Yep, it’s true, I almost travelled to 50 countries before 30. That was my aim, however a little thing called a “Global Pandemic” got in the way and brought overseas adventures to a temporary hold. In the March of 2020, I was newly 29 and had visited 47 countries. I was confident that I’d be able to travel to 3 more countries before the year was out. LOL. We all know how that turned out for me. In the end I went to my 50th country a few months after turning 31.
Rebrand: 50 countries by 31!
How did I travel to (almost) 50 countries before 30?
I quite literally made travel my full time job.
When I finished university I wasn’t ready to settle into a career and work my way up the ladder. I wanted adventure! Travel! Far flung lands!
I bought a one way ticket from Australia to Scotland with a vague plan to spend 6 months travelling around Europe. I managed to do a tiny bit of European travel and then promptly ran out of money. Realising I needed a job to fund my travel dreams, I decided to kill two birds with one stone: I got a job as a travel agent.
Being paid to talk about travel all day long, discounted holidays, and free trips under the guise of working? Sign me up!
For the most part, I really loved that job. And it offered me some truly amazing travel opportunities. I was young and energetic then so I swapped shifts, worked public holidays for time in lieu, and squeezed every last second of my annual leave to optimise my travel time. I once landed off a flight from Australia at 11pm and was at my desk at work by 8:30am the next day, drunk with jetlag.
Through that job I was able to visit some gorge places. Like, really gorge. I’m talking Six Senses Laamu levels of gorge.
I worked as a travel agent for three years, but once I left that company, the travelling didn’t stop. Although I lost the staff deals, I didn’t lose the travel bug. I made travel my number one priority over the course of my twenties and most (all) of my spare cash went towards it.
My ’50 Countries Before 30′ rules:
What’s a little adventure without some rules and guidelines….
- Don’t go somewhere just to tick a country off the list. I actually have to want to go or what’s the point.
- Airport layovers don’t count.
- I had to actually spend some time in a country (I once flew into Geneva but drove straight over the border into France so I don’t count Switzerland in my list).
- I count the UK as four separate countries (this one divides the crowd but it doesn’t just scrape me over the 50 mark anyway so whatevs).
The 50+ Countries I’ve Travelled to:
I considered listing them in chronological order but that would require some pro-level memory skills, so I’ve listed them by continent instead:
- Indonesia
- Singapore
- Taiwan
- Vietnam
- Japan
- Thailand
- Malaysia
- Philippines
- China
- Sri Lanka
- Maldives
- United Arab Emirates
- Bahrain
- Oman
- Australia
- New Zealand
- Vanuatu
- New Caledonia
- USA
- Canada
- Mexico
- Belize
- Guatemala
- El Salvador
- Honduras
- Costa Rica
- Ecuador
- St Lucia
- Antigua
- British Virgin Islands
- Scotland
- England
- Northern Ireland
- Ireland
- Wales
- France
- Germany
- Spain
- Italy
- Vatican City
- Greece
- Sweden
- Denmark
- Netherlands
- Cyprus
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Czechia
- Belgium
- Austria
- Estonia
- Hungary
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- South Africa
What’s next?
I thought that I would slow down on the travel front once I achieved my goal of visiting 50 countries before 30 but that hasn’t quite happened yet. It’s only February and I’ve already managed to squeeze in an international vacay this year. I have another two planned before summer, and then who knows where the second half of the year will take me?!
Here’s to 100 countries before 40! Joking. Maybe.
- READ MORE: Is 30 too old to take a gap year?
- READ MORE: 5 Reasons it’s Great to Take a Gap Year at 30
- READ MORE: Sober Travel Tips: Your First Sober Holiday
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Absolute goals! What a fantastic list of places and way to spend your 20s. Definitely inspired me to keep adding to my list!
#inspo 🙂 love ya x
Wow! I absolutely love that you’re inspiring traveling and experiencing the world at an early age. I have some work to do!
Thanks, Chelsea. It has been a fun ride for sure 🙂
I’m just interested what your take is on sustainability with all this long haul travel. I don’t think that people should necessarily be extremely limited (it would be better to improve the technology of the planes and their fuel) but at the moment flights are having a severe impact on the environment and it’s a very small proportion of the world population who are driving that. You appear to be in that group, so I’m wondering what thoughts you have on this.
I agree with so many of your rules! ❤️❤️ These countries shouldn’t just be numbers and you should actually have some interest to want to be there (I also have zero tolerance for people who count airports/transits as having been to a country – like how does that even work out??)
That’s impressive! I would love to learn which were your favorite countries to visit!
What a great many countries you’ve visited. I’m not on that many countries (yet), although travel is a priority.
Such a great list! There are so many on here that I never would have considered so thank you for the inspo😊
Amazing ! You are living the dream 😃
Many of us get caught up in the grind of careers, marriage and families. You are truly inspiration that you have set a goal and achieved it!
It sounds like you’ve got the travel bug & that;s unlikely to change when you reach 50 countries Just make sure you’re still having fun! An inspiring read!
Wow I love this so much! You’ve been to some amazing places ❤️
Congrats on travelling to all these gorgeous places!
Very impressive! I’m only at 13 countries and I’m almost 49. Got a late start traveling out of the country due to lack of finances.
This is such a sweet post. Loved reading about your journey! When I tell people that I’m a travel writer they often suggest that I become a travel agent. I don’t think it’s the job for me because you’re kinda limited to the agency’s affiliate partners. You should be very proud of all that you’ve accomplished in such a short amount of time! I didn’t START to really travel until I was 30. (Gasp!)
Great job! what an accomplishment! I am totally inspired. We are retired and traveling every 4 months. Hope to get there soon. 🙂
This is definitely a goal! I’m amazed that someone could travel to a lot of countries before turning 31, and that’s an impressive achievement! It makes me think about how much of the world there is out there that I haven’t seen. PS: I definitely agree with the travel rules you made.
This is incredible! I wish I was that cool and brave!
A great collection of countries. I have been to many but quite a few are still on my list.