Sophia Lee took her first solo journey at age 13 and fell in love with touring immediately — and now she’s 9 nations away from changing into the youngest individual to go to each nation on this planet.
She had no concept again then that visiting Costa Rica would result in a journey that will take her to nearly each UN-recognized nation or territory.
But Lee, now aged 20, is near beating the document at the moment 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 dwelling in Alaska.
“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 advised CNN 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 mother and father 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 method by means of Nosara in Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula, taking in its seashores and jungles, Lee, who stated she struggled with social anxiousness as a baby, might really feel her confidence rising as she was pressured to determine issues out for herself.
While she went by means of the journey with out incident, she remembers being taken by means of further safety steps on the airport in Costa Rica earlier than boarding her return flight dwelling.
“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 each alternative she might to go to totally different nations, together with Egypt and Ecuador, generally educating yoga or serving to with social media accounts in change 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 faculty, however there was one factor she wished to do extra – maintain shifting.
After studying of Alford’s world document and realizing that she was younger sufficient to problem it, Lee flirted with the thought for some time, however admits that she “didn’t really think it was possible.” She saved touring, 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 received in contact with Guinness World Records and commenced the formal registration course of. She needed to agree to stick to strict necessities, together with touring 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 nations she’d already traveled to. Once she’d been authorized, 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 touring 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 document try in Europe, touring to the United Kingdom, earlier than heading to Sweden, after which on to Finland and Estonia by ferry. She discovered Europe to be each the simplest and most reasonably priced area to navigate on funds. 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 nation, continuously taking in a single day buses to avoid wasting 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 nations 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 rustic and meaningfully experiencing one thing — whether or not talking with locals, attempting native meals or visiting distinguished 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 tough to enter because of 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 hitch her. The pair visited the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, an historic jungle dwelling 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 along with her always. The US Department of State at the moment maintains a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” advisory for the nation, 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 guide a guided tour.
Lee is at the moment ready for visa approval on a number of the last nations on her checklist, together with African nations resembling Sudan, the place a devastating battle has displaced hundreds of 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 sick and thought of returning dwelling. Her dedication to interrupt the world document saved her going.
Lee has been chronicling her journey on her Instagram web page Sophia Lee Travels. Her followers usually ask concerning the complexities of solo feminine journey. While Lee admits that she was naive at first, 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 nations with excessive crime charges and totally different cultural values.
Because of her distinctive life-style, Lee admits she doesn’t have many pals her personal age —most people 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 almost all of her traveler pals 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 dwelling a life many dream of, Lee concedes it has left her with out a actual sense of dwelling or group. She says she generally contemplates the childhood and teenage experiences she’s missed out on.
Being continually on the transfer for such a protracted 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 practically 200 nations she has visited, Lee has one clear favourite: India. She has returned 5 instances since her first go to in 2022, citing the nation’s immense pure, cultural and spiritual variety.
“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 nation as “unlike anywhere else.”
She was additionally taken with Haiti, admitting that she was nervous to go to the Caribbean nation however discovered herself enthralled by its pure magnificence and welcoming folks.
If all goes to plan, she’ll attain Venezuela, the ultimate nation on her checklist, in August — though it was unclear how the extreme earthquakes that struck the nation on June 24 will have an effect on her upcoming go to.
Lee is nicely conscious that data are made to be damaged, and even when she’s in a position to declare the title of the youngest individual to journey to each nation on this planet, her feat might 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 folks to step exterior their consolation zone and journey to “less explored” locations that they may not have beforehand thought-about.
“Those are really where you’re going to have experiences that are unlike anywhere else in the world,” she says.
For Lee, touring the world and navigating the language and cultural boundaries of solo feminine journey taught her to belief herself, build up 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 usually requested what she plans to do subsequent, however she continues to be not solely positive 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 dealing in the direction of this single purpose, she finds it tough 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 important purpose is easy: to discover a base someplace on this planet that she will name dwelling.
“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.”