21-05-2025
Travel Wisdom From ‘The World's Most Traveled Man'
Harry Mitsidis, somewhere in the world.
nomadmania
'I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list' is a well-known quote attributed to the late author Susan Sontag. One traveler who has been just about everywhere is Harry Mitsidis, founder of Nomad Mania, an online hub for independent travelers. He's one of a very exclusive group of maybe a few hundred people who have visited all of the world's 193 sovereign (according to the United Nations) countries, and he's visited many of them more than once.
This interview is edited and condensed for readability.
Lea Lane: When you were growing up did you travel much?
Harry Mitsidis: I was born in London, grew up in Athens, and, yes, we did travel quite a lot as a family because my mom is South-African English, so we would go to England, and to South Africa. We also have relatives in the States. I was a reasonably well-traveled child and young man, especially back then in the early 80s.
When did you realize that you wanted to achieve this extreme travel goal?
Toward my early twenties the idea of having a normal 9 to 5 life was really not me, and then the travel bug just took over.
It sure did. How did you manage to accomplish it? How were you able to afford traveling the world?
I studied business and sociology and then I got into lecturing in leadership and management. With teaching you get lots of time off. I would use every opportunity to go somewhere, and gradually I had about 100, 120 countries. And then I thought, now I really have to do them all. It was a combination of making sure that the finances were well allocated, combining countries so that I could do a number of them on one trip, and sacrificing things that normal people may see as obvious; I was never really into technical gadgets and such. I still have the same car after 20 years.
Did you solo travel, or how did that work?
When you're an only child you learn to be independent, so often I choose to travel alone, even though I'm married and even though I could travel with friends. Traveling alone I truly explore and discover the culture of a place, and get to have unique meetings with locals. With someone from back home, I think the experience is diluted.
I agree, in fact, I wrote a book called Solo Traveler. Often when you're traveling with someone you're not looking around, you're talking about the stock market. Now, do you stay in most countries longer than just to put your foot down and run out?
Back in the day, I might only visit the capital and then say, 'Okay, I've done it, on to the next one.' But I realize that you need to explore countries much deeper to know and understand the regional differences. Nowadays I travel much slower. I'm now on a six-week Japan trip, something that twenty years ago I would probably never think of doing.
What's your way of living? Do you eat local foods?
I live with a mixture of adventure and caution, so I'm not doing things which could be dangerous. I don't buy street food in places where that could cause problems, for example, but yes, I go local. In terms of accommodation, it varies. One of the things about travel is not to have a rule, to kind of do what you feel like. Sometimes I may stay at a five-star hotel, sometimes a hostel, or an Airbnb, and I may stay with friends or acquaintances.
What do extreme travelers have in common?
I think it's the curiosity to see and experience more, a form of restlessness, the inability to stay put for very long.
Have you taken any cruises?
Not in the classical sense, more like expeditions, meaning that they're difficult trips. The boat is comfortable enough, you get some service, but it's not opulent. If you're going, for example, to the Arctic, to the islands above Russia, or to Antarctica, those are demanding trips where you know you need to be physically strong, and often the voyage itself is quite tough. I've taken only a couple of fun cruises like the classic Caribbean thing.
Let's talk about a few of your favorite countries.
I'll admit that I'm attracted to the countries that are not the most obvious. North Korea is the most bizarre, outlandish, totally different experience, where you often feel everything is staged around you, a little bit like that movie with Jim Carrey. You never know what's real and what isn't. Rwanda is a country that had a terrible tragedy and managed to bounce back, In West Africa, you have places like Benin, with lots of history. Japan is impossible not to mention; the people are so courteous and yet it's exotic at every step. You could leave money lying somewhere and you'll find it after a day.
I also like Iran, where you need to separate the people from politics. They will never let you go hungry, they'll invite you to their homes. And then, of course, the history, the culture. In Persepolis you still see the marks on what is left of that ancient town when Alexander the Great burned it down.
Is there any country you just didn't care for?
