The advice you should follow from the youngest person to know all the countries in the world

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(CNN Spanish) - Lexie Alford is anything but a common place, although it is a common place to say that a dream is to know all the countries in the world. Not only did she achieve that dream that few people can realize, but she did it before anyone else: she is the youngest person to visit each of the 196 sovereign countries according to the UN.

I am 21 years old.

The dream was formed more or less when he was 12 years old and saw, in Australia, what it meant to be a traveler, the overflowing emotion of knowing the world and living the present without qualms. He accompanied his mother on business trips - the mother created a very young travel agency - and enjoyed his family travel junkie . The first countries Lexie visited were Chile and Argentina and the list began to grow. In his native California, he began working - painting houses in his father's buildings and selling lemonades first, and then training as a travel agent - to save for what seemed an impossible goal.

The dream began to come true at age 18 when he counted how many countries he knew and discovered that the 72 places marked on the map gave him a considerable advantage. Then Google “how old is the youngest person to travel to each country” and there an explosion of enthusiasm and motivation invaded his life: at that time the Guinness record was held by James Asquith, 24 years old and the goal, although difficult, was within the reach of your determined will.

The dream was fulfilled at 21 and 177 days old, on May 31, 2019, when he stepped on North Korean soil. There he began to consolidate the cumbersome documentation he had accumulated for years for Guinness to certify the record: around 7,000 passport documents and visas, photos, videos, air ticket records and testimonials from friends and acquaintances of each of the visits.

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OFFICIALLY TRAVELED TO EVERY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD🌍🤯 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ it's crazy to have years of hard work culminate into one single moment. I'm so grateful to everyone that's helped me get here. The greatest chapter of my life is coming to a close. Cheers to a new beginning 🎉⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Photos by @thomasbrag

A post shared by Lexie Alford (@lexielimitless) on Jun 1, 2019 at 5:27 pm PDT

The dream became official on October 4, 2019, when he returned to Mozambique (Guinness did not validate the 2018 visit because he entered the country in a friend's car instead of in public transport). He met 196 countries. And it did, mostly, alone.

Not everyone could know them as he wanted: from North Korea and Syria, for example, he could only see limited sites due to restrictions for American tourists. He was able to visit them thanks to technicalities: in North Korea he was only able to enter the joint security area of ​​the demilitarized zone on the border with South Korea and in Syria he was in Golan Heights (a territory disputed with Israel). Both places were validated by Guinness World Records. In addition to North Korea and Syria, he had to apply for a visa several times in Venezuela, Pakistan and Turkmenistan, for example.

Not every country says he would return in the near future: Mali, for example, says it is a difficult place for a woman traveling alone, due to instability.

He does not want to break the record of the youngest person to visit all the countries of the world twice, but something is certain: he will continue traveling the rest of his life.

“I am the first to say that I could only see the surface of everything that needs to be explored in the world. I like that one can go to a new place every day for the rest of his life and that the places to visit are not finished, ”he told CNN in Spanish.

"I feel that I have had an overview of the whole world, and I have a very specific list of regions and countries that I want to go to and know deeply."

The best place in Latin America

One of the biggest lessons after 196 countries is that the tiger is not the way they paint it. Very early in his life Lexie Alford realized that the countries that carry stigmas or bad reputation are the ones that are perhaps worth visiting, not only for discovering the other side of those places, but for confirming firsthand that their inhabitants they live lives that go beyond that part of reality that the news shows.

(Credit: Lexie Alford)

So he could reiterate with Venezuela, which was for her his best visit in Latin America.

“I would say that the place that touched my heart most was Venezuela. There has been so much conflict and negative representation of the country in recent years that I was very scared to go, but when I arrived I was amazed by the hospitality and kindness of the Venezuelans I met. Besides, they hadn't told me about natural beauty, ”he told CNN in Spanish.

“I had the opportunity to go to the base of Angel Falls, the highest waterfall in the world. And we had the place for ourselves. So that was probably one of the best experiences I had in South America. ”

Lexie says that Venezuela and Bolivia - like countries like Pakistan - have a lot of potential for tourism, but are still unknown to travelers, biased by news that only shows a portion of reality.

The friendliest people in the world

For Lexie, the least expected countries are those that tend to have the friendliest people on the planet.

“Some of the countries that have less support and resources are the ones that host the friendliest people,” says Lexie, who has a necklace with the map of Africa. That continent is, he confesses, that left him the most important lessons for his life.

“Countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea… are many places (in Africa) where I did not expect to find hospitality, especially towards travelers, and I was very surprised by the kindness you can find even in places in those who do not speak English. ”

They are places that escape the problems of overflowing tourism, places that are worth exploring.

Tips for women traveling alone

Lexie Alford has become a benchmark for young people - particularly women - throughout the world. His feat serves as motivation for many to discover the world and that women can do it without companions and without fear.

Their message for women is that the world is accessible for them to travel, and that they can do it alone.

It is not something less, if you take into account the unfortunate news of women traveling alone and were victims of abuse or murder in different parts of the world. Lexie, who at no time during his visits to Latin America lived a frightening experience, knows that the risks exist and that the key is in good planning, in contacting trustworthy people and in taking simple measures to avoid inconveniences.

(Credit: Lexie Alford)

“I love telling women how to travel safely. My message to young women is that the world is accessible to us; There has never been a better time to see the world for us, because even in the last year there were more women traveling alone than men traveling alone, ”he said. "I want to motivate people and inspire them through my stories to go and experience what it means to be alone in a strange place and teach some of the things that I would have liked to know before my travels."

And for those women who launch themselves in an adventure like this, they have two specific tips: avoid going out alone at night and avoid getting drunk or intoxicated unless they are with a trusted group.

"If you follow those two simple rules, I guarantee you'll have a good experience and you won't have to worry about it."

And one of its main tips for travelers is to use pages like Skyscanner to plan connections, itineraries and calculate the “greener” route, the one that emits less CO2.

Whats Next?

Lexie Alford has just launched its YouTube channel with videos of its learning around the world, and will offer on its website courses on how to travel cheaply, effectively and safely, especially for women. In addition, he will plan to lead group trips - his first destination in 2020 is between Mexico or Colombia - he wants to give more lectures (you can watch his Ted talk here) and conduct TV shows.

He plans to travel for the rest of his life and knows that doing so does not mean crossing out names from a list: for her the countries are not “lines on a map” but an “interconnected tapestry” that flows between regions that “influence each other with different cultures, landscapes and religions ”.

Lexie Alford could already meet everyone, now is the time that everyone can meet her.

Thus, seeing women alone traveling around the world safely will be a common place.

Guinness Records Guinness Record