With a travel bug that caught on quite early, Lexie Alford has already lived a life that many only dream of: of having travelled to every country, even North Korea! By Naina Atri
We all have, at some point in our lives, dreamt of being an adventurer, as we watched Indiana Jones and Anthony Bourdain travel across the globe. How often have we daydreamed about going off to discover some exotic and virtually disconnected spot on the other side of the world? And perhaps with the pandemic, this desire has only gotten stronger.
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Much to our envy, 23-year-old Lexie Alford, from her home in the USA, has quite literally travelled around the world. She found herself in what many have deemed as inaccessible; by 21, Alford had even travelled to North Korea!
According to her Instagram, when Lexie turned 18, she set a goal for herself to become the youngest person to have travelled the world and have her name in the Guinness Books of World Records. She wrote in her post, “I also hoped to inspire a few others by showing people that the world is not always a scary place, kindness is everywhere in spite of political instabilities & every culture has something important to teach us.”
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According to an interview with Forbes back in 2019, Alford revealed that she had been a traveller her whole life. Her parents ran a travel agency and so as a child, she often went with them on their travels. When she turned 18, Lexie realised she had already travelled to 72 countries, from Cambodia to Egypt. In that time, she had graduated school (early) and even had a college degree. It was at this point that a fire was lit under her and Alford was determined to become a record-breaker. This was back in 2016. By 2019, Alford had started submitting her evidence to Guinness World Records, which included 7,000 pages and 400 witnesses, according to her Instagram.
Alford shared with Forbes how she budgets for her trips and why she stays disconnected. For instance, Alford personifies mindfulness by refusing to carry a travel essential such as an international SIM card. But the 23-year-old does confess that life hasn’t been all roses. Political barriers, language gaps and security issues have made the journey difficult, but she’s managed to achieve her goal of visiting every country in the world.
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