Sophia Lee took her first solo journey at age 13 and fell in love with traveling immediately — and now she’s 9 international locations away from changing into the youngest particular person to go to every country on this planet.
She had no thought again then that visiting Costa Rica would result in a journey that might take her to virtually every UN-recognized country or territory.
But Lee, now aged 20, is near beating the file presently held by Lexie Alford, who visited the total checklist of locations in 2019, aged 21 years and 177 days.
While her journey hasn’t all the time been clean crusing, Lee — who traveled repeatedly since age 17 — is grateful to have been in a position to trek throughout the globe earlier than being sufficiently old to legally drink alcohol again residence in Alaska.
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“I think that building that self-confidence at a young age and going to these destinations and meeting with people from other cultures and backgrounds is really one of the best experiences you can have as a young person,” Lee informed NCS Travel.
Looking again to her journey to Central American vacation spot Costa Rica seven years in the past, Lee explains that she needed to get written permission from her dad and mom to fly alone in 2019, which marked her first time leaving the United States.
Lee stated she wasn’t nervous about that first solo journey since she comes from a household of globetrotters. Her grandparents labored for US authorities volunteer program Peace Corps and seeing and listening to of their experiences when she was younger inspired her on her personal travels.
As she made her manner by Nosara in Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula, taking in its seashores and jungles, Lee, who stated she struggled with social nervousness as a toddler, may really feel her confidence rising as she was compelled to determine issues out for herself.
While she went by the journey with out incident, she remembers being taken by further safety steps on the airport in Costa Rica earlier than boarding her return flight residence.
“I think they were concerned that I was running away or something like that,” Lee stated. “Or they weren’t sure what I was doing traveling solo.”
From that time on, she was decided to search out methods to journey the world. After coaching to be a yoga teacher that very same yr, Lee took every alternative she may to go to completely different international locations, together with Egypt and Ecuador, typically educating yoga or serving to with social media accounts in trade for room and board.
Because she was homeschooled, she had extra flexibility than different college students to suit travels round her schoolwork.
When she graduated from highschool early at age 16, Lee contemplated movie college, however there was one factor she wished to do extra – maintain transferring.
After studying of Alford’s world file and realizing that she was younger sufficient to problem it, Lee flirted with the concept for some time, however admits that she “didn’t really think it was possible.” She stored traveling, volunteering with wildlife sanctuaries and colleges, earlier than realizing that if she was ever going to try it, it was now or by no means.
Lee bought in contact with Guinness World Records and started the formal registration course of. She needed to agree to stick to strict necessities, together with traveling with a monitoring system and submitting GPS recordsdata.
Lee was additionally required to finish the journey on public transportation, in addition to revisit the 50 or so international locations she’d already traveled to. Once she’d been accepted, Lee started planning for the journey of a lifetime.
Although she technically began the problem in 2023, on the age of 17, Lee explains that it was initially derailed by a “family situation” that necessitated a pause.
In 2024, Lee set off for the second time and has been traveling regularly ever since.
“I went three years without seeing some of my family, and it’s been a year since I’ve seen my parents,” she stated, including that her sister often flies out to go to her in simply accessible locations.
Lee started the file try in Europe, traveling to the United Kingdom, earlier than heading to Sweden, and then on to Finland and Estonia by ferry. She discovered Europe to be each the best and most reasonably priced area to navigate on price range. From Europe, she continued on to Asia and the Middle East.
At the beginning of her journey, Lee lived on an “extreme budget” of $100 per country, continuously taking in a single day buses to save lots of on lodging prices. However, as her story gained consideration, she picked up sponsorships and model partnerships, easing her monetary pressure.
Over the previous two years, she’s visited 186 international locations and territories, together with Iran, Vietnam, Libya and Albania. While there’s debate round what constitutes a real “visit,” Lee defines it as visiting a country and meaningfully experiencing one thing — whether or not talking with locals, attempting native meals or visiting outstanding cultural websites.
“Ideally, honestly, I think that at least a week in the country is a fair amount of time to count it as a visit,” she says.
Lee has stayed in a variety of lodging, from $5 an evening hostels in South America to a $1,000-plus-a-night luxurious lodge in Bhutan — a vacation spot she discovered troublesome to enter resulting from visa restrictions.
