the Master List and then promptly removed himself from the site
7. Stephen Fenech. Born in 1968, from Toronto, he completed with Nauru at age 55 in 2023. He works full-time in the television industry but spends much time travelling. He has visited every country as a photojournalist and award-winning filmmaker. His documentary Chad Exodus won various prizes in several festivals, His travel book, “Earth: Been There Done That Got the T-shirt, Book One: The Big Kahuna” was published in 2016. It highlights a three-year trip around the planet. Its follow-up: “Book Two: Missing Pieces to the Global Puzzle” was published in 2017.
Travellers With a Media Reference
8. Bruno Rodi. Born in 1954 in Italy, his family immigrated to Quebec in 1960. He started travel in 2000 and finished in 2018 (Saudi Arabia) at age 64. In an article in La Presse, he also claims to have seen every territory, dependency and World Heritage Site in the World – 1,071 at the time! That is hard to believe. He has also climbed the seven highest peaks on each continent (including Mount Everest), been to the seven lowest points on the planet, the wonders of the ancient and contemporary world and has been to both poles on skis. He also cycled the Tour de France and rode the Dakar Rally. He at least admits to only being “the greatest traveller living in Quebec”.
He wrote the book “Globe-trotter des extrêmes” with the author Sonia Sarfati, His son Jason has produced two films about adventure including Bruno (Everest & Bouvet Island). He owns the Montreal bike-sharing company Bixi.
I find it interesting that these four Canadians, all supposedly with 193 (none are members of Nomad Mania or verified) have all written books stating or implying they are the most travelled people in the world. Curiously, the only books I have seen with the “most travelled man in the world” moniker are all by Canadians.
There are likely many travellers on Nomad Mania who have travelled more than Mr. Boudreault, Bown, and Fenech. Mike Spencer Bown joined NM in 2020 but then removed himself, he was #129. Admittedly Mr Fenech doesn’t say he is the world’s biggest traveller, but he needed two books titled Earth: Been There Done That Got the Tshirt to list all his destinations and experiences.
Mr. Rodi only claims to be the most travelled Quebecois but when you read what he has done – 193, every UN territory and dependency (wow!), all 1071 World Heritage Sites (wow, easily #1 in the world, especially as about 40 are either impossible or very difficult), every Wonder of the World, skied to both poles (wow!), the Seven Summits (wow! three attempts to finally climb Everest, two attempts to climb Denali), Tour de France, Dakar rally, on and on – he may be the most travelled person in the world.
I wish these guys would prove what they have done. I don’t understand why they have not entered their Nomad Mania regions. It would also be nice to see WHS and series items. Then they should undergo verification and prove what they have done, not just make assertions in books.
I believe the issue with not joining NM is that the ranking is by region. If their travel was not orientated to seeing regions, their region count is probably low and thus they are relatively low on the master list of Nomad Mania – not something the “World’s Greatest Traveler” wants to see. I don’t think Mr Rodi cares about any ranking or publicity.
Very Close (regions as of Sept 2024)
9. Ron Perrier. (939 regions #1 Canada). Born 1952. UN 192 (Tuvalu). Verified for UN, NM regions, Supreme Verification, World Heritage Sites and The Biggest Traveler.
10. Tom Wong, (562 regions). Born 1957. UN 192 (N Korea). UN verified.
11. Dillon De Coteau. (250 regions). Born 1969. UN 192. Listed under Trinidad and Tobago (#1). UN Verified.
12. Brad Xuan. (580 regions). Born 1975. UN 192 (N Korea). Listed under China (#6)
11. Michael Graziano. (414 regions). Born 1989. UN 190. He suddenly appeared a few years ago when he posted 193 countries and 859 regions (one more than Stewart Sheppard, #1 in Canada at the time). His listing now is 190 countries and 414 regions and in the Master Ranking is listed as having transited some countries.
11. An Xian Ni. (744 regions). Born 1966, UN 189. Listed under China (#2)
12. Ian Tremblay. Born?, UN 189
13. Masha Glanville. (596 regions) Born 1962. UN 187. Their website is dancingpandas.com which is heavily monetized.
14. Robert Glanville. (541 regions). Born 1964. UN 186. Listed under Canada but also with a US passport.
15. Ammon Watkins (710 regions). Born 1980. UN 175. Presently #3 in Canada in NM. If anyone ever passes me in Canada, I predict it will be Ammon. Verified for UN and NM regions.