1 girl. 196 countries. 4 world records.
Welcome to TrekWithTaylor! My name is Taylor Demonbreun, and my goal is to visit every sovereign country in the world. Sounds fun, right? But here's the catch. I want to become both the youngest and fastest person to ever do this. I’ll also set a third and a fourth record for being the youngest and fastest female. I’ll be visiting all 196 countries in about 18 months, allowing me to beat all of the records. Have you ever had a feeling that there was something you were meant to do? Well, this is mine, and I invite you to learn more about it!
My Mission
Throughout this journey I hope to encourage and inspire as many people who might not previously have traveled to give it a shot. If you think travel is unattainable, too much work, or just not in the cards, I want to help show you how simple it can be. Particularly, to all the young women who've been told that they could not safely travel on their own, I want to challenge this stereotypical notion. Young women can--and should--see as much of the world as they can. I believe that travel is vitally important to shaping one's worldview, so it is important for everyone to get out and learn more about the world that they live in. And for those of you for whom travel might not be an option right now, I want to be your eyes and ears and share what I see with you. I hope to share as much information as I can about how I plan and travel, as well as share blogs from every country of what I am actually seeing. Have questions about this whole thing? Quips? Concerns? I’d be excited to hear them! Send them my way!
What I Hope to Achieve
Four world records.
An understanding of the world that you can't receive in the classroom or the office.
New relationships with people around the world.
To inspire young women and those with other barriers to travel.
How I plan to achieve it
The trek itself will take me to 196 countries over about a year and a half. I have divided the world into five segments: Latin America & Caribbean, Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific & Middle East, and Western Europe & Other. I originally planned to do each segment in one fell swoop, but after doing so with Latin America & the Caribbean I have decided to take the rest of my trips in smaller segments. This is due more to monetary constraints than anything - this way I can travel for a few weeks, and then come home and work/plan/raise money for a few weeks. The only timing rule constraint is that I must travel at least every 14 days.
While there is no formal requirement for the amount of time I must spend in a country, I want to spend at least a full day of exploring in every country. That does not necessarily mean twenty four hours, but enough time to see the main sights in the city I am in. However, this will not always work out. If it means only spending an hour in a country because if not I will be stuck there for a week (which happens more than you might imagine) then I am only going to spend an hour. But trust me, I wish I could spend more time everywhere! Further, a requirement for the trek is that I am not allowed to use personal transportation of any sort. As a result I will be traveling mainly by planes, followed by trains, busses, and ferries. I will also be working throughout the trek to secure visas for over 60 countries.
While this all sounds like a lot, I am going to do my very best to present how I am planning in a clear and concise manner. Visit my resources page to learn more about how I am planning the entire trip and my visa process. If you want to learn more about a specific country, visit the countries page, select a country, and learn exactly what I did there and see how I planned it. Just to note, I created and am constantly updating this website entirely on my own - as a result, if you see any mistakes please let me know! I will be working throughout the trek to keep it constantly updated. I will also be posting on social media throughout the journey, so feel free to follow along there as well! If there is anything I have missed or if you have any unanswered questions, feel free to reach out!