The journey has been full of highlights, however a standout second was a go to to Uganda in February 2025, the place her grandfather flew out to affix her. The pair visited the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, an historical jungle residence to roughly half of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas.
“I think that was one of the most magical experiences, especially getting to go with him,” she stated.
One of her hardest journeys was a go to to Somalia earlier this yr, the place she was required to have a safety escort together with her always. The US Department of State presently maintains a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” advisory for the country, warning of kidnapping, terrorism and violent crime. She confronted comparable constraints in Turkmenistan, a central Asian nation bordered by Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, the place US residents are required to e book a guided tour.
Lee is presently ready for visa approval on a number of the ultimate international locations on her checklist, together with African international locations resembling Sudan, the place a devastating battle has displaced thousands and thousands of individuals over the previous three years.
While she’s loved her travels, Lee has skilled many difficult moments, throughout a go to to Congo in April she turned very in poor health and thought of returning residence. Her dedication to interrupt the world file stored her going.
Lee has been chronicling her journey on her Instagram web page Sophia Lee Travels. Her followers typically ask in regards to the complexities of solo feminine journey. While Lee admits that she was naive to start with, she stresses that she’s primarily encountered “good-hearted people” alongside the way in which.
“I think there’s definitely been times when I’ve been in unsafe situations unfortunately,” Lee stated, acknowledging the realities of journey in international locations with excessive crime charges and completely different cultural values.
Because of her distinctive life-style, Lee admits she doesn’t have many buddies her personal age —the general public she’s related with on the street are significantly older.
“I’ve not spent a lot of time with my peers, which is hard for a lot of people to understand,” she stated, noting that the majority of her traveler buddies are aged between 30 and 80 years outdated. “But most of my teenage years, I spent around adults or older people, just based on my travels and the places I was visiting.”
Although she’s spent the previous couple of years residing a life many dream of, Lee concedes it has left her with no actual sense of residence or neighborhood. She says she typically contemplates the childhood and teenage experiences she’s missed out on.
Being always on the transfer for such an extended interval has additionally proved to be bodily, and maybe mentally, exhausting for Lee, who says she’s trying ahead to a relaxation after well being points.
Of the nearly 200 international locations she has visited, Lee has one clear favourite: India. She has returned 5 instances since her first go to in 2022, citing the country’s immense pure, cultural and non secular range.
“You can go from the Himalayas to the ocean, to some of the busiest cities, and then some of the most remote and isolated places,” she stated, describing the hospitality within the country as “unlike anywhere else.”
She was additionally taken with Haiti, admitting that she was nervous to go to the Caribbean country however discovered herself enthralled by its pure magnificence and welcoming individuals.
If all goes to plan, she’ll attain Venezuela, the ultimate country on her checklist, in August — though it was unclear how the extreme earthquakes that struck the country on June 24 will have an effect on her upcoming go to.
Lee is properly conscious that information are made to be damaged, and even when she’s in a position to declare the title of the youngest particular person to journey to every country on this planet, her feat could not stand for lengthy.
“I think that’s the great thing about a record,” she says. “More people can challenge it and take it on. And honestly, that’s the gift in it.”
She hopes that her story will encourage younger individuals to step exterior their consolation zone and journey to “less explored” locations that they may not have beforehand thought of.
“Those are really where you’re going to have experiences that are unlike anywhere else in the world,” she says.
For Lee, traveling the world and navigating the language and cultural limitations of solo feminine journey taught her to belief herself, increase a useful degree of resilience and confidence that “you can’t get from anything else.”
As the tip of her journey attracts close to, she’s typically requested what she plans to do subsequent, however she remains to be not totally certain what life will appear like when she’s lastly in a position to keep in a single place.
“A lot of people are like, ‘You must be so excited,’” Lee stated. “And there’s definitely a part of me that’s excited. And also a part of me that’s sad to be done.”
After spending so a lot of her teenage years dreaming of and working in the direction of this single objective, she finds it troublesome to ponder life afterward. Lee hopes to proceed producing content material, sharing tales from her travels and collaborating with non-governmental organizations and charities.
Ultimately, Lee’s principal goal is easy: to discover a base someplace on this planet that she will be able to name residence.
“Living out of a suitcase for seven years has been fun,” she stated. “But I’m looking forward to having more of a stable setting and being able to make friends and kind of build my own life in one location.”