Youngest Person to Travel Every Country — Lexie Alford

Meet the 21-year-old woman Lexie Alford, the Youngest Person to Travel Every Country.

That’s correct, she claims to have seen 196 countries in 21 years — that’s more than nine states per year! This means she might have smashed the recent Guinness World Record holder — James Asquith — a British man who attained the same record at the age of 24.

Traveling to each one of the world’s 196 autonomous nations is an achievement that Alford has been working on since she had been a child — though she did not understand it at the moment. Alford grew up in a household that owns a travel agency in California. “Travel has been part of my life since before I could recall,” says Alford, who describes herself as @LexieLimitless on Instagram. “My parents would take me out of school and place me on separate study for weeks and months at that time each year.”

Alford claims that her journeys are self-funded. She’s done a few new brand deals and campaigns along the way that helped fund her job, but she has never had an official sponsorship. “I always knew I wanted to take time off to travel I’ve been working every job I could detect and saving since I had been 12-years-old,” says Alford.

The money she saved kept her moving for the first year and a half of her journeys. From that point, she’s been working as a travel consultant in her household’s service when she is at home in Nevada City, California, and also doing photography and blogging while she is traveling and become the Youngest Person to Travel Every Country. “I do a lot of research beforehand to discover the best prices, utilize miles and points for my flights, and stay in economical lodging like hostels or create content for resorts in exchange for lodging,” says Alford. “I’ve also made sure to keep my monthly as low as you can by living at home with my buddy, I still don’t have a car payment or student debt and that I don’t spend my money on unnecessary material possessions”

She declared her visit to the last country on her record on 31 May. Lexie says she has been prompted” to show everyone that the planet is not as frightening as the media portrays it to be that there is kindness anywhere.”

So what’s next? “I am writing a novel about my experiences in every country and the lessons I’ve learned on the way. After finally completing this massive daily life goal, I’ll be taking the upcoming few months to nourish my physical and psychological health as I make plans for the long run “