A Year In Review 2025

A Year in Review: 2025

Another year winds down, and once again I’m looking back at the places, people, and moments that shaped my travels in 2025. When I zoom out, I’m reminded just how fortunate I am to still be exploring the world.

I ended 2024 at 181 UN countries. By the close of 2025, I’d pushed that number to 186—progress … slow, steady, and sometimes grudgingly earned. I’m now just seven countries away from completing the quest to visit all 193 UN member states. The current plan is to finish in Ireland in April or May of 2027—though there’s one enormous caveat. More on that later.

The New Ones.

2024 closed with a huge milestone: visiting every country in Africa—all 54. That’s a tough act to follow, and unsurprisingly 2025 didn’t offer anything quite as monumental.

The plan had been to finish the Caribbean this year. I still had seven countries left. My father fell ill right after New Year’s, and I spent January through mid-March in Boston with him. My month-long Caribbean trip shrank to two weeks—but even then, I managed to add four new countries: Trinidad & Tobago, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, and Barbados.

In the spring, I checked off a microstate that had been sitting on my list far too long: San Marino. I spent two nights exploring this hilltop republic, soaking in its stone alleys and sweeping views.

And that was it—five new countries in 2025. Not a record-breaking year. But 5 steps closer.

The Repeats (and the Do-Overs).

As any near-193 traveler knows, repeats eventually dominate the calendar. Sometimes it’s returning to old favorites. Sometimes it’s the “do-overs”—the countries you technically visited, but briefly or superficially that you feel compelled to return and do them justice.

Grenada was first on the repeat list. I’d been there as a kid on a cruise, but I wanted a real visit—not something measured in hours and souvenir shops. In fact, I recall buying, well my parents buying me, a small toy steel drum.

From April to June, I pieced together a multi-country arc built around several events: a conference in Dubai, a “last country” celebration in Slovakia, and another conference in Uzbekistan. San Marino conveniently slotted into the middle as the lone new country.

Dubai came first. I was attending the Arab Travel Mart and also scouting potential hosts for the next Extraordinary Travel Festival. I also managed to meet 20+ travel friends and rented a car to visit the remaining five Emirates I’d never been to. (None were particularly breathtaking, but checking them off was a fun challenge.)

Then came Slovakia, for AJ Peregrino’s last-country party—and what a production. Some travelers save an “easy” and pleasant country for last; others get stuck with a war zone or bureaucratic nightmare. AJ wisely chose Slovakia over, say, bribing a customs officer in Kinshasa at 1:00 a.m. Her four-day celebration felt like the travel-community version of an Indian wedding. One night included a private castle dinner for 50 friends. A spectacular celebration.

From there, I hopped to Vienna for two nights, including a visit to ice cream institution, Eissalon Tichy, led by world traveler and hazelnut aficionado Zsu Berencsi. I spent two days strolling around Vienna, it wasn’t a full exploration of the Austria, but it beat my previous half-day layover.

Then Bologna → rental car → San Marino (2 nights) → a couple of Italian lunches → rental car → back to Bologna → flight to Skopje.

What followed was a two-week Balkan road trip with my wife through Macedonia, Albania, and Montenegro—three countries I had technically visited in 2010 during the Caucasian Challenge, an organized road rally, but only in the most superficial ways. Thirty minutes in Montenegro due to a wrong turn; a drive-through in Macedonia for car repair; a night in northern Albania and night in the south on Lake Ohrid. Proper visits were overdue.

This year’s trip corrected all that. We explored Skopje’s statues and monuments, relaxed on Lake Ohrid, weaved through Albania’s mountainous roads, relaxed on the beach, wandered Berat’s UNESCO architecture, visited Tirana in depth, and wrapped up in Montenegro’s picture-perfect Kotor before ending in the capital, Podgorica.

After the Balkans, I traveled to Uzbekistan’s Fergana Valley for the NomadMania conference—part community gathering, part fixer summit, part regional deep dive. A highlight was visiting Shohimardon, an Uzbek exclave entirely surrounded by Kyrgyzstan.

Then came more Uzbekistan: Tashkent as a base, day trips to the Parkent Solar Furnace and the town of Gagarin, while exploring the capital itself.

In August, I returned to Vietnam for my fourth visit—this time to Da Nang for the Travel Massive conference, where I moderated a travel tech startup competition. I finally visited the My Son UNESCO site, two decades after flooding canceled my original tour. I wrapped up the trip with a long weekend in Saigon.

Autumn brought Armenia (annual visit—though I’d missed the two prior years), another Dubai stop, and a much-needed Serbia do-over, finally seeing Niš, Novi Sad, and Belgrade properly. The finale: a Belgrade dinner featuring 50 strolling musicians. Quite the send-off.

