Who is the World’s Most Traveled Man?
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 09.26.05 | 4:13 AM ET
John Flinn tries to get to the bottom of the question in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle, and he emerges with a bit of a Clintonian take on the matter. “It all comes down to whether you consider an ice-covered rock in the middle of the South Atlantic a country,” he writes. “Or whether the Cook Islands are one island group or two. Or whether Mustang is a unique and distinct place, rather than just another region of Nepal.”
The main players in the debate are two Bay Area men, Jeff Shea and Charles Veley, who both claim the title of the World’s Most Traveled Man. Each of them go to extraordinary lengths in order to collect countries, but Flinn asks: Is this really a meaningful sort of travel? “Veley’s astounding harvest of 518 countries in five years works out to an average of 3.5 days per country,” Flinn writes. “Factor in travel time and the occasional stop back in San Francisco, and there isn’t a whole lot of time to get to know these places.”
Shea agrees that Veley’s methods lack depth: “It’s nothing more than stepping off an airplane and getting right back on,” he says. “In my book, that’s not travel. The only people who might be impressed by something like this is people who haven’t traveled much.” Jen over at Written Road has another take on the lightning speed of the travelers: “That doesn’t even sound exhausting,” she writes, “it’s numbing.”
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
isaac molina 10.21.05 | 7:36 PM ET
No, the race has just started!
Now there is Bill Altaffer (from California) the number one. He has travelled more than Charles Veley and Jeff Shea.
See mosttravelledpeople.com for the last news.
(I am also in that club, but at the top bottom!)
Cheers
Isaac
Laura 06.06.06 | 4:46 PM ET
Umm arnt there 192 countries? (193)... also… why are all of these types or articles titled “most traveled man”... it is as though woman travelers are discounted and not allowed to be on such a list?
Isaac Molina 06.18.06 | 5:07 AM ET
Hi Laura, Yes, now, with Montenegro, there are 193 countries in the UN, but they also count big islands and overseas territories, such as Greenland, Guam, Antarctica, etc.
Now the club is called Most Traveled People which include men and women.
Mike Ramirez 12.04.06 | 9:25 PM ET
You’ve probably heard or read about me in the newspapers or seen
me on TV. I’ve been featured on different channels showing video footage
from all over the world. My name is Mike
Ramirez, the youngest most traveled backpacker, 101 countries, 7 continents & 52 ski resorts by age 32. All in 8 years that was the proper way to travel.
I have movie star looks and a body to die for, (just ask my girlfriends)and I
was thinking about putting a show together on TV about traveling to every
country in the world and how it’s done
properly. What we need is sponsors so keep your ears and eyes open.
john 05.22.07 | 10:44 PM ET
Bill Altaffer is not number 1 anymore
bill grimes 02.12.08 | 3:57 PM ET
check jorgesanchez.org and the Travelers Exploits Club for real deal
Isaac Molina 02.19.08 | 6:40 AM ET
You are right, bill grimes. I take my hat off to Bill Altaffer
According to that list, Bill is the only member with the higher title of Grand Connoisseur, with 159 out of 200 exploits (cultural, sporting, adventures, meeting exotic tribes, travelling on the Tran Siberian Train, etc.), while Charles Veley has only got 85 exploits (with the category of Remarkable) in that same list.
Thanks for the link.
Françoisfench 04.20.08 | 10:42 AM ET
Its clear, The number one is ANDRÉ BRUGIROUX. check his website
http://andre.brugiroux.free.fr/
50 years of Travel !! non-stop !
bill grimes 04.20.08 | 12:42 PM ET
I noticed Jeff Sheas ISIO list puts Bill Altaffer at the top of that mostextensive list. Herb Goebels travels constantly fro m Germany as a tour mgr. He speeds unlimited times over and over again aroung the world.
Lori 11.20.08 | 7:58 PM ET
This is just the kind of traveler I dread meeting or planning travel for (I manage expeditions by small ship). These are the people who don’t go to have their souls moved, their reality shifted, their worldview expanded. They go to collect, to check off another item on their list and to pride themselves on a meaningless list. When the century club people call me to book Antarctic travel, they don’t want to know about the profound silence, the teeming wildlife. They want a gurantee that they will set foot on the continent. They bore me, and strike me as shallow, competitive and unimaginative.
I’m the kind of traveler who went to India intending to stay 3 weeks, winding up wandering this amazing country for 9 months. I lived in Central Africa for year. I spent 6 months in South East Asia. Not to mention I’ve been all over South America, Antarctica, the Arctic, the South Pacific and so on. And even if I hadn’t been to so many places, I am a hundred times more traveled than the people tallying up their nations because I have taken the time to try and experience the places I visit from within. To slow down to the speed of life where I am. To be a fish out of water, but to at least swim in that water instead of merely dipping in my big toe and saying “There! Where’s the next pond?”.