1. TRAVEL WITHOUT FLYING
a. 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. 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.
Unfortunately, Graham’s amazing journey has been denigrated by some as he flew home and returned to the departing country twice.
b. Torbjørn Pedersen (aka Thor, he called the project ‘Once Upon a Saga’) finished his quest to visit 203 countries in May 2023 in an unbroken journey without flying. He 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.
He had three cardinal rules: absolutely no flying, staying in each country for a minimum of 24 hours, and no returning home until visiting the final country. The three semi-mandatory sub-rules: not paying any bribes, sticking to a budget of roughly $20 a day, and never eating at McDonalds.
Pedersen set off in October 2013 when the iPhone 5 was the latest model being marketed. He took more than 300 long-distance buses, over 200 trains, 40 container ships, shared motorcycle taxis, and a high-performance yacht, sometimes having to backtrack due to illness, visa delays, or conflict.
“I depleted my personal funds, sold some possessions, and took out two loans. A few years in, I found that what used to be 1% work and 99% fun had turned to 99% work.” His three cardinal rules seemed innocent at first but created a mental prison for him as the years went on. “Four years turned to five, then six, then seven, and then a global pandemic broke out when I was just missing nine more countries. I finally reached the last country and returned home after nearly a decade. You’d have to be a certifiable nutcase to do a thing like that,” Pedersen says. His now-wife came to visit him 27 times.
The most complicated was the Panama-Colombia border, Saudi Arabia would not accept overland travel and entering Equatorial Guinea required visiting 5-6 EG embassies and the borders closed during Covid. Besides the usual 195, he also went to Kosovo, Western Sahara, and Taiwan.
2. YOUNGEST TO 193
a. Henrik Jeppersen, From Denmark, In 2016, at 27 years old, he became the youngest to see all 193 (Eritrea), and 30 when he finished all FIFA countries. He travels alone, very light and low-cost – staying with local people, getting hotels and flights sponsored, hitchhiking (done more than 1,000 times), avoiding restaurants and instead buying food at supermarkets, and using low-cost airlines or buses.
Most difficult travel – Africa with bad infrastructure, pollution, dusty roads, corruption and safety concerns. Founder of Everywhere in the World, a website about travellers with interviews and stats.
b. Lexie Alford. She became the Guinness World Record youngest person to travel to every country at 21 years and 177 days old when she arrived in the final country, Mozambique, on 4 October 2019. Earlier this year, in partnership with Ford Motor Company, became the first person to circumnavigate the globe in an electric vehicle.
c. Taylor Demonbreun also states that she is the current Guinness World Record youngest person to travel to every sovereign nation.
She has four Guinness World Records to her name, including a prized certificate for the fastest time to visit all sovereign nations, having ticked 196 countries off her list within 1 year and 189 days. Taylor Demonbreun
Her blog lists her last country as #109 Bahrain in 2019. Guinness says she finished 195 in Canada on Dec 18, 2018. I find her very confusing, Guinness states the youngest person is Lexie Alford. Her blog is very incomplete and dated in a weird way.
d. Anderson Diaz. #183 Brazil-born 1993. Finished age 26 in 2019 (Cabo Verde) but is listed in NM as Transited Only for Some Countries.
e. Cassie De Pecol. #181 US-born 1989. Finished age 27 in 2017 (Yemen) but is listed in NM as Transited Only for Some Countries.
Three years ago, this young woman traveller claimed to be the first woman to do all the countries in the world, disregarding Audrey Walsworth and other notable women who achieved the feat before her. She became well known in EPS with her claim to be the first woman in the world to travel to every country and was very good at self-promotion. She was very defensive and snarky and has been shown to have transited some countries (claimed Syria from the Golan Heights, and stepped over the line into North Korea in the negotiation building at the DMZ).
The consumer watchdog Traveler’s United sued her for deceiving her brand partners and followers about being the first woman to visit every country (the case is ongoing). “De Pecol has amassed this audience by repeatedly making fraudulent claims.”
Travel influencer Cassie De Pocol subject of lawsuit – Airportoairport
Nina Sedano – 193 countries … and one of the few women to accomplish this goal – GlobalGaz
4. FASTEST TO 193 All transited some countries
a. Taylor Demonbreun has the Guinness World Record fastest time to visit all sovereign nations – 1 year and 189 days. “My name is Taylor, and as of December 7, 2018, I officially finished my attempt to travel to all 196 sovereign countries worldwide. I am now verified as the Guinness World Record Holder for the Youngest and Fastest person overall, as well as the Youngest and Fastest female, to visit every country in the world. (see above)
b. Anderson Diaz. 26 years old from Brazil – 543 days
c. Cassandra De Pecol. 28 years old from Connecticut – 558 days (1 year and 194 days).
