The weekend of November 22 and 23rd, 2025 will remain in history as a wonderful online get-together that is a record for all to enjoy and be inspired by. The challenge was clear – get more than 100 people who have visited every country in the world to participate in a weekend-long online event and talk about an aspect of their travels that matter to them.
NomadMania is a project for all travellers big and small, and while we are experts at the theme of UN Masters, with arguably the best online resource on those who have been to every country through our UN Masters List, we have never actually had an event specifically dedicated to them. So, once in our 13 years of existence, we decided that the time had come to celebrate this unique achievement, whose difficulty and complexity should not be underestimated.
As of today, there are 503 people that we know of with a claim to have visited every country. NomadMania does not accept all the claims, and at least 31 of these people are deceased. Surely there are UN Masters we don’t know of, so the ‘correct’ number depends on what you count as a visit and how many people we can’t trace. Ultimately, with a possible known pool of around 470, many travelling in remote areas, impossible to reach or not really part of the community by choice, would it be possible to successfully get 100 to participate?
This was not an easy target to reach, and the Awards and Events sub-committee, comprised of Lucy Hsu, Dondon Bales and our founder Harry Mitsidis, had more work on their plate than they anticipated, as did the NomadMania Team tasked with the administration of it all. But the response was great – most people thought this was a wonderful idea and immediately accepted the invitation. Those who didn’t were mainly travelling on those dates and didn’t know whether they would have reliable online access.
The event was organised into six sessions (brunch, teatime, dinner) on both days, and each session comprised five or six panels – usually half an hour long – around a variety of themes. Some of them celebrated achievements: the last country, ‘Against All Odds’ travel or reaching 193 twice.
Every Country in the World Twice panel
Some examined ways of travel: overlanding, travelling couples, travelling slow or fast. Others looked at possible pitfalls: dark travel, visa horrors, jail experiences or travel ethics. Ways of life were also discussed: No longer having a home base, digital nomads and ‘life after 193’. Two book panels presented UN Masters who have authored books. The event also featured one panel in Spanish and another in Mandarin.
Panel in Chinese
Six willing moderators, all of them UN Masters, were essential to ensure that each session was well-managed, timed properly and kept people’s interest. We can’t thank those six moderators enough – Per Besson, Boris Kester and Lucy Hsu on November 22, with Stefan Krasowski (whose session was at 3 a.m. Seattle time!), Sam Hawthorne and Yui Pow Redford on November 23.
The result was truly amazing. Panel after panel, people whose only commonalities are the love of travel and the achievement of reaching every country joined in to give their story.
NomadMania Awards
In between, NomadMania Awards were given to some exceptional travellers who have inspired with their achievements. More than half of the award recipients, Jaime Alemán, Arvinder Bahal, Mette Ehlers-Mikkelsen, Sascha Grabow, Lucy Hsu, Thor Pedersen, João Paulo Peixoto, and Luisa Yu, are UN Masters themselves.
Best NomadMania Friend Award Winners: Lucy Hsu and Jaime Alemán.
Detailed Awards report is coming soon…
Largest UN Masters Gathering
Meanwhile, before the start of the last ‘dinner’ session, the seemingly impossible goal had been achieved, with the 100-person mark passed. While this is just a symbolic number in many ways, the underlying significance of it cannot be denied. History was made as it was the first time that the 4 verified travellers to have been to every country twice were in one panel together.
Overall, 128 UN Masters appeared during the weekend, which is more than 25% of the number of UN Masters that we know of. At the final gathering, where the Biggest Traveller Award was announced, there were 67 UN Masters present online at the same time.
NomadMania celebrates all types of travel and welcomes everybody who thinks of travel beyond the ordinary and the obvious. 193 is not everybody’s aim, and that is fine – everyone should travel in a way that reflects their own personality and interests. But to the extent that, for some people in the community, reaching 193 is the ultimate challenge, having this event was a much-delayed celebration.
You can review the resulting 17+ hours of inspiring content in our videos of Day 1 and Day 2.
A big thank you to all who showed an interest and participated in our event!
