Sophia Lee took her first solo trip at age 13 and fell in love with traveling instantly — and now she’s nine countries away from becoming the youngest person to visit every country in the world. She had no idea back then that visiting Costa Rica would lead to a journey that would take her to almost every UN-recognized country or territory.

But Lee, now aged 20, is close to beating the record currently held by Lexie Alford, who visited the full list of destinations in 2019, aged 21 years and 177 days. While her journey hasn’t always been smooth sailing, Lee — who traveled continuously since age 17 — is grateful to have been able to trek across the globe before being old enough to legally drink alcohol back home in Alaska. “I think that building that self-confidence at a young age and going to these destinations and meeting with people from other cultures and backgrounds is really one of the best experiences you can have as a young person,” Lee told CNN Travel.

Formative experience Looking back to her trip to Central American destination Costa Rica seven years ago, Lee explains that she had to get written permission from her parents to fly alone in 2019, which marked her first time leaving the United States. Lee said she wasn’t nervous about that first solo trip since she comes from a family of globetrotters.

Her grandparents worked for US government volunteer program Peace Corps and seeing and hearing of their experiences when she was young encouraged her on her own travels. As she made her way through Nosara in Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula, taking in its beaches and jungles, Lee, who said she struggled with social anxiety as a child, could feel her confidence growing as she was forced to figure things out for herself.

While she went through the trip without incident, she recalls being taken through extra security steps at the airport in Costa Rica before boarding her return flight home. “I think they were concerned that I was running away or something like that,” Lee said. “Or they weren’t sure what I was doing traveling solo.” From that point on, she was determined to find ways to travel the world. After training to be a yoga instructor that same year, Lee took every opportunity she could to visit different countries, including Egypt and Ecuador, sometimes teaching yoga or helping with social media accounts in exchange for room and board.

Because she was homeschooled, she had more flexibility than other students to fit travels around her schoolwork. When she graduated from high school early at age 16, Lee contemplated film school, but there was one thing she wanted to do more – keep moving.

Record challenge After learning of Alford’s world record and realizing that she was young enough to challenge it, Lee flirted with the idea for a while, but admits that she “didn’t really think it was possible.” She kept traveling, volunteering with wildlife sanctuaries and schools, before realizing that if she was ever going to attempt it, it was now or never. Lee got in touch with Guinness World Records and began the formal registration process.

She had to agree to adhere to strict requirements, including traveling with a tracking device and submitting GPS files. Lee was also required to complete the journey on public transportation, as well as revisit the 50 or so countries she’d already traveled to.

Once she’d been approved, Lee began making plans for the trip of a lifetime. Although she technically started the challenge in 2023, at the age of 17, Lee explains that it was initially derailed by a “family situation” that necessitated a pause.

In 2024, Lee set off for the second time and has been traveling continually ever since. “I went three years without seeing some of my family, and it’s been a year since I’ve seen my parents,” she said, adding that her sister occasionally flies out to visit her in easily accessible destinations. Lee began the record attempt in Europe, traveling to the United Kingdom, before heading to Sweden, and then on to Finland and Estonia by ferry.

She found Europe to be both the easiest and most affordable region to navigate on budget. From Europe, she continued on to Asia and the Middle East.

At the start of her trip, Lee lived on an “extreme budget” of $100 per country, frequently taking overnight buses to save on accommodation costs. However, as her story gained attention, she picked up sponsorships and brand partnerships, easing her financial strain.

Over the past two years, she’s visited 186 countries and territories, including Iran, Vietnam, Libya and Albania. While there’s debate around what constitutes a true “visit,” Lee defines it as visiting a country and meaningfully experiencing something — whether speaking with locals, trying local food or visiting prominent cultural sites. “Ideally, honestly, I think that at least a week in the country is a fair amount of time to count it as a visit,” she says.

Magical experiences Lee has stayed in a wide range of accommodations, from $5 a night hostels in South America to a $1,000-plus-a-night luxury hotel in Bhutan — a destination she found difficult to enter due to visa restrictions. The trip has been filled with highlights, but a standout moment was a visit to Uganda in February 2025, where her grandfather flew out to join her.

