The short answer? Show
Close to a year and a half if everything goes fine and you just stepped in every country for a short amount of time. But, if you’d like to enjoy every site you visit, every amazing view, every different smell, and enjoy the sunrise of every country on Earth, that time will get closer to… 5 years or more. Let me explain: In this couple of minutes I´ll take you through some very simple things to take into consideration while planning your worldwide trip, like: How much would it take? What are the benefits, aside from the cute Instagrameable places to visit? Did anyone even manage to do this? Let’s start from the beginning: Is it even possible to travel to every country in the world?Generally, yes, but you’d need to have a good passport. If you’re from a country with not such a good passport, it might not be possible. Some countries were better at making friends than others, and this can be reflected in the “power” behind their passport. For example:
And what about the countries that have the worst passport? Well, according to their national relations, these are some that might not help you achieve your goal that easily:
How many countries are there in the world?This is a tricky one, I´ll give you the data from the United Nations, but I´ll come back to it later: There are, at the moment, 195 countries in the world today that have representation on the UN. 193 recognized individual countries and two non-members, which are the Vatican and Palestine. But that’s not the definitive answer. There are 195 recognized countries, but there are a lot of disputes in some of them that elevate the number a little bit further. A country is a physical territory, some land, that has a permanent population in it that can govern itself and form relations with other countries, like trading. Taking that into consideration, we would have to add 54 sovereign countries and around 90 countries that do not have any recognition, or very little recognition, from UN members. And you can go even further including micronations, microstates… But let’s focus on the territories to make it a little simpler. Here are a couple of them:
Estimations on how long would it take to travel to every country in the worldNow that we laid out everything, let’s dream a little. We have to take into consideration travel time and…I’ll be naïve and think that not one single plane will get delayed, nor will we lose any flight and that everything will go as planned. If you were to spend just one day in every country, it would take something like… 195 days (recognized) How long would it take if you were to take it easy? Such as spending between 1 and 2 weeks per country?Well, as I said in the beginning, in this case, I hope you are really dedicated because you can expect to take 4, 5, or up to eight years to visit every country in the world. Quite a long time, but very rewarding as well. Such a trip might also drain your whole bank account unless you are very creative and manage to get a job that you can do online. If not, you can try your luck being very charismatic and hoping to get something to do in every country you step in and fund your next ticket that way like some people already do, and that you may cross paths with if you decide to take off. What are some of the fastest times someone managed to visit all countries in the world?The world is very big, remember that. As I write this, the current holder of the Guinness record of fastest travel between all UN-recognized countries is held by Taylor Demonbreun, she managed to do this at only 22 years. That’s even more impressive! And she needed a total of 554 days to accomplish this. Why is that? Couldn’t she have managed it in less time? Sure, if she had a private plane and the permission of every control tower in the world she might have. But she decided to truly VISIT them all, and not just step in every airport and ruuuuuuuuuuun to the next one. She lived it! She’s the new holder, but she wasn’t the first one. Let me show you who else managed to do this: Thor Pedersen (What a cool name!) is currently stranded in Hong Kong, waiting to continue his journey. What makes it worth mentioning? That he hasn’t stepped on a plane in his whole mission. He’s just 8 countries away from achieving his goal of visiting 203 countries and territories in total, and he has been on it since 2013 and on a budget of only 20 dollars per day. This is his blog if you’d like to see what was it like http://www.onceuponasaga.dk/ Gunnar Garfors was the first person to have visited every country in the world at least twice, and the madman has 10 travel-related world records behind his back. He spent at least a week in every country and recently said that he’s thinking about doing a third way around the planet. And he’s 45, damn, I wish I had that youth. And some weird facts for you:
Pros and Cons of traveling to all countries in the worldPROS:
CONS:
I´ll let you decide if it´s worth it. Is it possible to visit every place in the world?There are currently around 150 known people that have visited every country in the world, but there are sure to be many more. Some notable individuals include: James Asquith – James Asquith holds the Guinness World Record for youngest person ever to visit every country in the world.
How long would it take to travel the whole world?It would take you around 415 hours (a bit more than 17 days) to drive the 24,900 miles around the circumference of the earth if you could drive a car around the earth.
Who has been to every city in the world?One of the world's most traveled people, alumnus William “Bill” Altaffer has visited every country in the world — many not just once, but multiple times. From North Korea to the North Pole, Sweden to the Sahara, Tipperary to Timbuktu, he's seen it all.
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