And with a little time left in the year, I squeezed in Ethiopia—revisiting the country to explore a new region, the Omo Valley, known for its diverse tribal cultures before attending the Most Traveled People Summit in Addis Ababa, which unsurprisingly is community of the world’s most traveled people.

A Chronological List.

Here are the countries I visited during 2025 in chronological order. Bolded names are new countries.

United States
Trinidad and Tobago
Barbados
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Grenada
St Lucia
United States
Thailand
UAE (Dubai)
Slovakia
Austria
Italy
San Marino
Italy
Macedonia
Albania
Montenegro
Thailand
Uzbekistan
Kyrgyzstan
Uzbekistan
Kyrgyzstan
Uzbekistan
Thailand
United States
Vietnam
Thailand
Armenia
UAE (Dubai)
Serbia
Thailand
Ethiopia
Thailand
United States

Here is a brief recap of travel 2025 highlights by country and of course some low points.

Trinidad and Tobago

Founded in 1824, House of Angostura distills rum and bitters in Trinidad. You will have a lot of opportunities to drink rum in the Caribbean. While visiting the region I joined several tours.

Barbados

Spent a couple of busy days in Barbados from visiting a museum for George Washington to taking in a horse race.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

This is the former airport for Saint Vincent, presently decommissioned. Amos Vale Airport sits in the capital of Kingstown. I had lunch at a cafeteria in the former terminal overlooking the runway and then came out for a couple selfies.

Grenada

I toured the River Antoine Estate Rum Distillery. The distillery was founded in 1785, making it one of the oldest rum distilleries in the world. The distillery still employs a waterwheel to power the facilities. This is my tour guide, and don’t worry, she is not mad at me.

St Lucia

The iconic symbol of Saint Lucia is the twin volcanic, Gros Piton and Petit Piton. I paid a visit to them, taking a short hike to some viewing platforms to take in this horizon.

UAE (Dubai)

Dubai is known as one of the hubs for the extreme travel community. I managed to catch up with 20 + friends over 3 nights of dinners and lunches.

Slovakia

AJ rented a boat as part of her multi-day celebration. I met up with some of impressive female world travelers, from left to right. Kach Medina Umandap (193 UN Member states), Yooshita (127), Zsu Beresnsci (193), AJ Peregrino (193), me (186), and Danay Bustamente (157).

Austria

An ad hoc adventure to Tichy for their world-famous Hazelnut ice cream. Our tour which started in Bratislava was led by former Austrian resident, Zsu Berensci.

Italy

As I drove to San Marino, I noted that there were two Italian regions encircling as per NomadMania (which divides the world into 1301 regions). I decided to visit both regions having lunch and visiting something of note. The museum was close to San Marino so I decided to visit. I sped from Bologna airport to the museum noting I would have 2o minutes to ogle at their collection of motorcycles before they broke for lunch. I made it with time to spare. I walked to the museum and noted the gates were closed, I eased them open and walked into the grounds. Out of nowhere a young Italian woman appeared screaming at me in Italian ushering me out and closing the gates behind me. While I did not see any motorcycles I felt like I had an authentic Italian experience. She really seemed to enjoy yelling at me.

San Marino

The Three Towers of San Marino are a group of towers located in San Marino. Located on the three peaks of Monte Titano in the capital, also called San Marino, they are depicted on both the national flag and coat of arms. They are the best-known symbol of this city-state. I spent 3 days strolling around this hilly town and munching tasty Italian classics.

Macedonia

Standing in front of the Mother Teresa Memorial House. Mother Teresa was the Noble Peace Prize Laureate. Mother Teresa was born in Skopje.

Albania

Not quite as well know as the beaches of Croatia, but Albanian beaches are growing in popularity. This is Sarande near the border of Greece and adjacent to the UNESCO World Heritage site, Butrint.

Montenegro

This is the incredibly picturesque Bay of Kotor. There are multiple boat tours out of Kotor at very good prices. Touristy but you can’t beat these views.

Thailand

Long on my bucketlist, and so close to my home in Bangkok, it took me years to visit. This is the Atlanta Hotel, established in 1952, this art deco hotel was a Bangkok institution for years.

Fergana Valley

Technically, outside of the valley, but my launching point to the Uzbek exclave of Shohimardon is Fergana Valley. Shohimardon is a lovely town but is really quite average, but the unique exercise to travel there makes this one of my favorite travel adventures of 2025. Thanks NomadMania.

Uzbekistan

According to NomadMania, Uzbekistan is broken down into 5 regions, I had visited 4 of them. I decided to visit the 5th from Tashkent. I zoomed in, looking at border of the two regions, and noted a town named Gagarin. It was named after the first cosmonaut to space. Me and a couple of friends decided to roadtrip to this random town, met some local friends, and brought them to the Gagarin Museum.