5. SEE EVERY COUNTRY TWICE
a. Gunnar Garfors. A 44-year-old Norwegian, he was the first person to visit every country in the world twice. “I’ve been to every country, but I have not been to every place and there are always new villages, new mountains, new activities, new or old things to see for the first time or again,”
Garfors has written several travel books published in multiple languages, including “Elsewhere,” which recounts his experiences in the world’s least visited countries. He also currently has 11 travel-related world records. “We set the world record of visiting 22 U.S. states in 24 hours and 19 countries in 24 hours. Garfors acknowledges the perceived insanity of this type of extreme travel. “You go all in on what is essentially a hobby; it’s certainly unusual,” he says. “Then again, if people call me weird or crazy it always beats being called normal. That would be the worst to be told.”
One of his travel tips described as incredible is he always travels with a small paper notepad to help bypass language barriers. “I was in Iran once and nobody spoke English so we couldn’t order in a restaurant so I drew a sheep and a cow and that’s what we got.” Iran, Sudan, and Ireland are the countries Garfors found to have the warmest locals.
Travel has given him an education in the world but also himself. “Seeing yourself from the outside really opened my eyes. In Kiribati, for instance, [I met people who] haven’t even heard about Norway or Europe and it does kind of hit you in the face that you’re not the center of the universe,” he explains. “If travel doesn’t humble you, I don’t think anything will.”
Garfors finds it perplexing that some people within the country-counting community aren’t entirely honest about their travel conquests. “Quite a few people are lying or are unable to prove that they’ve been places,” he said. “A lot of them they go to airports and they say ‘oh, I’ve been to a country’ or they go the demilitarized zone between South Korea and North Korea where you don’t get to see anything or talk to anybody.” Garfors prefers to mingle with competitive travellers in forums, Facebook groups, and at extreme travel conferences. “It’s always good to be able to play ball with someone else as crazy as you are,” he says. Research for Garfors’ latest book about the 13 countries on the equator took him back to the Maldives.
• In the second week of May 2024, I met two people who had both met Gunnar, claiming to be friends. As soon as I mentioned travel, they immediately said they knew this famous traveller, Gunnar Garfors. One was a teacher I met in the Truro Hospital (in SE England) where I waited for 4 hours in the Emergency to see a Dr. The second was a young Polish woman at Starbucks at the Abu Dhabi Airport. I showed them Gunnars Nomad Mania profile and his map as of May 2024.
Master Ranking #352 NM 536/1301, DARE 4/1331, UN 193 UN+ 217/265 TCC 233/330 WHS 0, TBT not ranked. He is #4 in Norway. His NM Map is rather anemic. He is verified only for UN countries.
Here is my Nomad Mania profile:
Master Ranking 41, NM 939/1301, DARE 190, UN 192 UN+ 219 TCC 261 WHS 896 TBT 11. I am #1 in Canada. I have been verified 6 times – UN countries, NM regions, Supreme Verification, WHS and TBT (verifies series items). I have been to almost 18,000 Series sites (2nd in the world). I couldn’t find any series ranking for Gunnar.
There is no doubt that Gunnar has travelled a lot and must get a lot of self-satisfaction from his accomplishments. He has written 7 books and appears to be very good at self-promotion, I beat him in almost every category but nobody knows anything about me. I rarely post trips on Facebook and am very poor at self-promotion.
b. Slawek Muturi. From Warsaw, Poland, he has also been to every country twice. He is half-Polish, half-Kenyan, 57, and works in residential real estate. He speaks 11 foreign languages. Likewise, his NM statistics (June 2024) are OK and certainly better than Gunnar’s. – 116 on the NM Master list and #4 in Poland, NM1301 – 720, DARE – 1, UN territories – 242, TCC – 267, MTP – 709, WHS none recorded. TBT – no ranking.
c. Harry Mitsidis. Born in 1972 in Greece and now living in London, Harry is the founder (and #1 traveller) of The Best Traveled in 2012. He had completed his 193 at age 36 in 2008 and his second in 2024.
As of June 2024, Harry’s stats were Region 1284/1301, DARE 362/1331, UN+ 264/265, WHS 736/1199, TCC 325/330, TBT #1. Harry’s stats are very impressive. He perpetually leads the Posted Trips category.
