Traditionally, at the end of each December, we take stock of our activity with an annual review. This is an opportunity to reflect on what we have achieved and to take a critical look at what could be done better.
Despite all the challenges, we have witnessed continuous growth from the very beginning of NomadMania, going back more than a decade. You are welcome to read our reports from 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.
And now, let’s take a look at the NomadMania 2025 Annual Review.
As so much happened over the course of the year, it is impossible to highlight every detail or event. You can always explore our newsletter archive and blog to learn more. In this article, however, we will focus on the major milestones from each month.
Let’s dive in!
JANUARY – Focus on Tours
In 2024, we ran several signature tours, including destinations that had not seen tourism for many years. Initially, the idea was simply to bring some of our members together and move beyond purely digital interactions. However, as interest from the community grew and demand became clearer, we realised that this could develop into a direction of its own — helping our members explore the world while connecting with one another in meaningful ways.
Photo: Two groups meet in the Golan Heights part of Syria
At the same time, a small margin from these tours is reinvested into the continued development of the platform, helping to ensure a strong and sustainable future for the NomadMania community.
Overall, in 2025 we ran the following tours:
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February – Bangladesh (total immersion, 5 modules)
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March – Central African Republic and Nepal Tour + Mustang Kingdom
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April – Libyan Eastern Coast + Desert and Easter in Syria
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August – Kinshasa: DRC Expedition
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October – Syria: Unexplored East and Bangladesh: Total Immersion
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November – Balochistan: Unexplored Pakistan
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December – Central African Republic and Lesotho Overland Trip
We carefully review each tour and work closely with our local operators to improve them continuously. Most of these tours will be repeated in 2026, and we are actively developing new itineraries.
You can see the full list of upcoming NomadMania tours here.
FEBRUARY – New Certificates Released
Following the success of our initially launched Certificates, we expanded the list with several new options, allowing more NomadMania members to benefit from our verification process and receive well-deserved documents confirming their travel records.
You can now obtain a Certificate verifying:
- the number of countries visited (25, 50, 75, 100, 150, 190, or all 193 UN member states)
- all countries visited per continent (Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Oceania)
You can view the full list of available Certificates here.
MARCH – Introducing ‘Trusted Member’
As our community grows, so does the number of people attempting to take advantage of it through various dishonest schemes. Earlier this year, we experienced some spamming issues when fake accounts attempted to scam users via unsolicited private messages.
In response, we introduced the Trusted Member feature. This grants Trusted Members additional functionality, while placing certain limitations on those who are not trusted (yet).
Becoming a Trusted Member is free, but it requires a vouch from two existing Trusted Members. This approach helps us keep the community secure while maintaining transparency and openness.
APRIL – Formation of a Core Team
The NomadMania team has always been understaffed and overworked. You would be hard-pressed to find another travel-tech company producing so much with such limited resources. Despite these constraints, we are always looking for talented people to join our ambitious team.
In April, two new members came on board:
The remaining old members are:
- Managing Partner – Orest (Ukraine/Globally)
- IT Director – Daniel (Poland)
- Mobile Developer – Vika (Ukraine)
- Frontend Developer – Yaro (Ukraine)
We are truly proud to be a global and inclusive organisation. Team members are based across multiple continents, logging in from different time zones, all working towards one shared mission.
In addition, we are supported by several committees made up of dozens of volunteers who help NomadMania grow, prosper and shine and of course the one only founder of NomadMania – Harry Mitsidis.
MAY – Conference 6 in Fergana, Uzbekistan
NomadMania’s 6th Conference in Fergana was our first event on such a large scale. Given the complexity of organising so many moving parts, it is a real achievement that everything went according to plan.
The conference included several notable milestones:
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We became the first group of Western travellers to fly into the exclave of Sokh. Three flights carrying 12 people each boarded the venerable Antonov An-2 and were officially welcomed by the mayor upon arrival.
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We were the first group of travellers to visit the Khanabad Dam on the border with Kyrgyzstan, which marks the easternmost point of Uzbekistan.
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We were the first international group — and the first Western visitors in at least 25 years — to visit Shohimardon, the other Uzbek exclave. Special permits were obtained with the support of the Fergana Tourist Board.
You can read the full event report here — this is one you won’t want to miss!
JUNE – Launch of Premium
As we continuously improve the technical functionality of the NomadMania platform (both web and app), June also marked the launch of our Premium programme. This introduces additional features available through a small subscription fee.
Premium features continue to grow and, as of the end of 2025, include:
- a Premium badge on your profile and ranking pages
- Friends and Countries filters in the Nomads location-sharing tool
- automatic Trusted Member status with all associated benefits
- the ability to view specific Series completed by other members
- profile data export on the web
- visibility of users who have completed a Series item
- Loyalty Programme benefits, including discounts on tours and other events
- offline maps in the app
Learn more about NomadMania Premium here and expect more updates gradually.
JULY – Event Hosting Functionality
One of NomadMania’s core missions is to connect travellers around the world. Members can view each other’s profiles, interact online and build meaningful connections. However, nothing beats meeting in person. That is why we introduced the ability for members to host live events and meet fellow NomadManiacs face to face.
