All avid travelers—whether they admit it or not—have a running tally of the countries they've visited. It might take a few minutes to remember them all, but for Lee Abbamonte, a 38-year-old Connecticut native who's turned traveling into a lifestyle, it's far easier. By the age of 32, he'd been to every single country and six years later, he still holds the title of the youngest American to check every nation off their list. He has also managed to turn those travels into a career, running a number of businesses in international real estate, high-end tours, and media. You'd think maybe, after reaching that level of national prestige, you'd put the suitcase away and settle down for a while. Instead, Abbamonte is still on the move with his eyes set on ever more ambitious goals. Condé Nast Traveler sat down with Abbamonte to learn about the inspiration behind his quest, the best (and most frightening) travel experiences, and the philosophy behind his insatiable desire to see and do more.
The interview has been edited for length.
Let's start with numbers. What's the tally at?
I’ve been to every country in the world. All 193 U.N. member states, plus the Vatican, Taiwan, and Kosovo. So some might say 196 is the number, but either way I’ve been to all of them. If you include territories and unique destinations, it’s 319, soon to be a few more. Plus I’ve been to the South Pole and I went to the North Pole in April last year. That was a really exciting, stressful, cold, and educational trip. The biggest and scariest takeaway from that was about global warming—it's a real thing and governments must do something to help curtail it.
All countries and both poles? That has to be a pretty small club. Is there a club?
There are a couple of clubs, actually. There’s something called the Travelers' Century Club, for people who have been to 100 countries or more. It’s essentially a social club, where people who are travel geeks can get together and talk about that Italian restaurant in Libreville, Gabon that is really good, but no one else understands what you’re talking about. It’s kind of fun. You obviously get a few weirdos, but it’s interesting—especially considering most of the people are around 50 years older than me.
What kind of people have been to that many countries?
For the most part, it’s rich, older people. But not as a rule. A hundred countries is actually pretty doable if you think about it. A couple of trips to Europe, a couple of cruises around the Caribbean, maybe a trip to Africa and you can be at 100 pretty quick. If you’re talking about the every-country club, that’s a pretty small group. There’s give or take 95 to 100 of us and it’s kind of unclear who’s in it. You get one or two a year now coming up.
What made you devote a huge chunk of your life to travel? Obviously, at some point you were hit by some serious wanderlust. Was there a single moment that made you decide to go for it?
There were a couple of moments, actually. I never traveled at all as a child—I didn’t leave the country until 1998 when I was 20 years old. Junior year of college I did the study abroad thing in London and that literally changed my life. I just went on a whim, because I was kind of bored and my best friend was going and I thought “Sounds cool—and you don’t have to be 21 to drink!” Without knowing it, it was the single most important decision I’ve ever made. It changed my life, my outlook, my everything. I traveled a lot around Europe that year and after I came back I did a big trip around Asia and another one to South America. After graduating, I got a job because that's what I was supposed to do. It was at 1 World Trade Center. After 9/11, I was… I lost a lot of people I knew and cared for. One of my best friends was killed and he was 22 years old. All he did was go to work. He didn’t do anything wrong. I just remember thinking to myself that stuff can go down any day and you never know what’s going to happen, so live your life to the fullest. We all need to work, we all need to make money, we all need to do certain things in our lives, but at the same time, you only live once. So make the most of it. That was a big impetus for me to not just travel more, but live in a certain way.
When did you decide you wanted to travel to every country?
In 2006, one of my friends and I went to Kenya and Tanzania, and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. He found out there was this guy who was the youngest person to go to every country and sent me the article. I had already been to 110 or something at that point. It was all just kind of by accident—I just like going to new places. But then I looked at my age, my bank account, and my time, and I decided to go for it. At the time, the guy who held the title was 12 or 13 years older than me, so I knew I could do it. It was just a question of when, and if I had known this was a thing, I would have done it in more of a rush.
How did you afford all these trips?
I have always worked my whole life. I come from no money—a lower-middle class family. I was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, which is mainly a working class city. My father was a public defender and my mother was a substitute teacher. I got a paper route when I was six years old, and I did that until I was 15. I started Lee’s Landscaping—a landscaping company—when I was nine. By the time I went to college, I had a lot of money and I never really spent a dime. Then I started another business in college—an Internet start-up—and did pretty well with that. Then I worked on Wall Street for years. It wasn’t a decision to save up to travel the world. I just grew up seeing my parents struggle, and I didn’t want to have that problem. I wanted to be rich, really. I thought it was all that mattered. That’s why studying abroad really did change things for me. I went from really only caring about making money to understanding that life is about experiences, and seeing the world, and doing things that you enjoy doing.
When you were going through the list of countries still missing from your list, were there any that gave you pause? Did fear get in the way of any of your travels?
Well, I never grew up thinking, Oh, I’d love to go to Somalia one day, or Afghanistan is wonderful in June. Obviously I went to places that I normally wouldn’t go, just to go. I was never scared, really ever. I’m tough to spook. I’m also pretty aware and street smart. I do take precautions though, and do a lot of research. Afghanistan was tough because that was during the war. In Libya, which was actually my last country, I got caught in a firefight between rebels and smugglers at the border. That was the scariest thing I’ve ever dealt with. I had never been shot at before.
What happened?
It was my 193rd country and I was 32. It was during the war. I get a call from this guy saying that he thought I could get into Libya, because I’d been trying for six months but it was a no-fly zone so you couldn’t fly there—[Colonel] Qaddafi was still alive. Finally, I fly to Egypt, I get out at this place near the border. I don’t know anybody; I speak, like, four words of Arabic. I find this guy who had a Libyan rebel lapel pin on his suit and asked, "Do you speak English? Can you help me get a cab to the border?" The guy took me in, called me his brother, and he said, “I’m going to help you get into Libya.” His brother had come in from Tobruk, Libya with a minivan. So basically, I snuck into Libya in the back of a minivan.
