Meet Lee Abbamonte – The Youngest American to Travel to Every Country
by Alyssa Ramos
I first discovered Lee Abbamonte on Twitter when he was talking about Antarctica – my last of the seven continents to visit. Naturally, I obnoxiously Tweeted him with annoying questions like “how in the f did you do that?!” in which he replied with a link to his website. I clicked it, and my face immediately resembled the emoji that looks like its eyes are popping out of it’s face in bewilderment.
The link was to his article on, not just Antarctica, but his journey all the way to the freaking South Pole too. As in…he has these insane photos with the actual shining silver pole at the bottom of the Earth. After reading through the entire awesome article in extreme jealousy, I scrolled back up to the top to see where else he had been…Of course, low and behold, there were tabs for every continent and region, along with a list of all the countries in the world…all of which he had traveled to, making him
The Youngest American to Travel to Every Country in the World
For wanderlust travelers like me, this is a HUGE inspiration and motivation (even though I’m secretly super jealy), so I had to find out how he did it. Lee was nice enough to do a Skype interview with me…on his way out the door for a live FOX Business interview…where I found out he’s accomplished a lot more travel goals than just being the youngest American to go to every country. So check it out after these quick facts:
1. Lee is the youngest American to go to every country (sovereign nation) on Earth, which means the 193 member “states” of the United Nations. He completed this when he was 35 when he completed his goal.
2. He is the youngest person to visit the most countries on the ‘Travelers Century Club’ list too, which he did at 36. You have to visit 100 countries just to be a member.
3. The record of most countries and unique places visited by a TCC member when he joined in 2006 was 315, it is now 324…he has been to 318.
Jump To:
Where are you from? Did your parents encourage you to travel?
Lee is originally from Connecticut, and said his parents didn’t travel, and that his dad actually got mad when he told him he wanted to study abroad in London. (He did it anyway). He currently lives in New York, as you could guess by the hats he wears in his travel photos.
What made you decide to attempt going to every country?
Lee said that he originally had a goal of going to 100 countries by the time he was 30, which he never thought would be possible, but made it happen and even surpassed the goal. Then in 2006 he found out there was a record for the youngest person to have traveled to every country, and since he was even younger than them, he aimed to beat it.
How did you first afford all that traveling?
This is the question that people ALWAYS ask people who travel a lot so I was interested to hear Lee’s story. Turns out he used to work on Wall Street in corporate finance, energy, and wealth management but quit (thank God), and traveled to Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji for a year.
When he came back, after working for a few more years, he quit again(woohoo!) to get his MBA and traveled around the Carribean and the rest of the world (nbd). Now of course he has his travel website along with a few other businesses, and also does guest appearances regularly on all of the major news and travel TV shows, magazines, and websites.
How did you/do you decide where to travel next?
When Lee was initially trying to go to all of the countries, he said that dictated where he went (talk about the ultimate bucket list), but nowadays he just goes where he feels like going or where work takes him, but the two generally get combined which he says is nice. Yes Lee, that is VERY nice.
What has been the most interesting place?
I knew he must get asked this thousands of times as well, but I obviously had to know. His answer was North Korea because of how fascinating it is to really see that that type of a world exists. He said the propaganda and communism was insane, and there would be microphones hanging from the chandeliers of your room, and cameras watching you pee!
What was the most dangerous/scary situation?
Ironically, Lee’s 193rd (last) country was Libya…which happened to be in a war when he was attempting to go in 2007. In order to get there he had to sneak across the border from Egypt, and when he did, his car got shot at! But he reassured that it was “because there was a war, nothing personal”.
Have you ever gotten stuck somewhere or put in jail?
Although he’s been threatened by police a few times, Lee says he’s a pretty peaceful traveler, minds his own business and doesn’t tend to get in trouble. Getting stuck at border outposts however is a different story. He said he’s gotten stuck at borders a lot, including the above mentioned incident at the Egypt/Libya border.