Thanks to this feature, in 2025 alone our members hosted more than 50 meet-ups around the world — an average of almost one event per week. The good news? We are continuing to build on this momentum.
You can learn how to host your own NomadMania event here.
AUGUST – Trip Sharing Tool
To encourage more meaningful interaction between our members, we introduced the Trip Sharing Tool in August. Its purpose is to help travellers find companions for upcoming journeys or even for long-held dream destinations.
While this feature did not take off as quickly as we had hoped, some genuinely exciting groups have already formed. Highlights include a catamaran trip through a dozen Caribbean countries and an upcoming group journey to Bougainville — perhaps the world’s newest country.
We are continuing to think about how to make this functionality more intuitive and powerful, including smarter ways of notifying potentially interested participants. For example, with local meet-ups, every NomadMania member receives an invitation when an event is happening nearby. We plan to develop a similarly effective approach for Shared Trips as well.
SEPTEMBER – Announcing Our Next Conference
Over the summer, we wrapped up Conference 5 in Fergana and faced an important decision: where to host our next annual flagship event, and how to make it even better — or at least match the high standard we had already set.
After careful consideration, we decided on Brazil. One of the key reasons was that we already had a strong local presence there through Pedro, who by that time had fully integrated into the team and proven himself to be an outstanding professional in tour development.
We selected Ouro Preto, a magical historic town, as the main location for the event. A combination of factors convinced us that this choice would make Conference 6 a success:
- direct cooperation with the city’s mayor and his team
- the main conference venue: Casa da Ópera, the oldest continuously operating opera house in Latin America
- the central theme of the event: UN+
- visits to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites
- several side events hosted in stunning mid-20th-century venues designed by the world-renowned architect Oscar Niemeyer
- the unforgettable cuisine of the state of Minas Gerais
- the event coincides with Dia dos Namorados on 12 June — Brazil’s equivalent of Valentine’s Day
- on 14 June, Brazil faces Morocco in the FIFA World Cup, promising a true nationwide celebration
Despite the event taking place in six months’ time, all spots are currently sold out. We are working with the hotel to secure additional rooms 🙂
Please see the full details here and join the waitlist to be notified if more availability opens up.
OCTOBER – Completion of the DARE List
In October, we completed the addition of DARE places, reaching a total of 1,701 Distinctive Alternative Remote Extremes. While the NomadMania Regions Masterlist is constructed with great care and rational structure, DARE truly puts the “mania” into NomadMania by showcasing a collection of unusual — and often hard-to-reach — destinations.
For the time being, we will pause at this total of 1,701 DARE places for the next year or so, as we shift our focus towards other geographical projects, such as reviewing regions and further developing the technological side of the platform.
NOVEMBER – UN Masters Weekend & Awards
In November, we did something truly special by hosting the UN Masters Weekend — an event designed to bring together, under one digital roof, as many people as possible who have visited every country in the world.
We are proud to share that 128 UN Masters took part in panel discussions during the two-day event, with 72 of them also joining the final gathering. This marked a historic milestone, as it became the largest number of UN Masters ever assembled within a single event.
During the two-day programme, we also hosted our annual NomadMania Travel Awards. Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you to everyone who participated and helped make the event such a success.
If you missed it, you are welcome to watch the replays here: Day 1 / Day 2.
DECEMBER – New Trips Functionality
This was probably the most challenging project of 2025 — but also the most important.
Our vision is to make NomadMania the world’s best travel tracker. To achieve this, we are designing a system in which you enter your travel data once, in one place, and the platform takes care of everything else.
This change directly affects mapping, travel history, statistics and connections with other members. To begin this transition, we introduced the first stage of this new approach: the ability to enter the exact dates of your trips using the updated Trips functionality.
Once entered, you receive a clear summary of your travels, including:
- X days travelled
- X countries visited
- X regions visited
Using exact dates is not obligatory. It is still possible to use Quick Enter to simply mark countries and regions as visited or not visited. However, if you want clean, elegant and fully integrated data, entering exact dates is required.
We do not expect everyone to enter their entire lifetime travel history. If you have used Trips previously, all your existing data remains unchanged. However, all new edits will require exact dates. This is a necessary step towards making NomadMania a fully integrated, systematic and future-proof travel platform.
PLANS for 2026
Wow — what a year it has been. When working hard on a day-to-day basis, it can be difficult to feel the progress. But once we pause to reflect and zoom out, the bigger picture becomes clear. We are truly proud of what we achieved in 2025 and sincerely grateful to all of you for being part of this wild ride.
The year ahead promises to be just as exciting, with many new challenges waiting for us.
While we are still processing the year and recalibrating our efforts, several plans for 2026 are already taking shape, including:
- continuing the development of the platform (web/app)
- expanding with additional Premium features
- reviewing and refining selected regions
- running more unconventional tours
- preparing for the Conference in Brazil
If you enjoy what we do and actively use the platform, one of the biggest ways you can support us is by helping to spread the word about NomadMania. It would mean the world to us if you simply gave us a shout-out and invited others to join. Every community becomes more valuable as it grows.
See you in 2026 🙂 Happy New Year!