Vietnam

In 2004, I was in Hoi An, and I booked a tour to the UNESCO World Heritage Site, My Son. My tour was cancelled due to flooding. After 21 years later, I finally made it!

Armenia

I arrived for my 2nd visit to Armenia in 2004. I was there to live there for 4 months as a volunteer. My boss, Narineh, invited me to a local concert, Arto Tunchboyachyan and the Armenian Navy Band. I wasn’t sold, but Narineh insisted. It was one of the best live performances I had ever seen. Every year I returned to Armenia I would see if Arto and his band were performing during my visit. I would occasionally be lucky and my trip would overlap over one of his concerts. During my visit in October, it happened to be Yerevan’s 2807th birthday, and as luck would have it, Arto was performing, just a several minute walk from my AIRBNB at the Cascade. As the crowd thinned, I noted Arto walking with one of his friends. I ran over and asked for a photo. And this was not my first one. I randomly ran into Arto in the Lounge at the airport in Yerevan, and we shared another photo.

Serbia

My last night in Belgrade I dined at Tri Sesira. Was the food special? Not really. But they had approximately 50 musicians walking around playing tableside. Was a fantastic way to end the trip.

Ethiopia

Omo Valley has been on my list for many years, but I was turned off from all of the stories I heard from fellow travelers. The many tribes that you would meet would demand money for each photo. A guide was recommended to me ensured me he would handle all of the relations with the tribes. It was a great trip.

Flights.

I use Flighty (an app) to generate a flight map of my 2025 travels. Paired with TripIt and my ever-reliable Excel sheet, it makes assembling my annual recap surprisingly enjoyable for those who have slight OCD.

2025 by the numbers:

41 flight segments
19 different airlines
29 different airports
80,640 miles flown
Flew across 4 continents

As everyone already knows, I love tracking—and overtracking—my travel stats. One of my favorite lists comes courtesy of NomadMania: airports visited. I’ve now passed through 339 different airports. Few things please me more than arriving at a truly random airport. Case in point: BCO (Jinka, Ethiopia)—a tiny airport served by only five weekly flights from Addis Ababa.

My best flight of the year was a round-trip business class redemption BKK–ADD. I routed through SIN on Singapore Airlines (brief but pleasant), then continued to ADD on Ethiopian Airlines in a blissfully empty cabin. I flattened the seat, knocked out some sleep, and arrived far more refreshed than I deserved on a free ticket. The return took me ADD–DEL on Ethiopian and DEL–BKK on Thai Airways. For the second leg, I ordered in Thai and scored my favorite drink, chamanow (Thai lemon iced tea). Ethiopian Airlines won’t be mistaken for Qatar anytime soon—but free business class is free business class.

Of course, there’s one stat that is not fun to tally: carbon footprint. To offset some of this, I donated $1,000 to the Armenian Tree Project. That buys 35 trees, each capturing about 46 lbs of carbon annually. Over 25 years, that’s roughly 20 tons of carbon removed—small, but something.

Land Borders

My love of airports is matched only by my love of land border crossings. This year included:

Uber from Vienna to Bratislava; train return back to Vienna
A rental car road trip from Bologna to San Marino and return
Crossing Macedonia → Albania and Albania → Montenegro by rental car

All were easy, straightforward, and refreshingly old-school forms of travel.

Driving

I rented a handful of cars this year—much easier to see more of the country.

Rented in all 5 Caribbean countries visited
Drove across six Emirates from/including Dubai
A two-week road trip through Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro
Rented in Italy to visit San Marino
Rented in Serbia to explore its three largest cities

The UAE roadtrip begins …

A special dishonorable mention goes to Sixt Serbia, who attempted to upsell me on a “fuel package” by claiming gas stations don’t take credit cards (they do) and that the package is 20% cheaper (it isn’t). At drop-off, they tried to charge me for a pre-existing dent—fortunately, I had video proof. Caught red-handed, they apologized.

Sleeping

In theory my travel year breaks down like this: 90 days Bangkok – 60 days Boston – 30 days Chicago – 6 months random travel.

This is the rule, but there have been many exceptions due to the organizing 2 Extraordinary Travel Festival, Covid, and my dad getting ill. Here is how 2025 broke down.

Here’s where I actually slept:

114 nights – Bangkok condo
121 nights – Father’s place outside Boston
19 nights – Chicago
84 nights – Hotels (28 different ones)
11 nights – Airbnb
7 nights – Friends’ homes
9 nights – Sleeping on airplanes

Best Hotel

Not an inspiring hotel year. Forced to choose: Sheraton Saigon Grand Opera—modern, clean, comfortable, perfectly located, and paid with points. Honorable mention: Sheraton Addis Ababa, built in 1998 as the country’s first true international luxury hotel and still serving as a venue for the AU and UN.