For me, everywhere is interesting. Even the bad is good in the sense that you can learn about yourself, how you deal with the difficulties, and I think that's the point of travel: to learn about your limits, to learn about what you can handle and what you can't. So it's definitely educational and there's no country where I really wouldn't go again. Gambia as an example of a country that thought didn't really resonate with me, but maybe I need to give it another chance.
How about beauty?
Beauty comes in many forms. You've got beautiful towns or villages where you marvel at the architecture: Central European small towns, places like the Czech Republic, Hungary. Then, of course, you've got natural beauty. You can have an amazing beach. Rodrigues island, an hour and a half away from Mauritius off the coast of Africa, has one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen. There are the mountains in northern Pakistan, the rugged mountains and lakes within Tajikistan, the mountain range around the Himalayas.
Skardu Valley, North PakistanAre there any customs that struck you as particularly strange or interesting? A festival, perhaps?
There's a never-ending array of bizarre things everywhere. I recently went for a meal of crab in Japan. I finished the meal and a sort of broth remained from the crab, and then a woman came and took out everything that was in there and added rice and recooked it. I just couldn't think of the function of this.
It's a fascinating what goes on in the world, and many people travel with that in mind. They go for the festivals.
I love festivals such as the ones in Papua New Guinea, or maybe Gerrelwald festival in Niger. And then, of course, you've got Latin American festivals, with great masks and such. If you go off the beaten track in the States you'll end up with the world's biggest potato or something hilarious. I love that.
You've traveled to dangerous destinations such as Somalia, Libya, Syria, you mentioned North Korea. Ukraine now, unfortunately. Afghanistan. What's a scary situation you've been in?
I was teaching in Oman and I had this strange idea that going to Yemen was a good thing. A student volunteered to take me, so luckily at least I had an interpreter. And I got jailed with that student, who was in total shock. It wasn't fun. There were cockroaches, mosquitos. We didn't really know what they wanted. In the end what they wanted was the obvious. So the next morning the obvious was settled in a relatively amicable way and we ended up having a big meal to celebrate in a prison area. It's a good story, but it was really scary to feel so vulnerable. And at those moments you just think of the people you love.
I assume it was money that they wanted.
Yes.
I know you've been to Pitcairn island. I was on a cruise in that area and because the waves were so high, the whole island population came on the ship.
Pitcairn Islands is the smallest inhabited territory anywhere, only about 50 people living there and a ship only comes by three or four times a year. I've been to Pitcairn twice. The first time it was out of French Polynesia on a yacht with another eight people, and we had three days. And because there's no hotel, they allocate you to a local and you pay them much needed income. I lucked out and got a lady who had a nice house with lots of space and a marvelous view, and she also told me all the ins and outs.
Remore Pitcairn island in the South Pacific.
getty
We should mention that the residents are related to British HMS Bounty mutineers.
My hostess was actually a descendant of Fletcher Christian.
What are the social responsibilities of travelers like yourself? The purpose, besides racking up these experiences?
It's important to travel with an open mind. I also support helping local agents if possible. If you hear from other travelers that they're reliable, then use them directly, because these people really need the resources.
If you are demanding, mean or intolerant, the people you're visiting are going to think badly of the place you come from. I always say read up on where you're coming from, because people will ask you questions and you need to know the answers. And read up about the customs and the way of life before you go to a place.
If you would settle in one place in the world besides your home, where would it be?
I can't really imagine myself doing that, but if I did have to choose, I like bright skies. Anywhere around the Mediterranean would suit me well.
Can you please share one really special memory?
I was going from Freetown to Monrovia Liberia in Africa, a long overland journey involving a couple of barges to cross rivers. And I remember, as we were waiting for one of the barges, there was a local village community and of course they don't get too many Caucasian people there, so they were colorfully dressed, dancing and sort of playing around and I decided to give them a dollar. You would have thought I had given them a million dollars. When the barge came, I could still hear them, elated, and I think that the lesson is that showing appreciation in even a small way can make such a big difference to people. Be kind.
You can hear the full interview here. Follow over 100 episodes of my award-winning travel podcast, Places I Remember with Lea Lane here – or wherever you listen to podcasts.