What’s the worst injury or sickness you’ve gotten while traveling?
I sound like such a pessimist with all these questions! He laughed at me then assured me again that he doesn’t tend to get into many dangerous situations, and hasn’t had any injuries. He did however get the dreaded traveler’s stomach problems in Iran and India, with the latter being so bad that he lost 30 pounds that he did not have to lose!
Do you prefer to travel solo or with other people ?
He said that it depends. About 2/3 of his travels have been with other people, however he explained how it can be difficult because you can’t always find someone to go with but you have to be careful because you won’t always get along with everyone, especially when traveling, which can be quite frustrating.
Is there anyone you’ve met while traveling who stands out as being particularly inspirational, interesting, or strange?
This question gets a bolder heading because it was the only one he hadn’t been asked before! Yay, go me! And there was – Lee immediately recalled the story of an older Libyan man named Hussein who he met while trying to cross the border from Egypt to Libya. Hussein was the man who helped smuggle him in the back of a car (that got shot at) to get into Libya, but what was even more remarkable was that he insisted that Lee stayed with him and his family, even though he hadn’t seen them in over 40 years. Lee said the selflessness that he portrayed was beyond moving, and he often tells that story when giving speeches. He also said he’s still friends with him on Facebook. 🙂
Would you ever live in another country (again)?
Like many travelers that have had their fair share of…less-advanced-everything…Lee agrees that living in America is a lot easier, and convenient than living abroad. He did however add on that life happens, and if an opportunity came up to live in Australia or somewhere cool, he might do that…maybe.
What’s next for your future travel plans?
Lee’s current goal is accomplishing going to every country on the Travelers Century Club’s record list, he’s at 318 out of 324. He has also been to the new 7 Wonders of the World and the new 7 Wonders of Nature including his most recent trip to El Nido, Philippines.
What percentage of time do you spend traveling per year?
Going to every country, or what seems like every place in the world made me wonder how often he’s gone, but he said that he’s scaled back on his international traveling quite a bit in recent years to focus mainly on work, which keeps him in the states a lot. However he said he still likes to take time to go on vacation at home and in New York (where he lives) as well when the weather is nice in spring and summer. He also noted that it’s easier to do more TV and work meeting from New York.
What do you do when you’re not traveling or working?
It seems like he hardly has any down time, but Lee said that when he’s not traveling or working he likes to chill out and relax, watch sports, and hang out with his friends.
What’s your overall goal (in life)?
Obviously he has a lot of goals, and has already accomplished some extremely large ones – in particular he noted his journey to the South Pole as one of the hardest and biggest ones to accomplish. And of course the whole, ‘youngest American to go to every country’-thing…nbd. He says next he wants to…wait for it…climb all of the highest peaks on each continent in the world (AKA the 7 Summits), and has already climbed two out of the seven!
Another goal is publishing his books, one of which comes out in May called ‘Chasing 193’ (get it? Like the countries?) which profiles people who have or want to visit every country in the world like he did. There have only been 98 people in history to go to every country in the world, so how cool is that that he’s one of them!
BONUS QUESTION: How many frequent flier miles do you have?
I had to ask the person who’s been to every country this question, it was just way too amusing to resist. His answer? He doesn’t really keep track anymore, but he’s somewhere over 5 MILLION (shocker), however he’s used or given away a ton of them. Lucky for the people on his Christmas list!
For more information on Lee Abbamonte and his awesome travels you should definitely check out his website, and follow him on social media because he posts great travel tips, articles, photos, and updates on where he’s appearing next!
Website: www.LeeAbbamonte.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/LeeAbbamonte
Twitter: @LeeAbbamonte
Instagram: @LeeAbbamonte
**Also, if you have a moment, please check out my charity, HeartSleeves.org that sends two kids in Muizenberg, South Africa a brand new T-shirt when you purchase one for yourself for $25!**
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