Seven travel tips from the youngest person to travel to every country in the world, from the three-day rule to a luggage trick
- Lexie Alford’s advice includes having a duplicate passport, checking your carry-on luggage allowance, and knowing the taxi fare from the airport before you fly
- She tips one website over all others for last-minute flight bookings
At the age of 21, Lexie Alford has already visited all 196 countries in the world. That makes her the new Guinness World Record holder for the youngest person to travel to every country, by three years. (There are 195 states widely recognised as countries, plus Taiwan.)
With a family that ran a travel agency, Alford travelled widely as a child – by the age of 18 she’d already hit 72 countries. That’s when she decided to go for the world record, self-funding her trips via work as a travel consultant and some sporadic sponsorships. She documents her experiences on her blog and is now working on a book.
Alford, who lives in Nevada City, in the US state of California, logs from 200,000 to 250,000 miles in the air each year, though she frequently takes trains and buses as well. Her favourite airline is Delta, because of its partnership with American Express Platinum, a lucrative points-earning programme. “They also have the most reliable airport lounges in the world, just as far as the Wi-fi and the food,” she says.
Here are Alford’s tips from a lifetime of globe-trotting.
You can – and should – hold two passports from the same country, simultaneously