How did you eventually get across the border?
The guy—nicest guy I’ve ever met—goes, “Here’s the story if they ask. Just say you are a humanitarian dentist," because he saw my straight teeth. "You’re going in to do goodwill teeth stuff." It worked. Then he insisted I stay with his family, which is unbelievable considering he had been a dissident in exile and hadn't seen his family in 40 years, and that his cousin drive me all the way back to Cairo a few days later. I’ve never been treated so well. In order to be a real traveler, you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. When you put yourself in situations like that, those are the moments you realize that although we might have a problem with the governments or whatever, people around the world are pretty much the same. They’re good people at their core and I’ve never had a more human experience. If I didn’t put myself in these ridiculous situations, you wouldn’t see stuff like that. That’s kind of what travel is to me.
There is 'stuff' happening in places that previously weren’t considered dangerous—Turkey, for example. What do you say to the people who aren’t traveling out of fear? Is fear a legitimate obstacle to travel?
I’d equate Turkey to Egypt a little bit. A couple of years ago, Egypt had some serious issues—and still does. But I went to Egypt for about a week recently; it was probably my tenth time there. Beautiful, fascinating. It’s essentially where history started. There were no tourists and I basically had the pyramids to myself. One thing happens, and people get scared, which I totally understand, but having worked in the World Trade Center, having been to these "dangerous" places, I’ve seen a lot. I would never let fear stop me from doing anything. It goes back to the individual: Your government can say you can or can’t go somewhere, but it’s up to you to make a real decision, and if you do something out of fear, you’re losing. You could go to Paris and get shot. What are you going to do? Never ride the subway again? You just can’t let fear dictate anything.
You are also interested in extreme sports. Not to pretend I'm a psychoanalyst, but it sounds like the enthusiasm for that and traveling everywhere might be rooted in the same instincts.
Absolutely. It goes back to a lot of things: wanting to succeed, having goals, wanting to prove people wrong, show people that you can do stuff, that you’re not afraid. If someone tells me I can’t do [something], that means I’m probably going to do it. I also just have a massive love of sports—a lot of my travels have centered around sporting events, which helps. Beer and soccer—they’re international languages. You can sit around a table and talk about beer and soccer with anyone. I like to relate to people on a social level as opposed to getting people all fired up. Also, in my mind I’m furthering American relations with the rest of the world a little bit. Showing that not only do Americans travel, but we actually know stuff.
What's the best bungee jump you've done?
I’ve done all the highest in the world. It's hard to pick just one but the most memorable is the Nevis in Queenstown, New Zealand, at 134 meters, 440 feet. It’s this levitating, metal thing. The day I did it, it was so windy and cold. I don’t get scared, but I was scared there. I remember thinking, What am I doing? My friend was with me; I went first and it was the biggest rush of my life.
You've climbed some mountains too, I hear.
Yeah, one of my goals now is to do the seven summits, the tallest peaks on every continent. I’ve done two of them. I plan to do at least three in the next year or so, but I'm in no rush. I’ve done Kilimanjaro and Kosciusko, so Africa and Australia. I want to do Vincent, which is Antarctica. I arrange expeditions to the Antarctic region, so I want to arrange a group to climb it.
What's next beyond that? How do you top going to every country in the world?
Besides the seven summits, I also want to be the first person ever to go to every country multiple times. I’ve only got about 70 to go, but that's not an imminent goal of mine.
Time for some rapid-fire questions. Do you have a favorite place?
That's a hard question to answer, because I like so many places for different reasons. I’m a city-outdoorsy-beach guy—so, well, everything. I love New York, I love Los Angeles, Chicago, Las Vegas. I used to live in London. I also love Barcelona, Sydney. But I also love the mountains—hiking, climbing, seeing nature. I guess most of all then, I like countries that encompass everything—that’s why I say that the U.S. is my favorite country. People from other nations joke about Americans not traveling, but I also say, “Okay, that’s true—we don’t do a ton of international travel. But we kind of have everything: beaches, mountains, desert, islands, cities.” Australia, I think, is the same way. If I didn’t live in America, I’d live in Australia or Canada. Or New Zealand, Bolivia, Argentina, Namibia, Ethiopia, Switzerland. It's really hard to choose.
How about a favorite meal?
Pizza, hands down. In the U.S., Frank Pepe in New Haven, CT is my all-time favorite. If I had a last meal it would be that. Abroad it would be Da Micheli in Napoli. The best pizza in the world, as far as I’m concerned.
Favorite hotel?
The best city hotel I think I’ve ever stayed in would be the Raffles in Istanbul. What a hotel. The Savoy in London is up there too. For a resort vibe, it would be tough to beat the Four Seasons in the Seychelles.
I imagine you've racked up a fair amount of miles. Favorite frequent flier program and airline?
I’m a member of everything, but I generally fly Star Alliance airlines if given the choice. I wouldn’t say I’m a huge fan of United, but they have the best international partners. To me, Singapore Airlines is the best airline in the world. I’d put Emirates second, then there’s a bit of a gap and I’d have Virgin, Etihad, Air New Zealand, Qatar up next.
Is there anything you won’t travel without? A must-have item, either out of necessity or superstition, on all your travels?
I almost always have a Yankees hat on. I have a particular pair of boots that I love for outdoors activity. But in general, I’m not very superstitious or sentimental and don’t need much to travel, to be honest. My passport, my phone, my hat… and me.
To keep up with Lee Abbamonte's travels, visit his website or follow him on Instagram.