Worst Hotel

Shoxjahon Hotel – 600 Mbps Internet in Tashkent. This was literally the name of the hotel. And speeds were literally as low as 1.5 MBS.

Haircuts

A personal tradition: haircuts around the world. It’s the simplest way to observe daily life and meet locals. This year’s trims came from Trinidad & Tobago, Vietnam, Albania, and Thailand.
See more at Haircuts Around the World.

Pickleball

I started playing in June in Bangkok. Benchakitti Park has 10 public courts just a 20-minute walk from home, and the community is fantastic. This year I also played in the US, Vietnam, Armenia, and Dubai. It’s a fun way to meet locals and expats.

Podcast

Counting Countries Podcast I continue to speak with fascinating, inspiring travelers. I’ve now published 139 full-length interviews plus bonus episodes. If you enjoy thoughtful travel conversations, subscribe.

I also launched a Patreon for those who want to support the show and get extra content.

Film

A reminder of past work: I helped produce and appear in two adventure travel documentaries.

Hit The Road: India (2013)

Filmed 2012
Released on iTunes, Amazon, Vimeo
Screened at 8 festivals
Hit #3 on iTunes UK documentary rankings
Licensed by KLM and Virgin ]
Licensed by Epic (TV channel in India)

Hit The Road: Cambodia (2016)

Filmed 2015
Also available on iTunes, Amazon, Vimeo

Books.

I’ve published three books, available on Amazon. Separately, I’m composing a global reading list— one book per country, with more added throughout 2025.

Partnerships.

I continue my long-standing relationship with Travel Massive, the world’s largest professional travel network (80,000 members). I serve as the Bangkok Chapter Leader and Asia Coordinator.

This year I hosted an event in Bangkok as well as hosting the startup competition at the Travel Massive Conference in Da Nang.

Extraordinary Travel Festival.

The third edition of the ETF will be returning back to Bangkok in October 22-25, 2026. We had 250 of the world’s top travelers gather at ETF II also held in Bangkok. It was a great success. We are expecting even better things in 2026. We even have an astronaut attending. You can also join by buying your ticket, use code BANGKOK to save on your ticket.

Sak Yant.

Another bucket list item competed in 2025. Sak Yant is a centuries old tradition of tattoos found in South East Asia. Before moving to Thailand, I watched a news program highlighting thousands of Thais being blessed by monks at a Sak Yant Tattoo festival. This planted the seed. About 15 years later I finally got my own Sak Yant.

I met with an ajarn (teacher) who created a custom Sak Yant, honoring my ancestors. My friends at Where Sidewalks End set this experience up for me.

Completing The Quest.

At the end of 2024, I ended the year with 181 countries, at the end of 2025, 186 countries. Progress, but slow. I now have 7 remaining countries until I have visited all 193 UN member states.

I have a plan.

In January/February, I plan to visit 4 new countries. My remaining 3 countries in the Caribbean; Jamaica, Dominican Republic, and Haiti. The fist two straight forward. Haiti has some security issues, but I plan on visiting Cap Haitien, Haiti’s second largest city and more stable and secure than the capital, Port au Prince. If this trip is successful, this will mark every country in North America as visited.

Then I will depart the Caribbean to fly to the Pacific to visit my last country in Oceania, Nauru. Nauru is a tiny and remote country with only around 10,000 citizens. This will be my 4^th attempt in visiting this country. I had 3 failed attempts in 2024. So I will be going back again. This is a frustrating exercise with time and treasure being spent. To visit Nauru for two nights, I will be spending 8 days in total to complete this visit, flying from Boston to Brisbane, the launching point for Nauru, and then return to Nauru and then make my way to Bangkok.

I will then have only 3 countries remaining.

My White Whale

I have one final country to visit in Asia, and I do not want to even name it. Since 2017, I have applied 5 times for a visa. And I have been denied 6 times.

The theory from speaking with insiders is this country googles all prospective visitors, and when you google me a large number of posts about me will appear. This country considers me a “journalist” and on 6 different occasions the government has hastily placed me in the rejection bin.

I thought my 5^th and 6^th attempt would be different since I literally had a contact within the presidential office. Despite this inside track, the result was still the same.

The Final Plan

I am now committing to a plan. In April/May of 2027, I will travel to my last 2 countries in Europe, Malta and Ireland. And I will host some sort of party in Ireland to celebrate visiting my last and 193rd country (or possibly my 192^nd country).

In other words, I am giving myself 16 months to crack the code and somehow visit country XXX in Asia.

If I figure it out, Ireland will be my last country, if not, Ireland will be my second to last country. And if in that case, I will wait to visit country XXX in a year, 5 years, or even 10 years. Or whenever they will let me in.

Erin Go Bragh.

Happy New Year and keep on counting countries.