The pair visited the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, an ancient jungle home to roughly half of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas. “I think that was one of the most magical experiences, especially getting to go with him,” she said. One of her toughest trips was a visit to Somalia earlier this year, where she was required to have a security escort with her at all times.

The US Department of State currently maintains a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” advisory for the country, warning of kidnapping, terrorism and violent crime. She faced similar constraints in Turkmenistan, a central Asian nation bordered by Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, where US citizens are required to book a guided tour.

Lee is currently waiting for visa approval on some of the final countries on her list, including African countries such as Sudan, where a devastating conflict has displaced millions of people over the past three years. While she’s enjoyed her travels, Lee has experienced many challenging moments, during a visit to Congo in April she became very ill and considered returning home.

Her determination to break the world record kept her going. Lee has been chronicling her journey on her Instagram page Sophia Lee Travels.

Her followers often ask about the complexities of solo female travel. While Lee admits that she was naive in the beginning, she stresses that she’s mainly encountered “good-hearted people” along the way. “I think there’s definitely been times when I’ve been in unsafe situations unfortunately,” Lee said, acknowledging the realities of travel in countries with high crime rates and different cultural values.

Because of her unique lifestyle, Lee admits she doesn’t have many friends her own age —most of the people she’s connected with on the road are considerably older. “I’ve not spent a lot of time with my peers, which is hard for a lot of people to understand,” she said, noting that most of her traveler friends are aged between 30 and 80 years old. “But most of my teenage years, I spent around adults or older people, just based on my travels and the places I was visiting.” Nomadic existence Although she’s spent the last few years living a life many dream of, Lee concedes it has left her without a real sense of home or community. She says she sometimes contemplates the childhood and teenage experiences she’s missed out on.

Being constantly on the move for such a long period has also proved to be physically, and perhaps mentally, exhausting for Lee, who says she’s looking forward to a rest after health issues. Of the nearly 200 countries she has visited, Lee has one clear favorite: India.

She has returned five times since her first visit in 2022, citing the country’s immense natural, cultural and religious diversity. “You can go from the Himalayas to the ocean, to some of the busiest cities, and then some of the most remote and isolated places,” she said, describing the hospitality in the country as “unlike anywhere else.” She was also taken with Haiti, admitting that she was nervous to visit the Caribbean country but found herself enthralled by its natural beauty and welcoming people. If all goes to plan, she’ll reach Venezuela, the final country on her list, in August — although it was unclear how the severe earthquakes that struck the country on June 24 will affect her upcoming visit.

Lee is well aware that records are made to be broken, and even if she’s able to claim the title of the youngest person to travel to every country in the world, her feat may not stand for long. “I think that’s the great thing about a record,” she says. “More people can challenge it and take it on. And honestly, that’s the gift in it.” She hopes that her story will inspire young people to step outside their comfort zone and travel to “less explored” places that they might not have previously considered. “Those are really where you’re going to have experiences that are unlike anywhere else in the world,” she says.

For Lee, traveling the world and navigating the language and cultural barriers of solo female travel taught her to trust herself, building up an invaluable level of resilience and confidence that “you can’t get from anything else.” As the end of her trip draws near, she’s often asked what she plans to do next, but she is still not entirely sure what life will look like when she’s finally able to stay in one place. “A lot of people are like, ‘You must be so excited,’” Lee said. “And there’s definitely a part of me that’s excited. And also a part of me that’s sad to be done.” After spending so many of her teenage years dreaming of and working towards this single goal, she finds it difficult to contemplate life afterward.

Lee hopes to continue producing content, sharing stories from her travels and collaborating with non-governmental organizations and charities. Ultimately, Lee’s main aim is simple: to find a base somewhere in the world that she can call home. “Living out of a suitcase for seven years has been fun,” she said. “But I’m looking forward to having more of a stable setting and being able to make friends and kind of build my own life in one location.”