This woman is travelling to all 196 countries in the world

Travel


This woman is travelling to all 196 countries in the world

By Hayley Spencer

Updated 8 years ago

Travelling the world is a pipe-dream for most of us, but a young American woman is making it her mission to visit every single country in the world by the age of just 27.

Cassandra De Pecol from Washington, Connecticut started her journey 15 months ago in July 2015 and has been recording her travels at Expedition 196. She has already visited 180, taking 254 flights and speeding through each country in two to five days.

De Pecol is hoping to break the record for the fastest time a female has visited all 196 sovereign states. But that's not her only aim for the trip - she's working as a Peace Ambassador for International Institute of Peace Through Tourism and Skal International to promote responsible travel and economics to University students.

The whole trip has cost a hefty £161,880, which has been partly funded by sponsors and been made possible by free stays at some eco-friendly hotels, in exchange for promotion on her Instagram account. 

"Going to every country was for me a personal quest to learn as much as I could about our world, stepping outside my comfort zone and becoming comfortable in the unknown, while also aiming to leave a legacy behind," De Pecol told the Daily Mail.

Though unfortunately, her trip hasn't been without some negative experiences, which have been largely down to her sex. She revealed: "I've been harassed and in sticky situations, whereas a man in the same situation likely wouldn't have experienced the same."

The twenty-something hasn't let these set-backs get in the way of her completing her journey, however. She has 45 days remaining in order to secure the Guinness World Record and hopes that achieving it would inspire others to follow roads less traveled.

"I just hope that I'm able to inspire young women (and men) around the world to go after goals and feats that so far, people think can only be done by man," she said.

Without financial backing or years of saving, a similar adventure is unimaginable, but none the less De Pecol's story is an aspirational one.

 

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