It took 41 years, but in 2025 I finally crossed the finish line in my quest to visit every country on earth. Aside from quick jaunts to neighboring countries, my first real independent trip abroad was an entire summer spent in Europe as a college student in 1984, which my dad had to convince me to go on because he wanted to extend my horizons both literally and figuratively. Looking back, I can't believe I actually resisted going on that trip. But he insisted, wanting me to travel afar while I was still a student in full learning mode rather than waiting until after graduation when I would no doubt have other priorities like job seeking to handle. He definitely noticed something in my soul that even I wasn't aware of yet, for I haven't stopped traveling since!

It was never a goal to visit all 193 UN countries at first, but in some sort of weird masochistic way I began to enjoy the challenge of getting difficult visas. The more a country put up obstacles to outsiders the more I wanted to visit, so my focus quickly shifted to countries that everyone else avoided. That, plus my aversion to crowds often propelled me to places where tourism was never prioritized and even actively discouraged. By the time I visited 100 countries I realized with some amusement that I had already been to nearly all of the difficult ones and that the second half would be a heck of a lot easier if I just buckled down and decided to try to visit them all. So why not?

The assortment below is made up of a single favorite photo taken in each country in the world, with a few additional snapshots of special territories or geographic oddities thrown in. Click on each thumbnail to see the full-size version.